...
"Louis..."
"No. There's no fucking way you're getting the bed. This is my case, I'm the one who's supposed to be here, you're the one who forced me to let you tag along."
"You know how sore my back gets-"
"I don't wanna hear it. You should've thought of that before coming here." Louis knew he was being bitchy but his temper had become shorter and shorter all throughout the day, having to deal with Harry's micromanaging and never being able to escape it.
All he wanted to do was take a nice, warm shower and relax under the spray of the water. But the shower didn't fucking work, and if he wanted to bathe, he would have to do so with the hose outside. He couldn't believe this was how he was living.
So instead of calming down with a long shower, he had to debate over wearing his dirty clothes to bed or wearing nothing at all. His bags were still in the trunk of the car, five miles away. He wasn't about to fall asleep in muddy jeans.
Louis sighed. If Harry hadn't insisted on coming, this never would've been a problem. Even if the car still broke down and he didn't have any clothes, he would just strip naked and get in bed. It was so tempting. But with Harry in the room, there was no way he was going to do that.
"Stop sighing," Harry snapped. "You're putting me in a bad mood."
"I blame you for everything," Louis grumbled right back. He yanked his shirt over his head and flung it to the foot of the bed in a heap, even though he was going to have to wear it tomorrow even if it was wrinkled. He kept his back to Harry.
"I know you do, and it's annoying, because not everything is my fault."
Louis whipped around to glare at him but was instead met with the sight of Harry lifting his t-shirt to remove it, each moment uncovering a new expanse of skin for Louis to be assaulted by. It was completely indecent. He looked away so he wouldn't have to witness Harry's stupid muscles from how obsessively he worked out at the gym.
"Like what you see?"
"No," Louis deadpanned.
Harry laughed. "Liar."
"Don't sound so smug. I wasn't even looking."
"Yes you were."
"I will kill you in your sleep," Louis threatened as he quickly stepped out of his jeans and threw the covers over himself, not wanting to give Harry even a glimpse because he knew he was watching.
"I don't think that would work very well baby, seeing as you talk to dead people all the time."
"I'll kill you in your sleep and ignore your ghost. And don't call me that."
As soon as Harry opened his mouth to respond, Louis chucked a pillow at him. It must've hit him in the face because he didn't say anything after that.
It took forever for Louis to fall asleep, mostly because he was pretty sure he shouldn't have been trying to fall asleep at all. He should've been exploring the house, setting up his equipment to catch some sort of evidence of paranormal activity and figure out what was going on. But all of his equipment was trapped in the car five miles away.
A lot had happened in twenty-four hours and that was fucking with his head too. Just a day ago, he was sitting out on his balcony eating spaghetti as Harry watched him a little too closely from across the table.
And then the one stupid phone call came in and ruined all of his plans to have a lazy few days off and only leave his bed for the necessities. And of course Harry had been there to demand to come with him.
He tossed and turned in bed and tried not to pay attention to the way Harry was doing the same on the floor. The room was cold because they had the window open, the sounds of a summer night in the mountains filtering in through the screen, crickets and frogs and owls among others.
Louis burrowed into the blankets but they weren't enough to keep him warm so that he could comfortably fall asleep. He debated stealing Harry's blankets but figured he wasn't that cruel.
Twenty minutes later and Harry was snoring like a chainsaw. Louis could've killed him, if Harry wasn't right about the fact that he would just come back as a ghost to haunt him. Ghosts were harder to get rid of than people, anyway.
And then he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
Louis sat upright, stiff as a board, wondering if he had just imagined it.
No, the sound was real. He looked down at Harry's makeshift bed on the floor and considered waking him just to be annoying. But Harry probably wanted Louis to wake him if anything started happening, so it would be more annoying if he let him sleep.
Louis smirked to himself as he stepped over Harry's sleeping body on the floor. He was sprawled out, for the most part, just as Louis expected: on his stomach, taking up a ton of space like the selfish bastard he was.
The pillow Louis threw at him earlier was clutched to his chest in death grip, less cuddly and more possessive. He would probably be an awful person to share a bed with, Louis reasoned, and then wondered why he was even thinking of what it would be like to share a bed with him in the first place.
