Ghost Hunters - The End

I hope you enjoyed Ghost Hunters. Everyone who comments gets entered to win 1 $20 gift certificate to Amazon which I will be giving away after October 31. This is my last post for the Blog Hop and I'll gather up all the entrants in the morning. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. So enjoy the end of Ghost Hunters and leave a comment. Also check out the other blog hop participants.

Geoff pulled the last of the electric cords from Mason’s house. He hadn’t heard anything from Mitch or Mason. They’d left for the hospital after he’d seen blood leaking from Mitch’s ear. The scream had been loud. None of their equipment had broken, but he wondered about the condition of their evidence. All of the cameras had been acting strange but with Mitch’s health in danger he hadn’t wanted to take the time to check it out.

As he slammed the back hatch on his Toyota his phone rang. He answered, not even waiting to check the caller ID. “It’s Geoff.”

“Are you almost done?” Mason asked.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Mitch has been asking for you.”

“Can he hear?”

“Not really. The doctor thinks his hearing will be back to normal in a few weeks but he’s going to have to take it easy, no headphones, no music, and buffering of some sort on his ears.”

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. His parents are driving up in the morning. This is so strange.”

“You’re telling me. I think we’re all going to have damage for a while, but that was amazing.”

“Yeah, it was.” He hung his phone up, not having the heart to say anything about the strange way the equipment had been acting before he shut it all down.

Geoff rolled into the hospital parking lot before ten minutes had passed. After double checking the locks on his car he ran to the ER door, searching for any sign of Mason. He didn’t see the guy and went to the desk and asked about Mitch. The nurse directed him to room five. Through the closed door he could hear Mitch yelling. Without hesitation he burst through the door and saw surprise on Mitch’s face then it broke into a huge smile.

“Hey, you made it,” Mitch yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Why is he yelling?” Geoff asked.

“He has no clue. He can’t hear anything,” Mason said.

“Great. Can he leave?”

The nurse popped into the room behind him, “Please take him home. He’s making the other patients uncomfortable.”

“Really? So he’s healthy enough to leave?” Geoff asked.

“Yes, just make sure he follows these instructions.” The nurse handed Geoff a list of do’s and don’ts. He pushed some paperwork at Mitch who happily read them out loud.

Geoff went to the bed and took the sheet from Mitch who proceeded to yell. “Anyone got a pen and paper.”

“Here you go,” the nurse yelled over Mitch’s complaints.

“Thanks.” Geoff wrote Don’t Yell on the paper then decided he needed to make the point more emphatically and he placed an exclamation mark on the page.

“What?” Mitch said in a much quieter voice.

Geoff scribbled the news of his release onto the paper and Mitch moved to get up but hesitated once the hospital gown separated at the back. His gaze swung to Mason and he blushed. Mason’s cheeks turned pink before he left the room.

Geoff helped Mitch put his shoes on since he wasn’t supposed to put undue pressure on his ears by bending over too often. They walked out of the ER and Mitch asked about the evidence, his volume still too loud.

Geoff held his finger to his mouth. Mitch cursed and didn’t talk again.

This would be hard for both of them but Geoff wouldn’t abandon his friend. Mason had left a voicemail on his phone stating that he’d been exhausted and needed to go home and rest. He’d call later in the day.

The sun was peeking over the horizon as he pulled into the parking lot for Mitch’s apartment. His buddy’s head rested against the window and drool ran down his cheek. Great, there was no way Geoff could help carry him upstairs. Instead, he started with the equipment, unloading it all into the front room.

The sun was up full by the time he’d unpacked the car. He opened the door next to Mitch and reached across him, unbuckling the seatbelt. “Mitch, you need to wake up.” Heck, what was he doing, Mitch couldn’t hear a thing.

