Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

You’re the one who’s going to be talking about private stuff.”
“All right, we’ll talk here.” Adrian drew a shaky breath. “I’m really nervous about this. I’ve never told anyone else what I’m about to tell you.”
Greg shifted his position. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Adrian, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. There’s no rule that says people have to know every single thing about each other just because they’re in a relationship.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ve thought about it, and I really think I should tell you this.” He smiled, trying to look as though his heart wasn’t trying to hammer its way through his sternum. “I want to tell you.”
For a second, the indefinable something Adrian had been glimpsing since Christmas glinted in Greg’s eyes, then vanished before Adrian could pin it down. Greg rubbed his thumb over the back of Adrian’s hand. “Okay. I’m listening.”
“When I was ten,” Adrian began, “Sam came to work for my dad’s paranormal investigations company. Not long after that, my parents separated and Dad moved out. A few months later, when I was eleven, Mom and Dad divorced, and I found out my father was gay and in love with Sam. The two of them moved in together around the same time my parents got divorced.”
“Wow.” Scooting closer, Greg rested his free hand on Adrian’s knee. “That must’ve been tough for you and your brother to deal with when you were so young.”
“Sean rolled with it like he does with everything.” One corner of Adrian’s mouth curled upward. “You know me, though. You won’t be surprised to hear that I didn’t handle it so well.”
Greg didn’t laugh, or even smile. “You were only eleven. Just a kid.” He lifted Adrian’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “What happened?”
This is it. Adrian took a moment to center himself and calm his racing pulse while he thought of the quickest, easiest way to say what he needed to say.
The straight truth won. “Strange things started happening to me. If I got angry, objects around me would move by themselves, or even break. In my room at my mom’s house, I would sometimes see…things. Very weird, frightening things. Things that didn’t belong there.”
Greg’s brows drew together. “Adrian—”
“No, wait. I know it sounds weird, just…let me finish. Let me tell you the whole thing before I lose my nerve.”
Something uncomfortably close to pity softened Greg’s expression. “All right. Go on.”
Adrian squeezed Greg’s hand to convey his thanks. “My mom didn’t believe me when I told her what I was seeing. She blamed my dad and Sam because of all the stress of the divorce and Dad being gay and all. At first, I thought she was right, that I was imagining all of it. I thought I was going crazy.”
“God, Adrian.” Greg’s hand tightened on Adrian’s knee.
Afraid that if he stopped he’d never again have the nerve to finish his story, Adrian plowed on. “Then something happened when my dad and Sam were there. I had gotten in trouble at school, and my dad was trying to talk to me about it. I was furious, and a bulb in the overhead light just broke. That’s when Dad and Sam figured out that I had developed psychokinesis, which is the ability to make things move with your mind. Sam has the same ability. I wasn’t able to control it, and to make a really long story short enough to tell in an afternoon, I ended up accidentally opening a portal into another dimension in my mother’s house the night before Thanksgiving, two thousand and five, when I was eleven. Something came through. It almost killed my whole family before Sam helped me send the thing back where it came from and close the portal.” Adrian let out a short bark of a laugh. “Wow. It feels so strange to say that out loud. It sounds so surreal.”
Through this speech, Greg had remained still and silent. He twisted his hand free from Adrian’s grip and stood. “Okay. Well, that was some story. Why don’t you call me when you’re ready to stop jerking me around, huh?” Spinning on his heel, he strode off toward the path leading through the cemetery toward South Road.
Shocked, Adrian scrambled to his feet, lunged after Greg and caught his arm. “Greg, I’m telling the truth. I know it all sounds strange, but I swear it’s all true.” He grasped Greg’s shoulders when he broke away and spun him around to stare hard into his eyes. “You have to believe me. Please.”
Greg