Louis peered out into the hallway and didn't see anything there. He could feel the telltale cold crackling sensation in the air which hinted at the presence of the paranormal.
A spirit was probably staring him dead in the eyes but Louis wouldn't be able to see unless he let his soul slip into the other realm, which was always dangerous in the presence of malevolent beings. Harry would be so pissed if he knew what Louis was doing right now.
Throwing caution to the wind and thinking fuck it, Louis pushed his soul out of his body and pierced it through the veil that let him see the spirit world. It was like a filter overlaying the physical word, a visible tinge that uncovered ghosts, demons, and other spirits, good and bad and everything in between.
Unlike Harry, who liked to explore the other realm methodically, stopping every ghost he saw to interview them no matter how insignificant the spirit, Louis preferred to go straight to the root of the problem. He didn't like to waste time taking baby steps when there was so much work to do.
Walking through the other realm was eerie especially when he was alone. But he'd been doing this his entire life, even before he could put a name to it.
Louis first found out he was different the day his grandmother died. He predicted everything with startling clarity and told his mom, who thought he was making things up until they found out it was true.
After that, they locked away the memory of Louis' premonition and never talked about it again. Louis ignored the visions as best as he could but he couldn't help the way he retreated within himself, not reaching out to people anymore because he knew no one would understand. No one would listen to him if he tried to tell them. They would all just say he was crazy, delusional.
It didn't matter. Louis didn't need anyone by his side to do what he was put on this earth to do. It didn't matter that he'd been called a freak all his life because he didn't care, he was fine with being different, he just wanted to liberate these spirits and bring them peace, and then go home to his empty apartment and not be bothered by anyone.
That was his goal right now, too. That was all he wanted. To help the spirits here find peace, and then get the fuck out of Tennessee.
The hallway didn't look much different on the other side of the veil, which was funny because it showed how reality could bleed into the unknown. It was empty even though Louis could physically feel the presence of another being. They were refusing to show themselves.
While Harry probably would've stayed glued to the spot trying to talk to the shy spirit and coax them into showing themselves, Louis figured that would be a waste of time. The spirit would appear when it wanted to and Louis had no agency over that. Instead, he was much more interested at the room at the end of the hall. The door was locked for a reason and he wanted to know why.
He couldn't escape the pull in his gut that was drawing him closer to the door, inviting him inside. Maybe Harry was right that this was all a trap, that the spirits were malevolent and wanted to hurt him, or anyone, really. But did it matter? If he could get to the bottom of this, and even see what was happening...
The door creaked open, nothing but darkness beyond. Shadows. A glimmer of something. Louis stepped closer.
Which was of course when Harry woke up, realized what Louis was doing, and pulled him back to reality.
"You idiot ," Louis snapped, yanking his arm out of Harry's grasp. It took a second for the world to come into focus, and he found they were huddled together in the dark hallway, everything restored to its former realism, no more strange, ghostly tint. "I was so close to getting inside, they were going to show me-"
Harry cut him off with a murderous look. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" He looked like he was holding himself back from dragging Louis out of the hallway and that's how Louis knew he was really mad. His anger was one thing but when he was trying so valiantly to control it that he seemed calm, on the outside at least...
"Why won't you just let me go? What are you so afraid of? That some stupid ghost is going to possess me, or-"
"Shut up," Harry hissed. "Shut up, shut up."
On his last nerve, Louis closed his eyes and tried to slip to the other side just to spite Harry. Of course it didn't work, because Harry yanked his arm again and disrupted his concentration, keeping him tethered to the real world.
"Stop it."
"Let go of me," Louis grumbled, only being able to pull his arm away because Harry loosened his grip on his wrist. He watched Harry flex his fingers like he hadn't even realized he was gripping his wrist so tightly.
"Go back to bed." Apparently he was done saying please . He looked like such an asshole with his arms folded over his chest, his t-shirt and hair mused from sleep. He must have put a shirt on before leaving the room, because of course he would be thinking of something like that in the middle of the night when there was no one to offend by half-nakedness.
