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Streaks of moonlight rained down on an abandoned farmhouse that was located in a small, southern town. The home reeked of an eerie and unnerving feeling that seemed to become even more intense after midnight. The paint-peeled shutters and creaky, wooden stairs were hardly inviting, yet the Funhaus crew was eager to head inside and discover the secrets that would hopefully lie within.
They hoped to uncover the truth about the closely-knit Jones’ family who was murdered in this exact location three decades ago. There were plenty of suspects on the case, but no one officially checked out as the murderer. The local police were frustrated and rightly so because after years of searching, they were met with no answers. Due to this, the once bright-and-chipper home was now famously known as a spooky, paranormal attraction.
Unfortunately, the Funhaus team wasn’t the first group of paranormal hunters to seek out some activity from the spirits that apparently reside within, but at least they’ve been given the chance to investigate it at all. They weren’t well-known like some of the other ghost hunting crews out there, so they were still trying to build up a name for themselves. Tonight’s investigation would be a good step in the right direction to getting there.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’ll be okay, Sean. I promise.” Matt reassured his soft-spoken boyfriend as they nudged open the door that led to the master bedroom on the second floor. Just after that, his flashlight went out for the second time that night. “Damn it,” He muttered and slapped it a few times against his hand. It flickered briefly, but went dark immediately after, “I’ll have to go down and get another one from Lawrence.”
“Wait, no! You can’t just leave me up here!” Spoole shook his head furiously and stepped a little closer to his partner. Matt simply sighed in return. With the way Spoole was shaking, he knew the camera footage would be all wobbly, as Bruce liked to call it; and therefore, hardly usable. He carefully plucked the device from Spoole’s hand, who merely pouted at him in the dark. Matt pressed a button on the side of the camera, which was supposed to turn on the tiny light next to the lens, but nothing happened.
“What are you trying to do?” He heard Sean’s quiet voice pipe up from beside him. “I’m trying to turn on the camera light,” Matt grumbled. He pressed the button roughly a few more times, but the boys were still surrounded in darkness. “Oh, yeah… It’s broken.”
“You’re kidding me… How did it break?” Matt set the camera on the dresser next to the bed. He did it with a little too much force though, causing Spoole to jump at the sound. “Well, James was testing out the camera’s features and-”
“Say no more.” Matt cut him off abruptly. There was no need for him to hear the rest. “Well, let’s head down together then…” His sentence trailed off upon watching the bedroom door slam itself shut. He felt Sean bump shoulders with him as he jumped in fright.
“Matt, w-what was that?” He didn’t respond, but instead picked the camera up and slowly paced around the bedroom with it.
“Is there a spirit here with us tonight?” His voice sounded leveled and calm, yet his heartbeat continued to pound like a bass-drum. A small tug on his shirt sleeve let him know that Spoole was still by his side, holding onto him for comfort. It didn’t bother him in the slightest. Silence ticked on like a clock, but both of them were still on edge.
“The guys would’ve loved it if we’d gotten that on camera.” Sean commented. Matt nodded even though his response couldn’t be seen.
“Yeah, I know. Actually, I have an idea.” Using the small screen of night-vision on the camera, Matt led them over towards the bedroom door and opened it slightly. It was in the same position it was before. After that, he placed the camera on the dresser at an angle that allowed the whole room to be seen. Now if anything were to happen again, they would be able to capture actual physical evidence of it.
“And now, we wait.” He whispered quietly before taking a seat on the bed. Sean could be heard shuffling towards him, but Matt hadn’t felt him sit down yet. Without warning, there was suddenly a small hand grazing his face, poking at his stubble.
“Oops, sorry…” Sean said sheepishly as he continued to flail about in an attempt to find the bed. Matt laughed and grabbed Spoole’s hand, carefully pulling him down to sit beside him. “Thanks.”
“If there’s a spirit here with us, can you please shut the door again?” He called out in the silent room. Sean shifted next to him, casually brushing their thighs against each other. He could feel the other man shiver as a creak echoed from outside the hallway. They waited patiently for more activity, but there were no more responses. Matt continued to try to communicate with the spirits, but the room felt empty and no sounds were heard.
They’d been investigating for hours now with no evidence to show for it. It was proving to be very frustrating. Matt began to wonder if the guys downstairs were having any luck at all. Bruce could usually get a rise out of the spirits by pestering them aggressively. Although he didn’t use that method himself, he preferred a more kind and peaceful tone, they usually got a rise out of the spirits by doing that. Spoole was never one for aggravating them though, so he knew that was out of the question right now. The feeling of Sean resting his head upon his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts.
“You can’t fall asleep on the job, Sean.” He teased. The other man giggled in reply and removed his head. Matt was confused for a moment, until he felt a pair of lips press gently against the skin just below his ear.
