Page 2 of Taunting the Ghost

No, Caleb wasn’t talking to himself like a weirdo because he was afraid, fuck you for thinking it.

It was hard juggling the cooler and his phone so he had enough light to see, okay? Who knew a thunderstorm could make it so dark in the middle of the day.

“Need a hand?” A deep voice said from behind him.

Caleb screamed and dropped the cooler, his phone landing in the mud with a splat. Clutching his chest, he spun in place to yell at the asshole who snuck up on him only to see… nothing.

Caleb was alone.

Ghosts aren’t real. Get a grip. You’re being irrational.

“Hearing things.” Caleb said just to hear himself talk.

But. Just in case. He was going to high-tail it the rest of the way.

Caleb reached for the cooler-

“Jesus Christ!” Caleb jumped a foot in the air, screaming high and loud.

It wasn’t a ghost. It was a shirtless man, doubled over with laughter.

“Shit! The hell? Warn a guy!”

The rain. It was the rain’s fault. It had to be. The poor light meant he’d missed the man standing right in front of him. And now he looked like an idiot.

“Why don’t you have a flashlight!? You coulda been a-” Caleb swallowed the word ghost, trying and failing to get his racing heart under control. “Where’s your shirt?”

“You’re one to talk,” The man said.

“I run hot,” Caleb said. He refused to reveal that, in his haste to drop everything for Isaac, he hadn’t packed a change in clothes. Only food. His all jean cowboy costume didn’t leave much to the imagination.

“Very hot,” the man said, eyeing Caleb’s open denim vest. “I saw your friend abandon you.”

“He didn’t abandon me! He’s just… going through a tough time.”

“That’s no excuse to leave you out here the night before Halloween. When all sorts of creatures stalk these woods. Someone should teach him a lesson.” The man looked up the trail with a dark, ominous look. “You look exactly the type the Misty Lake ghost would eat right up.”

Something about the phrase was familiar. Only one person had ever said it like that. Like it was something good.

“Wait, you sound like-” Caleb crouched down and dug his phone out of the mud, wiping off the flashlight to shine it on the man. “Ryan?”

“We’ve met?” Ryan squinted into the light.

“Yeah, last year at the public pier. We talked for hours. You uh- offered me a blowjob?” Caleb tried and failed to keep the embarrassment out of his voice.

“Oh! Caleb!” Ryan lit up. Like whatever dark thoughts he’d been having had been chased away. “The first person to ever turn down a blowjob from me.”

Oh hell he remembered that?

Ryan continued, “How could I forget the one who got away?”

Last time they’d seen each other Caleb had been dressed as a werewolf, no surprise Ryan didn’t recognize him.

“I was wearing a lot of face paint,” Caleb said.

“Still. Can’t believe I didn’t recognize this washboard.” Ryan ran a cold finger up Caleb’s abs, eyeing Caleb like he was a perfectly grilled steak.

It was the same look Ryan had given him on the pier. The one that had made him torn between covering himself up like a girl caught half nude, and flexing his muscles with pride - he’d worked hard for them, damn it!