Dan's Hauntastic Haunts Investigates

by Alex Silver

  That didn’t stop me from being grumpy about it though. I tumbled out of the bed onto my feet and shuffled the few steps to the coffee pot.

  “Morning,” Daniel sounded too cheerful for the early hour and lack of sleep.

  I grunted in response and poured a cup of coffee. I sidled closer to observe what he was doing while I took my first sip. Perfect.

  Then I saw the image on the screen and just prevented myself from spraying him with coffee.

  “Holy fuck, I actually saw a ghost last night,” I pointed at the monitor.

  Daniel startled at my outburst, he looked between me and his work.

  “You did. Caught some amazing footage too. Pity about the last bit being out of focus, but at least you kept your head enough to hold on to the IR camera.”

  “I just didn’t want to break the damn thing. I know how excited you are to have it.”

  “I am. If it’s ever a choice between your safety and the tech, ditch the gear, please. We could afford to replace it. Our equipment costs are low since we bankroll most of the gear we use through companies that want me to post reviews. But I still appreciate not having to repair or replace it.”

  “How much danger was I in there?”

  “Honestly?” Daniel ran a hand through his tousled hair. “I can’t say for certain, but the spirit has caused accidents over the years. It is possible, however unlikely, that it might have injured you.”

  “Is it safe to go inside the barn?”

  “Ghosts are stronger at night. Sunlight weakens their ability to remain corporeal.”

  “Seems like a flimsy defense.”

  “You wouldn’t think it could bleach out stains either, or power our home, but it does.”

  “Fair point. So, you’re saying the power of the sun will protect us?”

  “Yes. It should.”

  I sighed, that was not a ringing endorsement. By daylight, I was less inclined to believe what had seemed so real in last night’s terror. But the image was right there in the same vibrant shades of green and blue and violet I’d seen last night. I suppose it was possible that Dan had arranged some elaborate trick to get the footage. But I’d seen the apparition, faint, but real as it ran toward me.

  The timing seemed off if Dan was pulling a trick. Why would he spring the ghost on me when he could get laid instead? I had a hard time accepting he would perpetrate a hoax without letting me in on it.

  If not for the ghost, our night would have ended with us together in the expanded bunk.

  For now, logic dictated that it wasn’t a trick. I’d experienced the paranormal for real. And my first brush with spirits meant I had to examine why my mother hadn’t stuck around for Kay and me.

  “Daniel?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why do some ghosts stay and others move on? I mean, obviously every dead person doesn’t linger, or we’d all be eyeballs deep in ghosts, right?” I shivered at the notion.

  Daniel gave me a soft understanding smile. “You’re wondering why your mother didn’t appear to you?”

  “Yeah,” I rubbed at my arm with my free hand, conscious of how exposed the question left me.

  “Like you said, not everyone sticks around. I don’t think anyone knows for sure why, though there are plenty of theories. I think when a person is at peace with death, they are less likely to linger as a spirit.”

  “So, what, she didn’t have unfinished business?”

  “Yeah, or she believed you and Kay would be okay without her there to watch over you.”

  “It wasn’t okay. I needed her.”

  “I’m sorry, Chad, I don’t have all the answers.”

  Too messed up to trust my voice not to shake, I gave a tight nod.

  “If it helps, the fact you didn’t see her, or sense her presence doesn’t have to mean she wasn’t there looking out for you. And even if she wasn’t, that doesn’t mean she loved you any less.”

  “I never got to tell her. About me. I didn’t come out because I was too afraid. Now I’ll never get to tell her.”

  “That’s a hard burden to bear.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Would she have taken the news poorly?”

  “No. Not really. Kay says she wouldn’t.”

  “Do you believe Kay?”

  “It’s not the same as hearing my mom say that it’s okay. I’ll never hear her call me by my name. Nothing will ever fix that. If ghosts are real…”

  “Then she should have stayed long enough to hear it from you?”

  “Yes. That’s it exactly.” I hesitated to ask, I didn’t want to push his boundaries. I knew he was uncertain about the whole power imbalance between us. But I’d just found out ghosts were real, surely we could bend the rules a little for that. “I know we said we’d be professional during work, but it’s only seven and I could use a hug from my boyfriend right now.”

  “Boyfriend?” he blinked at me. For a horrible minute I worried I’d upset him and overstepped.

  “Yeah?”

  Daniel reached for my hand to pull me into an awkward kiss.

  “Well, as your boyfriend, I can understand why you might not have wanted ghosts to be real. I can’t take away your hurt about your mom, but maybe we can take your mind off it?”

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked, hoping he meant what I thought. He kissed me again until the need to get closer had me considering scrambling into his lap. There wasn’t room to straddle him. And, despite the rising tide of lust, I had enough presence of mind not to want to hurt his broken leg.

  “Bed?” his lips were only inches away from mine. It would have been easy to get lost in his drugging kiss. I tore myself away and climbed onto the bed. Dan wasn’t far behind me. We kissed and touched for a long time, making out like horny teenagers.

  Soon ghosts were the last thing on my mind as I rutted against my boyfriend, our light sleep pants the only thing separating us. His dick was as hard as my own where they rubbed together, trapped between our bodies. His rigid length felt so good against my erection.

