Paranormal Days

by Megan Derr

  Apparently they were pretty enough to bring all the boys to her yard, though she wanted nothing to do with them. Then along came one particularly rich suitor: Charles Robertson. The tour progressed through the downstairs, and Lee kept taking pictures, not particularly convinced of any hauntings. The lighthouse tower had better be more spectacular than "the parlor where Abigail's father met her suitors."

  Robertson had inherited quite the fortune, the tour guide told them as he led them through the kitchen. He paused briefly in the kitchen, showing off the kettle Abigail's mother had used to serve tea to visitors … including Robertson.

  "I didn't see that coming. She served him tea from that very kettle!" Lee said under his breath to Jayden, taking a picture of the teapot for good measure. Jayden snickered, elbowing him, even as one of the middle-aged men in front of them gave Lee a disapproving look.

  Lee contrived to look innocent, taking another few pictures of the kitchen as the tour guide led them towards the door that to the lighthouse. Apparently, Abigail's father had been sufficiently wowed by Robertson's charm to agree to let him marry Abigail, though Lee had doubt about whether it had been Robertson's charm or money that had really swayed him.

  Then they were heading into the lighthouse where the tour guide's voice dropped as he slowly led them up the stairs towards the top of the lighthouse. He explained in hushed tones that on the very eve of their wedding, a great storm rolled in and Abigail, who often helped her father light the lamp at the top of the lighthouse, was nowhere to be found.

  Her father and Robertson put forth a search party, and Abigail was found in town—newly, secretly married to a stable boy the very night before she was to be wed to Robertson. In his grief and heartbreak, Robertson returned to the lighthouse, climbed to the very top, and threw himself from the tower. There was a grand funeral, and Abigail realized too late the mistake she'd made.

  Lee snorted, taking another picture of the iron railing as they circled up towards the top of the lighthouse. Jayden elbowed him again, shushing him quietly. He looked way too pleased with himself, so something was obviously about to happen to "prove" the ghost.

  The tour guide's voice dropped to hushed tones as he started to describe the usual suspects of a haunting: sudden chills, objects moving on their own, voices in shadowy corners where there shouldn't be. Lee would give the guide his tone. He had it down pat, building the suspense even as they continued to climb the stairs up to the top of the lighthouse.

  Lee snapped a quick picture the doorway to the top floor of the lighthouse after the tour guide passed through. He stepped back into the top room of the lighthouse, gesturing for them to follow. As they entered, the air grew noticeably colder, probably with hidden air conditioning vents or something. The room was filled with windows that looked out above the rocky shore to the east and the city to the west. The dark, dreary day only lent to the general spooky air, which was aided further by the liberal coating of dust and cobwebs through the room.

  Their guide carried on in hushed tones—so as to not disturb the ghost, no doubt—explaining that from the day of Robertson's death on, the lighthouse lamp failed to light on each anniversary of Robertson's death, causing a catastrophic shipwreck each year until sea traffic was permanently redirected to the port twenty miles south to avert further disasters.

  The air in the room abruptly chilled, causing the glass of the lighthouse tower to steam up and a few of the other tourists to gasp loudly. Rain started to fall heavily, and the cobwebs shivered in a breeze that had no source that Lee could pinpoint. The air conditioning vents were very well hidden. At least they weren't trying for a physical manifestation of the ghost, Lee thought, because those were the ones that were easiest to poke holes in. Still, he thumbed the flash off on his camera, taking a few surreptitious photos. Maybe Astor could pinpoint the vents or whatever that controlled the temperature.

  "He's here!" One of the other tourists exclaimed, and Lee rolled his eyes.

  "It was more impressive when I was ten," Jayden whispered, leaning close to whisper in Lee's ear.

  Something tickled the back of Lee's neck, and he slapped a hand to it, jabbing Jayden in the ribs when he snickered. "You're not funny."

  "Shhh," Jayden shushed him, giving the tour guide an insincere smile. The guide didn't look too impressed, and Lee resisted the urge to take a picture of him. Lee gave the man his best innocent look, which wasn't actually all that great, but it seemed to mollify the man and he returned to talking about Robertson and how his presence was usually felt in the evening.

