CHAPTER TWENTY
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“MWHAHAHAHA!”
Adam’s target stared at him with a slack jaw. “Bro, is that supposed to be scary?”
“He’s like an accountant or something.”
It would be easy for Adam to slip back into his hidey-hole and let them pass by, but he refused to let a bunch of kids get the better of him. “You’re right, I am an accountant.” He reached into his jacket pocket like he was going for a pen. “Every day I walk this earth searching for…”
“Don’t tell me, lost souls.”
Adam smiled with all the malice packed in his lithe frame.
“Potential customers. Sign on this line for all your dreams to come true…for a year. Then, debtors will call you, your parents, your friends, every minute of the day, demanding your blood. You won’t be able to rent an apartment.
You’ll have to live above a tattoo parlor where they practice on dead rats that you eat for dinner.
No matter how much of your money you give me, it never makes a dent in your debt.
Instead, it grows fatter and fatter every year until you die without a penny to your name.
You can run, you can hide, but in the end…
the student loans will always hunt you down. ”
All three kids screamed at the top of their lungs and peeled out.
They missed the skeleton thrashing in his electric chair.
Adam nodded to his impromptu coworker, who finished screaming and took a little nap.
“I hear that.” He stretched his arms wide and glanced around.
It’d been a long night, though surprisingly fun.
As the King of Halloween, he was supposed to be spooky but never scary.
Terrifying the shit out of presumptuous teens put a skip in his step that he didn’t realize was missing.
God, he should have worn one of Baph’s masks.
That sewn flesh one with the mouths for eyes.
They’d piss their pants through two rooms.
“Anyone in here?” Raj appeared, the man looking dangerously scrumptious. At some point, he’d traded his comfy sweater for a tight red suit coat and tails. Black horns prodded through his hair, their wicked ends curved back. And his eyes blazed crimson thanks to the fiery contacts.
“You just missed them.” Adam pointed in the direction.
Raj spun his demon baton, catching Adam’s eye. “Good, because…” Raj must have realized that Adam was watching and getting ideas as he gulped. The demonic ring master blushed beneath his red makeup and tucked the baton under his arm. “That was the last of them.”
“Hallelujah!” Adam exclaimed, then he held a hand to Raj. “Present company excluded.”
His demon laughed. “We’re meeting back for drinks and snacks at the staging area.”
“Drinks?” Adam asked.
“Juice and soda. These are all kids, after all.”
Very loud kids whose knees didn’t pop every time they hunched over in the dark. Adam swallowed, finding his throat rough from all of his demonic cackling. This was a game for the young.
“Shall we go together?” Adam asked.
“I have to do one last pass, make sure everyone’s out, then I’ll see you there.”
Adam leaned closer, nearly brushing his nose against the red makeup. “You’d better.”
With that, Raj turned to chase up the lingering ghosts and goblins in hiding.
But as Adam watched him go, a long tail bounded back and forth above Raj’s plunderable ass.
He did his best to put away all the naughty thoughts of what he wanted to do to said buttocks, preferably while that tail swatted his dick, in favor of a night of cookies and juice.
The kids were exhausted but also exhilarated, everyone trading their war stories over a can of pop and a bag of pretzels.
When Raj appeared, he nodded to the group who’d been appreciative but careful around Adam.
Judging by the looks, it had already gotten around that Adam was a special guest of their boss.
Raj clapped his hands, then eyed them up. “We did it. At last. Thank you all for sticking around. Now that the haunt is up and working, we should have a set schedule going ahead. I’ll email you the days you’re needed once I’ve hammered it out with my partner.”
Fifty eyes swung to Adam.
“My business partner,” Raj said. “Please, take another bag of chips or soda home with you. I’ll be turning the lights off soon. Be sure to leave your costume hanging on the rack before you go.”
The kids, sensing freedom, made a break for it, but not before stuffing a few goodies in their pockets. It’s always Halloween somewhere. Adam kept a close eye on Raj, who took the time to greet and smile at every kid in a wig.
“You did great. Really scared the pants off of them,” Raj told the lead vampire.
“What about me?” Adam shuffled into the back of the line, earning him a startled, then happy look from Raj. “How did I do?”
“Fantastic,” Raj said.
“Hmm, and you’ve yet to see all of my skills.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve got a trick or two up your sleeve.”
“My sleeve? That’s not usually where I keep it.”
The two men were nearly on top of each other, seconds from tearing off cheap costumes and smearing stage makeup on every inch of their bodies. They both missed the little yelp until a kid asked, “Uh, Mr. Choudhary…?”
