Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nova couldn’t believe she was already about to get the full Mountainville experience.
She’d only been there an hour. But they weren’t wasting any time. Good, she thought. It was almost as if she could see the flashing neon circus that was Las Vegas on the distant horizon, reminding her of what awaited her next week.
Until then, though, she was going to enjoy this. She’d read about Mountainville on various Little forums. It was the gold standard for ageplay communities, after all. But she’d figured she’d never get to actually experience it firsthand. It had always seemed too dicey to risk the exposure.
Now, however, she realized she was safe there.
Of course, Daddy had a lot to do with that.
“I want you to have fun,” he told her. “But remember what I said: don’t do anything dangerous.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
She savored their kiss and embrace. None of this seemed real! Not only was she in that fabled community for Littles and Bigs, but she was there with Daddy, too!
Her new friends from Vegas told their respective Daddies goodbye, and the group of Littles headed out of the store.
“Your Mommy seems nice,” Nova told Eli as they walked into the harsh sun.
“Thanks! She’s the best!”
“She’s very patient. Has to be to put up with this one,” Katie said with a chuckle. “But she can be firm when she needs to be. Again, kind of has to be with Eli.”
Nova didn’t doubt it. She’d seen his videos.
“Where are we going first?” Trixie asked.
A Little who’d introduced themself as Stella inside the store—a tall, athletically build dark-haired beauty with olive skin—said, “We should find Stryker. I know he’s around here somewhere.”
“I love Stryker!” Trixie told her. “He shows up every now and then in Vegas to check on things at the Daddy Guard compound. Sometimes he drops off new equipment and stuff.”
“Yeah,” Harrison said. “Vegas isn’t too far from Hollywood. We like to make that trip when we can. I know where Stryker is right now. He’s at the haunted house working on something.”
“The haunted house?” Nova said.
“Yep. We do Halloween up big in this town!”
Katie nodded. “Hollywood-level production. Fitting, since it’s Stryker and Harrison who head it up.”
“Isn’t Halloween a ways off?” Steph said.
“Only three months,” Harrison replied with obvious glee and affection in his eyes. “That’s not long when you’re putting together a big production. But also, it’s never too early to start thinking about Halloween!”
That made sense to Nova. She enjoyed the holiday, too, although she rarely got to do anything fun for it. Her schedule just kept her too busy.
“Let’s go get him!” Katie suggested.
“My minibus is right over there,” Harrison said, jerking his head toward where the sleek black vehicle was in the lot in front of a park just down the street. “It’ll be better than walking all that way.”
A few minutes later, with everyone piled in, they were winding through the streets of Mountainville, heading toward the back of the settlement.
There were stores, restaurants, and a movie theater. Nova could even see some tall water slides rising above everything else, but they turned off before going past the waterpark.
“Whoa! That’s creepy,” she said as she spied a sprawling, ominous, dilapidated mansion just ahead. They were in an area of town that was still being developed. A mountain’s sheer wall was beside the mansion, bending rather than straight, so that it also ran behind the house.
“Cool, right?” Harrison said from behind the wheel. Bringing the vehicle to a stop and putting in park, he cast a glance over his shoulder and said, “It’s a false front. The building is actually a rectangle. But the mansion fa?ade hides it. Wait until you see inside.”
Nova felt silly for being a little nervous. She was with friends. It wouldn’t be bad. Besides, it wasn’t like the haunted attraction was open. It was broad daylight outside, and inside, Stryker would no doubt have the lights on so he could work.
At least, she hoped.
She found herself still a bit nervous, however, as she approached the front of the building with her friends.
Gray gargoyles watched angrily from the roof. On the second floor, something ghostly floated just on the other side of the window, and Nova swallowed hard as she stared at the spot, wondering if the apparition would appear once again.
“Ah. Stryker has the LED screens up on the windows. Very cool,” Harrison noted.
“Yeah,” Nova agreed quietly. “Very cool.”
A rhythmic squeak arrested her attention and she stepped closer, right up to the rusted hanging gate that sagged on its hinges in the center of the waist-high stone wall that lined the front yard.
From there, she could see the rotting old man with sunken eyes moving back and forward in his rocking chair, a terrifying smile on his grotesque lips.
“It’s an animatronic,” Harrison said. “We call him Carl.”