"She was trying to tell me something and you fucked it up. She was going to show me."
There was a pause. "She?"
"Uh-huh." Louis peeled himself away from the wall with as much dignity as he had left, seeing as he just let Harry corner him there in the first place. He brushed past him, not bothering to turn his shoulder. It made satisfying contact with Harry's chest as he stalked back to the guest room.
"Louis..." Harry sighed, trailing after him.
He considered keeping his mouth shut and not telling Harry anything about what he just discovered. Or better yet, taunting him with the information he missed out on because he was asleep.
Easily, he could've gotten back into bed to deal with all of this in the morning. The presence of the spirit he felt in the hallway, the way the door creaked open even though it was definitely locked, the way Harry looked equal parts annoyed and exasperated by his antics. But he really didn't want to be stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere, Tennessee for longer than he had to be here.
He didn't have his laptop with him, nor any of the documents he printed off to read whenever he could find some downtime. But the sheriff had left some historical texts the last time he was here and he had told Louis about them over the phone while he was waiting to go through security at the airport and Harry was pissed that Louis wouldn't let him listen in on the call.
Louis had all of the documents waiting for him on his nightstand so he took them to the desk, turned on the lamp, and got to work. Meanwhile Harry closed the door behind him, bringing them back to their little cocoon of protection. The room had a warm aura to it as if nothing could touch them in here. He wasn't sure if it was the room itself or just the presence of another human being making him feel a lot less alone.
Harry pulled the armchair next to him and sat down, leaning in to read over Louis' shoulder. Louis tried to be annoyed by it but Harry was radiating heat and he smelled good despite the amount of time it'd been since he last showered.
So they spent the night huddled over the desk, reading vague historical documents and trying to make sense of them. Louis ended up with his head propped up on his palm as he told Harry about everything he saw earlier. He didn't want to give in so easily but there was something about the way Harry was looking at him, not even stern anymore but just tired , that made Louis feel too jaded to keep secrets.
"Hey, we should get to bed," Harry said quietly once they had discussed all the information they knew about the hauntings and the property in general. The sun was coming up and they had officially spent the entire night doing something they could've easily done during the day. "At least for a few hours. We have a lot to do today."
The sound of his voice startled Louis because he had been lost in thought, standing in front of the window and looking out at the grassy hills and the mountains beyond, everything filtered in golden light.
"What is it? What do you see?" Harry wondered, coming up behind him, close enough to feel the warmth radiating from him.
"Nothing... Nothing." His gaze kept gravitating towards a small patch of land near the garden, and he had a feeling about it. Not exactly chills down his spine but something similar, a quiet sort of ache inside him that meant something important. He would have to go out there later and see what he could figure out for sure, but...
"You think there's something out there," was the conclusion Harry came to.
Louis wasn't sure he should say it out loud. Especially not with the feeling of someone watching him he had all night, a pair of eyes on him, keeping track of his every move. "Um, sort of."
He turned back around to find Harry watching him. He didn't look concerned, necessarily, but cautious.
"We should go see if there's anything there."
"Later. You need to sleep."
Louis wasn't going to fight him on that. He crawled into bed and watched Harry get settled in on the floor. It really did look uncomfortable. He was tired enough to consider inviting Harry to join him. Which obviously was a bit crazy.
The night had been productive and they discovered a lot. Most of what they found included rumors about the original owner of the property, the one who built the house. Apparently he was incredibly protective over his four daughters, to the point where he threatened anyone who got close to them.
Louis wasn't sure who the spirit he sensed in the hallway was, but he had some guesses. Not to mention the strange feeling he experienced just by looking at the grass beside the garden in the backyard. There was something there, he was sure of it.
And then the room at the end of the hall. Clearly it was important. Why else would it be locked? Why else would it have opened like it did tonight?
Harry didn't want Louis to try to get into the room because he thought it was too dangerous before they fully understood what was going on. But how were they supposed to learn about what was going on when they couldn't get into the room that seemed so integral to all of the paranormal activity that was happening? If there was one thing Louis learned tonight, aside from what it was like to work with Harry when he was tired, it was that they needed to get into that room as soon as possible.