Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

Nothing mattered but reaching the one place he knew he would be safe.
The “walk” signal went off before he got to the crosswalk on the far side of the theater. He darted through the intersection anyway. A powerful blast of mental energy slowed the traffic barreling from either direction enough to keep him from being crushed. He reached the opposite sidewalk with the blare of horns cutting through the static in his ears. His shoulder collided with a broad, suit-clad chest. He swerved sideways and stumbled down the tree-lined street, chased by the faint buzz of the man’s curses.
As Adrian approached, Groome Castle’s front door unlocked itself and swung open so hard it hit the wall with a bang. Adrian bolted through the foyer and toward the tower room stairs without slowing down. The door slammed shut behind him.
He hit the steps at a dead run, took them two at a time, flung open the door at the top with a twist of his mind and skidded to a halt in the middle of the room, panting. “Lyndon? God, please be here. I need you.”
A swirl of dust turned in the sunbeam pouring through the southernmost window. The silence felt barren.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Adrian dropped his mental shields, leaving his psyche naked to whatever forces the castle contained. A vague sense of sorrow lapped at his mind like cold, dark water. It seemed to emanate from the stone all around, as if the castle itself had absorbed the emotions experienced here.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Adrian would’ve found the phenomenon fascinating. Now, he didn’t care. He needed the only being in the entire universe who knew what he was capable of and not only wouldn’t judge him for it, but couldn’t be injured by whatever his uncontrolled psychokinesis might do.
Adrian let his senses expand the way Sam had taught him all those years ago. Electricity crackled through the air. His hair swirled around his head. At the edges of consciousness, a dim, scattered spark pulsed. Lyndon, Adrian realized after a moment’s hard concentration. Communicating with Adrian earlier must have rendered him unable to manifest physically, this soon at least. Adrian had no idea how long it would be, but at the moment it didn’t matter. He needed Lyndon now, not later.
All this time, he’d been helping Lyndon. Doing his best to find out what had happened to him, so that he could locate Lyndon’s body and lay him to rest, allowing his spirit to move on. In fact, Adrian’s work with Lyndon had been a major factor in Greg leaving him.
The resentment simmering in Adrian’s gut exploded into blind fury. Opening his eyes, he threw his head back and screamed at the ceiling. “You fucker! You should be here for me!” The light bulb in the oldfashioned fixture overhead shattered. Instead of falling to the floor, the glass shards surrounded Adrian in a glittering whirlwind. “He left me, Lyndon! Greg fucking left me. Because of you. Because of this. ”
Because of you, Adrian. Because you couldn’t control your anger. It’s always been about that, hasn’t it? Your family almost died ten years ago because you couldn’t control your anger. And now you drove away the first man you ever loved because you couldn’t control it. You have no one to blame but yourself, and you know it.
Adrian stood stock-still, staring wide-eyed out the window at a crooked branch as the realization of what he truly felt sank in.
He wondered if it would’ve made any difference if he’d figured it out earlier.
The urge to bare his throat to the blur of glass tempted him so strongly he took a step forward, neck arched, before forcing himself to stop. He sent the tiny fragments raining to the floor before he could act on his impulse.
For reasons he couldn’t fathom, the tinkle of glass on stone broke something inside him. He sank to the floor, curled his body forward and buried both hands in his hair. How the hell had it come to this? He’d been doing so well in school, with his investigation here at Groome Castle and with Greg. He’d been happy. And now that happiness was gone, all gone, because he’d forgotten the principles he’d sworn years ago to live by.
Truth. Control. Always. No exceptions.
Adrian drew a deep, shuddering breath. Drawing his knees up, he rested his forehead against them. He’d never felt more alone in his life. The worst of it was, he didn’t know if it would’ve helped anything if he’d realized before now that he was in love with Greg, or if telling him