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“Jemmy.” Thomas repeated once again and James continued in his attempt to ignore him and work on his paper. Sure, it wasn’t due for another week, but it could serve as an excuse to not go along with Thomas’ idiotic plan.
“Jemmy. Jemmy-James. J-Mads.” Thomas continued. “Jackalope. Jemmingway. Jack-Attack.”
“I swear to god Thomas,” James finally turned around, seeing Thomas with a Chesire-cat grin on his face, and did his best to look annoyed. “We are not about to try and talk to a demon.”
“But Jemmy, we literally live in the same town as a supposed demon bridge, how could we not go and at least take a look?” Thomas responded, spinning slowly in his swivel chair for his desk. “It’s like, the best idea ever even though ghosts and spirits and crud are probably fake, and we can’t just pass up the opportunity to take a look around!”
“But going at midnight on a full moon? What is this, the beginnings of a terrible horror movie?”
“We have to be as cliché as possible, it’s absolutely the only way it will be fun.” Thomas said, trying to look serious and failing since he couldn’t stop smiling.
“You do realize there’s going to be no one but goth and emo kids hanging around there with the occasional thrill-seeker, right? No demons, just people.” James stated blandly, returning to his computer and hoping Thomas would drop the subject.
“Sounds like you’ll fit right in.”
“Hey!” James turned back around to glare at his boyfriend. “I resent that.”
“James. Jemmington. Love of my life Jemmy.” Thomas started, halting his spinning and leaning over the back of the chair to look at James. “You are an absolutely wonderful human being who I love with all my heart, but you wear so many dark colors and still listen to MCR and similar songs unironically while complaining about the world. Face it hon, you’re still in your emo-phase.”
“Not in my freaking emo phase, I just prefer those kinds of colors and music.” James muttered.
“And the complaining about the world part?”
“Once you start catching any illness within a five-mile radius every other week then let’s see how peppy you are.”
“How about this Jemmy; I won’t talk about your undeniable emo phase if you come with me to the bridge.” Thomas bargained.
“I’m not in my emo phase!” James argued.
“You literally were shopping at Hot Topic just a few days ago.” Thomas grinned.
“They have good merchandise!” James attempted to defend himself, but even he knew the reputation of people that shopped at Hot Topic. He sighed, knowing the battle was lost. “Fine, I’ll go with you, just stop saying that, alright?”
“Deal.” Thomas said, walking over to James and pressing a short kiss to the other man’s forehead. “This is going to be so much fun.”
James wondered what he had gotten himself into.
-
“Thomas, I hope you realize how extra you’re being about this.” James complained, wrapping his arms around himself in a futile attempt to keep warm. How could someplace that was so hot during the day get so cold at night?
“You’re just jealous that you didn’t think to get any holy water.” Thomas grinned, practically vibrating with excitement as he rummaged through a bag in the back of his car.
“You put it in a water gun.”
“I’ll have you know I’m an excellent shot, any demons we come across are going to wish they didn’t mess with us.” Thomas quickly turned around, nailing James in the forehead with the holy water.
“Thomas, what the hell?” James sputtered, quickly wiping the water off his face.
“I’m cleansing you of your sins.”
“In that case you and me both are going to need a hell of a lot more holy water than what’s in that.” James deadpanned, cracking a grin only after Thomas snorted.
“Amen to that.” Thomas laughed, zipping up the bag after taking out a camera and passing it to James, closing the trunk of the car, and taking James’ hand. “Come on, let’s go be gay in front of the demon, it will be fun.”
Together they walked the short distance along the trail to the bridge, it’s weather-worn beams shining eerily in the light from their flashlights. Both of them had flashlights and Thomas carried the water gun while James held the camera, taking pictures every so often as they walked.
“So I was reading about this bridge.” Thomas started as they both stepped onto said bridge. “It used to lead to a small town that died because no one would ever move there, possibly due to the seat of the county being moved to a nearby town, and there’s supposedly this demon called the Goat Man that hangs out around here; no one knows why, like there’s tons of different stories, anything from murder to satanic rituals and stuff. Also, you’re supposed to knock on the bridge three times to summon him.”
“That sounds absolutely ridiculous.” James said, looking at some rather crude graffiti on the bridge.
“I know, right?” Thomas laughed, letting go of James’ hand to walk over to the railing. He rapped his hand against one of the metal beams three times. “Hey Goat Man, what’s up?” He shouted.
“I cannot believe you right now.” James muttered, head in hand.
