Paranormal 101: Part One

[dugindeep]

Master Post



It’s well past midnight. After two. Hell, probably four in the morning, but Jared doesn’t care. He turns the TV down just a few clicks and scoots his chair even closer to the set. The only light in the room is the green glow of night vision cameras that illuminate the three figures onscreen whenever the cameras shift.

“They say right here, in this corner, is where Mary Sullivan was killed,” the guy onscreen says with a low drawl. His broad shoulders are in the lower edge of the frame as the camera follows him further into the dank room of a dated, three-story hotel. “In this bed,” he reports, voice surprisingly calm considering the subject matter, “Bellhop, Stephen Mavers took her life. With his hands tight around her neck.”

The guy’s hands are turned together in a death grip just above the empty mattress. He turns to look over his shoulder, stares right into the camera (right into Jared, it seems). He says, “Right here. She struggled for her last breath as he strangled her.”

Jared smiles broadly, so wide that his cheeks hurt and he feels a streak of perversion over the unfolding story, but he can’t stop how much harder his blood pumps the longer the episode runs. His mouth goes dry and he sips from a tall glass of lemonade, gulping quickly so he can return his full attention to the show.

The thrill of watching this in the middle of the night, in the pitch black of his bedroom with his face lit up by the glare of the TV, is more than enough to ramp up his energy. But moreover, it’s the way he can’t stop staring at the glow of the lead’s eyes, the smoothness of his face with the night vision on him.

In that room, the lead lays out on the mattress, arms at his sides and legs straight ahead of him. He wiggles for a moment and his chest rises with a deep breath. “Mary, are you here?” he calls out to the room. “Are you the one who scares away the staff? Are you unable to rest?”

“Dude, what was that?” a deep voice asks from offscreen.

He sits up in the bed with wide eyes. “I heard something. You hear something?”

“Yeah, it was a breathy voice. Someone’s breathing!”

Then a calm voiceover starts as the scene freezes and turns dark with a red circle pinpointing his hand.
Just then, my digital recorder picked up this EVP.

Empty noise amplifies as a scratchy voice says, “No … air,” with the words showing onscreen. Once, twice, and three times over.

Jared grins and stops breathing, waits for the reactions of the guys on his TV.

“Wait, wait,” the lead says excitedly. The men huddle together, all three appearing in the frame as the lead holds his body mic to the recorder to replay it.

No … air.

“Oh my God, man, that’s–” one guy harshly whispers.

“Dude, she’s saying ‘no air’ because she can’t breathe!” the deeper voice exclaims.

The lead looks around the room, stepping away from the cameras and nodding. “Mary, you’re here, aren’t you? You wanna talk? I’ll talk to you. We just wanna know why you keep scaring people.”

There’s a soft noise onscreen and the camera zips around to an empty doorway.

“What was that?” the cameraman asks as the two others talk over each other.

“I heard knocking?”

“Yeah, knocking. From the left.”

The moment is replayed three times: the lead says why do you keep scaring people followed by a louder, yet muffled knock, and the camera spins to the doorway each time.

Jared sits at the edge of the chair, legs twitching and fingers pushing into his lower lip. “Holy shit,” he whispers. “This is it!”

And indeed it is … the coveted, underground scenes of an episode spliced for television. Deemed too much by the network, but uncovered by fans and spread across the internet. With a passing thought, Jared thanks Chad for uncovering the download among a mess of links on Reddit, but it’s just a fleeting thanks because suddenly there’s shouting onscreen as the cameras shift this way and that. They’re shuffling down the hallway, spinning their cameras forward to see then back around to check out what’s going on when they stop in place and start whispering harshly.

“Where’d he go?”

“He was behind you,” the lead complains. “What do you mean ‘where’d he go’?”

The camera shakes a bit then steadies on the dark hallway. Only harsh breathing can be heard.

“What if he…?”

“Shh-shh-shh!” the lead hushes as he flips his camera around to face him. He slowly turns towards the lens, but keeps his eyes on his partner’s camera. His eyes are steady on the night vision while his chest is expanding with deep breaths, until his sight rises and he holds his breath, staring out into the darkness before them. “Steve!” he yells, but it sounds more panicky than it normally does.

Jared pulls back from the TV screen to let his eyes roam his 32-inch screen and see all of what they’re seeing in that hallway. The two guys onscreen keep whispering about their friend, call out to Mary Sullivan, and breathe louder than ever before, it seems. Jared turns up the volume on the video receiver to hear the voices better and then he can’t focus on anything but the darkness in the middle of the frame. The longer he stares, the thinner the hallway seems, longer, too.

A door slams and when Jared sees a figure moving in his room, he yells in surprise and spills his lemonade all over his pants.

Jared’s teenage sister screams back at him, higher pitched, freaked all the same. “What’re you doing?” she screeches.

Jared roughly sighs then puts his glass down on the dresser holding his TV and pauses the A/V receiver next to the TV. He wipes at his pants to clear all the drink off. “Jesus, Megan” he whines. “What’re you doing?”

“Oh my God, you weren’t,” she complains. She stares at the TV with Paranormal National Investigator of the Supernatural Jensen Ackles in its frame then looks at the wet stain on his pants. She rolls her eyes, and groans. “You’re getting off on … you are so gross, ew!”