Geoff touched Mitch’s face, tapping his cheek. Mitch jumped as he opened his eyes. Geoff pulled him out of the car and helped him upstairs. He shoved Mitch towards his bed room, making sure he had water before shutting the door and letting him sleep off the pain and fatigue.The evidence of the haunting and the dramatic conclusion was on the tapes. Geoff wanted to fire up the equipment and check it out, but exhaustion raked at this nerves. Eventually they’d review the material.

♥

Mitch’s ears still ached but he could hear most voices as long as the person was facing him. Still, his phone was useless to him. His mother had come for a few days, babying him and fixing him soups and other favorites from his childhood. It’d been nice for a day but now his interest in Mason had resurfaced and he wanted to find out if the things he’d felt on Halloween night were a product of that evening or something more.

He and Geoff were set to go through the evidence in about twenty minutes. Geoff doing the audio and him the video. This would be the case of the century, if they’d captured the evidence.

The light on his phone indicated he was receiving a call but he still couldn’t hear voices over the phone so he let it ring over to voicemail. He’d let Geoff listen to the message and call the person back.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and his heart stopped before thundering in his chest. He spun around, ready to takedown whoever had broken in.

“It’s me,” Geoff said as he ducked the punch that Mitch had thrown.

“Oh crap, don’t scare me like that.”

“I’m sorry, but I knocked before I let myself in.”

“Geesh, I guess I didn’t hear it because my phone was ringing.”

“You want me to listen to it?”

“Sure,” he tossed the phone to Geoff and cued up the video from Mason’s place. Everything looked great. The camera had been place in a primo spot to pick up the action they’d witnessed.

“Press pause,” Geoff said.

Mitch paused the video and turned to hear what Geoff wanted.

“It’s Mason. He was wondering how you’re doing. You want me to call him back?”

“Not yet. I want to review some of this and see if we can tell him about how wonderful everything looks.”

“You’re going to ask him out, right?”

“Yeah, but I want to wait until this is all done.”

“Good, that way if anyone asks we can say that we didn’t compromise the investigation.”

“Yeah, now let’s get down to work.” Mitch returned to watching the video. They were at it for over three hours when the broke for pizza. They hadn’t caught anything of significance but he knew something would come up soon on the screen.

After the break he hit play on the video and within minutes the picture started to jump and flake out. “Geoff, look at this. It looks wonky.”

“Wonky? What do you mean?”

“Just watch,” Mitch said.

They both stared at the screen and disappointment sucked the joy out of the process when the video went all white, blocking out any image.

“What just happened?” Geoff asked.

“Damn, I have no clue. Maybe it’ll clear up.” He fast forwarded the tape, searching for anything that wasn’t a blank screen.

“It’s all gone,” Mitch said. “None of the cool stuff made it onto video. This is crap. I can’t believe that it’s all gone.”

“It can’t be all gone,” Geoff said.

“Look, it’s not there.”

“Maybe another tape.”

Mitch hooked up the High-8 and fast forwarded to the end of the tape. “There’s nothing there.”

“How about the thermal?”

“Let’s look.”

They hooked up the thermal and weren’t surprised to find it blank too. “Damn, this sucks. Call Mason for me. Let’s have him come over and see this,” Mitch said.

“Sure, I’ll get his on the phone.”

Mitch continued to stare at the white screen watching the nothingness that it displayed. He shook his head, wondering if they’d find something if they took the video apart and enhanced each frame. The intense energy from the white light must have erased the video tape somehow.

He played the thermal forward and backwards, searching for anything but it was all gone except for the reflection on the window of him and Geoff early on in the investigation.

Geoff stood up and tapped Mitch on the shoulder. He pointed to the front door and smiled. At least he got to see Mason even if the investigation went to hell.

The door opened and he couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath. Mason was beautiful. His pale skin and angular face made Mitch tingle. Geoff must have told him about the video going bad. Mitch went to mason and held his hands. Even the disappointment of the technical mess-up couldn’t keep him from feeling happy that Mason was here.

“Hi, I’m glad you came.”

