I Needed You

25

Taylor's pov

"So that's why we signed the waiver," Stas said as we began climbing the stairs, each one feeling like a workout.

"I better have a fat ass after this I swear to god-" I paused myself, feeling as if my voice was unwanted here.

It was an odd thing to think about, but the longer I was around this house and this group of people the more intense the feeling got.

"These stairs are steep as hell," Sam muttered, and it helped to remind myself that Sam and Colby would never treat me like on purpose.

Neither would Kat, but I don't doubt for one second she would take Stas's side if she said anything, and I didn't know Amanda enough to even include her in my thoughts.

"Ow I just hit my head," Sam groaned, and though I couldn't see him I could assume that he was holding his hair in his hands, trying to fight the pain that wouldn't really be much of a bother to him.

Cory, who was leading us, began making his way down the hall.  Everybody seemed to follow, but Colby stopped me by stopping in front of me.

His hand was still in mine, his grip tight as if he was afraid to let go.  After a couple seconds of letting us fall behind, he turned to face me, wrapping his arms around the lower part of my back.

"Are you doing okay?" Colby asked, taking different strands of my hair and pushing it out of my face.

"Yeah, why?" I furrowed my eyebrows, staring up at him before reaching up and letting my hands hover above his shoulders.

I was unsure of what I wanted to do with them, it just felt right.  Colby untucked one of his hands, securing my own behind his neck.

I gave him a heartfelt grin, and he used this silent encouragement to lean his head down, burying into the bare skin of my neck.  His arms raised, and I realized he was trying to give me a hug.

After a couple seconds of me standing there in confusion, I began to sway us just a little, letting my eyes fall shut and my body melt into his.

I felt peace.  I felt worry.  I felt his heartbeat through his jacket.  I felt a ton of different things all at once and I didn't know how to handle it.

But this would have to do.

"Are you guys coming? Oh," Sam asked, and I let my eyes open to see him peeking out into the hallway, "Are you okay?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Colby did for us both, "Yeah," He called, not moving an inch from where his face was.

I wanted to rush Colby along, tell him we were holding up the investigation.  But I realized that for whatever reason, he needed this hug.

Everything was explained when he pulled away, whispering, "You know I love you, right?"

I didn't want to cry, but the words scared me. love. he loves me. I knew that he meant no harm, I could tell by the look in his eyes, "Yeah," I whispered back, "I love you too,"

I felt uncomfortable saying those words even though I knew they were true.  I've loved Colby for a long, long time.  Being shown love, the right love not the wrong kind, showed me that.

"Let's go," He didn't change his tone, but grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles.

Colby sniffed once on the way down the hallway to where Cory was talking.

"If you read in the books, House of Darkness, House of Light, her sister Cindy got tormented the worst," He only acknowledged our presence with a nod, but continued talking with his arms waving about.

"The bed would levitate, she'd get scratched, she'd get pulled out of bed.  On one occasion the bed was levitating and she was told there was seven dead soldiers buried in the walls. You won't be able to put a body in the wall unless you put it in a blender and pour it in,"

"Well that's kind of gruesome," Sam joked, turning the camera to catch all of our reactions.

"After we purchased the house, Roger Perron came here and he said that I feel if you look on the back wall of the house that surrounds the property they could be back there.  The bodies didn't have to be in the house, nothing ever said so at least," Cory shrugged.

"Well, we brought a ground penetrating radar and did the entire grounds including the basement.  Over here, out the window," Cory led the way over to the window, having us crowd around it, "See those green markers?" 

It took me a second to find the neon green mini triangle flags on white sticks, but I nodded when I spotted a few, maybe three or four.

"So we came up with anomalies down there. Eight feet wide, six feet deep," He perfectly described a casket length and width, which caused me to lean forward and glance at the markers once more.

"Caskets," Sam answered the unspoken question, what Cory was referring to.

"Exactly," He said, and as Kat began silently freaking out in surprise, he continued talking, "Anyways, fast forward to the fall time, we were doing the live stream with Nick Groff and Nick got all excited.  He wanted another ground radar team here to look into it and just focus on that area.  They did and came up with five grave shafts,"

"No way," I said with amazement as everyone else let out similar sounds of disbelief.

"So, bodies in the backyard?" Amanda concluded.

"Yes, right next to the wall," Cory referred back to what he said earlier.

"So she was right just randomly." Sam sighed, "That's so  fascinating,"

"Yeah," Cory dove into another story, "The King Phillips War was huge around here, 1674 to 1676.  The bloodiest war that was ever fought on American soil. It was just that immense bloodshed stigmatizes the ground.  So that's what your dealing with,"

"So not only the scariest spirits in here but also just the bloodshed of war?" Sam summarized, looking right into Colby's eyes.

The seemed to have a conversation silently.

The only words I seemed to pick up were What. are. we. getting. ourselves. in. to?