Page 35 of The Haunting of Lockton
“I’d never,” Paxton said with a softness in his eyes that gave me butterflies. “I heard you singing yesterday in the car. You have a nice voice.”
“Thanks.” My face felt hot despite the chill in the air. I hadn’t realized he’d heard me. “Not sure why I told you all of that.”
“I’m glad you did.” The edges of his eyes crinkled as he smiled. “You put on a face in front of the cameras. It’s nice to see the real man beneath it. Pieces of him anyway.”
Damn if my heart didn’t almost beat out of my chest.
“So… yeah,” I said, suddenly self-conscious. “Back to Julian. Snow in Arkansas is kinda rare. I mean, it snows sometimes, but it’s usually a light dusting or a bit of ice. But one December when we were ten, temperatures were record low, and it snowed like crazy. Jules said it looked like a winter wonderland and wanted to go out to play in it. Our foster mom was watching TV and didn’t notice us slip out of the house.”
When my voice started to shake, I blew out a breath, hoping it would get me to steady. It did a little.
“There was a pond behind the house,” I continued. “It was so cold that the top froze over. Julian had always wanted to go ice-skating, just like people did in the movies. So I said he should try. No skates, but I told him he could slide across in his winter boots. We were just kids and didn’t realize the ice was so thin.” My throat got tight, and I turned my face away from Paxton. I stared at a dark stain on the wall. “He got almost to the middle of the pond before the ice broke, and he fell through.”
Paxton sucked in a barely audible breath.
“Our foster mom heard me screaming and ran out. She called an ambulance and told me to wait for them to get there. But I knew help would come too late if I didn’t do something. So, I rushed onto the ice. Jules couldn’t swim, you see. I fell through the ice too, and fuck, I’d never felt anything so painful. Sharp stabbing all over my body. I managed to pull him out and drag him to the bank. He hadn’t been breathing. I remember yelling for him to wake up and beating on his chest.” My voice cracked on the last word. “When the paramedics arrived, they said Jules didn’t have a pulse.”
“God,” Paxton said. “I can’t imagine how traumatizing that must’ve been.”
“My memory is a little fuzzy. I think I’ve blocked some of it out. I was also in the stages of hypothermia, and my body started going into shock. Obviously, they revived Julian, and we were rushed to the hospital. But he wasn’t the same after the accident.”
“His gift.”
I nodded. “That’s when his fascination with the paranormal started. He said he could sense things. See them too. It was kinda hard to understand at first, but Jules isn’t the type of person to lie about that sorta thing. When he wanted to go to abandoned buildings and graveyards, I went with him. Our foster parents told Julian to stop with ‘all the ghost nonsense,’ but he didn’t. I don’t think he could. Anyway, they said they couldn’t deal, and we were placed with another family who eventually made us go to therapy.”
“Did it help?” Paxton asked.
“I guess so. I liked the therapist. She listened and didn’t downplay our feelings or shrug them off. She said I had a lot on my shoulders.” I rubbed at my right shoulder on instinct, as though I could still feel that weight. “I… I blamed myself for the accident. She helped me work through those feelings.”
“Surely you don’t still blame yourself.”
I kept staring at the dark stain on the wall. Because a part of me still did. And it was why I suffered from nightmares—why I was frantically searching for Julian in them. They had started after the accident. Therapy had helped me get to the root of the dreams and work through them, but I still had them every now and then.
“What about Julian?” Paxton asked.
“The therapist said his fascination with the paranormal wasn’t anything to be concerned about. She said it was how Jules was processing his near-death experience and to give him time. He never told her about his… gift. I was the only one he told. But anyway.” I looked at Paxton. “We kept doing the investigations, going wherever he wanted. We then recorded one of our hunts just for fun and posted it. The shit went viral.”
“And now you’re here.”
“And now we’re here.” We held eye contact for several heartbeats. Mine quickened, as did my breaths. “What about you? What’s your story?”
“My story?”
“Yeah. How did you get into all this ghost stuff?”
“Oh.” Paxton smoothed his lips together once, an action that immediately stole my focus. “I guess you could say mine sparks from childhood as well.”
“Did you see a ghost?”
“Something like that.”
I waited for him to say more. He didn’t. Was it a touchy subject? Made him too uncomfortable? Fair enough. I wouldn’t push him to tell me.
“Do you want to, um…” I glanced at his mouth.Kiss. Fuck.“Do more investigating?”
“We probably should,” Paxton said with a shy smile. “That’s why you came all the way here, right?”
“Mhm.” I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth.
