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The house looks unassuming, as most of them do from the outside.
The house looks unassuming, and yet no one has lived in it for longer than a year since 1943, when it played home to a team of baseball players during the war. Of course, those players had left it with the same reports it had received from a few centuries of tenants - the house is haunted.
Each year, the gossip stirs of oddities, from the attic, through two floors, to the basement. The rumors are of the sound of footsteps through the halls in the middle of the night. The shape of shadowed figures in empty rooms that disappear in the blink of an eye. Issues with the electrical wiring, and the plumbing. Stories of hauntings shape the house as much as the build of it.
Jess McCready, paranormal investigator, thinks that the rumors might have legs to stand on. Lupe García, paranormal investigator, thinks they do not.
But they stand outside of it, taking in the front face while the daylight still touches it. It’s a nice build. Jess likes how it looks, and likes the idea that if they can solve the problem here, it will be livable again.
They stare up at it, wondering if the front will give anything away. They look in the windows for the curious twitches of curtains. They look for any motion in the wood that forms the house. They look for signs that it’s beating with a heart that doesn’t belong anymore. And for a moment, nothing.
“Oh, fuck,” Lupe says behind them. Jess whirls around in time to see the tripod fall over, camera and all. Luckily, Lupe lunges and scoops the camera from the air before it crashes, which makes Jess raise an eyebrow at her, because Lupe hadn’t been anywhere near it when it started falling - and Jess hadn’t either.
Lupe resets the camera carefully, mounting the tripod firmly so it won’t fall again. Not without a push, anyway. Then Lupe looks up, sees Jess’s curious stare, and scowls.
“It’s not a ghost.”
Lupe says this the way she always does, confident and certain. It’s one of the things Jess loves about her, even though Lupe is completely and utterly incorrect. Ghosts are real, and one of these days, Jess is going to prove it to her.
EstiCam3: 21:10 10312023
A tall blonde butch, with their hair in a braid and a smile that shows all their teeth, sits in front of the camera. They look at the person rolling footage, unseen by the viewers. Jess is wearing a button down, plaid, unbuttoned down the front to show off a white undershirt. They often dress like this, showing skin. A mirror of Lupe. Around their neck is a silver chain, and on the end of it, a cross. Jess isn’t religious, but they’re often curious about the imagery and how it stands in the in-between places.
Jess makes themself comfortable on their chair, nods at the camera. Behind it, someone coughs - a nudge for Jess. On that cue, they run their mic test: “1, 2, check.” Mic is sound.
Camera subject, full name Jess McCready and henceforth referred to as Jess, begins to speak.
“My name is Jess,” they say. “I’m one half of a very popular pair of internet ghost hunters. Esti hates when I say that, so I’ll be nice and start over. I’m Jess McCready, from the successful paranormal investigator agency B.O.O.! My partner and I check out buildings with histories of paranormal activity, and see what we can find out about the houses, the hauntings, and the horrors.”
This, of course, is their usual intro to the show. This clip is recut every time, in front of a new scene for the episode. The house frames Jess, its mysterious and looming presence a perfect contrast to Jess’s familiar ease.
“Lu and I will be spending the night here in Rockford, Illinois, and you’ll be joining us for the next twelve hours. She’s not so easily convinced about the hauntings we see, but I keep trying to get her to believe. We met several years ago, and this ghost journey, as well as B.O.O.! have been interwoven with our relationship.”
Jess stands up, and starts moving towards the entry of the house. They take the stairs two at a time, turning to face the camera for their favorite line.
“You could say the ghosts came, and the love followed,” they say, a dreamy look in their eyes.
From off camera, laughing is heard. Jess is joined by another butch woman, this one with a dark head of curls and a little shorter than Jess. She’s wearing a similar outfit, flannel and jeans apparently a staple in the paranormal field. This is Jess’s partner, and the love of their life, Guadalupe “Lupe” García.