Mason blushed, the corners of his mouth tilted up into a shy smile. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, as long as you’re facing me. The doctor said that my hearing would be back to normal in a few weeks.”

“Good, I can’t wait.”

“Really, why?” Mitch asked.

“Hey guys, just wanted to remind you both that I’m still here,” Geoff said loud enough for Mitch to hear.

“Oh, yeah. Here Mason, have a seat. I want you to see this. I don’t know what happened.”

“Okay, so what should be there?”

“Exactly what we saw, but there’s nothing,” Geoff said.

Mitch sat down and Mason squeezed in next to him, his thigh brushed up against Mitch’s, sending a jolt of craving through him. He wanted to kiss Mason long and hard but not until they were alone. They exchanged smiles before he hit play on the video and turned their attention to the damaged image.

All three of them watched in silence as the screen went from the image of Mason’s stairway to the white-out that filled the last hour of tape.

“Does that mean that everything that we saw is gone?” Mason asked.

“I think so. I want to do some video manipulation, but I don’t think we’re going to get anything special. This is it,” Mitch said.

“Wow, that’s not good,” Mason said.

“Are you disappointed?” Geoff asked.

“We’ll yeah, aren’t you guys?”

“Yes.” Both Mitch and Geoff said at the same time.

“I’m not upset at you two but this isn’t what I wanted to see.”

“Well, we know that your place was haunted. I think we can say that without the evidence because we all three experienced it,” Geoff said.

“Yeah, and I think the white-out proves to us that something strange was going on that night. We weren’t imagining it. We saw two spirits. Now we just have to comb over this evidence to find out if we can get anything from the tape. I’m going to pick it apart one frame at a time,” Mitch said.

“Won’t that take a long time?” Mason asked.

“You won’t mind seeing me long term, will you?” Mitch took Mason’s hand, rubbing the palm with his thumb.

“No, that would be--wonderful.”

Mitch lowered his gaze to Mason’s lips and leaned in. He could smell the sent ocean and male musk. He licked his lips, anticipating how sweet Mason would taste.

“Hey guys, I’m still here,” Geoff said. “Do I need to leave?”

Mason chuckeled and his face flamed pink.

“We’ll behave, that is until you leave,” Mitch growled.

“We’re not getting much done here. I’m going to take the audio with me and go home. That is, unless you want to be trained to become an investigator, Mason.”

“Me, really?” Mason’s smile lit up his face.

“Wait, I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” Mitch said.

“Why not?” Mason raised his eyebrows at Mitch.

“Hold on, I didn’t mean to start anything.” Geoff gathered up the audio equipment. “You know, Mason, maybe this is something we talk about later.”

“You’re right. I’m kind of busy with my work. I don’t really have time for another job,” Mason said.

Mitch held in his sigh of relief. He liked Mason but he didn’t want to work with his boyfriend. Not that he’d let him know, yet. Geoff waved as he closed the door, leaving him and Mason alone.

“You okay?” Mitch asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Mason placed his hand on Mitch’s chest warming his body.

“I’m glad Geoff left.” Mitch reached out and toyed with a strand of Mason’s hair.

“Me too.”Mason leaned in and lifted up on his toes. He pulled Mitch’s head down and kissed him before he could react. Mason’s lips pressed against Mitch and his arms wrapped around Mitch’s waist, pulling him close. Desire flamed inside and Mitch opened his mouth to Mason’s probing tongue. Mitch’s mind went blank and his body melted against his guy.

Mason pulled away and Mitch blew out a heavy breath. “Wow, what a kiss.” Even though the investigation hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped, finding Mason made his day.

“Yeah, not bad for a ghost buster.”

“Not bad, that was better than not bad,” Mitch said.

“You want to try again.” Mason pulled him close, wrapping his arms around him.

“I think I found something better than a ghost this Halloween.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I found you.” Mitch kissed Mason again, drinking in all that he offered and giving him more than he took.

The End

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