Chapter Four
Romy kept a death grip on Tanner’s hand as they stepped into the tunnel. The door slammed shut behind them. “They trapped us in here!”
“Just till we solve it,” Tanner said. “Remember, they trapped us in the last room.”
“But the last room had some light! We’re seriously supposed to find our way out of here with nothing to help us see?”
“I am here, and I’m going to help.” Tanner’s voice was totally calm, and she was finding that all kinds of attractive. He said, “I’m moving forward. Two steps. Three, four.”
“You don’t have to narrate your every move.”
“I was trained to do that,” he explained. “When we went in anywhere on a mission, we kept in contact and said what we were all doing.”
“So everyone knew where their team was?”
“Partly. But it also keeps you from panicking if shit goes sideways. By saying out loud what your body is doing, it tricks your brain into thinking that the situation hasn’t gone completely haywire.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”
They kept moving. Tanner’s narration calmed her down.
The tunnel was evidently a sort of maze, because they would find themselves walking into dead ends, sudden stops, and odd loops that spat them out to a juncture they’d been before.
The maze wasn’t 100% dark: there’d be sudden strobes, or a brief faint light in a corner, just enough to make them wish for more light, real light, any light.
Then Romy felt a hand brush by her: cold, but grasping, pausing just long enough to caress her upper arm.
She screamed.
“Romy. I got you. It’s okay.” He stopped moving and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “What happened?”
“Someone touched me. Not you. Fuck, there’s someone else here!”
“Touched you where?”
“My arm. My right arm.” The arm on the opposite side of Tanner, who’d been holding her left hand.
“How long?”
“Like, two seconds. But it felt longer.” Too long. How could an invisible touch feel like a violation? “I want to go home.”
“I’ll get you home, Romy. Just breathe, okay?”
After a minute, she got herself together enough to keep walking. After about ten feet, she stepped on something soft. She screamed again.
Tanner stopped moving again. “What happened, Romy? Talk to me.” His voice was calm and even.
“I stepped on something. Squishy. Oh, god.”
“Still there?”
“Ugh, yes.”
“Don’t move your foot.”
He knelt down, his hand gliding very lightly down her side and then her leg to her foot.
“Is it there? What is it?” she asked, wishing she didn’t want to know.
“Not sure.” He straightened up.
Just then, a burst of strobes illuminated the space, and she looked down to see what she’d stepped on.
A hand. A rubbery, fake prop hand.
The strobes stopped, and the darkness took over again, but pierced with a high cackling laugh, like an insane clown.
Romy put her hands over her ears, and told herself not to burst into tears.
Then Tanner said, “It’s over. No more clowns.”
“Fuck all of this,” was her eloquent response. She was pretty sure she was crying.
“The hand must have been on a string or something, and you brushed by it.”
Romy nodded, even though she didn’t believe it.
“You don’t seem convinced,” he said.
“I… don’t know. It couldn’t really be a person, right? We’re not in the active part of the park. This shouldn’t be happening. Maybe it was just… a prop.”
“You know what?” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
And then Tanner just started kicking the walls down. After Romy got over the shock, she decided it was a violence she could get behind, because these walls sucked.
Like, they were stucco over Styrofoam, and as soon as Tanner knocked a few down, the whole maze idea just fell apart. Romy joined him, despite her inadequate footwear.
It didn’t take long to find a solid wall that marked the perimeter of what seemed to be a large warehouse-type space. They then found a way to the exit with direct foot-on-wall violence that Romy found very cathartic.
At the end, they found themselves in a fake cavern, with one side open to the outdoors. There was a counter in the middle of the space, stuccoed over to mimic rock.
Romy took a huge breath. “Oh, my god, I was going to have a heart attack in there.”
He shook his head. “You did fine.”
“The hand. When that voice started laughing… I might still have a heart attack.”
“You can hike to the top of a mountain, so your heart is obviously in great shape.” He reached over and just folded her in a hug, which felt so insanely good.
Still, Romy made a little groaning, growling sound of frustration. “I hate the dark. I hate scary things. I hate all of this. Not you, obviously.”
“Thank you.”
She looked up at him. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re kind of awesome?” she asked.
“Not lately,” he murmured. “Why? You got something to say?”
“Not exactly.” She took a breath, and then stretched up to kiss him.
“Hey,” he said, pulling back at the last second. “Didn’t you say you were, um, attached?”
“I’m unattaching myself the next time I see him.”
“Uh-huh. Heard that before.”
“Hey, it’s just a kiss. I’m not asking you to marry me.”
“That’d be a little quick,” he agreed. He dipped his head. “I guess a kiss won’t kill me.”
Romy licked her lips, but then a light beamed down on the counter, blinding them with the sudden brightness before anything good could happen.
“Gah,” she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut. Talk about a mood killer.
“I hate this place,” Tanner growled, letting her go.
Romy blinked several times, then walked to the illuminated counter. “Are we supposed to do something?”
Set into the counter was a panel of buttons, like an old-time arcade video game. She started jabbing the buttons at random. A box popped open in the side of the counter, and Romy cautiously reached in. She pulled out two flashlights. “Aw, yeah!” she said, grinning.
“Check that they work,” Tanner advised.
She clicked one on, and the flash was almost blinding. She quickly turned it off, then tested the other. It worked too, though it was less bright. She kept it on and directed the beam to the floor until their eyes adjusted.
“At least we got a flashlight,” Tanner said.
“We got two!”
“Two is one, one is none,” he replied. “We have one flashlight and one backup, and I wouldn’t be too sure of either. It’s Halloween tonight, and the park’s been open since mid-September. I doubt they’re doling out fresh batteries on the final weekend.”
“You’re a real optimist.”
“Optimists don’t do well in the army. I’m a realist.” He’d been examining the stand where the flashlights were stored, and now he knelt down, reaching past a heavy curtain. He pulled out something soft and bulky. “Shine the light here.”
Romy illuminated what he was holding: a black hoodie emblazoned with silhouettes of zombies and vampires and the message I SURVIVED HELLGATE HOLLOW on the back.
“It looks warm. Too small for me,” he said. “You want it?”
“I can’t wear merch I didn’t pay for.”
“You can give it back when we leave.”
Romy took off Tanner’s jacket and put on the hoodie. It was new and fuzzy, but it lacked the comforting hot cocoa smell of his jacket. But he was probably getting cold too.
“Here you go. Thanks for the loan.”
He nodded as he put the jacket back on. She saw the name label for the first time: SALEM.
“Like the town?” she asked.
He looked confused, then realized what she meant. “Yeah, exactly like the town. My family’s got some roots there.”
“How spooky.”
“You have no idea.”