  Lee tuned it out, sure he'd gotten more than enough to mollify Astor. Stifling a yawn, Lee wished the tour would wrap up so he and Jayden could get lunch. Then Lee would have to figure out what to do with the rest of his day, since he doubted he could convince Jayden to spend the whole day with him.

  The 'ghost' departed as abruptly as he'd come, knocking over an old school lantern sitting on the window sill. The room warmed up, though the rain didn't stop (and honestly, if the tour guide could control the weather, then he was wasting his talent at a shitty tourist trap). The windows stayed fogged over, but the tour was obviously over as the guide started shooing them down the stairs. He led them right into the gift shop at the base of it—making sure to mention it overlooked where Robertson had fallen—and then disappeared back into the house.

  Lee loitered long enough to pick out the most obnoxious souvenir he could find—a bobble head ghost figurine that proclaimed "Moreston Lighthouse" in large letters—and then they were free.

  Jayden led the way down the hill, head bowed against the rain, and Lee followed, wrinkling his nose at how wet they were getting. It wasn't heavy rain anymore, but enough of a drizzle to be annoying. Jayden picked up his pace as they reached the bottom of the hill, leading him away from the beach and the small area Lee had already explored.

  The restaurant he'd picked was a small, hole-in-the-wall burger joint, and Lee liked it at first glance. It was decorated in chintzy 60s and 70s-era hamburger joint knickknacks with red booths and checkered tablecloths. The lamps above the tables were even shaped like hamburger buns.

  "This is ridiculously awesome," Lee said, taking in the hostess stand, which was shaped like a giant milkshake.

  "Hey, Jay," the woman behind the stand greeted cheerfully, her entire face lighting up when she saw Jayden. She gave Lee a curious look, but only pulled two menus out of a box beside her and asked, "Just the two of you today?"

  "Just the two of us," Jayden confirmed, wrinkling his nose a bit but following the hostess as she led them into the restaurant. The restaurant was a long, narrow room, and she seated them at a booth in the back, dimly lit by the hamburger light above the table.

  "Your server will be right with you," the hostess said, setting down the menus and giving Jayden a smile. "You should stop by more often, Jay."

  Jayden muttered something noncommittal, but the hostess seemed to take it as agreement as she headed back towards the front of the restaurant with a last smile. They were early for the lunch rush, Lee noted; there was only one other table occupied a few booths away from them.

  "Can I call you Jay?" Lee asked as soon as she was out of earshot, mostly facetious. He set the camera on the booth beside him, sliding in opposite of Jayden but stretching his legs out around Jayden's under the table. Jayden didn't seem to mind that, past kicking Lee's ankle once.

  "Please don't," Jayden said, wrinkling his nose. "Only my brother can get away with that."

  "And the hostess," Lee pointed out, which only made Jayden scowl in her direction.

  "Yeah, well, Becki's always thought she's special," Jayden muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. "I thought she didn't work here anymore. She's enrolled in an out of state college."

  Lee squashed a flare of jealousy, but then, Jayden didn't seem to think Becki was special—Becki thought she was special, so there wasn't anything to be jealous about. Not that Lee was entitled to jealousy. If anything, he and Jayden were friends. T
hey'd only known each other a few days, after all.

  "Her mother helped look after Jordan and I after our parents died," Jayden said, shrugging as though it wasn't a big deal, though the tense set of his shoulders clearly showed it was. "We were closer when we were younger, but we've grown apart."

  Lee's stomach dropped, and he wondered how he hadn't caught on when Jayden had mentioned his parents yesterday. He nudged Jayden's foot under the table, trying to offer some comfort, awkwardly saying, "I'm sorry about your parents."

  "I was twelve," Jayden said, shrugging. He still didn't look happy, though, and this outing was definitely supposed to be fun, not upsetting. "It was over ten years ago."

  "Doesn't make it not suck," Lee said, heartened when Jayden hummed in agreement. Thankfully, the waitress chose that moment to make her appearance, distracting them both, and Lee realized he hadn't even glanced at the menu laid before him.

  "You need to get a milkshake," Jayden said, perking up when the waitress asked about drinks.

