Page 22 of Haunted Mediation
Leon seemed to want to know how James was doing, though. He asked at the start of the next room, which was witchcraft themed and actually kind of cool. He asked again after they finished the zombie room. When James managed to slam his knee into a headstone in the cemetery room, he admitted that he was doing less than ideal at that point, but they continued until they came to a door covered in bloodied plastic tarps.
James remembered the specter from the third room saying something about a hospital. James had spenta lotof time inhospitals. He’d had a few bad experiences taking his mom to the ER, but he didn’t have any sort of phobia of them, and if anything, the constant visits had ended up getting his mom into remission.
“What do you think? Are you up for this? I’d be happy to safe word out the second we walk in,” Leon asked, somehow reading James’ mind.
James raised his hand to try and crack his knuckles, for a second forgetting that their hands were still linked.
“You know I would never hold this against you, right?” Leon pressed. “We can joke around, and I like joking around with you, but not about something like this.”
James was surprised to find he did know that, especially after their moment in the hallway.
He was desperately trying not to read into it as anything more than his best friend being concerned for him. It had been so dimly lit that it had been hard to really tell what Leon was thinking. All James knew was that every part of him had wanted to kiss Leon. He’d wanted to sink into him and tell him how scared he was—not of haunted house actors in cloaks but of this next stage in his life. He wanted to ask—no, beg—Leon to hold him, to wrap him up in his strong arms, wearing that stupid, sexy, perfect Halloween costume.
He hadn’t done that, though, even though Leon had offered to listen. Maybe someday soon he’d be able to open up to him, but not in the middle of a haunted house. He just wanted to get through this for Leon so they could meet up with Hailey before she and her group decided to take off somewhere else and stress Leon out more. There couldn’t be more than a handful of rooms left, if that. He wanted to power through them, even if Leon probably didn’tneedhim to do that. In the last few rooms, he had been smiling a little bit, though, like maybe he was having a good time. With James.
“I’m okay. Seriously. I want to finish this with you—” Oops, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “So we can meet up with Hailey,” James said in a rush, trying to recover.
Leon nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be nice to go home. I can still taste that pumpkin beer—and not in a good way.” He grinned down at James. “Maybe a fresh one will help clear the taste of the old one.”
James shook his head. “Just admit you actually like them and buy yourself more than one pack a year.”
“You can buy one on the way back,” Leon said, squeezing James’ hand once. The calluses on his palms rubbed against James’ in a way that had already become familiar. “You can keep it at my place and drink it over the next few weeks.”
For a long time, James savored every small statement like this. Every mention of another hang out felt like a tiny promise he could tuck in his pocket and keep with him throughout the week. In some ways, he still did. They had a routine now, but James knew how fast routines could be shattered and life could be turned upside down.
“Maybe I will,” James said as he nudged Leon’s shoulder with his, encouraging him to step through the door.
Even though they were coming from a cemetery, the next room was somehow ten times creepier.
There was once again a lot of fake blood, but this time, it wasn’t in bucketfuls, which had felt over the top and easy to dismiss. Here, there were bandages, gauze, and hospital gowns splattered with blood all over the room, like they were on the front lines of a war zone. The smell of copper was strong in the air, and distantly, James wondered how they’d gotten that smell when fake blood often smelled more sickly sweet.
The familiar beeping of a heart monitor and the shriek of an IV that needed to be reset washed over James, and he was able to push it into the background like he often did in his mom’shospital room. There was also soft grunting, but as if waiting for their cue—which they probably were—the two people on the other side of the room didn’t speak until both Leon and James looked over at them.
Then they both began to shout.
“He’s coding!” the nurse screamed as she held up paddles that were hooked up to what looked to be a car battery on the floor.
The man let out a blood curdling scream as she pressed the paddles down to his chest.
Well, that didn’t seem entirely accurate, given that if someone was coding, they probably weren’t getting enough oxygen to scream, but?—
The man tried to sit up, but the nurse grabbed him and slammed him back onto the gurney.
He had a very impressive looking prosthetic covering his stomach, which made it look like he’d been carved wide open, his guts hanging off the table as blood slowly oozed out of him. The nurse was practically coated in blood, probably from having to do so many takes of pressing her hands into the man’s open chest cavity.
“Why didn’t you save me?” the man gurgled, his hand reaching out towards James and Leon. “You were my son; you were supposed to save me.”
Wow. James had thought having the room resemble a hospital would have been enough, but this was next level. No wonder the person hadn’t agreed when James said this room was going to be straightforward.
James took two steps forward so they could move along past the gruesome skit being played out, but Leon didn’t follow. His hand was limp in James’, while his arm was as stiff as a cadaver…which was definitely not the right thought to be having, given the current room, but he couldn’t help it.
James turned to look at Leon, and all the air pressed out of his lungs in a painful lurch.
Leon was standing there, completely frozen, his face ashy and his eyes wide. There was something wrong with his breathing, and it took James a little too long to realize it was because he wasn’t breathing.
Something inside James clicked into place. He’d spent countless hours at his mom’s side, checking vitals back when that was actually his job to do. For years after, he’d done it anyway, even when it was more of a compulsion than a necessity. He knew the signs to look for that meant liver failure, what constituted a normal bump or bruise, and what meant excessive bleeding.
At that moment, James’ entire focus became Leon. He turned his back on the sobbing man and screaming nurse and let go of Leon’s hand so he could bring both hands up to Leon’s face. He tipped Leon’s chin down so he could check how dilated his pupils were, but also so he would be forced to look at James and not the gruesome display behind him.
