Science Ch 6

As interesting as Piper’s insights about inhibitions are, you are no closer to knowing how to get rid of the haunting.

Chica catches up to you on your way to your truck, bringing with her a strong smell of hand sanitizer. There’s no hint of the fascination from before; she’s back to normal.

“Flynn.”

“Yeah?” You try to play it cool. Lots of women have seen you cum, but never exactly like this, with the vulnerability being so one-sided.

“Look, what’s really going on?”

“I think my house is haunted and making me horny.” It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but you can’t tell the whole truth. You don’t even know the whole truth.

There’s silence.

“Hornier than usual,” you say.

“Haunted?”

“We don’t know. I don’t think there’s any way I can say it without sounding like a crazy person. We’re open to less crazy explanations.”

“We?”

“Yeah, my family is crashing there.” You’re getting nervous.

“Do they think something’s going on too?”

“Definitely.”

“Rey and Delta?”

“Yeah. It’s not just me being the crazy one. Everyone knows something’s up. Why are you asking this?” you ask, jingling your keys.

“Can you keep this between us?”

That makes you want to laugh. “If you can keep what happened in there between us, sure.”

“OK, my sister works for the FBI. And she actually works on weird, spooky stuff. That’s her whole job right now. I can call her if you want. Maybe she can help.”

You shrug. “Why not? Thanks.”

You’re relaxed, if not exactly happy, on the drive back to the house. It’s not like all of your hopes were pinned on Piper, but that conversation and its consequences illustrate just how difficult this is going to be. The risks are apparent as well. Not everyone is as easygoing and conscientious as Piper. It’s not a matter of if this will go bad; it’s when. Worse, you’re starting to get a feel for what’s happening to you.

You want Piper. You have for a while. You have a strong suspicion that the only reason you didn’t have her pinned to the ground, pounding her into oblivion, is that you’re so far from the house. But despite being far from the house, the effects were still there. In movies, if a house is haunted, you move. But this seems to follow you. Even if you could easily disentangle your family from the obligations attached to CCL House, that’s no guarantee of a fix.

The others must have come to similar conclusions, and that’s why they haven’t pushed for a move. One thing that you don’t understand is why they haven’t asked you to move back in with Graham, but you feel like if you bring it up, you’ll have to volunteer to do that. That would make working on CCL House harder and expose your problem to your housemates: Graham and Ash.

You rub your face as you drive. This is a lot.

Rey and Delta have it rougher than you. At the university, they can slip away and handle a problem if they have to, but they both have part-time jobs where that’s not so easy. Aunt Nadia is the county prosecutor, so she’s important and has authority; she can tell people to leave her alone, or say that she’s leaving, and nobody can really fuck with her. But she can’t excuse herself suddenly if she’s in court. Your mother might have it the worst; she teaches at the university.

But they’re women. They aren’t as likely to get spun up based on just seeing things, like you are. It’s other things that get them going.

There has got to be a way. Inhibitions. Horn lady. You quickly shut that thought down; the horn lady might be weird and scary, but she also has an inhumanly hot body. Thinking about her is dangerous.

You pull in at the house and climb out of the truck. It’s time to calm down, focus, and get some work done. That’s the other thing driving you crazy: is it more practical to push this problem off to the side and try to work on the house? Or to put the house on hold and focus wholly on solving this problem? You have a feeling it’s the second one, but it’s just so hard to not do the work you’re supposed to do.

You shake your head as you head up to the porch. You’ve spent years thinking of anxiety as something that happens to other people. The joke is on you.

You head upstairs, intending to change into your work clothes.

Music is playing. That’s odd; there shouldn’t be anyone home. It’s Rey’s room.

The gasp you hear as you pass is unmistakable.