“What? It’s just a show!” Jared yells, following her into the hallway. He cannot wait to get out of this house and away from his sister, to a place where no one will harass him for watching TV after eleven.

They both come to a halt when their parents meet them from their end of the hallway. “What is going?” their dad asks with a sleep-heavy, but irritated voice.

“Megan broke into my room in the middle of the night and,” Jared’s rambling on, but Megan’s voice is louder and more shrill, so she wins out on her explanation of the event.

“His TV is on way too loud and I went into to tell him to shut it off - it’s the middle of the night! - and he’s in there watching that … that … that show and doing gross things,” she finishes with a sick moan and points towards Jared’s wet pants.

Their parents look horrified and Jared feels it as he needlessly tugs his shirt down over his sweats. “No I wasn’t! She barged into my room and I spilled juice on me!”

“Oh, sure, Jared,” Megan mocks. “It’s juice.”

They start bickering, but it doesn’t get far, because their mom is pushing Megan to her room and their dad rings an arm around Jared’s neck to haul him back to his room. He practically tosses Jared onto his bed and then slaps at the receiver and TV to shut both off. It’s incredibly dark in the room now and his father looming over him with a sharp point of a finger in his face is scarier than anything he’d been watching before Megan barged in.

“Listen now. Your mom and I are working in the morning, and I realize you don’t care because you don’t have a job-”

“But I-!” Jared argues, only to be cut off.

“But maybe you could hold off on the insane TV watching until the weekends, or even during the day when you’re home alone and not working or in class like your sister?” Jared frowns and his dad does, too. It’s not like Jared enjoys still living at home after being on his own at college; his parents’ insist as long as he’s here, he respects their rules, and he’s a fair enough person to agree that he might be wrong tonight with the loud TV late at night. Still doesn’t mean he likes being lectured.

His dad leans in and lightly taps his cheek before gently grabbing his jaw. “Jared, I love you like you were a real son-”

“I am your real son,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

His dad smirks and taps at his cheek again. “But sometimes you drive me crazy. You’re not stupid, so why do you waste your time on these things?”

Frowning, Jared glances across the mess of his room, one he’s had since he turned seven and he and Jeff were finally given their own spaces. The room is smaller and more cramped than ever with all the random crap he’s accumulated over the years. He’s been planning to get out, and had told himself he would once he graduated college (two years ago), but that plan died out too fast without any luck for employment.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Jared mumbles.

His dad combs over the mess of Jared’s hair and tugs for his attention. “And if you’re gonna … shake the snake, you should at least lock your door.”

“Ew, Dad. I wasn’t!” he argues instantly, useless shame rising up inside. His dad smirks again and winks then leaves Jared alone.

After a few minutes, Jared shucks off his sweats, still wet and getting sticky on his legs. Damn Megan and her stupid insinuation that he’d been jerking off while watching Paranormal Investigators.

So, maybe he would’ve done it after the show was over, and maybe he has before, but she didn’t have to go around claiming she caught him doing it right now. He knows to lock his door, and normally hides under the covers to make sure no one sees a thing if they do happen to rush into his room without knocking.

Suddenly, Jared imagines Jensen Ackles’s face taking up the entirety of his 32-inch screen in those last moments before he’d been interrupted. Jensen looks surreal in the green and black of night vision, and sometimes that turns Jared on more than the true colors.

He shuffles to sit at the edge of his bed and turns the TV and receiver back on, this time plugging in a pair of Bose headphones he’d gotten for Christmas. They go along with the mess of sound equipment he’s accumulated in the past six years of running side gigs for bands and small-time musicals across town in between managing to ace his way through audio/visual classes in college. The downside to spending all of that time doing this is coming out the other side without any real job opportunities. The upside is the shitload of equipment he’s got at his disposal.

He flips everything back up and equalizes the sound from the receiver feeding from his computer in the corner and controlled by his wireless mouse and keyboard. He clicks through a few commands and finally brings the show back up, sliding through the media player’s timeline until he reaches the climax of Jensen staring off into the deep reaches of the hallway. Jensen’s barely lit by an amazing green tint that highlights the arched line of his brow and the curve of his jaw. In a word, he’s beautiful, and Jared is transfixed.

Quiet seconds slip by until there’s sharp breath filling Jared’s ears and the camera shakes as Jensen Ackles and Chris Kane step forward. Jensen’s head starts to tip back, but his eyes are glued to whatever’s in front of them, and he mumbles, “Oh, no.”

“Steve!” Chris yells from beside Jensen. “Steve! What’s up, buddy?”

Slowly, Steve comes into focus at the end of the hallway. The camera zooms in and Steve’s completely still with his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His head is tilted with his ear flat to his shoulder, eyes wide and staring right back at them, and no matter how many measured steps they take towards him, he doesn’t move a millimeter.

Jared slides to the very edge of the bed with his eyes directly on Steve’s cold, blank gaze, and then he flinches when Jensen’s face takes up the whole of the screen again when he looks into Chris’s camera.

