27. Spencer
SPENCER
Not this fucking place. I could already feel my shoulders tensing as we rocked over the cobblestone pathway that ran through the heart of the park.
I hadn’t been back here in decades — the park closed when I was a still kid. But I knew one thing for sure; there wasn’t this much barbed wire and fencing back then. Covered in overgrown weeds and grime, this place looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie set.
But it wasn’t the grit that gave me the creeps. It was the people who allegedly lurked in the shadows of the broken-down rides.
There had always been rumors among the Valemont kids about the park being haunted, and it only got worse after the place shut down. But in the last couple of years, the story had taken on a new life.
Rumors flew around the Hollow about them — the circus freaks who’d taken up residence here, the sick games they liked to play. But that was all hearsay cooked up by bored locals. There was no reason to believe any of it was true.
And no reason to freak Kiera out with a bunch of tall tales.
Peering out the window, I tried to rein in my imagination. I didn’t see any signs of life. But if there was a safehouse here, someone had to be keeping watch over the place.
As Dom careened down the main path, my eyes caught on the alley of game booths. It didn’t take a close inspection to tell that it had been years since they’d been played — the metal on the Krazy Kans had completely rusted through, and half of the glass bottles at the ring toss were shattered.
What a shame. This was one of my favorite parts of Feverpoint as a kid.
Jess and her friends would take me every once in a while, but I was too young for most of the rides. Some years, Jess would work the admissions desk and sneak me in. Still, if I was lucky, one of her boyfriends would flip me some cash to play carnival games while they went on the coasters.
Usually, I pocketed the money. But while they were off being teenageers, I used to hang around Prize Alley and dream about taking one of the stuffed animals home.
I guess I could have one now.
I squinted at the display of stuffed animals lining the roof of the beanbag toss booth, trying to decide which one would make little me the happiest. But before I could hop out of the car to grab one though, a gust of wind blew through the stand, revealing something that chilled me to the bone.
The stuffed animals weren’t dangling from a display rack. They were hung by miniature nooses.
“What the fuck?” I cringed. What sick fuck was meticulous enough to do that?
“What?” Kiera frowned from the other side of the car, but I just shook my head and turned my gaze to the front of the car.
“Just wondering if Dom has to hit every pot hole on the route,” I lied.
“If you have feelings about my driving, you can walk,” Dom grumbled.
But after what I saw, I didn’t feel like testing my luck out there. “I’m good. Just don’t blame Lady if there’s an accident back here.”
Does she know where she’s going?
Looking out the front of the car didn’t bring me much more comfort than looking out of my window. It felt like Dom was navigating some fucked-up maze made up of different time-periods pasted sloppily over one another.
One minute, we were in a logging town that neighbored a cartoonish city, and the next, we were passing through a jungle inhabited solely by animatronic characters. It was like walking through a fucked-up acid trip.
Actually, are we sure they weren’t doing acid when they designed this park?
But eventually, Dom brought the Cadillac to a stop in front of a campy old Wild West restaurant. “We made it. Now get your shit out of the car.”
No one wanted to open their door first, so Leo broke the seal. Throwing open the door of her shotgun seat, she quickly moved to open Kiera’s. “Princess…”
As I walked around the car with Lady padding behind me, I could see Kiera hesitate before grabbing Leo’s outstretched hand and stepping down from the SUV.
She’s so nervous…
I hated seeing her like that. Well, when I wasn’t the one spooking her, at least.
So I took in a deep breath as I circled around to her side of the car, doing my best to push aside my own nerves.
Despite whatever creepy jokes our hosts were pulling, my priority — now and always — was Kiera’s safety and comfort.
I could handle a few jumpscares with grace if it meant she would feel better.
“You ever been here before, Bunny?” I looped my arm around her shoulders, hoping the gesture would make her feel safer.
But before she could answer, Dom piped up from the trunk.
“We came here every year it was open.” She hoisted a duffel over her shoulder before scoffing. “Isaac hated how kitschy it all was.”
“And my dad thought it was hilarious,” Kiera giggled.
Seeing the spark come back to her eyes was as heart-warming as it was bizarre. I never thought I’d see the day that Kiera and Dom got along, let alone… whatever this was.
Usually, they fought so much that it was easy to forget how much history they shared, and that not every bit of that history was so fraught. Hell, if Viv’s stories were to be believed, some of it had even been pleasant.
But it was nice, seeing them be friendly. Along with Leo and the kids, Kiera and Dom were two of my favorite people in the world. Even despite Dom’s general dickishness.
The people in this western hellhole were the closest thing I’d had to a family besides Jess and the kids. And maybe with some time, we could make it through a night without one of them trying to kill the other.
I guess their exposure therapy back in Washington did something after all.
My heart felt lighter as I scooped up Kiera’s bag from the trunk and slung it over my shoulder along with my own. “You know what that means, right?”
“What?” Kiera tilted her head, that adorable little crease taking shape between her brows.
“Maybe we were here at the same time.”
“I don’t know,” Kiera laughed. “I think I would have remembered an annoying little weirdo bouncing off the walls.”
With that, she headed for the saloon door, leaving Leo, Dom, and I to handle the car.
“What makes you think I was a weirdo? I was super cool!” I scoffed.
“You’re a weirdo now, Spencer.” She rolled her eyes.
“A cool one?” I asked, nearly tripping over Lady as I sped after Kiera.
But she wasn’t laughing anymore. Her eyes were locked on an old piece of parchment nailed to the saloon door, dripping with red… ink?
Please god, let that be ink.
I had half a mind to rush ahead of her and grab the note, but she was already on it by the time that Leo asked, “What is it?”
“A warning…” Kiera bit her lip before passing it over to Dom. I pushed in beside her, reading the runny scrawl over her shoulder:
The light cleanses what the night claims. Don’t come out after dark. Unless you’d like to play.