“You gotta learn to have fun with this stuff Jemmy.” Thomas chuckled. “Yo demons, it’s me, ya boy!”
“You got that straight out of one of those Buzzfeed Unsolved videos you watch all the time.” James said, rolling his eyes and taking more pictures.
“Yep. Come on, there’s supposedly cults and satanic rituals in the woods, let’s check it out.” Thomas said cheerfully, taking James’ hand once again and dragging him towards the other end of the bridge where the trail started up again before disappearing into the woods.
They stepped into the woods and walked along the trail, the only light coming from their flashlights and the occasional camera flash, and the only sounds being the distant noise of traffic, the wind in the trees, and Thomas’ occasional sarcastic comment.
“Thomas, it’s freezing out here, please tell me we’re not walking along the entire trail.” James groaned as a particularly cold gust of air rushed by them.
“Nah Jemmy, the entire thing is I think about five miles long and loops back to the bridge eventually; I just want to go a good ways in and see if anything happens.” Thomas replied, letting go of the water gun to let it hang from the strap around his neck and wrap his arm around James’ shoulders.
“Oh, so you want to possibly get murdered by a cult?” James questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t?” Thomas asked after a mock gasp. “Every other way to die is so boring Jemmy, like peacefully in my sleep? That’s so dull. I’m going to go out in style.”
“See, it’s when you say idiotic stuff like that that makes me think I’m going to outlive you.” James huffed, affectionally rolling his eyes.
“That would be true if you didn’t keep me from doing idiotic stuff like getting murdered by a cult.” Thomas chuckled, quickly kissing James’ temple.
“Yet here we are, in the woods at night where cults supposedly gather.” James muttered, a small smile on his face at his boyfriend’s antics. As he took another picture, another gust of cold air left him shivering, and Thomas tightened his arm around the shorter man.
“Alright babe, there’s clearly no cults out here tonight, let’s go back to the dorm and get some hot chocolate.” Thomas said, starting to turn around.
“That’s the best idea you’ve had all night.” James sighed with relief.
-
"I swear Thomas, if I get sick from being out in the cold tonight, I’m kicking your ass.” James muttered, another shiver running through him despite being under two blankets and holding a steaming mug of hot coco.
“Jemmy, we both know you barely have the motivation to leave your blanket nest when you’re sick, let alone kick my ass.” Thomas chuckled, eyes not leaving the screen of his laptop as he scrolled through the night’s pictures.
“Keep it up with comments like that and I’ll do it out of spite, that’s a wonderful motivator.” James shot back before taking another sip of the hot chocolate.
“What is it with you and spite?” Thomas laughed.
“It has become my only source of energy, the day I stop doing things merely to spite people is the day I die.” James deadpanned.
“Watch it, you’re beginning to sound like Hamilton; he claims to only run on spite and caffeine.” Thomas jokingly warned. The slight smile that had been on his face disappeared as he frowned, eyebrows furrowing as he squinted at the screen.
“Why are you looking at your computer like that?” James asked.
“It’s just…this picture is weird, or something. Probably a car or something.” Thomas responded, muttering the last part.
“How is it weird?” James questioned.
“Here, take a look.” He moved to sit on the couch next to James. “So here’s the normal picture, can’t see much, right?” James nodded in agreement; sure, he could see the trees and bushes from the forest, but there wasn’t much else to the picture. “I brightened it just to take a better look, do you see it yet?”
James squinted at the picture, trying to find anything that looked out of place. That’s when he saw what Thomas was talking about. Two red dots, poking out from behind a tree further along the trail than they went.
“Ok, that’s…weird.” James said, feeling slightly unnerved.
“Yeah. So I zoomed in on that next, and look.” Thomas did just that, showing that the two orbs, now slightly pixelated due to the computer, were almost perfectly round. “I can’t get anything more than that, I don’t have any advance photography programs or anything. It’s probably just a car in the distance or something, there was a road nearby.”
“Yeah, it’s probably just a car.” James agreed, but he still felt slightly worried and was extremely glad they didn’t go further down the trail.
“It’s probably just a car, nothing to worry about.” Thomas said again, noticing James’ discomfort. “Let’s watch a movie or something fun since the demon bridge was a bust, sound good to you Jemmy?”
“That definitely sounds like a good idea.” James quickly agreed, eager to take his mind off of that picture.
“Sweet, let’s watch The Conjuring.” Thomas said with a sly grin.
“Thomas!”