“We’re done,” Jensen announces, voice hard and absolute. “Call upstairs, we’re getting out of here.”

The view flips back to Jensen’s camera, focused on Steve for long moments until it’s obvious that it’s a static frame to emphasize Steve’s condition. The scene changes to a planted outdoor camera at the front entrance of the hotel with the manager letting them out into the daylight. As the three paranormal investigators slowly exit, Jensen and Chris leading Steve down the long driveway before them, Jensen’s stoic voiceover comes on.

What began as a one-night lockdown, one like every other we’ve experienced in our time on Paranormal National Investigators of the Supernatural, ended as a permanent lock-in. Steve Carlson, a paranormal investigator and our partner for seven years, walked in, but something else walked out.


* * *

Jared has cereal for a late lunch while leaning against the island in the kitchen and staring out at the back yard. He’s unearthly tired having stayed up combing the internet for any and every account of Steve Carlson before, during, and after the Willshire Hotel.

While he dove deeper into blogs and random fan accounts, Jared had heard the house come alive as his parents got ready for work and Megan for school, but he’d just turned the volume on his computer louder, tucked his headphones a little tighter, and continued listening to podcasts from fans and fellow paranormal specialists and informal interviews of Jensen Ackles and his crew.

Jared had been worn out after the hours of research, but he didn’t sleep much when he finally gotten into bed. His mind ran through the episode repeatedly as he re-imagined what happened in that hotel and reheard Jensen and Chris explain it all from their point of view. Steve Carlson had been possessed by the spirit of the hotel’s bellhop, Stephen Mavers. Random blogs claim that sources close to Carlson say he’s done with this career, others note he isn’t even able to communicate on his own, still crippled by the emotional event. Nothing is official, though.

A month has passed since the season finale first aired - stripped of the scenes where the crew finds Steve in that hallway - and the network hasn’t let any of this news through. Nothing has been stated on the official website and the show’s message boards are cleaned out any time someone mentions it. Only fan sites and blogs have any account of the video, but they’re mostly the same: all speculation and no real content.

It’s one hell of a cliffhanger before summer break, and Jared doesn’t know how he’ll survive until October to find out what happens to Steve in the long run or what the paranormal crew will do about filling the position – how they’ll recover from losing one of their own.

A smack at the back door makes Jared jump and spill his cereal bowl on its side. Worse yet is the mangled image of a face pressed tight to the stained-glass block window, and it makes him think of Steve’s crooked look in the center of his TV screen. The face pulls back and is still blurry behind the swirled glass, but the cackle is familiar, and Jared rolls his eyes as the lock jiggles just right and Chad gets the door open.

“Dude, you’re gross,” he says upon entering, taking in Jared’s wrinkled sleep clothes and messy hair. He slings his messenger bag onto the island and flicks Jared’s nose before Jared can move out of the way. “Are we sleep-eating now?”

Jared cringes as he leans away and works a hand through the mess of his bedhead, suddenly wishing he and Chad hadn’t spent all of last summer perfecting lock picking. It’s not like they had much else to do with their few other friends off working steady jobs. Belatedly, he curses himself for forgetting to replace the back lock like his dad had asked last week.

“I thought you had work?” Jared asks as he cleans up the spilt milk and soggy flakes on the counter.

“You know it’s like four in the afternoon, right? I got off half an hour ago.”

Jared considers that he didn’t get to sleep until after eight, and with a full night’s - or day’s - sleep, it shouldn’t be so surprising that it’s this late in the afternoon. “I finally got the Paranormal Investigators download,” he mumbles before slurping down what’s left in his cereal bowl.

Chad reaches across the island and smacks Jared’s shoulder. “Dude, it’s awesome, right?”

Grinning and feeling the excitement that thrummed through him as he watched it early this morning, Jared dumps the mess of his aborted cereal into the sink and then throws his hands out. “How can no one know anything? After a month? Seriously?”

“I don’t know, but it’s killer timing.” Chad picks up an apple from the fruit bowl in the center of the island and rubs it on his hoodie before biting into it. Around his chewing, he mumbles, “They’re totally replacing him.”

Jared had read that, but hardly believed it. “Why?”

“The dude’s possessed!” Chad exclaims, spitting apple across the counter. “They can’t bring him along anymore. He’s a threat!”

Jared nods with Chad, figuring it’s as much a dramatic turn for the upcoming season as it is a liability to keep Carlson on the show.

From the other end of the house, there’s a rush of noise and talking, and Jared groans at the thought that his mom and sister are home and he’s still here in the kitchen in his pajamas.

When they reach the kitchen, they both stop and roll their eyes at Jared’s state as well as Chad standing across from him. “Hey, Mrs. P.,” Chad says with a grin before biting into the apple again.

“Chad,” she says with a short nod then looks at Jared just as annoyed before she sighs with a slightly amused look. “Jared. I’m imagining you haven’t done much with yourself today?”

“I had breakfast?” he asks with a small smile.

“You’re such an overachiever,” Megan says, rolling her eyes yet again.

Jared makes a face at her. “I am so not gonna miss you when I leave.”

“You mean if you leave?” his mom jokes, playfully swatting him on the back of the head as she rounds the island.

