Ghost Trapped

by B L Maxwell

  “Jimbo,” I shouted, as Dean ran right over to him.

  The ovilus crackled again. “Diiiiiiiieeeeeeeee.”

  Jason looked at me, turned it off, and pulled me over to Jimbo. Dean stood frozen a few feet from where Jimbo was crumpled in a heap on the damp ground. My head pounded and my ribs protested, but none of that mattered. Jason released my hand when we were next to Dean and rushed to Jimbo. I started to move that way, but Jason held his hand up.

  “Wait right there, I don’t want you getting hurt,” he said, which annoyed the hell out of me, but my pounding head told me it was the right choice. He carefully knelt in front of Jimbo, from here I could see he was still out cold. I turned to look at Dean; his hand covered his mouth, and his eyes were wide with shock. He still had the spirit box clenched in his other hand, which was fisted at his side.

  “Dean? Are you hurt?” I asked. He didn’t answer for a second, but slowly he turned to face me, and handed me the spirit box. I took it from him and looked over at Jason.

  “Is he hurt, Jason? We should get out of here,” I said.

  His head snapped up and he glanced at me before leaning in closer to Jimbo. “Jimbo, can you hear me?” He didn’t move for a second. Jason moved closer and shook him, trying to get him to react. The moment he touched his arm, the ovilus came to life, startling Jason, who still held it. “It’s off, what the fuck is going on?” Jason said.

  “James,” it said, followed by loud static, then, “die!” It seemed to scream, and Jason jumped at the sudden blast of noise. I tried to move toward Jimbo, but Dean pushed past me and was at his side.

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” Dean shouted, his eyes still wide. Jason moved to one side of Jimbo, and Dean followed his lead. They put their arms around Jimbo and lifted him from the floor. We all moved quickly toward the door as the lights started to flicker. I noticed movement to my left, and slowly turned my head to look, knowing it wouldn’t be anything good.

  There was a shimmer in the air, the light outline of something trying to burst into this world from the veil. With a crackle of electricity, the lights flashed more rapidly, and the little girl appeared. She looked behind her, before meeting my eyes. “Wade, I can’t hold him back for long. He will try to kill you all if you stay here much longer.” I looked at her, and then at Jason, Jimbo, and Dean. Their backs were to me, they didn’t see her, and didn’t appear to hear her.

  “Wade, you need to go,” she shouted, and blinked out of sight. I was stunned for a moment.

  Jason turned back to me. “Wade, stay with me, don’t get too far behind.” I nodded and rushed to his side. As soon as we were on the stairs, the lights stopped flashing and the lower door slammed shut. We all froze at the noise and rushed as fast as we could to the top of the stairs, and practically fell back into the dining area. Jason reached for me and squeezed my hand. Once again, I asked myself, what the fuck are we doing?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jason

  Dean and I half carried Jimbo to a small sofa and laid him down, he’d yet to gain consciousness. “Dean, can you get some towels, ice, and a bottle of water?”

  “Sure thing,” he said, before he jogged off in the direction of the kitchen.

  “Wade,” I said, stepping over to him and gathering him into my arms.

  “I’m okay, why did it hurt Jimbo? So far, none of the spirits have paid any attention to him? What was different this time?” he whispered into my shoulder.

  “I’m not sure, have you looked at what messages were left on the spirit box? Maybe that’ll give us a clue.”

  “No, but I did see something before we left the basement. The same little girl appeared again, Jason.”

  “It doesn’t make sense for her to be here, you’re sure it’s the same girl?”

  He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “I’m sure. She spoke to me again, said she couldn’t hold him back much longer, and if we didn’t leave soon, he’d kill us.”

  “What the hell?” I said. Jimbo’s groan pulled our attention back to him. “Jimbo? Are you hurt? What happened?” I kneeled down in front of him. I didn’t see any obvious injuries, but he’d flown a few feet before hitting that wall, so I wasn’t sure he was uninjured.

