66. Tess
TESS
I hated to admit it, but with the new dance studio in place, I was really starting to feel at home at Feverpoint. For maybe the first time in my life, I was able to have a routine. The daily exercise helped me clear my head.
Plus, it gave me an excuse to spend more time out of the apartment.
The carousel was at the heart of the park, just one section over from the fake jungle the Freaks called home. But I made a point of taking a longer route, jogging through a new section every day as a warm up for my dancing.
Today, Stellar Station was my stomping grounds.
As my feet pounded the pavement, I scoped out the space setting for potential hiding spots.
They were a lot easier to see in the light of day: a few deeper pockets in the crater field where I might be able to hide, the darkened tunnels of the Alien Assault ride.
If I could just memorize a few spots in each sector, I might be able to find my way back to them once the adrenaline of the hunt set in. With each jog, I felt better and better about my odds in the next Fright Night.
I’ll get my money, and then I can finally decide what I want to do.
The prospect of getting to choose my own fate still felt foreign to me. All my life I’d been shuttled around to where other people thought was best for me or left to make due with the crumbs off someone else’s table.
But $40k… I could do anything with that. And for the first time in my life, I actually had no clue what I wanted.
My mind changed all the time. A few weeks ago, I was set on milking this game for all the money it was worth. And after the run-in with Rubin, I promised myself I would take the money and run. But now, I just felt conflicted.
Sure, the Freaks had lied to me about who they were. But so had I.
And Blade and Nash made it easy to forgive their transgressions. It wasn’t just the grand gestures, though those certainly helped. It was the fact that they both kept showing up every day, taking care of me even when I could hardly look at them, apologizing until I finally believed it.
I didn’t trust easily. But they were willing to put in the work. And that counted for a lot.
Cyrus on the other hand…
A shiver ran down my spine. Just the thought of her made me want to turn around and run straight out of the park. I had no idea what weird grudge she had against me, but I wasn’t interested in finding out — especially not during Fright Night.
The other two liked to torture me, but Cyrus was a different beast entirely. She came into every hunt with such rage that I feared she might truly kill me. She’d gotten far too close for my liking already.
I’d take getting captured by Blade or Nash over Cyrus’ sick, twisted plans any day.
Steadying my breath, I banished all thoughts of her from my mind. I needed to focus on my list of hiding spots instead: the craters, the shooter, and the big rocket at the center of Stellar Station.
I let the list repeat in my head, mentally walking myself through the path to those hiding spots as I finally reached the carousel. I couldn’t afford to let Cyrus fuck with my head. She did that enough on her own.
But as I entered the dance studio, all other concerns fell away. Dance had a way of doing that. The pole was sacred to me. And even she couldn’t touch that.
After a quick stretch, I pulled off my cover layers and started to take some warm up spins. I thought over what music I wanted today, what it was that my body needed.
But just as I was starting to lean into the momentum, letting the pole lead my motion, the door opened. A burst of cool air nearly startled me off the pole as a dark shadow filled the doorway.
I planted my feet on the ground, whipping my head around to see Cyrus standing in my dance studio. She was a mountain: sharp, rocky edges that seemed like they might shatter the glass dome with a single touch.
And as her eyes flicked up and down at me, only one word escaped her disapproving lips. “Dance.”