“Don’t listen to them,” she corrects. “We fell in love first. The ghosts came later.”
It doesn’t take much longer to set up the equipment for the rest of the night. They unload and test boom mics and cameras, EMF readers, infrared lenses and heat sensors. Jess likes their spirit box too, even though every time they turn it on, Lupe rolls her eyes and goes on about trucker frequency.
“And I worked as a trucker once,” she says, jabbing a finger into Jess’s chest. “I know how often those frequencies cut into each other.”
Jess just laughs. “Sounds like you were a haunted trucker,” they say.
It’s this exact dynamic, the believer and the skeptic, that has skyrocketed them into internet fame. B.O.O.!, or the Butch Organization for the Occult, is a pop culture sensation. Lupe came up with the name. Esti added the exclamation point.
And where would they be without their bright Gen-Z voice of reason found in Esti González. Neither Jess, nor Lupe, is particularly geared towards viral popularity, but Esti, who edits all of their footage, has an eye for picking out exactly what moments in their ghost-hunting forays are going to churn out hits. She’s also got an ear for their banter, picking out exactly what phrases will become mantras for their fans.
Jess hates that sort of fan culture, they won’t lie. But they don’t hate that it pays the bills and they don’t hate driving their girlfriend nuts with their solid belief in the supernatural. Lupe is steadfastly in the other camp: there is no life after death, and it certainly won’t be found in the houses they investigate.
Jess sometimes thinks that Lupe could go either way on the ghosts, but she definitely doesn’t believe the people who call them for help. Lupe says firmly and often that just about every call they get is for people who live in houses with old bones. City folk who don’t know the sound of wood settling and the drafty cold of poor insulation, then conflate it with a haunting.
Jess is inclined to agree, most of the time, but that doesn’t make for good content. They talk the hauntings up even when they know it’s the house settling, because that’s how the show works. But not so many of their encounters are with what Jess would consider real ghosts.
EstiCam6: 23:47 10312023
Jess and Lupe move through the basement. It’s clear that this is the most dilapidated room in the house, and the one most likely to have a haunting. There’s a weak light overhead, but its flicker seems likely to give out at any time. A strong smell of mothballs and mildew pervades the air. The walls are crumbling, the floor feels - squishy?
Jess looks delighted. Lupe looks apprehensive.
“This is disgusting,” she says, dragging her feet on the floor. “There’s no ghosts here, though, this is just what happens when you have old houses.”
“Old houses have wear,” Jess agrees. We all hear the but coming. “But they can also have presences that are tuned into that age and memory.”
“Nope,” says Lupe.
Jess shouts suddenly. “Did you see that?”
EstiCam6 does see it, actually. There’s a sudden movement in the corner where the lens can just barely catch it. Lupe, of course, does not see it.
“What, did something move?”
“Yeah,” Jess grins. “Something translucent. Something not of this world.”
“Reflection,” says Lupe. “The cameras will prove it.”
The cameras will not prove anything. The cameras rarely prove anything in either direction. They document anything that happens, but they do not answer the question of what.
That’s what our paranormal investigators are for.
“Let me know if you find anything interesting,” Lupe says. “Records, anything about the history of the house. Items that can pin any residents to a timeline here.”
Jess nods, gives Lupe a wave of their hand. The paperwork is just as important to their cases as the footage of supernatural phenomena. Mostly, they like it when fun things happen on camera, but most of the answers of the undead are found in land deeds and old newspapers.
The first thing Lupe finds is a box of old papers. She starts to unload it, to identify its contents and smack a sticky note on the whole box when it starts shaking. Lupe jumps back with a yelp, moving out of the way.
“That’s moving,” she yells to Jess, who is at the box in a heartbeat, pawing through it to find: a small family of mice living at the bottom of the box, among shreds of chewed up paper.
“Look, they’re babies,” Jess says. “We woke them up.”
They set the box down again, and peer into it, letting the little creatures be without startling them. Jess uses one of the handheld video cameras to zoom in on the mice, then points it at Lupe.