“Can you take Chad when you go?” Megan asks.

“Dude, that’s harsh,” Chad complains.

“Dude, I hope,” Megan mocks.

“Megan,” their mom says sharply. “Go do homework or something.”

Megan nods and smiles sweetly. “Good idea. I should go study and be smart and motivated so I can go to a good school and get a good job.”

Jared takes it as the jab that is and glares at his sister as she spins out of the room and disappears.

Before the scowl fades off his face, his mom sweeps a hand over his head and kisses his cheek. “And how are you, sleeping beauty?”

For all that his family rags on him for being almost twenty-four, jobless, and stuck at home, his parents do still take moments to accept him. And he knows his mom will listen to him rattle on about anything, because no matter how she nags him, he knows he’s her favorite.

“Chad and I were talking about the leaked Paranormal Investigators episode.”

She eyes Chad digging into the apple, getting far into the core as if he’s mining for the last little bits of it. When he puts the chewed core on the counter, she carefully picks it up by the stem and keeps it far from her body as she drops it into the garbage can behind her. “And also eating all our food, I see.”

“Why else are the apples there?” Chad asks with a toothy grin.

“For us to eat.”

Jared laughs at Chad’s sour look then starts talking excitedly. “So, on their last lockdown, Steve disappeared and then they found him possessed!”

“And Steve is?” she asks, not seeming all that interested in the topic, yet going along with Jared.

“He’s the blond one.”

“Oh, the main guy?” she asks with a smile. “The good looking one?”

“Dude,” Chad groans. “If your mom thinks Carlson’s good looking, then you’ve got big problems in this house.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You can leave any time you want now, Chad.”

“I’m just saying,” he replies with his hands up.

“Anyway,” Jared interrupts. “That’s Jensen, the lead guy who does all the talking? He’s the hot one. Steve’s the one with the curly blond hair who always gets stuck in bad places by himself.”

“No wonder he got possessed,” she smarts.

“Chad says he’s not coming back.” Jared turns to Chad and shrugs. “So, are they really doing auditions or something?”

“They announced this morning that they’re having interviews in L.A. to fill his spot,” Chad replies. “Ingenious, if you think about it. Can you imagine the kind of crazy they’re gonna attract? Who wants to be on a show where you have a chance of being possessed by demons? Those interviews alone should be the show.”

“Holy shit,” Jared laughs. His mom smacks his back and he flinches away. “Sorry, but seriously! That’s insane publicity.”

“Exactly. It’s not like anyone really wants to be on that show after-”

“I would be on that show!” Jared laughs. “Can you imagine going around to these awesome places and being paid to hang out all night with those guys?”

“Are you serious?” Chad asks with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I am!” he replies excitedly. “Travelling across the country with the most popular ghost hunters-”

“On the Travel Channel,” his mom butts in as she gathers things near the stove for dinner.

Jared rolls his eyes, but goes on. “And you get to find out about the most haunted places and screw around with all that camera and sound equipment-”

“You are the world’s biggest A/V nerd, I swear,” Chad mumbles under his breath.

“And you’re paid to interact with ghosts and demons.”

His mom stares at him. “You are not serious.”

“It’d be cool to do,” Jared shrugs.

“You are kinda crazy,” Chad says, suddenly serious. “Remember when you crashed at the CVS on Stanley Street because you believed Sandy when she said it was haunted.”

“I totally heard something and you saw the tape!” Jared argues.

Chad smacks the counter. “Dude, you should do it.”

“I should!”

His mom drops a can to the floor and glares at them both. “You should not.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Jared asks, even as he giddily laughs at the off-chance he could actually work on his favorite show. “I get a job?”

“You get possessed!”

He eyes her for a second then smirks. “I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff.”

“That was before it was you walking into the basement of hell!”

“He comes into my basement all the time and you never care,” Chad jokes.

“Chad, get out.” When Chad just snorts, she points at the back door.

“Dude, really?” he moans, grabbing his bag off the counter and walking away.

Jared glances at the clock on the microwave and smiles. “It’s been twenty minutes. New record.”

“Small blessings,” Chad smirks then leaves.

When Jared turns to his mom, she’s glaring at him. “What?”

“Are you actually serious about this?”

“Semi-serious?” he asks awkwardly.

She keeps staring at him and he feels uncomfortable with the way she shifts into the judgmental motherly look. “Are you considering this just because of your crush on that guy?”

Jared’s mouth flaps open and closed, unable to answer. Okay, yeah, he originally got into the show because of how hot Jensen Ackles is, and surprisingly even hotter in night vision, but Jared also really loves the show. It’s been his obsession for three years … not to mention that camera work is right up his alley.

“At the very least, I’ll get out of your hair for a few days,” Jared offers. He turns on his puppy dog eyes to combat her judgy-mom look.

“How’re you paying for this?”

“Well, I have some money …” He trails off as he mentally counts his bank account, which has been dwindling since his graduation party two summers ago.

After a few too-long moments, she sighs and he grins in triumph.

“Jared, I swear to God,” she says with a huff and goes back to the stove.

“Mama,” he whines a little.

She sighs again, and her shoulders rise up. “If you do this, if I give you the money and nothing happens, you come right back and you’re getting a job.”

