29
After the last of the overnight shoots, Liam dismisses their car and tells Alex they’re going for a walk. Alex is dismayed, but Liam seems to have a plan. He heads off down the street, giving Alex the opportunity to follow. Alex goes. There’s something compelling about the offer.
Liam smiles when Alex falls in beside him, then starts talking. He narrates less what they pass than what Liam says Alex should do if he can find the time.
“Everything is haunted,” he says. “And most of it doesn’t want you here.”
“I’m not really a believer,” Alex says.
“In what?” Liam counters.
“Monsters. Ghosts. Astrology. Magic.” Or God or anything else requiring belief. Religion has always been physically dangerous to Alex, a closeted gay kid with no father in the worst town in Indiana. Too many people