  “Jason, give him a minute,” Wade said, resting his hand on my shoulder. He squatted down next to me, and patted Jimbo’s cheek. “Jimbo? Can you hear me?” His eyes shot open and he scrambled to back away, causing him to fall off the sofa. He landed with a thud and clambered away from us. “Whoa, dude. You’re safe, it’s me and Jason.” He looked around, his eyes darting all around the room. Dean chose that moment to return with the items I’d asked him for. Jimbo whipped his head around to look at him, and I wasn’t sure he recognized him.

  “Jimbo. It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you. It’s me, Dean, I just went to get you some water and a few things to help clean you up. Is that okay?” Dean explained, hands out in front of him like he was comforting a wild animal, his voice calm.

  “I know who you are, asshole. You’re the dumbass that brought us here to begin with. You need to tell us what you opened down there. Something’s not right. The cleansing should have protected us. What the fuck is going on, Dean?”

  “I—I, Jimbo, I didn’t do anything. I’ve only had this place for a few months.” He knelt next to Jimbo and slowly took his hand. I looked over at Wade to see him staring at the two of them. “If I had known I would put you in harm’s way by calling you, I never would have. I have no idea what’s going on, I want this all to end.” He whispered that last bit, as he leaned closer to Jimbo.

  Jimbo stared at him, disbelief and anger seeming to fight for dominance in his expression. “I barely knew you, Dean. We went out that one time and I never heard from you again. I thought I said something that pissed you off, which is highly likely.” He lifted his hand and rubbed the back of his head and winced.

  “You didn’t do anything, I was just young and stupid. I had such big dreams, I didn’t want to risk any of it by starting a relationship. I was just beginning culinary school, and you were on your way out. It seemed like there was no hope. I thought if we hooked up, I’d get you out of my system, but all it did was make me want you more. I took the job at The Vineyard House just to be closer to you, even when I knew we couldn’t start anything. I couldn’t stand to not try to be near you,” Dean confessed.

  Wade and I looked back and forth between the two of them. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Jimbo was brash, rude, and even though he admitted there had been something briefly between them, it sure as hell sounded like there was much more. Or there could have been.

  Wade cleared his throat before he spoke. ”Jimbo, are you hurt?” Jimbo didn’t move for a second, his gaze locked on where Dean still held his hand. He shook his head, not taking his eyes off their hands. Wade nodded and stepped to where the spirit box had fallen to the floor. He picked it up and turned it on. I stepped closer to his side so we could both see what text would appear.

  Wade

  Sister

  Alone

  Hate

  Kill

  Kill

  Kill

  “What does it say?” Jimbo asked, grimacing as Dean held ice wrapped in a towel to his head.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” I said as I walked over to my bag and put the spirit box and the ovilus inside. “When we get home, we’ll go over it all together.” Jimbo squinted his eyes while he watched me, seeming to weigh my words.

  “Let’s go to Wade’s, I need to talk to Deidre,” Jimbo said. Dean stopped what he was doing and gave Jimbo a hard look before continuing to hold ice to the back of his head.

  “Does he need a doctor?” I asked Dean.

  “I’m not sure, he has a small cut and a big bump, but I don’t think it’s serious,” Dean answered.

  “I’m okay,” Jimbo mumbled, looking embarrassed and pissed at the same time. He took the towel from Dean, and for a second something passed between them, and the way
they looked at each other seemed to hold some raw feelings neither of them seemed ready to deal with. He cleared his throat and Dean looked down at the floor. “I’m okay,” he said again, this time with a little more insistence.

  “Let’s get everything cleaned up and go to Wade’s, we can listen to any recordings we picked up and look at all of the messages on the spirit box. Dean, did you want to go—”

  “No. Jason, we need to go look at what information we gathered. Dean, I’ll call you tomorrow. Thanks for helping,” Jimbo said, shocking us all. None of us knew how to react to what he’d said, so we all stared at him, waiting for more.

  “James, if you don’t want me to go, at least be man enough to say it. Don’t use the investigation as an excuse. I get it, you’re not interested,” Dean said, then turned to walk back in the kitchen area. “You guys can see yourselves out, I need to get a few things out of my office. Thanks for coming by so soon.” Once again, Wade and I looked between him and Jimbo, finally settling on Jimbo when Dean was out of the room.