Jared stands next to her with the same sad puppy look, though it’s morphing into excited puppy, he’s sure. “I swear I will get a job.”

“Any job. I don’t care how beneath you it is, but you’re gonna work and start paying for all the food you and Chad eat.”

He wraps his arms around her shoulders and squeezes hard, shaking them from side to side. “I promise.”

“Do not tell your father what you’re really doing,” she mumbles. “Just say it’s a road trip. Or a real job interview. He will kill me for giving your lazy ass money.”

Jared kisses the side of her head with a loud smack. “I love you! You’re the best mom ever.”

“Or the craziest.”


* * *

Two weeks later, Chad takes a few days off work and they road trip up to L.A., sharing the drive in Chad’s used SUV. After an all-night ride, they pull up in front of the studio and Jared takes the backseat to change into dress pants and a suit shirt then tumbles into the front seat to use the flip-down mirror to fix his tie.

“Are you serious?” Chad asks, side-eyeing him.

Jared shakes his head and focuses on tugging the knot into place. “I may not get a lot of interviews, but I know you’re supposed to look your best.”

“This is Paranormal National Investigators of the Supernatural. It is not 60 Minutes.”

“If I’m gonna have a chance, I gotta be serious about this.”

Chad smacks his lips as he stares at the throngs of people hanging out on the front lawn and coming and going from the building. “Yeah, you gotta be real serious.”

Jared looks up and his eyes widen at the number of people across the lawn. They range from late teens on up to grandparents, all dressed casually. The people who are done up at all seem more like they’re heading out to a club right after - or just came from one - with girls in halter tops and guys in absurdly bejeweled graphic tees and designer jeans.

“Jesus, it’s like we’ve walked onto the set of Jersey Shore,” Jared groans. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

To be fair, Jared’s well aware this is the way the guys dress on the show - all casual with designer tees, hoodies, jeans, and boots - but he suddenly feels in over his head, especially since he managed to shine his dress shoes in the hotel the night before and only packed the bare essentials.

A group of teenagers walk by the SUV holding homemade EMF readers and micro-recorders, chattering on about some spirit they’d tracked down the night before in a warehouse two streets over. Jared throws himself back against the seat and covers his face. “Oh, my God, this is a joke. You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

Chad smacks Jared’s thigh. “I honestly wish I thought this big, but no. This is it, dude.”

“I can’t go in there like this!”

“Maybe you can be ironic about it? The clean cut nerd who’s scared of everything, including fashion sense.”

Jared turns and swats Chad’s shoulder before crawling into the back seat again. He trades his dress pants for the ratty, worn-out jeans he’d travelled up here in, pulls his tie off, rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, and mucks up the more professional style he’d put his hair into that morning.

“Better?” he asks, leaning towards the front seat.

Chad glances back and takes a few moments. “Now you look California gay.”

His nerves have been building for days and with his current predicament plus Chad’s blasé attitude, he’s fit to burst. “You’re not helping, Chad!”

“I actually think I am,” he replies with a shrug. “Look, lose the white shirt and go with something … not so you.”

“Still not helping,” Jared grumbles, but he riffles through his duffel bag anyway.


* * *

Jared waits in line for an hour to get inside the building, another two hours in the lobby on a hard, unforgiving chair, and then is allowed into another room where he watches two dozen hopefuls march in and out of the closed door leading to the interview room.

He gets antsy watching them all interact and talk about cases they’ve worked across the country. One couple is from Upstate New York and go on about the shadowy form they caught on their thermal cameras in an abandoned hospital. A short, shifty guy in the corner has everyone enthralled through his story of camping out in a boarded-up bar up in Washington, spending a week to capture unexplained music and hard-soled dancing on his micro-recorder. And a girl who looks like she might spend her evenings as a low-class Las Vegas showgirl brags about the wax museum she scoped out for tortured lovers who once lived in the top floor of the building.

They all have pictures, audio, and video of their finds, and Jared has nothing with him but his application and a case of nerves that make his legs jittery and his head spin. It gets worse when he’s the last one in the room to be called. As an assistant waits for him by the door, a fresh wave of applicants is ushered into the room, reminding him just how slim his chances are. He’s one of tens of thousands hoping for a shot. Just an unemployed college graduate from San Antonio, Texas, wishing for a break somehow.

He texts Chad to let him know he’s going in, telling him to head back and pick him up soon, and then he steels himself for his chance and follows the assistant through the door.

The next room is wide open, with a table at the far end where Jensen Ackles, Chris Kane, and three others are seated, all talking and laughing over an application that Jensen rips up and tosses over his shoulder.

Jared goes stiff just inside the door as he stares at the panel and then focuses in on Jensen Ackles, who’s smiling and chuckling with his friends. This is the guy Jared stares at on his TV when he replays the show over and over again, memorizing places with rich paranormal histories, listening to Jensen’s low voice recount past terrors. With a perfectly messy style of flicked hair, a snug v-neck, and dark-wash jeans, Jensen Ackles is more gorgeous than Jared’s ever seen in any episode, interview, or promotional photo.