“Yes?”
“Can I take two?” He held up both cans of Mountain Dew, and Raj waved him on.
“Yes, yes. Go.” Raj muttered at their rising crescendo once again being cut off at the knees. “I should…check the breakers. I don’t want a repeat of whatever happened.”
“Want some company?” Adam offered.
“More than you can imagine.”
As they trailed through the place, flipping switches on or off depending on what Raj said, he kept talking.
It was mostly about the night, how many tickets were sold, and the state of his props after one night.
A lot of it washed over Adam, who was doing his best to be a helpful…
friend? One blowjob did not a boyfriend make, though god would that be so much easier.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t like the idea of seeing Raj on the regular.
Bringing him around for his mother’s spaghetti dinners.
Sitting by the fire, sipping warm brandy while watching Black Christmas.
Driving past Baph’s place and shouting hello out the window.
Falling was easy for Adam. Maybe too easy.
He seemed to trip over his dick and wind up head over heels if he so much as caught a whiff of a man in cashmere.
It was the staying in love part that kept failing him.
He could never be the perfect twink they wanted, only his actual confounding self.
By the time they learned the truth, every one of his boyfriends bounced.
“And if it wasn’t for that scarecrow, I’d never have found the broken junction.”
“Scarecrow?” Adam zoomed back in on Raj’s conversation.
“One of the kids was wandering around, and I gave chase. As much out of frustration as to protect them. And when I finally caught up, I spotted the problem.” Raj paused in reaching over to flip the switch on the morgue doors. “Why?”
“I didn’t see any scarecrows.”
Raj’s jaw dropped, then he smiled. “No. There had to be one. I saw him, chased him.”
A cold wind rippled against Adam’s skin, and he wrapped his hands around his chest. “Maybe it was Stitches.”
“Really? The town scarecrow?” Raj laughed at the idea, but Adam couldn’t escape the chill dancing up his spine.
“Maybe a scarecrow climbed off of his cross and walked all the way here to save your haunt.”
“That…” Raj gulped, his brown eyes darting around before they focused on Adam. He laughed. “That’s bullshit.”
“But a good story. Oh, you should tell Marianne.”
“Why?” Raj kept leading them through the haunt until they wandered into the room Adam had been working in.
“She runs the local paper, coupons and stuff. It’s free, but a story about Stitches saving your haunt—that’s advertising gold.”
Raj wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think that’s necessary. We’ve got the place running. People loved it. Word of mouth will save it.”
“Save…?”
“Help it, I mean.” He put on a quick, pained smile. “Thank you, by the way. I know this isn’t what you expected tonight.”
“Don’t be silly. It was fun. I forgot how enjoyable it is scaring the piss out of snot-nosed brats.” Adam reached up to nonchalantly toss his hair back, but Raj stared, then he groaned.
“Oh, no. Your sleeve.” He dove for Adam, taking his hand, then tugging the shirt sleeve down. “It’s stained. Here you are dressed to…” Raj took in Adam, and he gulped. “…fuck, and I force you to do manual labor.”
How many men in tattered jeans and t-shirts had given him shit for leaving his shirts in the bathroom to steam? And here was a man falling apart because of a little grease?
“Believe me.” Adam undid the button on his suit jacket. He rounded harder on Raj while leering at him. After opening all three, he slipped his coat off, then reached for his sleeves. “This is how I dress for manual labor.”
Raj backed into the chickenwire fence with a shocked yelp, but he kept staring into Adam’s eyes. Adam finished rolling his sleeves to his elbows and slammed a palm right beside Raj’s head. His fingers plunged through the gaps in the wire as he leaned into Raj.
With his lips nearly skimming Raj’s crimson cheek, Adam said, “The hard, sweaty, go-all-night kind.”
Red hands enveloped his head, pulling Adam down into a kiss.
The two fools in lust started to roll, denting the chicken wire with their bodies as they went.
Adam ran his palm down Raj’s chest, fighting to get to the buttons, but they wouldn’t go.
As Raj wound up on the outside, he shook his hair back, grabbed the front of his shirt, and tore it off.
“Velcro,” he panted, tossing the fake dickie aside before he plunged to Adam.
Growing more devilish, Raj raked his nails down Adam’s chest. His lips parted, a groan rising from his balls about to expel into Raj’s mouth.
Then an errant nail in the fence snagged on his pants, and Adam had to step away.