Page 110 of The Haunting of Lockton
“Just had a lot on my mind.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.
But I knew better. Some nights, he slept with no trouble. Other nights, he pulled the blanket over his head and dealt with crippling nighttime anxiety. His obsession over Lockton wasn’t helping.
Paxton needed to be at work by nine, so after breakfast, the three of us exited the café and walked to the parking lot to part ways.
I gently pulled him closer. “Don’t miss me too much today.”
“Don’t get eaten by a ghost.”
I clicked my tongue at him. “How rude. I’m telling Alan you said that. I bet he won’t like being placed in the category of cannibalistic ghost.”
Paxton’s lips twitched before his hand came to rest on my hip. “Jokes aside. Be careful.”
“Ah.” I angled my head up—the freaking tall, gorgeous redhead—and glided the tip of my nose along his cheek. “It’s sweet that you’re worried about me.”
“I’m serious.”
“Will you come running to my rescue like a brave and mighty knight?”
“Brave, yes. Mighty? Probably not. My brain is my weapon, not my brawn.”
“Then you’re perfect for him,” Julian chimed in. “Because Skyler’s brain is the size of a peanut.”
“Keep talking and I’ll let a ghost eatyou,” I shot back. “Asshole.”
“They’d eat me because I’d taste better than you.”
With a low laugh, Paxton tipped his head down and brushed our lips together once. He then drew back, got into his car, and drove from the lot.
I suppressed a sigh. Investigating Lockton without him would suck. Not only because of his big, beautiful brain that knew all sorts of facts about the asylum, but also because… well, I would miss him. Freaking emotions. Now that I’d let some seep through the cracks, there was no shoving them back down.
By one o’clock, Julian and I arrived at Lockton. We had gone back to Redwood for a bit to go over more evidence and eat lunch before heading over.
Even in bright daylight, the place held an eeriness that caused my hairs to stand on end. More so now than before. I had come face-to-face with the dark and twisted beings haunting it, like the Hanging Man. But I had encountered the tormented ones too, like Roy with his broken heart and the lady in the medical ward who’d taken her own life just to escape the cruelty of the doctors and their experiments.
Julian was right. They deserved to have their stories told.
Out of habit, I whipped out my phone and started recording as we stepped inside the asylum. The door opened with a slow creak, then thumped closed behind us, like the door of a tomb sealing us in. Maybe not the best thought to run through my head when I was already freaked-out. Our investigations had never unsettled me before.
Lockton was different.
I caught myself searching every shadowy corner as we walked through the front reception area and down a long corridor. Sunlight spilled in through the tiny windows close to the ceiling, and I couldn’t help but think how it felt more like a prison than a place meant for wellness.
“Do you sense anything?” I asked and put away my phone. We had enough footage to sift through as it was.
“Yes.” Julian’s breath came out shaky. “They’re all around us.”
Instant chills. “Any of them calling out the loudest?”
“This way.”
When Julian headed for the recreational room, I followed. He veered off to one side, and I took the other. Game pieces were scattered on the floor, along with a board that had been ripped down the middle. Graffiti marked sections of the wall, and I tried to make out what the hell it said.
“Sky?” I didn’t like the slight shake in Julian’s voice as he said my name.
When I looked at him, his expression wasn’t much better. “What’s wrong?”
That’s when I realized he wasn’t looking at me.
