Page 9 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

I looked at it for a second before shaking it. His grip was firm, and his hands clearly knew how to work.

His eyes met mine. “Welcome to Seastone.”

It wasn’tuntil I passed the cliff beside the mountain road leading into town that I realized how quickly I had decided thatthis might be a place to stay for a while, even though the only thing I had seen so far was the gas station.

I passed a faded painted sign welcoming me to Seastone,the cornerstone of the Appalachians.Just a hundred feet past it, the road turned right, revealing a few dozen buildings nestled among the trees in the valley. The gray clouds hung low, painting everything in a color that makes you want to hide under a blanket for the rest of the day.

The closer I got to the town, the more I understood why Jason asked me what I was doing here. Except for a few houses, a diner, a grocery store, and some farmland, there was nothing noteworthy—no movie theater or anything else to go to in the evenings, no prominent building to give the town an interesting skyline, not even anyone was out on the streets, driving anywhere, which made sense if there was nothing for people to go to.

Driving slowly, I took it all in to see where my gut was taking me. I turned into a small street on my right. The housing got a little denser, and the buildings were taller, even though their red brick facades couldn’t hide the fact that most of them were abandoned. The parking lots on both sides of the street were empty, and there was no sign to indicate that you even had to pay for them.

I pulled my minivan up to a building where a change in the color of the bricks told me it had once been a post office.

This town was as dead as a doornail. I parked my car, pulled the hood of my sweater over my head, grabbed my phone, and jumped out.

The rain had given Seastone a break, but the dark sky made everything seem even more moody than it already was.

Some steam evaporated from a storm drain at the end of the street, and it felt like any second now, the manhole cover could be lifted to make way for zombies to take over the town.

I opened the camera app on my phone and framed the abandoned buildings with the steam rising between them. The few people who subscribed to my channel will love this. They were just like me, people who enjoyed abandoned places, the stories told about them, and exploring things that would make normal people run as fast as they could.

The street led me to a boulevard that was completely deserted. Ten small shops lined up next to each other, either with faded “total clearance” signs still up or completely covered windows with cobwebs in the corners. I shot videos of every little detail I could spot: cracks in the walls, a wooden door that looked like someoneor somethinghad scratched it hard to get in, and just as I was getting a shot of the street with the mountains in the background, thunder lit up the sky as if on cue.

A shiver ran down my spine. The drizzle came back, and within thirty seconds, it was pouring like it was the end of time. If this had been the set of a horror movie, it was almost as if someone had found the special effects control unit and pushed all the buttons. Since my car was about ten minutes away by foot, I rushed into the covered entrance of the only three-story building with a gray facade.

The rain was so heavy that it splashed off the ground and right onto my pants, but at least most of my body stayed dry. I held up my phone and positioned myself in the frame. “This is just crazy. You won’t believe it. I think I’m in love. This town is like something out of a horror movie.”

The door behind me opened with a squeak, startling me so much that my phone slipped out of my hand. I fumbled to keep it from hitting the floor, and after an odd little dance, I got ahold of it again and turned around.

The guy in the doorway staring at me wore a familiar yellow raincoat. He narrowed his eyes as if trying to remember where he had seen me before, but I remembered him clearly. It wasthe other dude from the gas station this morning, whispering so loud with Jason that I could hear every word of their conversation.

“Sorry,” I said, taking off the hood of my sweater so he could see my face better. I pointed to the small roof above us. “Just looking for some shelter from the rain.”

His eyes darted to the street, and he made a face as if he would melt like an evil witch if he went out there now. “Understandable. A minute ago, it looked like it was finally over.” Closing the door behind him with a click of the latch as it sealed shut, he sought shelter from the rain next to me.

We both faced the street, staring at the downpour. It was like a curtain separating us from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.

He pulled a phone out of his raincoat and stared at it for a second before making a face and putting it back where it came from. “Didn’t I see you at the gas station two hours ago?”

“Yeah. I’m the guy you told Jason to ask out on a date,” I replied with a laugh.

His eyes went wide, and his ears flushed as he slowly lowered his gaze as if he was about to faint. “Sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”

“No worries. At my age, it is a compliment,” I replied.

He peered at me out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t lookthatold.”

It was funny to watch him deliberately try not to look at me. “Any gay man older than thirty is basically as good as dead.”

“So I should consider myself lucky to have five more years?”

“First, you shouldn’t believe that sentence at all. Even at thirty-four, I’m still very much alive.”

A smile crossed his face, and he finally glanced at me.

“I’m Nicholas,” I said, holding out my hand. If I was going to stay in this town for a while, it wouldn’t hurt to meet somepeople, and judging from what I’d seen so far, it looked like he and Jason would probably be about the only gay people I would meet here.

“Jack,” he replied, putting his hand in mine. “If you ever need to get anything done around the house, I’m your man.”

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