Page 4 of Taunting the Ghost

Caleb turned and froze.

Ryan was gone.

“Ha ha, this isn’t funny.” Caleb said, voice getting more and more shrill. “Ryan? Ryan!”

Little things that hadn’t added up hit him all at once. The way Ryan’s hair had stayed perfectly spikey, when the rain should have flattened it, gel or no gel. The way Ryan’s pants hadn’t been plastered to his body, like Caleb’s.

“Isaac! We need to leave!” Caleb ran into the house.

Two fresh muddy sets of footprints approached the house together. Only one continued to the front door. The other ended as if the owner had disappeared into thin air.

Chapter 2

“The house is haunted!” Caleb sprinted up to Isaac, who was crouched by the wood stove and had just lit the fire.

“Cabin,” Isaac said without turning around.

“What?” Caleb sputtered.

“Technically, it’s a haunted cabin.”

“What?” Caleb said. Isaac didn’t believe him. “No, bro, I’m serious. We have to go!”

He’d rather brave the thunderstorm. He’d seen enough horror movies. He knew what to do. He wasn’t an idiot.

Because Fuuuuck this shit!

“I’m not putting my wet clothes back on. I need to warm up!”

“Uh.” Caleb only now noticed that Isaac was wearing nothing but his boxers, back muscles flexing as he added some more sticks to the wood stove.

“C’mon. Help me with this fire. It’s fucking freezing in here.”

Yeah, cause he was practically naked! Caleb couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Isaac naked besides in the showers after practice - their girlfriends thought it was gay to walk around their shared apartment in their boxers.

It made it feel as though he was seeing something taboo.

“But what about the,” Caleb dropped his voice to a whisper, “Ghost?”

Isaac knew what the ghost did. He’d heard the same stories as Caleb.

“Bro, the cabin down the lake has a big party every Halloween. Congratulations, you’ve been pranked.”

It was the first time Caleb had seen Isaac smile since he’d been dumped.

“Ha, yeah. He got me good,” Caleb said, unable to completely hide that he was still nervous.

Isaac was right. It made more sense. Ryan had pulled a prank. Caleb was jumping at ghosts. Literally. He could trust Isaac’s judgement.

When it came time to rent a place for the new semester in college, there was no question in his mind - he’d live with Isaac. He hadn’t even considered moving in with his girlfriend. It was Isaac or nothing.

Isaac’s girlfriend had not been as understanding as Caleb’s. She’d given Isaac an ultimatum. She was dramatic like that. Caleb had rolled his eyes, sure that Isaac would pick him.

And he’d been right.

He hadn’t expected her to follow through on her threat of breaking up a whole two months later.

So of course he’d dropped everything to be with his best bro. It was his fault that Isaac was single.