Chapter 5
Chapter Five
They’re So… Blue
Static
Islam the door and crank down the bar lock behind the fifth—sixth?—group of the night. They all safe worded no more than fifteen, twenty-something minutes in. I roll my eyes as I round the corner, back to the start. All over again.
I fuckin’ love my job, but sometimes, I really hate it. Can no one stand being scared anymore? Hell, just a little trickle of piss running down their leg, and they’re blurting “Red” in their next breath.
“You look pissed,” Vulture snarks as he comes up beside me. I don’t even spare him a glance as we both make our way toward the front so we can work the next group through, though I don’t have high expectations.
“I swear the safe words are comin’ faster and faster now,” I grumble. “It sucks bein’ pulled out right in the middle of it.”
“Yeah, I feel you.” Vulture slaps my back. I shrug him off with a glare. Our earpieces crackle as Kierra lets us know they’re bringing in the next group.
“It’s showtime.” Vulture waggles his fingers, mocking Beetlejuice before he shoves through the hidden door just ahead, his black cloak fluttering outward. I watch it click shut before I veer left and take the steps toward the lower level that they bring them in at.
I like watching their initial reactions to the introduction.
The way their eyes light up with equal parts fear and excitement. Their pure, foolish innocence. Because they have no idea what’s comin’. Even if they think they know, they never do.
His eyes…
They’re so… blue.
I stare down at his limp body, crouched over his face. Two of my fingers hold open his eyelid so I can watch the way it rolls around inside his skull.
He passed out. Just from a few pricks of my pointed, gloved fingers and the scrape of my axe.
Amazing.
I’m beaming at his lax, twitching face, relishing in the fear that absolutely consumed him. Fuck, there aren’t many that just bear with it like he did. It’s like he forgot he even has a safe word—not that I’m going to remind him.
I’m having too much fun with this little surprise.
He groans weakly and rolls over onto his side. I release his eyelid with a frown and step back into the corner of the room where the shadows still linger.
A single dimly lit, yellow bulb hangs from a cord in the center of the room, a few feet in front of him. I tap it as I pass, sending it swinging into the air.
“Nngh,” he groans as he rouses, sending a spike of adrenaline to my heart. He slides his palms across the floor, wincing. It takes him a few long, agonizingly slow moments to right himself, but the second he’s vertical, it’s like it all slams back into him at once.
My lips twitch and slowly curl upward.
“Oh, shit.” His feet shove him backward, where he slams into the wall, his skull bouncing with a crack that echoes so wonderfully. A symbol of our isolation. He cries out and drops his head between his raised knees with a whimper.
Shuddering, he jerks his head back up just as fast, as if suddenly remembering he’s not alone.
His eyes are wide and glassy, pinned with potent fear.
My heart rate accelerates.
I cock my head to the side. This boy is just a mess. I almost don’t have to work to scare him—he’s doing enough of that all on his own.
His brain must be a wildly mesmerizing place. But that just won’t do…
No, that won’t do at all.
I purposefully rap my knuckles against the wall before I shove back, sending me out of the room. I cackle at the sound of his scream. The way it echoes through the halls of Mayhem. The way it echoes right into me.
The door he was pressed against creeps open. Footsteps thunder down the warped hall, taking him deeper into my domain.
Time to chase my little prize.