Lupe cocks her head at the camera and shrugs. “Now we’ve seen it all, haven’t we?”
And Jess would know a real encounter when it happened.
It’s one of the things they first tell Lupe about when they meet. Jess’s mother had been in the grave only a few months when fourteen-year old Jess had started seeing her outside their bedroom window. It’s this story they tell Lupe twenty years later, at a bar, with a beer in hand and Lupe’s fingers a welcome weight on their knee.
“I’ve believed in them ever since,” Jess tells Lupe long before they even start the show, before they make names for themselves as paranormal investigators. “I saw her so many nights, trailing through the forest, disappearing into the trees. And I tried to chase her, sometimes. She’d be wearing this long nightgown, I recognized it from when she was living. The moon reflected off of it, and if I chased her, I should have been able to catch her. But she was always gone when I got outside.”
It’s a quiet memory, one that doesn’t come up for Jess to share with other people. Especially on a first date. But there’s something about Lupe, about the way she meets Jess’s eyes evenly. How she listens to everything Jess says about losing their mother.
“And that’s why I know there’s something,” Jess says. “I’ve seen it. And I want to keep chasing it, someday.”
Lupe, to her credit, never questions the story of Jess seeing her mother. Even if she doesn’t believe in ghosts. Instead, she says, “In Mexican culture there’s this folkólrica of a woman in a white dress, la Llorona. She walks in the night and wails for a child she lost, that she might have drowned. Seeing her, it’s practically a Mexican rite of passage for anyone living near the river. Sounds a lot like you seeing your mother.”
Jess takes Lupe home that night, invites her into their bed and lights their fingers on every inch of her body. Lupe returns the favor with enthusiasm, and from that moment on, they’re Jess and Lupe, good friends, and best lovers. A few years down the line, they’ll add ghost hunting partners to their list of connections.
EstiCam6: 23:59 10312023
Twelve minutes of footage elapse as they turn over all the items in the basement, examine the walling, explore the space while knocking cobwebs out of the way. Lupe is just as sour about spiders as she is grumpy about ghosts. There are lots of spiders.
Among the purportedly possessed items in the home’s storage are one large cracked mirror, several boxes of clothing belonging to deceased house members over the decades, journals, and relics that wouldn’t get a second glance at an estate sale.
Lupe thumbs through it all. She avoids the area where Jess saw the reflection, because she knows if there are ghosts she doesn’t want to be in their way.
Jess, on the other hand, welcomes the spirits to make friends with them.
“Oh, ghosties!” They call out. “I’m looking for any of you, just one of you, to cause a little trouble with us tonight!”
Lupe groans.
“You’re a menace,” she says, tapping Jess on the shoulder.
“And you love me for it,” Jess says.
Lupe shakes her head with a laugh, because it’s true. She tilts Jess’s head towards her, one finger on their chin, so she can press a kiss to Jess’s mouth.
Jess is warm, alive, blood pumping, heart beating, everything Lupe wants them to be. She laces her fingers in the collar of Jess’s shirt.
“What if,” Lupe says, soft, just outside of the cameras. “You and I go back to the hotel and spend the night in our own bed. I’ll show you how much I love you. And the ghosts will stay right here until tomorrow.”
She kisses Jess again, and this time it’s hotter, headier. Jess follows her lead eagerly. For a few minutes, the only thing the camera picks up is how their tongues slip over each other, how the kisses sound wet and thorough.
Then, an antique candlestick falls over on the other side of the room. They’re the only ones in the house tonight, and neither of them could have done that.
Jess groans, but there’s a sparkle in their eyes. Either way, they get an adventure.
“Tomorrow,” they promise. “You, me, and a hotel bath and that double ender between us until we can’t take it anymore.” They say. Esti will yell at them next week, when she cuts the footage, but that’s okay.
