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The sky looks amazing. If it were any other night, Will would think it was romantic, a star-pierced sky above him and sleeping bags at his feet.
Unfortunately, it was not any other night.
“Nico-”
“Nope. Too late. You already agreed and I have the car keys. You’re stuck.”
“Babe, please .”
Nico shakes a grocery bag and snacks come tumbling out. Will can barely see the gleam of his eyes in the red light. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
“Really? Really? Are you serious? ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Oh, I don’t know, Nico, we could be murdered or possessed! Murdered then possessed! Possessed and murdered!”
Nico laughs. “I told you not to listen to Lou Ellen and Cecil. I knew they would freak you out.”
“They didn’t freak me out,” Will counters, “this house is freaking me out.”
And it is. It’s an old hotel where floors creak, the roof is missing chunks, and moss sucks up rain on the leftover furniture. A place that’s been shut down for decades that thrill seekers and ghost hunters loved and, terribly, Will’s boyfriend is both.
Nico adjusts his hoodie and steps close to Will, wrapping his arms around his waist. Will hugs him back.
“If the ghosts try to hurt you, then I’ll fight them off. I promise.”
Will buries his nose in Nico’s hair. “I’m holding you to that. If I get murdered-possessed, I’m haunting you. You’ll never know peace again.”
Warm lips press against his. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
There’s a click of a camera switch and Nico holds it facing them. “Hey guys, it’s the Ghost King and Will. We’re back and tonight we’re at the Lancelot Hotel…”
Will usually listens to Nico tell his audience about the history of their newest adventure but he can’t tonight. He swears he hears a thump in the room down the hall- an office?- and can’t focus.
It’s been years and Will is still not used to it. He knows most of the places they’ve been in aren’t haunted. They just have the usual groans of settling farmhouses or abandoned asylums that break his heart. But sometimes.
Sometimes he swears a cold streak will slide down his spine or the wind whispers words in his ears.
He’s in pre-med. He’s not supposed to believe these things.
But sometimes.
“-and we’ll see if Will is a worthy sacrifice tonight-“
Will’s neck protests when he whips back at Nico’s words, “What?”
“Nothing, sunshine. Do you want to check out the bedroom or dining room first?”
They check out the dining room and the kitchen. Will imagines happy travelers planning their days at breakfast and talking about the exciting sights at dinner while Nico holds the camera up to a creepy family portrait of the Lancelot family that hangs above the mantle.
Although the hotel is rubbing him in all the wrong ways, it’s better than the houses where all the pots, pans, and plates are left behind as if in a hurry. This hotel just has some broken tables and garbage left behind. The mice that roam are far less scary than the what-ifs.
Nico passes through the lounge’s doorway first when Will feels it.
They have the night vision cameras strapped to their chests while Nico carries the spirit box and Will the EMF reader. Nico mocks the spirit box, but he believes in EMF, so when Will nearly drops the thing, Nico scolds him.
Will stares at him, wide-eyed, “Didn’t you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“The cold! It was like an ice cube down my spine.”
He blocks the camera with his hand as he runs his hands over his chest, his back as far as he can stretch.
Will can’t see Nico’s face well, but he can hear the concern in his voice. “I didn’t feel anything. You okay?”
“You seriously didn’t feel that?”
“No? Did the EMF pick up anything?”
Will pats his chest again. “No. It didn’t make that stupid noise.”
“Don’t diss the reader, Solace. Maybe you imagined it. You’re always telling me about how the mind affects the body. You might just be freaked out.”
“No!” he says, even though Nico’s right. The mind can make the body believe all kinds of things. “I don’t think so,” he admits quietly.
He doesn’t jump when Nico grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze, if only because he hears the spirit box switch hands.
“Are you sure you’re okay? I didn’t think you’d be this freaked out. We can leave if you want. I’ll come back another day.”
“No.” Because this is Nico and Will’s thing. As much as it amps his fear and anxiety, Will loves watching Nico explore what interests him, what keeps him holding on after the deaths of his mom and sister. He doesn’t want Nico alone in places like this either. “But you owe me.”
