Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

shook off Adrian’s grip and backed up. His eyes glittered with a painful war between the desire to believe Adrian and the obvious fear of being the butt of a joke. “I thought you were going to tell me you’d had some kind of psychotic break, or…or something. Something real. And…and then you tell me this shit?” He shook his head. “Fuck you.”
Adrian hadn’t known mere words could hurt so much. He’d laid himself bare for Greg, told him things no one else knew, and Greg had done the verbal equivalent of cutting out Adrian’s heart with a dull razor.
Mortification and anger twisted into a burning knot in Adrian’s belly. He felt his heart rate increase, his breath coming faster. Electricity sizzled over his skin, and he knew his control was slipping.
For once, he didn’t care. If Greg refused to believe the truth in words, maybe he’d believe his own eyes.
“I don’t lie,” Adrian growled, eyes narrowed. “Hold still.”
“What the f—” Greg’s words cut off with a sharp hiss of in-taken breath as the zipper on his jacket undid itself.
Gathering every ounce of his concentration, Adrian used his psychokinesis to yank Greg’s jacket down to his elbows and hold it there. He tugged on the jacket arms, forcing Greg’s hands to crisscross over the front of his body and plant themselves on the opposite hip. A thought tightened the leather until it dug into Greg’s flesh.
Greg let out a tiny, distressed sound. “Adrian. Stop.”
Adrian couldn’t help the surge of triumph he felt. “Do you believe me now?”
“Yes.” Greg licked his lips. “S-stop. Please. It hurts.”
Fear threaded through Greg’s voice. Adrian took one look at Greg’s dead white face, and the enormity of what he’d just done hit him like a concrete block to the head.
Adrian dropped his psychokinetic control of the jacket. Greg’s arms flopped to his sides. The jacket slithered downward. The arms turned inside out, the cuffs catching on Greg’s wrists. Greg stood still, staring at a spot somewhere over Adrian’s left shoulder.
“Greg? Are you okay?” Closing the distance between them, Adrian reached out to touch Greg’s cheek. Greg flinched away, and Adrian’s stomach rolled over. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Greg’s gaze focused on Adrian’s face, and the sheen of fear in those gray eyes tore at Adrian’s heart. “Harrison never did either.”
Oh, God. Adrian rubbed both hands over his face. He supposed it had been selfish of him to hope Greg wouldn’t make that connection. “I’m so sorry,” Adrian repeated, his voice cracking. “I just…just wanted you to believe me. That’s all. I have excellent control over my…my abilities. It’ll never happen again, I promise.”
“You’re right, it won’t.” Greg shrugged his jacket back on. His hands shook. “Goodbye. Don’t call me.”
Adrian stared, stunned into silence, as Greg turned on his heel and started walking. It wasn’t until Greg stepped onto the path toward South Road that Adrian realized Greg was leaving him. Leaving him. Maybe for good.
Panic spurred Adrian into action. He ran after Greg. “Wait!”
Greg didn’t even slow his pace. “Go away, Adrian.”
“But if you’d just listen for a minute.” Adrian stretched out his arm and brushed his fingers over Greg’s shoulder.
Greg shook off Adrian’s hand, whirled around and pinned Adrian with a furious glare. “Don’t you fucking touch me. Don’t talk to me, just…” Tears welled up and spilled down his cheeks. He dashed them away with a couple of sharp, angry movements, then turned his back to Adrian. “Just leave me alone.”
Watching Greg walk away and not stopping him was the hardest thing Adrian had ever done, but he clenched his hands at his sides and forced himself to do it. With every step Greg took, Adrian’s heart squeezed harder, faster. His breath came in short, shallow gasps. The rush of blood in his skull drowned out the noise of the traffic on South Road and the sigh of the wind through the branches overhead.
When Greg turned the corner onto the South Road sidewalk without a single glance in Adrian’s direction and strode out of sight, the shields keeping Adrian’s psychokinesis reined in shivered under a wave of despair like he hadn’t felt in more than a decade.
Adrian spun and started running. He didn’t think about his destination, just let instinct drive him forward. His vision blurred, his feet faltered, but it didn’t matter.