Come to Light

Chapter 4

Sam doesn't bring up the spirit board incident.

He's still not entirely sure what happened. He wants to believe that Abigail had nothing to do with it, that she wouldn't just break her fucking promise over a stupid crush (that's all it is, he should have never told her he was in love), that it was just some bored ghost fucking around with them, but he knows which of the two answers is more likely.

Sam also knows that there's a mature, adult way to handle this situation. He could tell Sebastian how he really feels, before someone – or something – does it for him. Or, he could sit Abigail down, and have a nice chat about how forcibly outing someone to their crush is a shitty thing to do. The thing is, Sam's pretty much the opposite of mature, and he's got a record number of community service hours to prove it.

So he doesn't do either of those things.

It's not like it's hard to avoid the subject, anyways, with so much shit going on during the last few weeks of fall. The Spirit's Eve festival is a particularly good distraction, because it's the one holiday Sebastian actually seems to enjoy.

The festivities start at ten in the evening, and as usual, Sam finds Sebastian standing by the caged skeletons. Normally Sam heads straight for the maze (he's done it every year, and he still can't find the damn prize), but this year, he joins Sebastian in front of the skeletons. Sam doesn't really understand the draw they have on Sebastian, but it's kind of cute how much he seems to enjoy them.

"Hey, Seb."

"Hey," Sebastian replies, without turning to look. Sam decides to test his luck, and inches closer to him. Sebastian finally glances at Sam. "Cold?" he asks, smirking as he bumps Sam's shoulder with his own.

"It's kind of chilly, yeah," Sam replies. "You don't feel cold?"

Sebastian shrugs. "I never get cold."

Without thinking, Sam reaches for Sebastian's hand. "Liar," he declares, as their fingers make contact, "your hand is fucking freezing." Sebastian weaves his icy cold fingers into Sam's, snickering as Sam inhales sharply. "Don't you own gloves?" Sam mutters.

"That's what pockets are for," Sebastian replies. And just to be a little shit (the smug grin spreading across his face gives it away), he sticks his hand in Sam's jacket pocket.

They're still holding hands. Sam sends his silent thanks to Yoba.

"Want to check out the maze?" Sam asks, after a few minutes of watching the skeletons stumble around. As nice as this is, he really is starting to feel cold.

"Okay," Sebastian answers, slowly turning away from the cage. He pulls his hand out of Sam's, and shoves it in his own hoodie pocket, instead. Sam takes back all the thanks he just sent to Yoba. "Where's Abby?"

"Dunno." Sam glances in the direction of the maze. "She usually checks out the maze on her own. I haven't seen her come out yet." He wonders if it's too much to hope that they don't run into Abigail. It probably is.

Sebastian shrugs. "Cool. Guess it's just the two of us, then."

"You've never done the maze, right?" Sam asks, as they head towards it.

Sebastian shakes his head. "Doesn't sound all that scary, honestly; I don't know why everybody makes such a big deal out of it. Those skeletons, though? That's some creepy shit."

They reach the entrance to the maze, and come to a stop. "Ready?" Sam grins. Sebastian rolls his eyes. Together, they enter the maze.

"Oh man, this is some spooky shit," Sebastian says in a deadpan tone, a few minutes later. They've passed Maru, Harvey, and a couple dead ends, and now they're staring down a path that's dotted with twitching hands protruding from the dirt. "Look at all of these hands. What if they try to touch my dick? That'd be terrifying."