26. June
JUNE
The horn is like the ones used to start various races.
My ears ring. My heart pounds. My vision blurs.
And my mind races to catch up with everything that just happened.
I’ve never been an adrenaline junkie. I’m a stay-at-home, watch a movie, and maybe open a bottle of wine if I’m feeling frisky kind of girl. But this? This is something else.
“Come on!” Lexie urges. “We only have thirty seconds! Let’s move!”
If the goal is to get my adrenaline pumping, it definitely worked. Lexie’s grasp is nothing short of a death grip as she pulls me into one of the alleyways between buildings, then around a corner and out of sight from the main plaza area.
“Okay, this is insane.” Lexie laughs.
My head bobs in acknowledgment. Yeah, insane is probably an understatement.
“Where should we check first?” she asks.
With a shrug, I motion to the nearest building. Anything to get out of here as quickly as possible. Another blaring from a foghorn echoes from the main stage, and the street is blanketed in a purplish hue. We both look down at our white, glowing outfits. “Shit,” she mumbles.
“Uh-huh,” I agree. We’re like sitting ducks out here.
“Come on.” Pushing me toward the side door, we enter the dark space, grateful for the added coverage. In the room is a desk with at least five drawers. Beside it is a filing cabinet with half a dozen more. “You take the desk, I’ll take the filing cabinet,” she orders.
I get to work, rummaging through each drawer in search of a halo when someone squeals right outside. My body jumps at the sound before something clatters behind me. Clutching at my chest, I squat behind the desk as the same door we entered through squeaks open.
“You think someone’s in here?” a low voice asks.
“Pretty sure I saw one of the dancers from The Body Shop.”
“Vixen?” the first voice questions.
“Fuck, yeah,” the second one replies.
“Oh, Vixen,” the first sing-songs as the lights go out. “Gonna show me your pretty tits again?”
“Wonder if we get bonus points for painting on skin.”
They both laugh as Lexie crawls toward me. After pressing her forefinger to her lips as if to say, “be quiet,” she points toward a second door, though I have no idea where it leads. Then again, does it even matter? We need to get out of here. Stat. Why is this so freaking terrifying?
“Oh, Vixen,” the guy repeats in the same, eerie singing tone. “Come on, sexy.”
Lexie fake gags and grabs my arm, tugging me toward the door when the lights turn on.
Crap! The hinges scream in protest as she pushes it open and slams it behind us, pressing her back against the cold metal.
Yeah, there’s no way they didn’t hear that.
I wipe my sweaty palms against my jeans, and look around the purple-toned space in search of a place for us to hide or escape or, I don’t know!
Something! A shadowed set of stairs leads to a second floor, but other than that, the space is pretty bare.
It’s nothing but a stairwell. We’re locked in a freaking stairwell. “Go!” she urges.
“Not without you!”
With a frown, she searches the small stairwell before tearing off her jacket and handing one sleeve to me.
“Wrap this around that pipe,” she orders before tying a knot with the opposite sleeve around the door handle.
I fumble with the faux leather, attempting to wrap it around the pipe as fast as I can.
A loud bam reverberates through the door, and Lexie’s body surges forward, but only stops our progress for a second.
Then, we’re back to securing the door. Okay.
Okay, okay, okay, we got this. It’s fine.
Everything’s fine. Satisfied, we race up the stairs while the banging gets louder and louder.
I bet those guys are so pissed. The lights flicker off again, and I blink away the darkness, trying to adjust to the shift when we arrive at another door.
Lexie reaches for the handle, but I shake my head.
“Wait.” Quieting my breathing, I press my ear to the cool metal and listen.
Are we alone? Is there another entrance to the building?
Anything is definitely possible. Lexie mirrors my stance, her forehead wrinkling as she waits for a sound.
When only silence greets us, I nod in agreement, and she reaches for the handle again.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I wait for the inevitable screech of the rusty hinges, but they’re even louder than I expect.
Yeesh. We might as well state our names and how long we’re going to be in here with how earsplitting it is.
So much for keeping a low profile. The problem is, there’s nowhere else for us to go.
When the lights flicker on again, Lexie’s blood-curdling scream echoes through the entire building.
“June, run!” she yells.
“I’m not leaving—”
“Fucking go!” she screams, though I don’t miss the undertone of laughter.
“Lexie!” I yell. Black snakes around her glowing-white torso from behind. Someone’s holding her, their arms wrapped around her waist as she struggles against whoever’s captured her.
“Go!” she orders.
Darting past the black behemoth holding my friend hostage, I search for a makeshift weapon, or at the very least, a distraction of some kind.
This room is littered with pillows and discarded couch cushions, and…
is that a bean bag? I grab a heavy pillow and start hitting the guy with all my might, hoping it’ll at least be enough to make him let go of Lexie for two seconds so she can get away.
A low grunt escapes the culprit as the lights turn back off, and Lexie reaches for my wrist again, tugging me further into the room and away from her captor.
“Come on, come on!” she yells. I nearly trip on a stray pillow when she drags me toward another door.
We dart through it, too amped up to really check our surroundings when the only thing that matters is getting away from the masked man on the opposite side of the door.
Lexie slams it behind us, cursing under her breath.
“It’s broken. It won’t lock. It won’t even shut. Shit.”
As she fumbles with the doorknob, I realize where we are. We’re standing on a small balcony with nowhere else to go.
A freaking balcony.
“We’re trapped!” I squeal.
With one hand firmly grasping the door’s broken handle, she peeks over the edge. “Not yet, we’re not.”
Curious, I look over the railing, and my stomach bottoms out. Beneath is a massive, blow-up pillow balloon thing. The ones people use to jump on from long distances. My eyes bulge, and I turn back to Lexie. She can’t be serious.
