4. Only one bed
four
Only one bed
EWAN
The Urchin’s cold hands wrap around my ankles, and I’m too scared to even scream.
James turns on his heels, fury etched on his face. “Don’t you dare touch my teammate, you little pervert!” He aims the PolterPulse and shoots.
The blue zap hits the ghost’s reflection and water explodes around us. His grip, mercifully, loosens and he lets me go. James gets a hold of my overalls and pulls me to him. I stumble into his arms as he gathers me close.
“Do you see him?” he asks me, his warm breath caressing my cheek as I have my face buried in his neck.
I shake my head, peeking over his shoulder. “No...” I scan our surroundings. Then my eyes widen when a wall of water rises from the bathroom floor. “James!”
It’s my turn to pull him into my arms and get in a protective position just as the wave hits us. In that instant, I’m glad for my rugby training as I bend my knees reflexively. We’re swept over the tiles until my back hits the wall, but I manage not to let him go.
I shake water from my eyes and stare as the remnants of the wave stop at the door of the communal showers, almost as if it's touching an invisible wall. Not one drop makes it to the other side.
James coughs in my arms, wet and furious. “Oh you little shit..!”
The Urchin's laugh echoes through the bathroom once again. “You two are fun...” he singsongs.
He climbs out of the water like a demon emerging from hell, then crawls towards us on all fours, tattered clothes dragging behind him. I whimper and squeeze James against my chest, probably a little too hard, but he’s the only thing that keeps me sane right now.
James grabs a PolterPulse from the water—mine or his, I can’t be sure—but it sputters wetly and dies.
“Shit!” Once again, his first impulse it to throw it at the ghost, and it sails right through his incorporeal body.
I would laugh if I wasn’t so scared. “Banish him!” he says to me. “Do what you did with the Crone!”
“Wh—what?”
“You’re the one who told her to go away, and it worked. Do it again!”
Alright... I try to remember what happened last night. “Please go away! We’re sorry!”
The little ghost stops right in front of us and slowly unfolds from his nightmarish position.
Now that he’s slowing down and I can take a proper look at him, I realise how harsh his short life must have been before his death.
He was emaciated and too small for his age.
I feel tears welling in my eyes once again.
How cruel can this world be? No wonder he turned into a menace after death.
I would, too, if my agonising existence had ended too soon.
Phantom chains, covered in algae, drop from the ghost like the petals of a flower. He stands taller, as if a weight has been lifted from his little shoulders.
“Oh to feel the sun again...” the Urchin whispers, dark eyes unfocused.
And then he disappears like smoke in the air.
The sound of water being sucked down the shower drains invades the bathroom as everything goes back to normal. James and I find ourselves on our arses on the green tiles, shaking from the cold, our wet clothes clinging to our bodies.
I sniffle.
James turns to look at me, grinning. “Are you crying again, big guy?”
I flush. “He must have had a terrible life! It’s sad.”
He laughs and gets to his feet. “Probably. But now thanks to you, he’s free.
” He offers me a hand and pulls me up effortlessly.
“Come on, all is well. Stop crying.” He pats my cheeks, and I feel the urge to rub my face against his palms. Then he steps away and surveys the bathroom.
“At least there isn’t much damage this time.
” He peeks through the open door. “The carpets on the other side are dry. Bloody hell!” he suddenly says.
From the fear in his voice, I know what I’m going to see on the other side. Seven cats are spread over the stairs and the hallway, watching us, eyes glowing.
“They’re supervising the ghost hunt,” I say with a laugh.
James steps back into the bathroom. “They’re creepy. These cats are weird, I’m telling you.”
As if on cue, the cats all walk away and disappear in the dark.
Huh. He’s right, they’re a wee strange.
“Come on, let’s get back to our room and get changed,” James says. “Then I have a mind to go back to the staff kitchen. I noticed a bottle of whisky on top of the fridge this morning, behind the plant.”
I sigh. “I wouldn’t mind a stiff drink.”
Our wet shoes squish all the way to our room, and I cringe. Wet socks are the root of all evil.
I struggle to take my ExorSquad uniform off. It’s already too-tight—they didn’t have my size at the ExorSquad HQ—but soaked through, it’s a nightmare.
James laughs when he witnesses my struggle, then says, “You’d win a wet t-shirt contest right now.”
I look down and realise I 'm wearing a thin white t-shirt under it, and my nipples are quite visible. My face warms up. “Sorry.”
“Hey, don’t be. You’ve got a really nice body.” He turns his back to me to take off his pants.
I... what?
He thinks I have a nice body? I stare at him, cheeks burning, and the way his tattoos follow the curves and dips of his body. Shit shit shit, I take my wet clothes off before I can get a visible erection and jump into dry ones.
“I’m ready,” I mumble and wait by the door, like a child who’s been caught with his hand in the jar of candy.
Thankfully, James appears blind to my inner struggle. He puts on a black hoodie with a skull on it and torn jeans. His dark hair is already drying, while mine is a floppy mess on top of my head.
We don’t meet a soul, alive or dead, as we make our way through the quiet house. Mercifully, the remaining ghosts give us a break. I think we had enough adventure for the night. I’m tired and cold to the bone.
After the ghost hunt in the communal showers, the staff kitchen appears a welcoming space, full of everyday normalcy, such as leftover cake on the table, dirty mugs by the sink, and a too-bright light bulb above our heads.
James gets on his toes to grab the bottle of whisky on top of the fridge. “A-ha! It’s still here. Get us two glasses, will you?”
I open a few cupboards until I find what we’re looking for.
James pours us two generous shots. “It’ll warm us right up.” And he downs his drink. I follow suit, feeling a mistake coming. “Aaaah, that hits the spot,” he breathes out. He pours us another.