The assistant nudges him forward then shuts the door when she leaves, and the noise at the table quiets down. Jared looks at them and his application crinkles in his hands as he gives a small smile.

“You wanna do the audition from there?” Chris Kane taunts, leaning back in his chair.

“No, sorry,” Jared mumbles, shaking his head. He walks across the room and stands in front of the table.

Jensen shoots him an odd smile and motions at the application. Suddenly Jared can’t think straight. He takes a deep breath then hands the paper over and stands tall with his shoulders spread wide. “Hi, I’m Jared,” he says awkwardly loud, nerves still running through him and making it difficult to talk freely.

“Jared Pada …” Jensen starts to say.

“Padalecki.”

“What kind of name is that?” Chris asks with a sharp laugh.

Jared tenses, feeling like he’s facing the worst kind of high school bullies with how the panel is looking at him and shooting cocky smiles. “It’s my dad’s,” he tries to joke.

The group laughs at him and Jared curses himself for his answer. “So, Jared,” Jensen starts with a raised eyebrow. “What’s your story?”

He takes another deep breath then rattles on about his age, college education, living at home, having a hard time finding a job, the two-day road trip he and Chad took to get up here, and how he hasn’t missed a single episode of their show. The way the panel eyes him tells him that everything he’s saying is absolutely the wrong information, and they’re all chuckling and whispering as they pass his application around. At the end of the table, Chris and a guy with dark, cropped hair and square glasses run their fingers across the page and mumble and snort to each other. Jared thinks he’s seen that other guy on a few episodes as one of the crew’s technology specialists, Mike or something.

It doesn’t make this any easier to survive.

“You’ve seen all the shows?” Jensen asks, eyes roving up and down in assessment.

“Yeah, I have. A few times over.”

“What do you like about it?”

“You mean besides the ghosts?” he lightly jokes. The panel laughs, but this time it doesn’t seem so harsh. “In Season 2, you went to the Moody Plantation in Memphis. It was pretty awesome when you crawled into the old mine shaft. I like that you guys are tough enough to get into the dirty stuff.”

“Dirty stuff?” Jensen asks, smirking. “You know how dirty we get with this stuff?”

Jared nods quickly, a little eased by having real questions to answer instead of just rambling about how pathetic his life is without a job and living in his childhood bedroom. “Yeah, I do. I saw the last episode.”

Everyone at the table goes quiet and now five sets of eyes are on him. Chris clears his throat and narrows his eyes. “How much did you see?”

“I saw the extended footage. Off the Internet.”

“Did that scare you, Jared?” Chris asks, leaning back and crossing his arms.

“Shit gets pretty dirty sometimes, ya know?” Jensen adds.

Jared nods again. “I know. I watched it twice, back to back, and then I stayed up all night reading about it.”

“And you’re not afraid of that happening to you?”

He looks right at Jensen through his question, keeping his eyes with Jensen’s and trying to prove that he’s not scared, even if the idea freaks him out. In a good way, he tells himself. It’s the anticipation of staring down fears and coming out on the other side. “No, sir.”

“Sir,” the tech on the end chuckles.

Jensen shoots the guy a look then turns back to Jared. They stare at each other for long, tense moments. Jared wants to look away, but he’s afraid to waver under the scrutiny. “So, what makes you think you’re fit for this dirty stuff?”

“I know I don’t have any experience with these kinds of things,” he says slowly and then stops when a guy and girl at the end - two he recognizes from other episodes as paranormal hunters who join the crew for West Coast episodes - snort and bump shoulders as they point at his application. “But I graduated from UT with a bachelor’s in film and production. I ran the audio and video labs for three years and helped produce four student documentaries.”

“So?” the guy on the end - Matt, Jared remembers - asks with a roll of his eyes.

“So, I know my way around cameras and sound equipment.”

Given how no one seems impressed with this side of him, Jared pictures them cackling and tearing up his application the second he’s outside the door, and suddenly, he’s not sure he ever wants to watch another episode of Paranormal Investigators again. Remotely, though, he figures he shouldn’t be surprised with how cocky they all are, or how they’re mocking anything they can get their hands on. The crew acts pretty much this way with every hunt they go on.

Before, he thought it was hilarious and entertaining. Now, it’s just shitty.

In the awkward silence, Jared pats his hands at his thighs and then flips them out as he clucks his tongue. “And, so that’s me.”

“Alright, great,” Chris says, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. “Thanks for coming all this way.”

“Yeah, hope you get to see the world’s largest rubber ball while you’re on the road,” Matt says with a tight grin.

Jared turns immediately and leaves the room so he can find Chad and head right back to Texas with his tail between his legs. The sooner he gets his mom’s I told you so out of the way, the sooner he can get over this whole thing.

It’s a blur of people in trashy graphic tees and video cameras showing pathetic recreations of the show. The stupid, stupid show that Jared wishes he never gave a shit about, because being rejected by such a pathetic dream is making him reconsider his life choices. Maybe he’ll apply at the grocery store and stock shelves like Chad. Not the greatest job for a college graduate, but he’d rather have something other than PNIS Reject at the top of his resume. Besides Chad would probably put in a good word for him. Hopefully.