  I got off embarrassingly fast. Daniel didn’t seem put off by it though, he peppered my face and neck in soft kisses.

  “Keep going, or too sensitive?” he asked when I’d recovered enough to do more than cling to him and keep rutting. I reached between us to give his dick an idle stroke. He was still hard. I kept stroking him while I considered.

  I didn’t need much time to recover compared to most of the cis guys I’d screwed around with in the past. Took me longer to recover than it had before T, but that was an acceptable tradeoff. I figured I’d be ready to go again in no time with Daniel naked in bed with me.

  “Can I fuck you?”

  Daniel kissed me, his lips a gentle caress on mine, “I would love that, but we’ve got appointments today and I want to take our time, tonight?”

  “All right. Can I suck you off then?”

  “Sixty-nine?”

  I shook my head, ready to remind him of my preferences.

  “I know, leave your dick and front hole out of it, but I could rim you while you suck me?”

  “You are overestimating how flexible I am.”

  “We could try?” he pouted.

  I sighed, we might get his tongue in my hole while I mouthed his cock. But I doubted it would be near as much fun as getting my face fucked or having his full attention on my ass. Especially with his cast complicating any contortions we attempted.

  “Nah. I want to enjoy blowing you. Lay back.”

  Dan didn’t protest, he propped himself up on an elbow to watch me. I positioned myself so I was straddling his abs. That way I didn’t have to worry about knocking his leg.

  Sometime soon I would take my time tasting every inch of his body. Teasing him when we had no other obligations. But he was right, we had deadlines looming and work to accomplish.

  So instead of giving in to my desire to play with him, I pulled out every trick I knew to get him off fast and hard. All the while I worked my sensitive dic
k with one hand. His hands pawed my ass, squeezing and kneading the flesh, his spit slick finger rubbing over my hole, made me wish we had more time to indulge.

  The sound of him moaning my name when he came was almost enough to push me over the edge too. I lasted for a few more furious tugs on my junk. The tip of his finger pushing against my rim—a blatant promise of things to come—had me collapsing on top of him, both of us spent and sated.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Dan

  It was distracting to sit next to Chad after the orgasms we’d shared not an hour ago. I would have liked nothing more than returning to bed to fuck him. Or let him fuck me.

  Both. I wanted both. Instead, we were inside the haunted barn filming again. I wanted to get a few different angles of various shots on film so we had options when we cut together next week’s video.

  The intro to the monthly haunted history video was always me talking about the haunting on site. We would do a few takes inside. Then a few more outside, getting all our shots from various angles.

  The last item on the agenda for the day was filming a stable hand, Ben, who had volunteered to play the role of Frank Higgs. We planned to film a dramatization of Higgs’ last moments and his spectral greatest hits.

  I would splice in a teaser of what Chad captured last night. The bulk of that gem was going in the final webisode where we explored the actual haunting though. This week’s webisode covered the background and set up.

  I planned to cut today’s footage together with the interviews we’d done last week. Mr. Dawes and the local librarian and history buff, Ms. Clark, would make up the bulk of the webisode. Clark gave the historical context and Dawes had a personal connection to the story.

  The segments we’d done with Leon and Lara would fill out the next two webisodes detailing the haunting and our investigation. Most of the camera work was complete. We still needed to film the transitions to segue into the interviews though.

  I had some ideas about how to portray the fire story. I wanted to print a copy of the old photo of the family in front of the original farmhouse. After I aged the paper I could create a unique effect by burning it on tape to a voiceover of the story.

  With the right filter treatment and sound effects it should set the mood well enough. I wanted to do a voiceover track of Dawes telling the story of the house fire. Crackling fire, a child’s wail, fade to mood music and then fade in on Evie Goodman’s daughter reading from the old woman’s journal.

  It would be perfect. After today’s filming, the last major segment I had planned only required footage of the journal entries from Evie’s daughter.

  “Hey, Chad?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can you get Evie’s daughter to film herself reading that journal entry she messaged us about finding? It would be awesome if she included a shot of her sitting in a rocking chair reading the story to her aged mother. Think she’d go for that?”

  “Yeah. From talking to her, I imagine she would eat up a chance to be the next big star. At a minimum, I can ask her to photograph the relevant passages and email them to us. Want me to call her?”

  “After we wrap this up.”

  I found it obvious he didn’t want to spend a second more in the haunted barn than he had to. I couldn’t blame him. Even for a haunting, there was a malevolence here I seldom encountered. Best to get what we needed on tape and then leave the spirit in peace.

  I planned to put Lara in touch with a medium to help exorcize the angry spirit of her dead ancestor once we finished filming. This one was well beyond my amateur ghost banishing abilities.

  I could track and record the paranormal no problem. When it was a simple matter of putting a restless wanderer to rest, I could manage that sometimes too.

  Something like this required a real medium. I relied on technology to interact with the spirit world. I wasn’t about to dabble in the powerful arcane rites that would stand a chance against a spirit of this power.

  Better to leave that to the professionals. I was here to bear witness to the past and record the effects it had on the present.