“Tomorrow,” Lupe repeats fondly. “I look forward to it. In the meantime, you better get to catching me a ghost, McCready.”
At first, they don’t know how to make B.O.O.! stick. It’s a weird premise, and there’s not a lot of space for butches in pop media, especially one who’s nonbinary. They film the first few episodes and upload them to YouTube mostly just to see if they can.
It goes off without a hitch, but it’s not great, which is how they end up with a video editing intern; that is to say a seventeen year old with Photoshop skills. Esti is the turning point for their content, and she’s the first one who looks at them, looks at their footage, and says, “Oh. It’s a love story.”
That’s what makes their content different from anyone else’s, Jess likes to think. So much of B.O.O.! is about their love for Lupe, and how Lupe returns it. Why else would Lupe follow them across the country, from haunted house to haunted house? They spend nights awake and waiting for the smallest of circumstances to align; a creak on the floor, a brush of air against their skin.
Lupe does it for them, again, and again.
This, Jess thinks, is the secret to a good relationship. Lupe doesn’t believe in ghosts. But Lupe believes in Jess, and Lupe believes in them.
EstiCam15: 01:19 11012023
They haven’t been lying in bed for too long when Jess shoots up suddenly.
“Did you see that?” Jess says.
“Fuck, did I,” Lupe answers. She’s right behind them.
It’s not entirely dark in the second bedroom. This is one of the prime activity spots reported by the owners, and that’s why they’ve chosen to settle down in it. Jess is awake, excited. Lupe is awake, grouchy.
“Oh, you actually saw that one,” Jess shoves at Lupe’s shoulder.
“Yeah, and I’m heading downstairs,” Lupe says, collecting the comforter around her shoulders. “I may not believe in ghosts or anything but I know when the dolls in the houses of these middle class white people start turning to look at you while you sleep, you’re in trouble.”
Jess lets out a laugh. Their voice is high, musical. They follow Lupe downstairs with a pillow. Off camera, their voices can still be heard.
“Come on, you don’t want to play with Annabelle?” Jess teases.
Lupe swears. A lot. This language has been edited from the tape because some of our younger viewers don’t need the vocabulary lesson.
In the bedroom, there is a shelf with a line of dolls on it. They’re just out of reach of a small child, placed for a display more than anything. In the stillness of the empty room, it’s even more noticeable when one of them falls forward, just a little.
They have a ritual after each case finishes. They leave the house, the cameras turned off and put away, the doors locked, and usually as they get into the car, Lupe will turn to Jess, and ask, "Real?"
When she first asks, it comes as a surprise to Jess. They'd always found Lupe to be perfectly tied to her role as the skeptic, and hadn't expected that she would want Jess's opinions on the houses.
And the first time Lupe asks, Jess knows they’re in love.
“So, you’re more attuned to these things than I am,” she says, nudging Jess a little. “Was that one real?”
“Real?” Jess asks.
“Yeah,” says Lupe. “Sometimes I can tell when you’re playing the believer up. When it doesn’t actually feel possible to you. And sometimes you really think the house is haunted. I couldn’t tell this time, so I figured I’d ask. Was that one real to you?”
The way she phrases it is so perfect that Jess has to kiss her. Lupe is soft about this, letting Jess believe in the supernatural even if she doesn’t. And on camera, she never shows that. She carries the beloved persona of being too cool for believing in ghosts but privately, she trusts Jess’s opinions.
It just about melts them, hearing that.
“So?” Lupe prompts.
Jess shakes their head.
“Not that one.”
EstiCam7: 01:20 11012023
“You want to settle down here?”
“There’s no creepy dolls keeping me awake here, Jess,” Lupe says.
“The couch can’t be that comfortable, babe,” Jess answers. Lupe has already snatched the pillow from Jess and laid it at one end of the couch. She hops onto the couch, which creaks under her weight - or is that just another ghost?
“I’ve got a body pillow,” Lupe says, and pulls them down onto the couch with her.
