Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

floating there, staring at him with a century of sorrow and loss in his eyes. “Okay, so. I know what happened. Now I just have to figure out how to find his body and lay him to rest.” He sighed. “I was kind of hoping his memories would give me a clue to that too, but they didn’t.”
Greg shoved his hair out of his eyes. “Can’t you just ask? I mean, maybe he can lead you there. Ghosts know where their bodies are, right?”
“I think it depends on the circumstances of their death.” Adrian looked over at Greg. “In any case, Lionel Groome was bound to have taken Lyndon’s body outside the castle, and I’m not sure Lyndon is able to leave the castle. He’s only ever been seen outside this room once, and that was downstairs, during our haunted house.”
He glanced at Lyndon, seeking confirmation. Lyndon didn’t move, but Adrian thought he caught a wisp of regret from the spirit’s mind.
“Hm.” Tilting his head, Greg studied Lyndon with a thoughtful expression. “Well, do you think he…” Greg waved his hand toward the door, “…you know, saw where his uncle took his body? Do you think maybe he could show you any memories of that?”
A vision flashed into Adrian’s mind—Lyndon hovering at the tower’s southeast window, gazing out at the stretch of winter grass leading to the woods behind the castle. The puzzle pieces clicked into place in Adrian’s mind.
He stared at Greg in stunned surprise. “Oh, my God. Greg, you’re a genius.”
Greg beamed. “I am?”
“You are. I should have thought of this before. Of course I’m not sure I could’ve established a strong enough connection with him before now. Things just seem to be different today.” Adrian gazed up at Lyndon. “I’m pretty sure his body’s in the woods behind the castle.”
“Okay, I feel like I missed something.”
“Lyndon tried to tell me before. He stared out that window there, right at the woods.” Adrian pointed at the pertinent aperture in the wall. “I just didn’t get the hint until now. But I still need to figure out exactly where he is.”
Greg nodded. “You think he can tell you?”
“Hopefully. I doubt he’ll be able to show me memories of precisely what his uncle did with his body. Not clear ones, anyway. But there are certain theories that say a spirit can be at least partly tied to the physical body for a while after death. No one’s sure how long, but the author of the original article I read hypothesized up to twelve hours.”
“And whatever Lionel did with the body, it would’ve had to have been fairly soon after the murder, so there’s a good chance you’d see something through his eyes, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Pushing to his feet, Greg took two steps toward Lyndon and stopped, eyes wide. “Wow. Poor Lyndon.”
“Yeah. I guess I’ll need to try to hook up with him again. I’ve never tried to do it twice in one day, but—” Adrian broke off as a realization hit him. “No, wait. I think I know.”
“You do?” Greg sidestepped toward Adrian and crouched beside him, a hand on his shoulder. “How?”
“Some of the stuff from Lyndon’s memory. I remember a few things I couldn’t make sense of at the time, but now…” Closing his eyes, Adrian focused his mind inward and rifled through the blurry watercolor images permanently imprinted on his brain.
A brief vision of the castle from outside, jagged white lightning illuminating the bare trees and the tower reaching toward the black sky.
Rain. Wind. Wet earth.
Adrian’s heart gave a sickening lurch. Fingers scraping at the stone of the tower floor, he hunched his shoulders and dug deeper, looked harder, found details of the memory he’d never noticed before…
…Jostling movement. Tower tilting. A thud, and the movement stops, the castle halting at an odd angle. Edge of a tree trunk, smooth grass, then the castle’s back porch…
…Solid thunks. Wet, tearing sounds. Cursing…
…Trees, grass, castle, sky, all wheeling in crazy circles…
…Rain. Wind. Wet earth pressing in all around, tunneling up toward bare branches. Roots sticking out. Soupy smack of mud blots out the lightning…
Adrian opened his eyes. Beside him, Greg sat, darting worried looks back and forth between him and Lyndon. “Adrian? Everything all right?”
“Yeah.” Adrian laid a soothing hand on Greg’s knee. “I think I know where to find Lyndon’s body.”
Greg’s gaze snapped into focus on Adrian’s face.