Why touch me, if not to feel me? {discontinued}

Chapter 4: The night-date

"So, it's night time. Please tell me where we're going." I plead to Alex. It's night, it's cold, it's scary. I shiver. Alex sees me and starts taking off his jacket. "No! If you take your jacket off you'll be cold." I state.

He ignores me and puts it on me anyway. "I'll be fine, although I'd be warmer if I could do this," He smiles, putting his arm around my waist under his jacket. We end up huddling together.

"Thank you." I admit, I'm a lot warmer now and it might not be all down to the jacket. "But, where are we going?"

He looks at me and I look at him. He stays silent. 'Please' I mouth to him. He nods and says, "Ghost hunting."

I stop in my tracks, making him swivel on his heel and stop in front of me. "What?" I smile, an excited buzz encasing me.

"You alright with that?" He asks, studying my face and putting his other hand around my waist to link with his other one.

"Very much!" I beam. I wrap my arms around him, let go and start walking. He keeps one arm around me as we walk. "I've always wanted to, but I never had anyone to go with to protect me."

Alex raises his eyebrow at me, "You believe in ghosts?"

"Yeah! Of course. I feel like there's too much unexplained evidence to call it all fake." I explain, walking alongside Alex.

We're getting to a desolate street that looks quite dodgy and I cling onto Alex a little tighter. The houses are unkempt and lonely. They are all packed close together giving a sense that they have a pack mentality. They loom over as, passing shadows from the low lit street lamps. It's hard not to feel threatened; it's like it's fallen out of Jekyll and Hyde.

"Scared?" Alex whispers close to my ear. He pulls me ever closer, comforting me.

"A little," I admit. I push my face to his chest as we walk further.

He breathes a laugh, "No need, I'm here. I'll protect you."

A few minutes later, we reach a corner that turns down a by street. As we turn it, a man catches my eye. A sharp inhale of breath from me takes me by surprise. I take a tighter hold of Alex, making him aware that I'm worried about the strange man. He's tall and has slicked back hair and an overall bad guy vibe.

"Hey, Jamie!" Alex says when we've edged closer to the man. I'm less nervous now that I know he's familiar to Alex, but I'm still confused. "This is Persephone."

"The girl you were talking about?" Jamie asks, looking me over and smiling softly.

Alex completely skips over it and goes straight to, "You got your key?" He says to Jamie.

Jamie nods and unlocks the door. Alex leads me through the door while Jamie follows behind. Every scene from a horror film where someone is led somewhere scary flashes through my mind all at once. 'This is dodgy' says the logical side of my brain. But my gut instinct says that I'm safe.

"Jamie owns this place. It used to be a voodoo temple and then it was rented out and—," Alex starts his story.

"And then a couple lived here and the boyfriend killed the girlfriend and chopped her up." I grimaced. "And hid her body parts all over this place, in the oven, in the fridge..." He whispers the next part. "It could even be right under your—," He slams his hands into my shoulders and yells, "Feet!" Which makes me jump and scream a little. Alex chuckles and squeezes me to him then let's me go.

"So yeah..." Alex continues. "People think that it's haunted. I don't see it, but I know Matt believes in it so I thought you might as well. I was right."