Jess lets out a yelp, but nestles into Lupe easily. It’s here they’ll make their bed for the rest of the night, and it feels good to be close. They’re entirely aware of the cameras around them, despite Lupe’s urge to slip her hand into Jess’s boxers and stroke them.
Her fingers twitch for it, against Jess’s skin. Jess groans, like they know the thoughts running through Lupe’s mind. They do, of course, know what it feels like when Lupe wants to tempt herself on them.
She knows Jess would be so receptive to it. There’s something about the thrill of the ghost that gets Jess’s adrenaline going, and gets them wet. But they don’t touch each other while Esti is in charge of the footage. They find blind spots in the corners of the houses they stay in, get lost in the rooms with no cameras.
The living room, though, is not one of them.
So Lupe settles for tucking her hand against the sharp bone of Jess’s hip, and falls asleep with her face in Jess’s neck.
Outside of the ghosts, they have a robust life together. B.O.O.! forms a few years after they start dating, and are well settled into what it meant to love each other. B.O.O.! runs for seven years, a lucky number, and they only part ways with it when they are truly ready to move on.
Their life, despite being mixed in with spirits and paranormal experiences, still has time for date nights, and vacations. The ghosts don't take over their day to day, and they don't take the work home with them. They're lucky, in that way.
Jess finds themself considering what it means to be lucky a lot. Lupe, they think, is a sign of it. She's perfect for Jess, and everything she's brought with her has enriched Jess's life. They're going to get married, Jess knows. They're going to be lifers.
Lupe finds herself considering what it means to be lucky a lot. Jess, she thinks, is the truest thing she's ever had. She wants to marry Jess, and if it makes Jess happy, they can have all the ghost guests at their wedding that Jess could ever want.
It's never been a ghost story, between them, even when it looks like it. Lupe doesn't believe in ghosts anyway. It's always been something else.
EstiCam7: 03:33 11012023
Jess wakes up only a couple hours later, and they’re careful not to disturb Lupe as she sleeps. But they can’t help but feel the uneasy sensation of being watched. Slowly, they stretch awake, taking in the room around them.
As they do, Jess pays close attention to the shadows, and the things that could be lurking within them. That’s the trick to ghost hunting, they’ve always known that. Always looking for the hidden. Their eyes sweep the room, slow and thorough.
Then, they see it. One of the shadows moves, detaches itself from the wall. It takes a step towards them.
Jess clutches Lupe a little, and stares the ghost down. They really don’t want Lupe to wake up, not for this. But Jess has never shown a ghost fear before.
They jerk their head towards the door. The spirit turns.
Jess wants to shoo it away, but won’t make a noise. And they know later, when Esti goes over the footage, it’ll be too dark to see this. But there is something, there, watching Jess and Lupe sleep. There was something in the bedroom, moving the dolls. And there was something in the basement, not just the mice.
Again and again, Jess sees the little shades of the supernatural in the houses they investigate. And Lupe never, ever does. It’s not worth waking her for a shadow that will be gone when Jess takes their eyes off of it.
So they watch, and wait for it to get bored of the living room before they can close their eyes again.
“So,” Lupe says while they pack away their equipment. Everything has its place in the back of the car, and it never takes long to put B.O.O.! away when they’re finished.
Jess knows what Lupe is going to ask, anyway. They think of the shadowed figure that had appeared in the witching hour, that only Jess had seen, they think of how peacefully Lupe had slept not knowing about it.
“Yeah, Lu?” Jess says.
“Real?” Lupe asks. “Or not?”
Jess cracks a smile. They like this woman, they like this job, they like this life. And they know that when they say this, Lupe will just grin, and keep going.
“Real,” Jess tells her, looking back at the house. It looks unassuming, and Lupe will chalk the whole night up to adrenaline and the old bones of the house. And Lupe chuckles, like Jess knew she would, and leans in to kiss them.
It doesn’t matter if the hauntings are real. Not in a love story.