Page 14 of Haunted Mediation
God, so did James. It curled around him like smoke and crept into his clothes, pressing into the skin of his back and making his thighs clench.
“Alright,” James said, right as a spider dropped down from the ceiling in front of them. James squealed and cringed back several steps, falling out of line with Leon as he dodged around the spider.
How was James going to get through this ridiculous house of horrors? Didn’t he have enough horrors to deal with? Like the fact that, when he’d texted his mom earlier to ask how her evening was going, she’d sent back two heart eye emojis and nothing else since?
Halloween was his mom’s favorite holiday, and Christmas was James’. What if by then she was in a relationship with Howard and Linda, and they wanted to spend the week together without him? Not only would he have nowhere to go, he was pretty sure there was no chance he could subtly ask Leon to spend Christmas with him.
James was so distracted, he tripped over a branch and had to catch himself on a prickly bush.
Why was he worrying about this now? All he had to do was get through this stupid haunted house, with its jump scares and fake blood that smelled horrific and paid actors that were probably waiting around every corner to surprise them. If he could somehow do that, he’d be rewarded with couch time with Leon and Yarmen. Maybe he’d get super lucky, and Leon’s hand would brush his hand as they petted Yarmen. The kitty hadalready spent a lot of time with James today, though. There was no telling if he’d be lucky enough to get both Yarmen and Leon’s affection, even if accidentally.
God, he was pathetic, wasn’t he?
The backs of James’ eyes began to burn, and he had to squint to focus on the spider, making sure it was fully retracted into the ceiling before he walked forward again.
Leon was several paces ahead, stepping over what looked to be a disemboweled pig carcass. Why. Why was that a thing they had to do today?
When Leon had cleared the obstacle, he turned to look back at James, who was still desperately trying to blink away his tears.
“You coming?” Leon asked.
James swallowed hard. “Yeah,” he said, but his voice cracked, and he had to scowl to hide how his lip was beginning to tremble.
As he approached the pig, he realized his legs were several inches shorter than Leon’s. He was going to have to sort of jump over it, or perhaps try and squeeze himself between the carcass and the fake tree planted in the floor next to it.
And he still couldn’t see well!
He sniffled, just once, to try and clear his vision, and made the unfortunate mistake of meeting Leon’s gaze. His brown eyes were nearly black in the dim lighting, and yet, for just a moment, they practically shone with concern. It was quickly replaced with his usual flat look…but not before he held out his hand.
James stared at it like it was yet another horror he had to face.
“Come on,” Leon said. “I don’t want to have to schlep you off the floor. Your short-ass legs aren’t going to make it.”
James’ scowl came much more naturally this time. He grabbed onto Leon’s hand, trying to channel all his angst and fear into his grip, and allowed Leon to yank him over the carcass.
Unfortunately, Leon was rather strong, James didn’t weigh a whole heck of a lot, and the rotting leaves didn’t make the most stable surface to land on. His right foot landed solidly enough, but his left foot tried to fly out from under him.
“Oh, shit,” Leon mumbled as he gripped James’ hand tighter and jerked him backwards so he didn’t have a devastating banana-peel moment.
He ended up pressed against Leon’s chest, and James wondered if it would be possible to turn off his blushing for the rest of the haunted house. Lord knew it was just going to get worse from here.
“Thanks,” James mumbled.
“You’re welcome,” Leon said, as he began walking forward, still holding onto James’ hand.
James allowed himself to be led for several steps, and when Leon dodged out of the way of a demented gopher popping out of a shrub, it felt easy to dodge with him, and James only made a small whimpering noise of surprise.
They continued on like this around a bloodied chainsaw embedded in a tree stump, past a tree wielding an axe—seriously, what?—and underneath a giant hornet.
When they got to the doorway of the next room, James walked up next to Leon and not so subtly glanced down at their hands.
Leon tightened his grip, staring pointedly forward into the dark room ahead of them. “Come on. Can’t have you falling behind, or we’re never gonna get out of here.”
That was all he said before pulling James across the threshold into whatever next layer of hell awaited them.
Chapter Four
LEON