“Hurry!” she orders, letting go of the broken handle so she can focus on our escape as the lights flicker back on.
You have got to be kidding me.
I look over my shoulder at the cracked-open door. Hawke rubs at his shin, his body bent at the waist while watching us.
“You really gonna jump, Lex?” he calls.
Lexie barely peeks at him before climbing over the wrought iron railing. “Come on, June.”
“This is dangerous,” I seethe.
“Oh, come on, they wouldn’t have set it up if they didn’t plan for us to use it,” she argues.
The girl makes a good point. I hope. Before I can overthink it, I toss one leg over the edge, then the next. Holy crap. Are we really doing this? My fingers grip the cold iron. It brands itself against my palms as I try to slow my breathing. Seriously, I think I’m going to pass out.
“You ready?” Lexie asks me.
“Better hurry,” Hawke goads from behind. “I might only have blue, but the guys in the stairwell are coming up, and I know for a fact they have green and yellow.”
Lexie looks down at the sky-blue handprint encompassing her wrist before glaring at Hawke behind us. “Like you’d let them touch me,” she volleys.
Darkness swallows his gaze as he cocks his head. “Maybe I like to watch.”
Her breath hitches before she fumbles for my hand and takes a deep breath. “One.”
“Lexie, I really don’t think—”
“Two,” she orders as Hawke takes another step toward us.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Three.”
Gravity takes me in an instant, and a scream rips from my lungs as we plunge toward the giant blow-up pillow.
“Ahhh!!!” we scream.
Pfft.
We land with a whoosh, and I open my eyes.
Now that my life is done flashing before my eyes, I can take a second to, you know, compute what just happened, and holy crap, did I really jump from the second floor of a building?
Throwing my arms over my face, I shift onto my side and giggle like a little kid.
Lexie bellows beside me, laughing so hard I have no doubt her stomach hurts as badly as mine.
“Watch out below!” Hawke bellows.
“Come on!” Lexie pulls me up between bouts of laughter. “We need to keep moving or Robin’s gonna land on us!” She tugs me toward the edge of the giant blow-up thing until my feet hit pavement again. The lights shut off.
As we round another corner and find a safe spot to catch our breath, I press my hand to my chest and wipe the tears from my eyes. “How did you get away from him?”
“Kicked him in the shin.” Another round of giggles rolls through us, and she bends at the waist, holding her belly. “Oh, my god. You have no idea how much I needed this. My abs. June, my abs hurt so bad!”
“So do mine!” I laugh even harder. “I haven’t worked out my abs this hard since PE in middle school.”
Lexie giggles even more. “I cannot believe we jumped off that balcony!”
“Me, neither!”
She wipes at her tear-streaked eyes one more time. “Okay, we gotta hurry. Come on.”
We tiptoe into another part of the grounds, dodging skeletons and zombies and squealing women.
Thankfully, there are enough girls participating that it’s relatively easy to slip around buildings and hide in the shadows until there’s an opening to move again.
If only my nerves could grasp that little tidbit, but nope.
My adrenaline is working overtime. So much so, I feel like I’m directly connected to a live wire, and I could combust at any second.
This is legitimately insane. At least I’m not alone.
Lexie peeks around a corner, then goes to move, but halts, causing me to crash into her.
“Oof. Sorry!” I whisper-shout.
“Sh!” she orders.
My mouth snaps shut, and I peer around her. What the…?
“Shit,” Lexie whispers. She looks like she’s seen a ghost. I follow her gaze, my brows dipping. Across the grounds is Hawke. His hands are fisted in someone’s dark jacket. But who would he be grabbing that’s wearing black? I squint, trying to see to whom he’s talking.
“Is that…” My jaw drops, and my neck snaps back to Lexie. “I thought you said your brother’s working!”
“He was! Is!” She shakes her head and takes a step forward before I reach out and stop her. “Maybe he hasn’t seen you yet,” I whisper. Her body freezes in place. “How far away is your house from here?”
“Two miles. Maybe three.”
Two to three miles? That’s…hmm. “You should go,” I urge.
Normally, I wouldn’t encourage one of my friends to walk home alone in the dark, but after seeing Ethan’s controlling side at the dental office, I’m pretty sure it’s the lesser of two evils.
Her feet stay planted where they are, but I don’t miss the hesitancy and indecision in her gaze.
“You really think he’ll be okay if he sees you here? ” I argue.
I know why she’s stalling. She doesn’t want to give him the power. Doesn’t want to acknowledge that the freedom she craves more than anyone I’ve ever seen has been in danger since the moment her brother moved back to town. The question is, what is she going to do about it?
“My phone’s in Violet’s car,” she murmurs.
“I’ll make sure you get it later,” I promise.
She glances across the way again as Ethan shoves Hawke. The guy barely budges, standing his ground.
“He’s going to be pissed,” she whispers. Part of me wonders if the words are meant for me, or if they’re simply her inner thoughts that’ve managed to slip through her defenses, revealing the truth.
“Maybe he doesn’t know you’re here. Maybe he’s here for work, like you said,” I offer.
“Maybe,” she breathes out with a tremor of fear.
“Either way, the longer you’re here, the more time he has to figure it out. Now, go!” I push.
Her head bobs. “You’re right.” She steps away from the alley entrance and deeper into the shadows. “Thanks, June.”
“Do you want me to come?” I ask.
“Someone’s gotta fill in Violet where I went, or she’ll be here all night waiting for us to show up after the game. Besides, you still need to find that halo.” A smile plays at the edge of her mouth. “Do it for me, okay? Good luck.” The darkness swallows her retreat as she darts away.
Which means I’m alone. In an abandoned carnival slash amusement park with creepy skeletons and demons hunting me. Yup.
That sounds…perfect.