“Dang it. Missed.” He said before repeating his earlier actions, this time kissing Matt along his jaw. “This is hard.” He muttered against Matt’s neck.
“It can’t be that bad,” Matt replied, turning his head slowly before dipping down to peck Sean on his temple. He laughed lightly before trying again.
His forehead.
His nose.
His chin.
Sean allowed himself to be peppered with kisses, letting quiet giggles escape from his lips while Matt continued to search for them. He squeaked in delight once he felt warm fingertips graze his stubble.
“You’re almost there.” He whispered. A minute later, Matt decided to take initiative, believing he knew exactly where Sean’s lips were now. Unfortunately, his calculations were a little off and he ended up knocking his chin against Sean’s. “Shit,” He grimaced at the slight sting of pain, but quickly dove in for another try.
This time he was right on target. Spoole’s lips were cold and slightly chapped due to the cool atmosphere of the house, but Matt loved it. He kissed the other man passionately, but gently. He was always so careful with Spoole. Feather-like touches and ghostly kisses pressed against soft skin. That’s usually how their interactions went, even back in their own bedroom. Every move was light and cautious. Matt always touched Sean as if he was afraid of damaging him. This time was no different.
Sean hummed happily as Matt continued to savor the taste of his sweet lips. He even tilted his head to the side and pushed against his boyfriend in an attempt to become even closer with him. This resulted in their noses colliding softly with each other, but they worked around the slip-up. A fuzzy feeling formed in their chests as the warmth of their embrace swallowed them whole.
“Matt. Sean. Come in.” The sound of Matt’s walkie-talkie crackled at his side. They reluctantly pulled away, both clearly upset at being interrupted, and attempted to regain their breath.
“Yeah, we’re here.” Matt replied back as he rubbed small circles onto Spoole’s hand with his thumb.
“Joel’s calling it a night, says he needs his beauty sleep. We’re packing up. Collect the cameras upstairs and head on down.” Adam explained, but was hardly heard over the sound of Joel complaining loudly in the background. “I never said that, Adam! You’re such a-” Matt shut the walkie-talkie off.
It didn’t take the Funhaus crew long to pack up their gear and soon enough they were back on the road again. On the way home, each of the men shared stories about what they had encountered that night, but Matt and Spoole stayed quiet. This wasn’t unusual to the rest of the group though so it went unnoticed. All in all, very little evidence was collected. Aside from Adam receiving some whispers that were picked up on his recording device and James having his butt touched (all the guys were pretty certain that was actually Bruce’s fault), nothing much happened. Lawrence thought he had seen some orbs on the cameras as he watched from their little command center (the living room), but they debunked them as being dust debris.
After hearing their stories, Sean couldn’t help but speak up about the door-slamming incident. This thrilled the other’s of course, but Matt told them they had no actual footage of it happening, so they actually didn’t have any proof to back it up. The boys were dismissive of his comments though and they argued to see the footage they’d captured.
It was a long night. A very, very long night and honestly, Matt never got enough sleep as is. So when he handed Sean’s camera over to the crew, he didn’t bother mentioning the fact that most of the footage was just him and Sean exchanging kisses. He didn’t know why Spoole didn’t say anything either, but by the time he’d realized his mistake, it was too late.
“Wait… are you guys kissing?!” Lawrence said in disbelief. He even removed his glasses, wiped the lens against the inside of his shirt, and put them back on. Of course, nothing had changed.
“Is this fake, am I being punked right now? Bruce tell me I’m being punked!” James shouted as he shook Bruce’s shoulder. Thankfully, Adam kept both eyes on the road during all of this commotion, aside from the knowing look that he shot back at Matt from the rear-view mirror.
“James, I don’t think you’re being punked... I don’t see Ashton Kutcher anywhere.” Bruce sighed and rolled his eyes. He clearly wasn’t bothered by the situation, which was a relief to Matt.
“That show ended forever ago, you idiots.” Joel murmured tiredly from the passenger’s seat.
The rest of the night continued on like this. With all of the boys in disbelief over the fact that two of their best friends had been dating all along. They hardly seemed upset by it though, just shocked, so Matt and Sean let them consult over it. Also, this was a perfect distraction which left them with plenty of time to sneak in those little kisses that had been missed back at the farmhouse.
“This is so much better with the lights on,” Spoole admitted as Matt nipped at his neck. His cheeks were red with embarrassment and his hat had slipped down far enough that the brim covered most of his face. He was entirely too cute for his own good, which made Matt wonder that maybe they should have brought up their relationship sooner.
“Hey, you guys better not be doing anything gross back there!” Adam teased with a smirk.
“Too late.” Matt said before pressing his lips against Sean’s for the hundredth time that night.
“You can stop hiding Kutcher, I know you’re out there!”
“Oh shut up, James.”