  “Jimbo, what the fuck just happened?” Wade asked.

  “Fuck you, Wade, I’m not saying shit. I want to talk to Deidre.” He folded his arms and showed us his familiar scowl.

  I breathed out before I said anything, trying to figure out exactly what we should do. “All right, then, let’s go to Wade’s. You sure it’s safe for Dean to be here alone?” At the exact moment I said it, the basement door slammed hard, the sound reverberating through the quiet restaurant.

  “Fuck, go ask him to go with us,” Jimbo said, and he hung his head and held it in his hands. Wade looked at me in confusion; I’m sure I wore the same expression. This whole situation was weird.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Wade

  “I’ll go talk to him,” I offered, and started to follow Dean.

  “Wade, wait here, I don’t want you going off by yourself,” Jason said, moving closer to me and squeezing my hand. I nodded and stood closer to Jimbo as Jason went after Dean.

  “Are you really okay?” I asked him. “You hit that wall pretty hard.”

  “I’m fine, fuck, you guys are such worriers,” he snapped back.

  “We care, get the fuck over yourself already.”

  He leaned away from me and looked at me in shock. “Geez, Wade, I didn’t know you had it in you.” A smile slowly spread on his lips. “Fuck, I could use a smoke,” he grumbled.

  “Oh my god, is that why you’ve been so difficult to be around, I mean more difficult than your normal difficult?”

  “Yep, I’m trying to quit, it sucks.”

  “Good for you, Jimbo, it can’t be easy. But maybe try to tone down the attitude a bit. You were really rude to Dean, and he actually was concerned about you. He didn’t have to go with us down there, even though we told him he did. He’s paying us, he could have broken our contract.”

  He scrubbed his hand over his head, before wiping it down his face. “I’ll talk to him, I just didn’t want him to get his hopes up,” he said, a bit of sad reluctance in his tone.

  “What do you mean?”

  Jimbo stood and turned, his back to the direction Dean and Jason had walked, and took a moment to collect his thoughts. “He wasn’t lying, when we hooked up, there was a spark. Something I haven’t felt many times, and something that we both acknowledged. But I also knew after what happened at The Vineyard House, that I’d be putting him in danger. It almost killed me to push him away then, and we’d barely known each other. The thought of getting to know him more, and having to reject him . . . I just couldn’t. I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t want him paying for my stupid ability. I won’t put him or anyone else in danger.”

  “You don’t get to decide that, James. I make my own decisions,” Dean said as he walked right up to Jimbo and got in his face. “It’s not up to you.” He took Jimbo’s face with both hands and kissed him hard. Jimbo stumbled back, but Dean didn’t let go, he held on to him until Jimbo regained some control and put his hands on Dean’s shoulders. His fingers clawed at Dean’s shirt, like he wanted to pull him closer, but also wanted to push him away at the same time.

  Dean pulled back and looked Jimbo in the eye. “You’re going to tell me everything, and you’re going to stop this bullshit that you think you’re saving me. I’m done with these games, you’ve pushed me away long enough.” With that he reached behind Jimbo’s neck, pulled him in and soundly kissed him again. Jimbo’s eyes remained closed after Dean pulled away, and he seemed to need to shake himself out of whatever trance he was in.

  “Fine . . . fine. But you’re not going to like what you find out. Go with us, you can’t stay here alone. No one should be in here alone. What you’ve got going on downstairs is dangerous for anyone that comes in here,” Jimbo said, and surprising us all, he reached out for Dean’s hand. Dean took it and jerked on it, probably showing Jimbo he wasn’t forgiven.

  I looked to Jason, who shrugged and gathered up the few things we’d left out. “Jimbo, do you need to go to the hospital?” Jason asked. Jimbo felt the back of his head and shook it.

  “I’m fine, I’ll probably need some ice and ibuprofen later, but for now I’m okay.”

  “Let’s get out of here, I need a break from all . . . this,” Jason said, waving his hand around Jimbo.

