The Gravedigger's Brawl

by Abigail Roux

  Ash stared at him, then shook his head and shrugged. “The state is full of ghosts and myths and legends, man. You could make an exhibit about them, but you’d be pandering if you went that route without some serious research and truth behind it.”

  “Hell, pandering’s what they want me to do. My life is research!”

  “Then take a couple ghost tours. Present the stories as they’re believed to be and then tell the truth behind them. Make it worthy, at least.”

  Wyatt rapped his knuckles on the glass. “Thank you,” he whispered before turning and jogging away.

  Ash stood at the door, frowning as he watched Wyatt jog down the sidewalk toward the museum.

  “Why is it always the wackadoos who’re so good in bed?” he said sadly.

  A loud bang from upstairs seemed to answer him, and he jumped and turned, looking up at the ceiling as his heart rate skyrocketed.

  He stayed silent and still, holding his breath. But all he could hear was his own heart pounding in his ears. He exhaled shakily. Heard a faint noise. Like someone drumming their fingers on a wooden table in the distance.

  Ash took a tentative step forward and licked his lips. “Hello?” he called out, surprised at how shaken he was. Houses this old creaked and groaned all the time. Not that he’d ever heard this particular house make that particular noise, but still . . .

  The drumming seemed to fade into the echo of his voice as it filtered through the bar. Had he really heard it, or was it just his imagination? He’d been listening to that damned broken A/C unit bang and clang for so long he’d be hearing things for days.

  When no other sounds presented themselves, he leaned back against the glass of the door and let his head hang. He snorted and laughed—

  Then hopped away and shouted at a loud banging on the glass beside his head. He whirled and staggered back from the door, his hand over his heart as Caleb, on the other side of the door, chuckled.

  “Morning!” Caleb called as he slid his key into the lock and opened it. “Little skittish this morning, are we?”

  Ash glared at him, still holding his hand over his heart. “Asshole,” he huffed. “Scared the shit out of me.”

  “I can see that.” Caleb shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the coat rack beside the door. “What’s going on, Sir Yipsalot?”

  “Shut up.” Ash patted his chest and then ran his hands through his hair in embarrassment. “Just . . . thought I heard something upstairs right before you got here.”

  Caleb’s smile vanished. “You the only one here?”

  “Yeah, I got here about thirty minutes ago. I swear, if Ryan’s up there with some girl, I’m going to kick his ass.”

  Caleb raised a dubious eyebrow and smirked.

  “I’d put up a valiant effort, at least!” Ash turned away and went in search of the screwdriver he’d chucked into the unknown earlier.

  Caleb circled the unit Ash had set in the middle of the floor. “Air conditioning’s broken again?”

  “And that’s not the only thing,” Ash grumbled. “It’s just the only thing I couldn’t fix.”

  Caleb sighed as he frowned down at the broken unit. “Well. It’s not like the upstairs really needs it anyway. We just kept it running to keep the wood from warping with the humidity.”

  “Yeah, I know, I’ve been here,” Ash said with a little more acid than Caleb deserved. “It should be okay ’til spring. Over the winter we can get someone to come in and extend the central system to the upper floors.”

  “That’ll cost an assload of money.”

  “But then we could use the upstairs and expand,” Ash said. It wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion.

  “I suppose. We could just buy a new unit.” Caleb waved a hand at the A/C. It popped at his feet, sizzling. “Or not.”

  The unit popped again and then sparked. Caleb hopped back as Ash dove for the bar. The unit spit sparks again and began to sputter flames from inside as Ash pulled up onto the bar and reached over, stretching and grabbing a dirty dishrag. He pounced on the unit with the damp rag, beating out the flames as Caleb scrambled for the fire extinguisher. They managed to get it out before it did any real damage, and more importantly, before the smoke reached the detectors on the ceiling and set off the sprinklers.

  “Wow,” Caleb said as they stood side by side, looking at the charred unit warily and waiting for more flames.

  “Yeah,” Ash said, panting as he held the singed dishrag in his hand.

  “Good bloody thing you took it down when you did.”

