Page 54 of The Haunting of Lockton

He laughed and bit into the bagel.

My phone dinged on the nightstand, and I leaned over to check the notification.

Paxton:Good morning.

No emojis. They weren’t really his style. What had me smiling like a fool though? It was the first time Paxton had texted me first. I was always the one to initiate conversation.

Me:Morning, handsome ;) sleep well?

Paxton:Yes. Did you?

Me:Would’ve slept better if you’d stayed the whole night. My bed was cold without you.

It showed that he’d read it, and the three dots flashed on the screen to indicate he was typing a response. The dots thenstopped, and that response didn’t come. He’d said last night that he tended to overthink everything. So was that what he was doing? Second-guessing his word choice and stressing out over it?

I threw on my imaginary cape and saved him.

Me:Are you working today?

His reply came seconds later.

Paxton:Yes. But I get off at 3:30.

I grabbed a sausage link and popped the entire thing into my mouth.

“Don’t wipe your greasy fingers on the blanket, you slob.” Julian handed me a napkin. “Were you raised in a barn?”

“Your face was raised in a barn.” I wiped off my fingers and mouth before washing down the food with a gulp of coffee.

“Yeah? Well, we have the same face, so what’s that say about you?”

“Doesn’t count,” I said. “You’re the knockoff version of me.”

Julian had taken a drink and nearly spewed it.

“Need a napkin?”

He laughed harder and wiped at his chin where some coffee had sputtered from his lips. “I hate you.” As he ate more of his bagel, he scrolled our social media accounts and replied to messages and comments. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh-oh.”

He shot me a look.

“Blame my tired brain,” I said. “I haven’t finished my coffee yet. My mental capacity is limited, and I’m a sarcastic bitch until then.”

“No amount of coffee can help your mental capacity.”

“I’m gonna remember that next time I get us breakfast. I’ll bring you back a crumb.”

“That crumb would still be bigger than your brain.”

I laughed. “Okay, for real. What have you been thinking?”

Julian nibbled his bagel. “Arthur Warren’s journal gives us a good insight to many of the horrible experiments that took place at Lockton. Our research at the library gave us info on the main doctors and some of the patients. But we didn’t find much on Roy Daniels.”

“So?”

“So.” He pushed his food aside and focused on his coffee. “When Paxton told us about him, I got a strange feeling. I feel like we should look deeper into him. See what else we can learn.”