Safety Has A Tail and Horns

3

Madison, as it turned out, had more than one haunted place to use to fill an episode.

"Our first stop is a place on the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus known as Bascom Hill," Ryan said to the camera, watching as TJ turned it to pan around the area.

"It's considered the heart of the campus," he continued, now to Shane. The little pieces and facts that Ryan would be giving to his cohost would be later added and explained in more detail in post.

"There's our boy Abe," Shane said, pointing at a statue of Abraham Lincoln looking over the campus and over the rest of the city. As a Midwesterner himself, Shane felt a bit at home in the slight evening chill, but at the same time, something felt a bit off.

"That area over there is the one that's claimed to be haunted, actually," Ryan said, "but the top floor of that building"-he gestured to an old structure not too far off from them-"also has some supernatural claims."

"Claims," Shane repeated. "Sounds like somebody doesn't want to admit that there's not actually anything up there."

Ryan flushed out of annoyance. "I never said that, there's just less information about that part."

"Mhm, sure."

"Anyway," Ryan said, shooting a pointed glare up in Shane's direction, "the site of the statue was the location of Madison's first graveyard, 1837 to 1846."

"Only for white settlers, though," Shane added, having done a little research into the location himself. Ryan seemed impressed.

"You usually don't do research," he said when Shane brought it up.

Shane shrugged. "I was bored."

Ryan continued to relay information as they walked near the statue, a light breeze making the branches of the trees on campus rustle. Ryan, being the believer that he was, jumped at the noise.

"It's literally just the wind, man," Shane laughed. "Just the wind rattling some good 'ol tree branches."

"You'd say that even if a demon came and smacked your weirdly proportioned body into the Lincoln statue," Ryan grumbled.

"Demons aren't real so, yeah. I would."

The lie was uncomfortably easy for Shane, just as it always had been, both pre and post-soul-losing.

"There's no demons here, anyway," Ryan said. "Just two men who walk the stairs of this place."

"Oh, wow," Shane said, playful sarcasm easing in. "Two men walking on stairs! How scary is that?"

"I can make it three," Ryan said. Shane knew it was a joke, but he couldn't keep himself from throwing a sideways glance down at Ryan to make sure his eyes were  their usual chocolate brown instead of the unnatural gold of Ricky's.

"You can't even reach anywhere that would kill me," Shane said back, trying to push down the nerves twisting in his chest.

"Asshole," Ryan said, breaking out of character and into a laugh. It was genuine and good, unlike Ricky's cold one. The difference made Shane's shoulders relax ever so slightly.

"Since there isn't much to explore here, we're gonna leave some motion sensor cameras up in this area and see if we get anything," Ryan said, changing the subject. "Stop number two and our final stop is Sanatorium Hill."

Shane only half listened as Ryan gave out information on Sanatorium Hill, which honestly could've been enough to fill an episode all on its own with how often the shorter man kept getting off topic. The nighttime cold sank into Shane's bones and he had to pull his jacket tighter around him to keep from shivering. He ran his tongue over his teeth, vaguely aware of how unnaturally pointy the canines were compared to how they had been when he was human.

The drive to Sanatorium Hill seemed even longer somehow. Shane kept finding himself distracted by the scenery of Madison, even though there wasn't much that was special about it. It was just something to keep himself occupied on something other than either Ryan's rambling or Shane's own thoughts on how he was supposed to drop his skeptic act and tell Ryan that he was doing a show with the thing he feared the most.

Shane let out a heavy, albeit inaudible, sigh. The thought of telling Ryan was heavy in his mind, but no matter how many times he rolled the idea around in his brain, he couldn't figure out a way to confess. So, instead of focusing on the dread he felt, he fell back into his act and allowed Ryan to believe for just a little longer that things were as normal as they always had been.