Page 6 of The Curse of Redwood

“Evil spirits exist just like evil people do,” he said. “When we were at Redwood, I felt nothing but darkness.”

A creak in the hall made my heart falter a moment. Ben wasn’t the only one on edge.

“Apologies,” Theo said, entering the room. “I don’t mean to intrude on your conversation.”

“Your presence is always welcome,” Ben said, walking over to him. He pressed a kiss into Theo’s dark hair and held him close to his chest. For comfort, maybe?

Unlike the ghosts from my nightmare, Theo didn’t scare me. From what I’d read, not all ghosts could take a corporal form. Many of them drifted along, rarely seen or heard, stuck in their own prisons where they relived the final moments of their deaths over and over. Then there was Theo who could become visible at will and who could touch and be touched.

The ghosts at Redwood had seemed more feral. Lost.

It was dark by the time I got home. The light feeling I’d had while visiting with Ben and Theo faded as I entered my empty house.

Ben had lived with me for two months after his manor caught fire and had been under construction to be rebuilt. I missed having him around. Since he moved out, the dreams had only intensified. So had the loneliness. I turned on the TV for background noise and pulled out my phone to call Rich.

“Hey, C,” he answered. “What’s up?”

“I got that book for Taylor,” I said, grabbing a beer from the fridge.

“For real? Man, you’re the best. Seriously. He’s havin’ a party next Friday. You wanna go?”

Loud music and booze seemed like a great distraction from the crap in my head.

“Sure,” I answered.

I gamed for a while on the Xbox before shutting it off and crawling into bed. And just like the night before, Redwood Manor waited for me in my dreams.

Chapter Two

I needed to get laid. Consider itnumero unoon my to-do list tonight.

Too bad my selection was pretty slim. Nearly every guy at Taylor’s party was either making out with a girl or trying to.

“Hey, man,” Taylor said, bumping my arm with his fist. “Rich said you were the one who got the signed book for me. It’s now one of my most prized possessions, right next to the trophy I got for eatin’ the most hotdogs when I was twelve. Thanks.”

The thought of him in a hotdog eating competition made me snort.

“You’re welcome.” I smiled before taking a shot of Crown Royal, making a face as it burned going down.

Taylor chuckled and poured a shot for himself. “Have one with me?”

“Okay.” I poured another and clinked glasses with his before we downed them.

Taylor had been the quarterback on his high school football team from what Rich had told me, and he still had the body for it—a lean torso and wide shoulders. I would’ve killed to see his ass in those tight football pants. Normally I didn’t go for the jock types, but Taylor was pretty damn gorgeous. And not into men, unfortunately.

“What’s it like being friends with Ben Cross?” he asked, resting his hip against the counter as he made himself a mixed drink.

The party was filled with all his friends and hot girls who were more than willing to strip for the birthday boy, yet he was over there talking to me. Made me feel like we were better friends than I’d believed.

“Ben’s just a normal person,” I said. “Well, if you can call writers normal. Sometimes he cuts me off midsentence because he gets a story idea and has to jot it down before he forgets. And don’t get me started on how he zones out of a conversation at times and gets his days of the week mixed up. But he’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I can just be myself around him, you know?”

“Rich is like that for me.” Taylor took a drink and slid onto the barstool beside me. “Guys on the football team used to give me shit because I’m big into horror movies and books. They’d catch me reading before practices and call me a nerd. Jocks being dumb is such a damn stereotype. But anyway. Rich never made fun of me for it. He let me blab about whatever book I was reading. Then I found Ben’s books and became obsessed. I still can’t believe he’s living in Ivy Grove. I tried getting a ticket to his signing at the Redwood place last October, but they sold out super fast.”

“Be thankful you didn’t go,” I muttered.

“Why’s that?”

“Have you ever been to Redwood?”