He waits out on the lawn while Chad circles around the block. Once the SUV pulls up to the corner, he jumps in and slams the door, releasing a long breath and shaking his head when Chad asks how it went.

“Dude, seriously?” Chad asks.

“It was horrible. They’re looking for ghost professionals or something.”

“They didn’t give a shit about your A/V nerdery?”

“No. They’re just a bunch of cocky dicks fed up on power thanks to their stupid, little TV show.”

“A bunch of cocky dicks, huh?” Chad says as he stares beyond Jared and toward the building.

“Giant cocky dicks,” Jared nods.

There’s a slap on the SUV’s door and Jared flinches away from the open window to see Jensen Ackles leaning against the vehicle. He watches in horror when Jensen drops his head down to stare at him and Chad. “Heya, Jared.” Jensen grins.

“Uh, hi,” he says, staring at Jensen and wondering why the hell he followed him outside.

“Giant dick, huh?” Jensen asks with one eyebrow up high and the same sure smile on his face. “I appreciate the compliment.”

Jared waves toward the building and immediately goes on defense. “I meant the others. You were … okay.”

“Just okay?”

Jensen’s smiling at him easily and Jared feels his stomach swoop over how good he looks up close. He bites his lower lip and takes in the clear green of Jensen’s eyes, his creamy cheeks dotted with freckles, his plush lips that curl at the corners with his smooth smile, and the slick tongue that comes out to wet those lips. Jesus, even though this whole audition went to shit faster than any other interview he’s had before, at least he’s got this view of Jensen to help him jack off to in the future.

Jensen shifts to lean more comfortably against the door and look further into the vehicle to see Chad. “Is this the friend who drove you up here?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Chad asks with an eager move forward to offer his hand for Jensen to shake. “I’m Chad. Jay’s best friend. And chauffeur.”

Jared shoots him an ugly look before going back to being mesmerized by Jensen being so close, especially when Jensen leans into the SUV to shake Chad’s hand and share hellos. There’s a small whiff of spicy cologne filling Jared’s nose and he wants to chase the smell when Jensen moves back, but that would be pretty damned pathetic. Especially after how everything went inside.

Jensen glances into the back of the SUV. “You guys skipping town already?”

Jared shrugs and keeps quiet because he doesn’t want to admit that his Plan B is to run back to his parents’ house and bag groceries.

“Which UT did you graduate from?” Jensen asks with his eyes right on Jared.

“Austin.”

“Nice,” he nods. “I went there for two years then transferred to Arlington.”

Jared makes a face because for all that he’s read about the Paranormal Investigators (and Jensen, especially), he’d never seen that anywhere. Jensen’s back-story is a little less normal and lot more … paranormally enhanced, if the show’s opening is anything to believe. Jensen’s voiceover always claims that he started filming the supernatural because of his own encounter.

“Really?” Jared asks slowly.

“Yeah. I had this shitty ‘mentor’,” he says, complete with air quotes, “who wouldn’t let me enter my film into the festival because it was ‘incendiary’.”

“Really?” Jared asks again, but he’s more interested than confused. Jensen openly chatting about his time in college, with such an easy and friendly demeanor, is intriguing.

“You ever hear of Wexler? Is he still there?”

“Oh, my God, yeah,” he says quickly. “He was my advisor freshman year.”

“And an asshole.”

“Total asshole,” Jared agrees with a laugh. “He moved me out of the A/V labs because I let a student edit her midterm doc about the LGBT group on campus.”

Jensen smiles and nods. “That sounds like him.”

Jared nods in agreement, adding, “I had Evans sophomore year and she got me back in.”

“Yeah, Evans was a cool one. Did you ever submit to the Austin Festival?”

“No, but I worked on a friend’s film.” The last five minutes have built Jared back up for what he brings to the table, but he’s deflated a bit to have to admit he’s never actually produced his own films. “It was called The Big Crowd. She submitted a few years ago and got some good reviews.”

Jensen’s eyes widen then he chuckles. “Are you kidding me? The one with the college students all over the playground?”

He chuckles with Jensen, remembering Sandy’s playful turn on college cliques as kids at the park. “Yeah, that one.”

“It was real funny,” Jensen says with a nod. “And the editing was tight.”

Jared’s breath catches with the compliment and he slowly smiles. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Jensen glances back at the building then gives Jared an awkward smile. “Look, I know those guys are huge dicks, but you watch the show. Are you really surprised?”

“I guess not.” Jared frowns, hating the fact that they went from bonding over their film histories to reliving Jared’s crash and burn.

“We’ve all got a bit of dick in us-”

Chad snorts and Jared cringes at the joke just waiting to be said. Thankfully, Chad stays quiet otherwise, and Jensen shoots them an amused smile.

“And you kinda have to be that way on the show. It’s sort of our style.”

Jared smiles a little. That’s another thing he enjoys about the show; they never take themselves as seriously as most ghost shows out there. “Yeah, I know.”

“Why’d you come out here? Why’d you wanna audition?”

“Because I like the show,” he says with more strength in his voice, defending himself. “And I love filming and producing. I thought it was a good fit.”

“What do you like about filming?”