  Ash didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if it had caught fire while in the window upstairs. “Kicking it may have hastened its self-destruction,” Ash admitted.

  “Huh.”

  “Glad it didn’t do that while I was screwing it,” Ash said distantly. Caleb turned to look at him, and Ash glanced back and blinked. “What?”

  Caleb just shook his head and turned away.

  Ash frowned, pulling at his ear as he heard the odd drumming sound echoing from somewhere above. It was probably just adrenaline, but as he peered toward the ceiling, a feeling of dread seeped into him. He looked away as a shiver ran through his body, determined not to let the ghost stories get to him.

  “That’s sort of near brilliant, Wy,” Noah said. He popped open a bag of Cheetos and scooted his chair closer to the lunch table.

  Wyatt had laid out his tentative plans for the October exhibition, including Ash’s suggestion that they display the popular myth to draw people in, then tell the truth behind it with artifacts to suit their goal of actually educating.

  “It’s going to take some hellacious research, though. It’s already the first. Do we have time to have it up and running by the weekend?” Noah asked.

  “If we know where to start, I think we can get it outlined in a few days. Then we can enlist some students to help put it all together. It should be ready by then. It’s perfect. It has the pandering aspects the Trustees seem to want, it’ll have a low artifact count, and it’ll bring in crowds that wouldn’t usually look twice at a museum. And we can actually put some real history into it to keep it respectable. Maybe even convert some interest in places.”

  “Ash helped you come up with this?” Noah asked, smirking as he leaned back in his chair.

  “Um, sort of.” Noah raised an eyebrow, and Wyatt sighed and lowered his head. “The other night . . .”

  Noah grinned cheekily. “Do tell.”

  “I went home with him. We slept together,” Wyatt blurted, looking around to make sure no one had heard him.

  “I figured. And?”

  “I didn’t . . . really stick around ’til morning,” Wyatt admitted.

  Noah’s smile fell and his brow furrowed. “Oh.”

  “I just panicked a little about—”

  Noah held up a hand and shook his head. “Happens to the best of us, man. Don’t explain.”

  “I went to see him this morning. Tried to apologize.”

  Noah’s eyebrows shot up. “How’d that go?”

  “Not too well. Hey,” he added, eyes narrowing as Noah’s lips twitched. “It’s not funny.” But his voice trembled with a laugh.

  “No, not at all.” Noah snickered a little, leaned back in his chair, and covered his mouth with his hand.

  “I feel awful, okay? I really liked him.”

  Noah’s smile faded. “What exactly did he say when you talked to him?”

  “He seemed more pissed about my flushing the condom than about me actually leaving.”

  Noah threw his head back and laughed, rocking back in his chair and sliding both hands over his face.

  “Noah!” Wyatt hissed as several heads turned and looked at them. Wyatt leaned closer to Noah, frowning. “It’s not funny.”

  Noah was still snickering as he shook his head. “It really kind of is. So wait, you discussed your one-night stand and his plumbing, I assume you did so heatedly because Ash has a little bit of a temper on him, and then y
ou . . . what, sat down and fleshed out ideas for the exhibition over a latte?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “So Ash didn’t exactly offer to help,” Noah said, eyes narrowing.

  “Not . . . exactly. I figured we’d go do the ghost tour and see . . .”

  “So. You want the two of us to traipse over to the bar where the guy you screwed over is working and nance around until the ghost tour starts tonight? What, you’re rubbing it in his face?”

  “No! I wouldn’t do that!” Wyatt stopped short and frowned. “Is that how he’ll see it?”

  “I don’t know. I know I’d be kind of pissy.”

  “Goddammit.”

  Noah was silent for a long time as Wyatt mulled over the issues. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Ash even more or, God forbid, piss him off. But his job was the most important thing in his life and he took it very seriously. Sure, it was an unusual way of working, but so was trying to put together a major exhibit in less than a week.

  Noah pushed his Cheetos bag aside and leaned forward over the table. “You really liked him?”

  Wyatt met his eyes.

  “And I don’t mean you really liked fucking him, ’cause I can see how that would be fun for both of you. I mean you liked him.”

