Home Sweet Home (mxm)

Chapter 5: Free

Taylor awoke slowly, his mind clouded with a need for more sleep. As he came to, he realized that he was leaning against something, and as his mind connected the dots, he realized that it was a someone. 

He was about to tense up as he felt an arm tighten around him and a hand shift a bit over his mouth, but then he opened his eyes. His body did tense up then, but definitely for a different reason. 

Caleb was standing in the corner, staring across the room and out of the small window there. His eyes rarely blinked as he continued to look, motionless. 

Since he didn't seem to be in immediate danger from the ghost, Taylor turned his attention to who was holding him. He remembered that they had moved the couch into the spare bedroom since he had wanted to be as far away from the chalkboard as possible. 

Glancing toward the door, he noticed that it was shut and the lock was still in place. 

He had to have walked right through. 

Next, he put together that Adon was the one behind him, his scent easily distinguishable now that he wasn't panicking. 

But why is he covering my mouth? Caleb is just a ghost. He can't do anything to us. 

Taylor was just starting to work on freeing himself from Adon's hold when Caleb jerked his head to the side abruptly, his eyes going wider than they should have been able to... and then they just stayed like that. 

Shit. Got it. Don't move. 

After a tense several moments his body seemed to relax and his eyes went back to normal as he looked down and to the side, toward his left hand. It was closed around something, but whatever it was, was too small to see. 

As the time stretched on, Taylor wondered if Caleb would ever leave. He'd had to pee since waking up and definitely wasn't keen on doing so on the sofa. Or in Adon's presence. 

Thankfully, right when he had decided to start trying to get up again, the familiar hitting sound echoed from the other room, immediately drawing Caleb's attention. The boy turned and looked toward the door, as if seeing his step brother through it without any issue. When the hit sounded for a rare consecutive, second time, Caleb darted through the door and was gone. 

Adon's hand and arm fell away immediately as their bodies sagged against the sofa and they sighed in unison. 

"I thought that we could only see ghosts in dreams, for the most part?" Taylor mumbled as he took a deep breath, then gave out another sigh. 

Adon took a few moments to respond, probably because he'd been awake longer than Taylor, watching Caleb in the room. 

"That's not a ghost." 

Taylor stood up, eying something tiny that Caleb had seemingly left on the floor. 

"What are you talking about? Of course he's a ghost. He's been showing me his dreams since I moved in," he said as he slowly walked up and knelt down beside the item. Or really, items. 

Adon joined him after a moment, both of them frowning down at the tiny little fish skeleton on the floor. 

"Ghosts can't carry objects. And neither can banshees, unless they take them when they die. Even if he had taken this skeleton, he couldn't have walked right through that door. Nikolai can't," Adon said, sending a shiver down Taylor's spine. 

"But they said that he's a ghost. That he isn't very powerful," Taylor replied, trying to put the pieces together, but at the same time, not wanting to.