“Good ol’ Carl,” Stella said. “Always good to see him.”
Nova exchanged a worried glance with Trixie.
But Stephanie and Kelsey seemed eager as they hurried through the gate.
“Coolest thing ever!” Kelsey said.
Nova wasn’t so sure she agreed with that sentiment. She appreciated the artistic vision and execution that went into designing this place, but scary stuff always got to her.
As they approached the front porch, a giant rat came out of one hole in the siding on the right, scurried along the front wall by the door, and then disappeared into another hole on the left.
“What the hell!” Nova shouted.
“It’s fake,” Harrison assured her. He stopped walking. “Do you want me to run inside and get Stryker? No big deal if you’d rather wait out here.”
“Are you kidding?” Stephanie asked. “There’s no way I’m missing this.”
Harrison kept his eyes trained on Nova, and she realized her trepidation was that obvious. “Nah. But thanks. I kind of want to see the inside, too.”
They started walking again.
The front steps creaked as they all came onto the porch. Suddenly, Carl was alive, his head turning and eyes appearing in the dark sockets that had been hollow a second before.
His lips moved as he said, “You’re always welcome at Uncle’s house. Come right in.” A maniacal laugh followed as the front door slowly swung inward. His head turned back forward and his eyes disappeared.
“That was the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Trixie said. “He looks so real!”
“Thanks. He’s actually latex over a polyurethane foam core—with some computer parts and other things added to animate him,” Harrison said.
“It’s what special effects departments use for movies and TV.
Though, like I said, we added the computer system and a few things to get him talking and turning his neck and all that. Come on.”
Nova wasn’t so sure she wanted to follow the actor as he disappeared through the front door.
Ironic, she thought. On stage, she was fearless. She didn’t back down on the business side of things, either. But right now, in a haunted house in the middle of West Texas, she was plenty terrified.
“You sure you don’t want to wait outside?” Trixie asked her.
“I’m good if you are.” Though she neither sounded convincing nor felt it.
“Let’s do this,” Trixie said.
Inside, Nova quickly realized things were better, as the interior was clearly a work in progress.
Stryker was on an A-frame ladder in the center of the front parlor, a tool in his hand, tinkering with a chandelier that hung from the ceiling. Looking down briefly, he said, “Hey, our Vegas friends are here. And we have a new one!”
He finished tweaking something, put the needle-nose plyers in the pocket of his jeans, and then carefully climbed down the ladder.
“Hello, Nova. I’m Stryker. Good to meet you.”
They shook hands.
“Nice meeting you as well. I loved your last movie!”
“Empire of the Broken Moon? You saw that?”
“Of course!”
The director smiled. “Glad someone did. It was a gamble, being an original sci-fi movie not based on a big existing IP.” He shrugged. “Everyone has a flop now and then. But hey, it’s found a life on streaming.” He smiled. “I loved your latest album! It was killer.”
“Thanks! Looks like we are both fans of each other’s work.” She looked around. “This is pretty cool.”
“I appreciate it. It’s not all me. Harrison is involved with this too.”
“Y’all want to see the ghosts?” Harrison asked as he pulled out his cell.
“Do I?” Stephanie said. “Hell yes!”
Harrison, evidently controlling things with an app, tapped and swiped on his screen until the lights dimmed. A moment later, the room was full of ghostly apparitions dancing around the space, all of them wearing Old West-type clothing.
“I’ve got to come back here around Halloween!” Stephanie announced.
“We definitely need to,” Kelsey said.
“Oh, it gets better. Want to see the grand finale?” Harrison asked.
“Yes!” Kelsey and Stephanie answered in unison.
“Uh, should we show them that?” Katie asked Harrison. “It’s still in the experimental phase. Right?”
“Yeah,” Harrison said. “I’m not suggesting we do it. Just show it.”
One of the Mountainville Littles—a woman in her thirties who’d introduced herself as Megan earlier—said, “We really need to tread cautiously. I heard their Daddies warn them not to do anything dangerous back at the store.”
“We’ll just take a gander,” Stryker said. “Come on. It’s up on the second floor.”
Nova was no longer afraid, but she was very curious. What was this mysterious grand finale that might be dangerous?
She eagerly went along with the group, excited to find out.