  The rest of the day passed incident free. I expected that it would, since it was a bright cheery late summer day and Higgs must have expended a great deal of energy in his appearance last night. He shouldn’t have enough juice for a repeat so soon.

  We got through the takes we needed. Then filmed the scenes with our volunteer stand in ghost. We finished up in the barn well before the shadows started to lengthen in the evening.

  “I want to call Annette before we head to the main house for supper,” Chad packed away the camera gear with care. I was already itching to upload today’s recording and get to work on edits. If I started now, I would work straight through supper, so I refrained. Instead I focused on putting away the stage makeup and costume pieces.

  Ben had been a good sport about me dressing him in period appropriate clothing. He’d balked at the pale makeup to make it easier to add a ghostly pallor in post-production until I explained why I was using it.

  Ben had gone back into the barn to retrieve his ball cap once I got him out of makeup. I didn’t think too much of it when I didn’t see him leave. Figured he’d slipped past us on his return to the main facility unnoticed. Until a scream rent the air.

  Chad came tearing out of Vanessa. His eyes, wide with terror, met mine.

  “Is that Ben?”

  We turned to the barn in unison. The scream rose in volume, then abruptly cut off with a strangled gasp. The silence after was even worse than the terrified screaming. I snatched up the camera, shoving it into Chad’s hands.

  “Whatever it is, we should record it,” I said, then grabbed my crutches to propel myself across the yard and into the barn. Chad followed, hot on my heels. He didn’t have to say a word for me to realize how much it cost him to go back inside.

  Light illuminated the interior through the holes in the ceiling. The setting sun sent a golden shaft through a large window in the west-facing wall. It illuminated the section of the loft nearest the ladder and visible from the aisle.

  Ben lay caught in the beam of light inches from the opening in the loft floor, curled in a ball and clutching at his gut.

  “Is that—fuck,” Chad passed the camera into my hands and ran for the rickety ladder we’d propped up to access the loft above. We’d filmed a few scenes up there over the past week. Or at least, Chad had.

  My leg kept me from climbing up there. The metallic tang of blood scenting the air tipped me off that Ben had sustained injuries. I pulled out my cell and dialed emergency services. From the amount of blood pooling around him, if he’d survived his injuries, I suspected we would need help to save the guy’s life.

  I explained the situation to an operator as I watched Chad ball up his shirt and press it to the man’s injuries. I hoped like hell Ben was still alive. We’d only been outside without him for moments. He had to be alive.

  “Call 911, if you haven’t,” Chad called down to me from the top of the ladder.

  “Is he alive?”

  After a moment, Chad replied, “His pulse is there, but thready. I’m putting pressure on the wound, but there’s a lot of blood.”

  “Keep pressure on it. Help is on the way,” I parroted the calm lady on the phone. If it weren’t for her voice in my ear telling me that help was coming I’d have been freaking out. Instead, I relayed her orders to Chad. I needed to stay calm for him and Ben.

  “If it’s safe to stay up there, it’s best not to move him.”

  “Safe enough, how long?”

  “They dispatched an ambulance.”

  We waited in tense silence until the distant wail of an ambulance approached. The sound cut out before the vehicle reached us. I’d given instructions about the old dirt road to the abandoned barn, unsure if it had an address in their system or what. Did barns have their own addresses?

  The doors burst open and people in uniform took over the scene. They sent Chad and I outside, taking over with Ben’s wound
. Someone yelled at me to stop recording. It was only then that I realized I’d gotten the whole grim proceedings on video.

  No way in hell was I using footage of an actual death, or even near death experience on my show though. I’d have to delete it. Later. There would be time for that later. I stowed the camera in the van, thankful no one had thought to confiscate it.

  Lara and Jane arrived to learn what the commotion was about. The first responders loaded Ben into their ambulance and drove away with the lights and sirens wailing. They said something about critical condition, but at least he was still alive.

  They wouldn’t be rushing him to the emergency room if he was dead, right? I clung to that hope. It had been my fault the man was inside the haunted barn. I didn’t want his death on my hands, even if I never could have predicted what happened.

  I didn’t even know what happened. Had he somehow tripped over some long-abandoned farm implement? That made no sense. He only went back inside to grab his ball cap, not climb rusty old plowshares.

  Jane left to follow the ambulance to the hospital. Lara called Ben’s family to notify them of the accident. Then the police showed up to ask us questions.

  It was hours before they seemed satisfied with our statements. They left with my camera in an evidence bag. I was too shaken to even bring myself to work up any outrage over it. I just wanted to know how Higgs had gained enough strength to inflict the amount of damage Ben had sustained.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Chad

  Once the ambulance left, I took stock of the situation. Ben had survived, at least for now. I’d done everything in my power to help him. Except make sure his attacker never harmed anyone else.

  That meant I needed to ensure we stopped the dangerous ghost. Got our video in front of someone who could banish Higgs. This was my first experience with a crime scene. But if TV taught me anything, it was that the police would want to take our camera as evidence.

  So while Daniel did his best to answer Lara’s bewildered questions, I backed up all the files from the camera. I uploaded everything to Daniel’s computer, then backed that up to his cloud storage.