  "So no root beer float?" Lee asked, spotting the image at the top of the menu.

  "You could, but you'd really be missing out. A strawberry one for me," Jayden said, flashing a smile to the waitress.

  "Chocolate," Lee decided, because a milkshake did sound really good now that Jayden had brought it up.

  "Good choice," Jayden said as the waitress slipped away again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to drag the day down."

  Lee scoffed. "Shut up. Nothing's down. What's good here?"

  "The burgers?"

  Lee glanced at the two-sided, laminated menu. Unsurprisingly, the place served pretty much only burgers. "That's not helpful."

  "Well, all the burgers are good. You're not a vegetarian, are you?" Jayden asked, showing off his dimples. "I should've asked that before I picked this place."

  "Vegan, actually." Lee kicked Jayden under the table again because he was five. Jayden snickered, and Lee ignored the retaliatory kick to peruse the menu. "My sister actually tried to go vegan for a while. It didn't work very well for her."

  "I can't imagine a vegetarian or vegan vampire," Jayden said, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Why'd she do it?"

  "Her boyfriend of the moment," Lee said, rolling his eyes. "He was vegetarian, so she tried to impress him by going vegan. Except for the biting people thing, of course. She dropped it when he dropped her a week later."

  "Boyfriend of the moment?" Jayden repeated. "I think you mentioned that before. Do you go through boyfriends as quickly?"

  "Nah, if they make it to boyfriend I usually keep 'em around a while," Lee said, then bit his tongue, because that made him sound like a terrible person. Jayden just grinned, though, and Lee wanted to know what he was thinking, what they were doing—but at the same time he didn't want to know because that might mean it stopped. "What about you?"

  "Haven't really done the relationship thing much," Jayden said, shrugging. His smile slipped away, and he looked pensive a moment before shaking it off. "Most of the guys I meet who are worth keeping around are just here for a few days before going home, and I've never had enough reason to try the long distance thing."

  "Yeah, that shit just gets complicated." Lee wondered if two and a half hours away counted as long distance, but it probably wasn't even worth contemplating, even if Jayden was the best hook-up he'd had in forever. And it wasn't just the sex. That had been fantastic, no lie, but he hadn't been that comfortable around someone so quickly in ages, if ever.

  The waitress reappeared with their milkshakes, and Lee picked the house burger, figuring it was the best bet. Jayden ordered some complicated, spicy burger, and the waitress disappeared again. Lee took a sip of his chocolate shake, having to exert a lot of force to suck it up his straw. Jayden had gone straight for the spoon, which Lee conceded was probably the better idea. The milkshake didn't disappoint; rich chocolate flavor filled his mouth as the shake melted.

  Lee groaned. "Definitely better than a root beer float."

  "Told you," Jayden said, looking pleased with himself. "This place is the best burger joint in town, and most of the tourists are stupid enough to pass it by so it's never overrun."

  "I'd have gone in," Lee said, glancing around the place again. "The decorations are awesome."

  Jayden snorted, but grinned. "I love it. We've come here my whole life, though usually it's just Jordan and I, and we don't come all the time because they only have a few vegetarian options for him."

  "So I'm special?" Lee asked, and he was really pressing his luck. Jayden didn't seem to mind, though, and Lee decided he'd keep pushing until Jayden pushed back. Worst case, Jayden would blow up at him or blow him off, and Lee could avoid Jayden's hotel in the future. Best case … well, he wasn't sure what the best case was.

  "You're something," Jayden said, kicking him under the table.

  "Something awesome." Lee grinned, taking another bite of the super-thick milkshake. "It's okay, I understand if you don't want to admit it. My awesome overwhelms people."

  Jayden laughed. "I'm sure that's it. It has nothing to do with you using your mind tricks on people."

  "I resent that implication. I'm awesome on my own," Lee said. "The mind tricks just ensure it."

  Jayden raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything to that, wrapping his lips around his straw and sucking. Lee watched, too closely if the look on Jayden's face was anything to go by, but damn was it hard to forget how well Jayden could use his mouth.