  Wyatt swallowed hard, and thought about the hours he and Ash had spent talking that night before they had ever gone the step further. Wyatt had been comfortable with him even in the middle of a crowded, rowdy gaslight bar. “Yeah.”

  “Okay.” Noah nodded and sat for a while, studying Wyatt. “Well, you’re a bit of a dumbass. And it probably won’t work anyway ’cause Ash doesn’t seem the type to take shit from many people. But if you’re serious, I might be able to talk to him. Convince him it would be a favor to me to help out on this, get you two to spend some more time together. Without fucking!” he said, pointing his finger in Wyatt’s face.

  “Deal.”

  Noah sat back and nodded. “And I’ll ask Caleb tonight about any ghost story type things he or his crew might know.”

  Wyatt raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Tonight, huh?”

  To Wyatt’s surprise, Noah blushed. He shrugged and shifted in his seat and grinned. “We may have really hit it off.”

  It was so rare to see Noah being coy, Wyatt was tempted to prod for more details just to watch him squirm.

  But then Noah glared. “Unlike you, however, we didn’t fall into bed together quite so hastily. You slut.”

  “Couch and floor still count as falling into bed together.”

  “Shut up.” Noah gathered his Cheetos and stood. “I’ll meet you at the staff door at five, okay? Quit looking at me like that! Go do your job!”

  Wyatt chuckled as Noah walked away. He didn’t have much hope of Ash changing his mind, but the mere prospect was enough to get him through the rest of the day.

  At ten minutes to five, he stood outside the staff entrance, basking in the weak warmth of the sun as he waited for Noah to show. Roughly fifteen minutes after five, Noah came tumbling out of the building, the strap of his leather satchel snug against his chest and his hands full of papers, his coat, his umbrella, and another large black bag.

  “What is all this?” Wyatt asked as Noah piled some of the things into his arms and grunted in greeting.

  “I did some preliminary research,” he said as he dug in Wyatt’s pocket for his car keys.

  “Hey!” Wyatt twisted away from Noah’s groping hand. “Private property, asshole.”

  “That’s not the current rumor, you whore.”

  “Shut up,” Wyatt laughed. Noah snagged his keys and nodded at Wyatt’s car.

  “Let’s stash this shit in your backseat. Does that stupid freaking tin can even have a back seat?”

  “Yes.” They trekked over to the staff parking lot where Wyatt’s car sat in the space reserved for the head curator. They stacked all the files Noah had been carrying in the backseat, and then Noah hefted his satchel into it as well. His coat and umbrella went next, and then he set the black bag down on the trunk and unzipped it.

  Wyatt peered over the car at Noah’s bowed head. “What’s that?”

  “Camera.” Noah grunted as he extracted a large SLR digital camera and inserted a memory card. “Signed it out for research.”

  “Nice.”

  “I know, I’m a freaking genius.” Noah straightened back up and slammed the car door. “You ready?”

  Wyatt eyed the tailored shirt Noah was wearing. “Did you change?”

  Noah flushed. “Had an incident in the preservation room.” He jerked his head and turned to start walking.

  “We could just drive,” Wyatt said as he jogged around the car to catch up.

  “Yes, but this way you have more time to think about what you’re going to say when we get there.”

  “True.” He grinned slyly at Noah. “Is Caleb going to be there?”

  Noah smiled. “Maybe.”

  Wyatt plucked at the shirt Noah had changed into. Only when he was lecturing did he wear nice clothing like that. “That why you look good?”

  Noah huffed but shook his head. “I really did have a spill. Even got all over my shoes.” He pointed down at feet; his boots were stained dark on the toes. “This was all I had in my office.” He stopped short and turned. “Should I change? I mean, I could go home and get—”

  “Noah.” Wyatt took Noah’s arm. “You look good, you don’t need to change. Wow, you really like this guy, huh?”

  Noah flashed a silly grin. “Yeah.”

  Wyatt smiled, but he soon began thinking about Ash and the look in his eyes when Wyatt had tried to apologize. The exasperation and the annoyance, the way Ash had so easily shrugged it all off as a non-event. What if he’d been able to write it off without angst because he didn’t care? What if he’d been relieved that Wyatt had been gone when he’d woken and really was just pissed about the plumbing?