  “Whatever, fucker,” Jimbo mumbled, as Dean pulled him along toward the door.

  After locking up, it was decided Jimbo would ride with Dean to my house. Well, Dean decided, Jimbo seemed to have learned there was no arguing with Dean and had given up on trying. Jason and I walked to the car, and once we were inside with the doors shut, we both turned to look at each other.

  “I don’t know what’s stranger: the fact that a ghost flung Jimbo into a wall, or that Dean called him on his shit and he backed down,” Jason said. Our eyes met and we both laughed, which made my head hurt, making Jason pull me close and kiss the side of my head. “Let’s get you home.” Jason started the car, and I leaned back in my seat.

  We pulled up to the house, and as soon as I opened the door, Mom was in my face. “Wade, are you okay? Jimbo told me you’d been hurt. Why didn’t you call?”

  “Because I was fine, Mom, I didn’t want to worry you. Jason took care of me.” She looked unconvinced and proceeded to poke at me. When she touched my ribs, I flinched and bit my lip to try to control the yelp that threatened.

  “You’re such a liar, and not a very good one at that. Get your ass in the house and show me what’s wrong.” She left no room to argue with her, as she stomped off toward my house, leaving me slightly scared to follow her. I turned to look at Jason. His lip pulled up and he snickered at me, I flipped him off over the top of the car.

  “Thanks for all the support, babe,” I said, and closed the car door.

  He held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I told you to call her.”

  “Yep, you did.” I followed her into the house, and after twenty minutes of her poking at my head and ribs, she finally believed me that I wasn’t fatally wounded.

  “Where’s James?” she asked. Jason and I shared a look before he answered.

  “He’s on his way, he’s bringing a friend.”

  “Oh, good. That man needs more friends. He works and hangs out with you two, that’s his life. He’s still young, he needs to find himself someone to go do things with.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said. She stopped, turned around, and squinted her eyes at me, before planting her hands on her hips.

  Just as my mom was ramping up for another lecture, a car pulled up. She moved to the door to look out, and when she saw it was Jimbo, she walked out to him. “James, it’s about time you got here,” she scolded. Jimbo got out of the passenger side while Dean stepped out of the driver’s side.

  “Oh, hello. I’m Wade’s mom, Deidre.”

  “Hello, Deidre, I’m Dean, James’s—friend.”

  She walked over and looped her arm with his, ignoring Jimbo. “Come on, you boys have some explaining to do,” she sai
d to Jimbo, who fell in step behind her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jason

  “Jason, tell me what happened,” his mom demanded.

  “Mom, I told you I’m fi—”

  “Stop right there, young man, I want to hear what happened, not your version. And I know Jason won’t lie to me, if he knows what’s good for him.” She pinned me with a look that reminded me of when we were kids and had done any of a multitude of things that pissed her off.

  “He fell into an abandoned mine we didn’t know was there,” I blurted—damn her and the mom-look.

  “Wade! Tell me the whole story.” Wade told her everything, how we’d gone down there hoping to just explore a little and ended up with Wade being trapped and hurt. Deidre held her hand over her mouth as she listened, shock and worry evident in her expression.

  “You went to the hospital and were checked out?” she asked.

  “Yes, I had a slight concussion, bruised my ribs, and needed a cut on my forehead glued,” Wade quietly told her.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so glad you weren’t hurt any worse. You could have been killed.”

  “I know, Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I didn’t want to worry you,” Wade explained.

  “I want you to promise me you won’t take chances like that again. If Janis tells you to do something that will keep you safe, please do it.” He nodded at her and reached for my hand.

  “Deidre, I want you to meet someone,” Jimbo started, looking more nervous than I had ever seen him. “This is Dean, Dean Peterson. He’s . . . important,” he said, still looking nervous and unsure.

  Deidre stepped closer to Dean, and I wasn’t surprised when she enveloped him in a hug. “Very nice to meet you properly, Dean. Sorry you had to see me ripping into my son, but apparently, even though he’s a grown-ass man, I still need to remind him to be careful and not go off half-cocked.”