We both sit around the table and relax, at last.
“What a night...” I say.
He hums, twirling the amber liquor inside his glass. “We exorcised another ghost. Look at us, we’re real experts now.” He clinks his drink with mine.
I laugh. “I’m still not sure how we did that.”
He looks at me with a pensive expression. “About that. What’s up with you and ghosts?”
I feel like a deer caught in headlights. “What?”
“Both times, the ghosts disappeared when you told them to. And the Urchin implied that only you could free him. Do you know why?”
I finish my second drink, needing some liquid courage, and James pours me a third one with a knowing smile.
“I've never talked about it with anyone,” I whisper.
“You don’t have to, if it really makes you uncomfortable.”
“No, I—I need to. It’s relevant to our...
situation. It’s just that I thought I was crazy for so many years, I buried that part of myself.
” He nods thoughtfully, and waits patiently for me to go on.
“I saw things, when I was a kid. People that weren’t supposed to be walking around.
It took me a while to understand I was the only one who could see them.
I think they were common ghosts, the ones described in the handbook as level one and two entities.
Poltergeists like the ones here are rare, I guess. ”
“That’s why they need us,” he says, he gestures at the both of us. “To deal with the difficult ones.”
I nod. “Yes. But the common entities are everywhere. There was a man at our community pool, always swimming in circles. Or the young woman standing by the road every afternoon when my brothers and I walked back from school. Half of her face was missing. I was the only one who could see them, and I didn’t know why...
My brothers made fun of me. Told everyone I was a pathological liar, so I stopped talking about what I saw.
But I still saw them. For a while, at least.”
“You have a gift,” James says, eyes twinkling. “Are you some sort of medium?”
I cringe and shake my head. “No...” That’s too much weirdness for me. “I’m not. I’m just...” I trail off. I don’t know what I am, actually.
He laughs. “You literally hunt ghosts for a living now, I think we’re past being spooked by words and labels. You have a gift, Ewan, and quite a useful one.”
Fear surges through the soft haze of alcohol.
I’m glad I’m not crazy, but I don’t want this gift.
I don’t want to see the ghosts walking around campus.
Edinburgh is an old city, and the dead are everywhere.
I started seeing them again a few months back.
Some had gruesome wounds, and it became harder and harder to avert my eyes.
And then I wondered if something was just wrong with me. I’m glad, at the very least, to know that I’m quite sane. The world is crazy, not me.
I’m not sure it’s entirely a relief. What is worse, hearing voices in your head or knowing the voices are from the dead?
James notices my hand shaking on the table, and he grabs it.
His grip is warm and comforting. “Hey, it’s okay.
We’ll figure this out. It looks like your gift gives you a power over them, and we can harness that power and you’ll be safe.
Safer than the rest of us, even, who are blind to the dangers lurking out of sight. ”
Oh. I didn’t think of that.
I nod. “Yes... thank you.”
James squeezes my hand one last time and lets go. I already miss his touch.
He finishes his drink and gets to his feet. “Come on, time for bed. We have work to do tomorrow.”
We drop our glasses in the sink and make our way to the stairs. James sways as he climbs, and I have to steady him.
“It looks like the whisky hit just right,” he says. His back is to my chest, and I feel his laugh resonate through me. “How come you look sober?”
“I’m big. It takes a lot to get me drunk.”
“That you are! Big, I mean.” He winks at me over his shoulder.
Sweet lord have mercy on me.
He’s not flirting, is he? I can never tell.
He leads the way upstairs, pulling me by the arm, and I’m happy to follow—I have a feeling I would follow him anywhere right now.
A surprise awaits us in our room. The ginger cat, Lucifer, sits on my air mattress.
James curses. “Didn’t we lock the door?”
I’m pretty sure we did. Shirley gave us a key, to ensure that our things were safe while we were away.
“Hello you,” I say to the cat.
I saw him briefly today, while I was helping with the Halloween decorations. Shirley described him as a prime example of orange cat energy. “He’s a tornado,” she said.
“Can you please take it out of the room?” James asks, eyeing the beast.
“Sure.” But to my horror, Lucifer begins to make biscuits on the blanket on top of my air mattress. “No, Lucifer, don’t—”
Too late, there’s the unmistakable whistle of air coming out of the mattress as it slowly deflates.
“Fuck, did he just—” James says, but then he’s cut short as the cat zooms out of the room like an orange Ferrari.
I close my eyes, defeated. “He just sank his claws right into the mattress, yes.”
I guess I’ll sleep on the floor tonight.
James sighs deeply. “Fucking cats, I swear they’re the worst part about this job. Well, grab your blanket and get in bed with me.”
I blink. “In bed... with you?”
“Yeah. You’re massive, but it’s a double bed, we’ll be fine.”
“Wait, are you sure?” My heart rate skyrockets.
“I feel magnanimous tonight. You can kiss my feet tomorrow, but right now I’m tired and drunk. Get in bed, Ewan.” He takes his shoes off, then his socks, and his hoodie, and he climbs in bed. “But you’re taking the side against the wall. I don’t like to feel cornered.”
Once again, his no-nonsense, bossy demeanour shoots straight to my cock. Except sharing a bed with him puts me too-close for comfort with a raging erection.
And I'm imagining kissing his feet. Oh god...
I grab my blanket and scoot onto the bed until I’m glued to the wall. James turns off the light and jumps in bed, too. In the dark, our breathing sounds far too loud.
He sighs happily. “Good night, Ewan.”
“Good night,” I mumble, unsure of what to do with my body as I feel him so close. One move, and we’d touch.
And this is how on my second day at my new job, I find myself sharing a bed with my coworker.