  Wyatt slowed to a stop. Noah continued on for a few feet before he realized Wyatt had dropped back, and he turned to look at him questioningly.

  “I don’t think I can do this,” Wyatt said.

  Noah nodded in understanding and walked back beside him. He reached up and smacked Wyatt on the side of the head. “Did you leave your balls in his toilet too?”

  “Ow! What? No!”

  “Then get the lead out, Case,” Noah said as he grabbed Wyatt’s elbow and began pulling him along.

  “I hate you.”

  “I hate you too.”

  When they got to Gravedigger’s, the patio out front where the porch had once been was already full of laughing patrons. Several dogs were tied to the iron fence, sitting with their masters as they ate. The festive lights strung over the patio acted as a ceiling of sorts, and were already on and winking in the shade of the building.

  Wyatt hesitated, but Noah, unyielding, dragged him to the door and shoved him unceremoniously inside. It wasn’t as crowded as the patio. People were probably trying to drain the last dregs of warmth out of the day. The show in here was impressive, though.

  Ash hadn’t changed his clothing since Wyatt had seen him that morning, but he looked different. The heavy eyeliner was back, accenting his dark eyes, and his wavy hair had been gelled, appearing jet black and perpetually wet. Ryan was dressed similarly, right down to the suspenders and tight white undershirt, and they were both standing on top of the bar, juggling bottles of alcohol and tossing them back and forth to each other in perilous arcs.

  Wyatt stood gaping as he realized that not only were they tossing the bottles around, but they were also mixing drinks as they did it. The music that played along with them was so loud that Wyatt felt it more than heard it as a steady, rhythmic beat in the pit of his stomach. It had a distinctly Old World Gypsy feel to it, very fitting as the crowd clapped in rhythm, watching in awe as the bartenders performed what was essentially a circus act.

  “Wonder why they’re doing this today?” Noah shouted to Wyatt over the noise.

  “I don’t kn
ow. Ash said they only flair on weekends. Maybe they’re practicing for that big tournament they’re going to.” Wyatt shrugged. “Well hell, we’re not going to get to talk to them like this.”

  “They can’t do that forever.”

  Wyatt had yet to take his eyes off the two men. Noah was right. It was all very athletic and involved. Surely they couldn’t go for more than a few minutes at a time.

  Caleb, who was standing behind the bar, tossed a new bottle into the air at Ryan’s waist, and Ryan caught it, juggling three bottles so high that they almost grazed the ceiling. All three bottles were open, Wyatt realized, but somehow they didn’t spill as Ryan tossed them around. They seemed to have mastered the angles and the centrifugal force it required. Wyatt was beyond impressed.

  Ash began tossing the glasses he had been juggling at Ryan, and Ryan tossed his bottles at Ash. The bottles spun in slow circles, and the lights caught the cuts of the heavy highball glasses. They mixed as they juggled, somehow managing to pour the liquor as they held the bottles in odd places: the crook of an elbow, sitting atop a shoulder. Ryan caught the first glass and then tossed it to Caleb, who caught it without ever turning it upside down. The next glass Ryan caught and held in his left hand as he tossed the last bottle to Ash.

  In the end, Ash was juggling all three bottles and Ryan was holding two glasses of amber liquid. Ash caught the bottles and held them all in one arm like a pageant winner would hold a bouquet of flowers, and Ryan tossed him a glass. He caught it, and they turned in unison, holding up the glasses triumphantly, and then all three men kicked back the shots that had been poured and bowed.

  The little crowd cheered. Noah and Wyatt stood staring in patent disbelief as Ash and Ryan climbed down off the bar.

  “That’s inhuman,” Noah said as the music died down and returned to the slower, more intimate tunes Wyatt remembered from the other night.

  “There’s got to be a trick to it,” Wyatt said. He was reminded of the Thurston poster in his office. He wondered if Ryan and Ash were using the same sleight of hand that the master magicians had used.