He can practically hear Nico roll his eyes, “Come on.”
Will lets himself be tugged forward. The thought that his camera footage will be useless crosses his mind as he follows close behind Nico, but he doesn’t care very much.
The lounge is dark except for the slight glow of the EMF in his hand. Will holds it out to light the leftover furniture.
“Hey, look at this,” Nico says, “Do you think a ghost will play Chopsticks if we ask nicely?”
Will looks at the piano warily. “Please don’t. I already suffered through Kayla’s piano lessons once.”
The room echoes with Nico’s laugh. “I forgot she had those.”
“Lucky you.”
“I’m going to ask anyway. For content.”
“Don’t you dare-“
Nico clears his throat loudly, “If anyone is here with us, please play something on the piano.”
The piano remains eerily silent although Will didn’t really expect it to start spitting out jazz tunes.
Nico hums. “Let’s stay in here tonight.”
Will groans. Having cameras watch you sleep is unsettling.
It’s not the first time they’ve put up the cameras to capture ghosts at night, but it doesn’t make Will feel any better. Nico usually speeds up the video unless one of them sleep talks something funny but having cameras record him sleep, and then having actual people watch that recording, is just weird.
They’re camped out in the lounge where the skylight reveals a bit of the stars. Nico’s setting up the tripods when Will shuffles out of the creepy bathroom in his pajamas with a flashlight.
“You know,” Will starts, putting his clothes in his backpack, “one day a rat is going to run over me while I’m sleeping and I’m going to cry.”
“Was there a rat in the bathroom?”
“ No . You would know if I saw one.”
“Stop thinking about it.”
Will squints at Nico, “Would you tell me if you saw a rat run across me on video?”
He pauses then fidgets with the camera. “Of course.”
“Nico.”
“Yes?”
“Has a rat run across me while I slept?”
“Alright! Everyone here we are-“
“ Nico -!”
“In the Lancelot’s lounge where the family’s last portrait was taken…”
Will scooches down into the sleeping bag and pulls Nico close. Somehow his boyfriend never manages to warm up even under a mountain of blankets, so he pulls him close until his nose is buried in soft hair.
When they finally lay down after trying to contact the spirits for another hour or so, they lay down, the cameras facing their feet where Will prays no rats pass near. Despite the wood floors digging into his shoulders and hips through the blanket layers, it’s almost comfortable. Nico smells like the citrus shampoo they share now and the floor reminds him of the shitty mattress they shared for two years.
The heavy weight of sleep is just settling over him when Nico murmurs “I’ll protect you from the rats.”
Sleep is yanked away. “Why did you say that? You know something.”
“Mmmm come back. Cold.”
And it is cold. It’s the same preternatural cold that stroked Will’s spine in the doorway.
Past the red circle of lights around them, there’s the open archway to the hall. Beyond the hall there’s the dining room and a girl with long dark hair and skirt, staring at Will. She raises an arm and points.
“Wake up.“
Will jerks under Nico’s hands. The cameras are gone except the handheld and light is fighting through the dirty windows.
He flops back onto the floor and winces. “Babe, I love you. I do, but my back isn’t going to survive this much longer.”
“I don’t think the ghosts would appreciate us blowing up the air mattress.” Nico brushes a kiss on his forehead and stands up. “There were no rats, by the way. I already skipped through the footage.”
“Any ghosts?”
“No.”
Will winces again when he stands and wraps his arms around his boyfriend, kisses his ear. “We’ll find them. Don’t worry.”
Nico grips his arms. “What if we don’t?”
“Then we’ll see them later.”
“How do you know?”
Will kisses him again, trying to push all his love through to do something, anything to soothe even a bit of grief.
“I don’t. But I’ll help you.”
Nico is quiet for a long moment. “Even if there’re rats?”
“I’d face a rat king for you.”
“I don’t think you realize that’s a real thing.”
“Isn’t it a big rat?”
“No, sunshine. It’s not.”