Jared smiles as he thinks about all the work he did in college. “Catching things on film, getting those quick moments that aren’t always planned, but work. I like experiencing something being created, the planning and all the happy accidents you find. And at the end, I had a part of it.”

“You said you’re not working … What’re you gonna do when you go home?”

It suddenly feels like the kind of interview he should have gotten twenty minutes ago. It sucks that he lost that chance and now Jensen’s asking when it doesn’t matter anymore, when no one else is around to hear it. He shrugs and sighs. “Get a job.”

“You have one lined up?” Jensen asks with strange interest.

“No,” he admits quietly. “But I gotta do something.”

Jensen nods and stands up straight for the first time since he showed up. He pulls a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and opens it up to read for quiet moments. “You ever been to California before?”

“It’s my first time.” Jared chuckles to make it more of a joke than a pathetic fact.

“Is this your cell or home number?” Jensen asks, eyes still on the paper.

Jared sits up to see it’s his application and he can’t believe they didn’t destroy it the second he stepped out of that room or that Jensen Ackles, his crush and TV idol, held onto it for this long. “My cell...”

Jensen folds the paper up and stuffs it back into his jeans then slaps Jared’s shoulder with a slick smile. “Stick around a day or two. See the ocean or something. Don’t waste your first time here, yeah?”

Jared fumbles with something to say, but Jensen doesn’t spend another second with them, walking right back to the building with a tall, bald man at his side, a security guy Jared had seen inside. Chad leans over Jared and they watch Jensen stroll up the lawn, getting stopped for photos and autographs on the way, and neither seems to breathe until Jensen’s inside and out of sight.

“Holy shit,” Jared murmurs.

“That was kinda awesome,” Chad whispers, still in Jared’s space to watch the building. “You two totally geeked together.”

“That was mega awesome,” Jared murmurs.

“Now what?”

Jared grins. “Let’s go see the ocean.”


* * *

They see the water, walking along sand and swimming through dusk. After a change of clothes, they hit a dive bar where they befriend a pair playing darts in the corner, and then spend most of their night trying to beat the guys in Cricket and drinking. It’s not a fantasy style vacation, but it’s a fun getaway with his best friend and the hope of dreams coming true hanging in the background.

In the morning, plagued with hangovers and a 20-some-hour drive ahead of them, they hit the road. And just like the last two days, Jared stares at his phone and waits for it to ring. But it doesn’t.

At least not until he’s back home Monday afternoon, and of course it happens in the middle of a fight with Megan over who ate the last chocolate snack cake because she is a pest.

He clicks his cell on as she yells, “You stuffed it down your big fat mouth!”

“I did not!” he yells back before bringing the phone up to his ear.

“Maybe your boyfriend did then!”

Jared rolls his eyes at the fact that she defaults to calling Chad his boyfriend, like it’s insulting after all these years. “Maybe you can kiss my ass,” he grumbles at her. Then he stalls when there’s laughter coming through the phone. “Hello?”

“Jared? Jared Padalecki?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Jensen Ackles. I’m assuming you’re not still in town?”

“Uh, yeah,” he says, fully embarrassed. “I mean, no, I’m not still in town. I’m back home.”

“I was hoping you weren’t having that kind of fight with a stranger out here. That’s no way to make friends.”

Jared chuckles to himself and cringes. He’s been doing that a lot lately when it comes to this situation. He’s not proud of it. “Um, no, that’s my horrible sister.”

“Your face is horrible,” she complains right at his side.

He elbows Megan away and glares at her. “So, how are you?” he asks Jensen.

“I’m doing pretty good. I meant to call you earlier, but we got all tied up with the auditions this weekend.”

He frowns and imagines Jensen’s that not calling for any good reason if he’s still talking about more auditions. “Yeah, of course. I can imagine,” he mumbles.

Or maybe he’s calling because he liked Jared, like how Jared likes him … and okay, that ramps Jared’s heart rate right up no matter how stupid the idea really is.

Megan leans in and yells, “I can imagine your face stuffed with cake!”

Jared flushes in anger and presses the cell against his chest to not be heard by Jensen. He glares at her and slowly grits out, “You get outta mah face right now, or so help me God, I’mma tell Dad you been drivin’ without your permit.”

As Daddy’s Little Girl, that gets her moving immediately. He takes a deep breath and brings his phone back up, praying Jensen’s hard of hearing and missed all of that, and trying like hell to get his temper back in check.

“Whoo-boy,” Jensen says following a whistle. “You’ve got a good lick of Texas in you.”

He clears his throat, hoping to free up the angry drawl that slips on occasion. “Sorry about that,” he insists with some brightness, thankful Jensen can’t see him blush.

“No, I know. Little sisters are the worst,” Jensen laughs.

Jared moans. “You have no idea.”

“Well, good thing you don’t have to deal with her anymore, right?”

He goes quiet as he thinks it over, because he’s certain the second he’s off the phone, Megan will pounce again.

“You know,” Jensen says slowly. “When you’re jumping around the country.”

After a few seconds, Jared mumbles, “I don’t understand.”

Jensen laughs and it sounds mocking, but he eases the sting when he says, “Jared, you’re in.”

“Holy shit!”


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