  "So what do you do in your spare time, when you're not sucking on people?" Jayden asked, smiling at him devilishly. He toyed with the spoon in his milkshake cup, stirring it lazily.

  Lee snorted, face flushing even though he knew Jayden was referring to blood sucking and not another kind of sucking. "I play on a soccer league and help my mom fix her houses."

  "Houses?" Jayden asked, eyebrows raising.

  "Yeah, she runs a charity that flips houses, but instead of flipping for profit, the charity buys cheap houses and fixes them up to sell at low cost to people who need but can't afford housing," Lee said. "It's pretty cool, even if it can be brutal work."

  "Cool," Jayden said, grinning. "So you're handy around the house, then?"

  "Well, for everything except electricity. I'm not allowed to touch electricity anymore after the second time I tried to electrocute myself." Lee grimaced, remembering that white hot pain when he'd grabbed a wire he'd thought dead. "Also why you should always test wires before touching them, even if the power to the house is supposedly shut off."

  "Ugh, yeah, good call," Jayden said, wrinkling his nose.

  "So what do you do? Hedge witch stuff?" Lee asked, still kind of curious about the hedge witch parts of Jayden's life. He hadn't exactly been forthcoming, but then, Jayden had said that his brother did more of that than he did.

  "Sometimes, but not often. Usually only when one of my personal charms needs refreshing or Jordan takes on more projects than he can handle. He's not really good at saying no, even when he should." Jayden paused thoughtfully. "I usually hit the beach during the summer. There's pick-up volleyball games most of the week that I sometimes hit up, and the swimming is good."

  "Not a surfer boy?" Lee asked, trying to picture Jayden on a surfboard. Jayden in swim trunks was easy enough, and Lee's mind latched onto that without going further.

  "Nah," Jayden said dismissively. "Never my thing. Always mean to try the parasailing stuff they do off the coast, but I never get around to it."

  "If you've got another day off before I leave, we could do that? I feel I owe you a better afternoon than 'haunted lighthouse,'" Lee suggested casually. He hoped casually, but Jayden hadn't been incorrect in his flippant comment that Lee's mind tricks ensured people thought he was awesome. He really wasn't good at flirting and dating without them, which probably contributed to the quick demise of most of his attempts at relationships.

  "Yeah?" Jayden asked, smiling. Lee's stomach flipped, and he was really sunk, wasn't he? "I've got Monday, if the weather's good and you a
ren't sick of me by then."

  "Monday, then," Lee said. He bit back the words 'it's a date,' because well, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't, and if he didn't ask he could make believe for a little while.

  The waitress appeared before Lee could say anything stupid, and Lee made a note to leave her a good tip for her impeccable timing. She set down two huge plates, each with enormous burgers and enough steak fries to feed a small army, and then left them to their food. Lee dug into his burger—which, he was totally asking Jayden for recs on all restaurants from therein out because it was fantastic.

  Half an hour later, stuffed to the gills with burger, fries, and milkshake, Lee happily paid for lunch and left the restaurant with Jayden. It had stopped raining, though the sky was still crowded with thick, gray clouds threatening to release their rain at any moment. They headed back towards the hotel, Jayden describing various bits of history to Lee, like the dark, foreboding alley he'd always cut across to get home from school—always checking for bodies on the way through.

  They reached the hotel too quickly for Lee's tastes, but he couldn't think of anything to say or suggest to keep Jayden around longer. They paused under the canopy that stretched out of the building above the hotel's entrance. Jayden stared at him with a furrowed brow, making Lee nervous and wonder if he had something in his teeth and Jayden was trying to decide whether or not to tell him.

  "What?" Lee finally asked, running his tongue over his teeth just in case.

  "I'm trying to decide whether I should do something stupid," Jayden said, giving him a half smile.

  "You're young," Lee said, his heart beating faster in his chest. Did Jayden mean something stupid like Lee? "I vote stupid."

  Jayden laughed, smiling fully. He hooked his fingers in the front of Lee's shirt and dragged him close for a kiss. Lee gave into the kiss immediately, wrapping his arms around Jayden and letting him deepen the kiss. Jayden pulled away slowly, obviously reluctant, but he didn't let go of Lee. "Your room?"