Chapter 3
Nadia.
Present day
The Circus
The haunted fair is bustling with spine-chilling activity, guests and scare-actors milling around the streets. Right inside the entrance, food carts are strategically placed in miniatures of red and white circus tents, adhering to the eerie Halloween decorations littering the park.
Dried leaves crunch under my black combat boots as we make our way deeper into the park, a spark of excitement seeping into me at the crispness of autumn finally being at its full peak.
A woman, dressed as a witch, beckons from the shadows. A large kettle stands before her, smoke billowing out of it as she stirs something.
“Come here, my dears. It’s the night of All Hallows Eve, with a chill in your breath, and soon, you will join in on the dance of death.” She licks her lips, the motion revealing yellow and rotten teeth. “The soup is nearly done. Dead Soul soup, anyone?”
Leaning closer to a few girls passing by—just about to touch the kettle—they scatter away.
They’ve truly outdone themselves, immersing the fair’s visitors in the whole full-blown haunted spectacle. The atmosphere pulls you right in, before scaring the life out of you. No wonder this is claimed to be the country’s best fair.
A man and a woman on towering stilts stalk through the crowd, rising well over six feet. At five-foot-four, I have to crane my neck just to meet their hollow gazes.
The woman’s messy, neon-pink hair spills down her back in drifts. A large circular ruff encircles her neck, flowing into the voluminous dress draping along her frame. The ends are all frayed and ruffly, exaggerating her proportions.
Blood cascades down her mouth as she laughs out loud, sharp and wild. The man beside her wears an equally grotesque costume.
“They really didn’t hold back, did they? ” Eveline breathes.
In the background, I hear Zack begrudgingly replying, but I’m too lost in my own world to hear them. Because the woman on stilts is staring at me, her eyes the brightest shade of red.
I’m entranced in a dance of my own volition: haunted by that night.
“Nadia, you coming?” Eveline asks, greedily taking in the park with excitement radiating off her pores.
Zack is right behind her, arms wrapped protectively around her waist. None of the scare actors dares come close to her, and a pang of something close to longing splits my chest. I wish I had something as precious as their love.
“The map showcases the first level over here,” Eros points to the ‘level 1’ typed out on the map, on the outskirts of the haunted fair.
“There are four different levels we’ll need to get through.
But there are also some haunted rides and attractions around the middle of the park.
” His finger follows each station he mentions.
“This place must be huge,” Zack retorts.
“Yes, it expands all the way across the field. They apparently booked it just for this October. Otherwise, it’s usually a pumpkin field, but the harvest was bad this year.”
There’s a slight tilt to his lips as he says this, and I catch the glint in Eveline’s eyes as she meets Eros’ gaze.
I wonder what that was about.
“I think we should start with the haunted houses before we do anything else,” Eveline suggests.
The others agree, but I stay silent.
My therapist suggested facing my fears when I told her about coming here, assuring me that nothing like that would ever happen again.
What are the odds of it happening twice?
The killer is behind bars.
“Nadia? You on?” Eveline surveys me with a scrutinizing gaze.
I used to be the one watching over her. It wasn’t easy for her when she lost her parents a few years ago.
I used to make sure she was okay, bring her over to my parents’ house for a night of forgetting everything.
That was before I moved away from home a few years ago, now living in my own apartment.
My awfully empty apartment after I found out Max was cheating and kicked him out.
Disgusting fucker.
“Yeah, of course. Let’s do this,” I smile at her, trepidation still twisting inside me, but a spark of excitement flares inside me.
It instantly makes relief spread through me. It’s been so long since I even remotely had fun or was excited about anything.
She smiles, hooking her arm through mine as we make our way to the first level—the Circus.
We follow the stone path leading us to the first level, which will then take us to the next one. It’s all for thrill, but it’s said there is a reward for those who do get out of level four.
The moon hides behind dark clouds, the only thing leading our way being the lamplights posted along each side of the path we’re on. Until eventually, there’s a soft red glow coming from ahead of us. The same glow we saw when we first entered the park—their theme color, it appears.
We arrive at a huge tent at the furthest end of the fair, striped in both white and red, which only adds to the eeriness. It’s definitely not deserted, with people standing in line outside and waiting for their turn to enter the infamous circus.
Above the tent is a sign that glows in large, bright letters with the word: HELLCUS.
I bite my lip, staring at those letters that seem to seal my fate as we all enter the queue.
A group of guys stands ahead in the queue, all looking to be in their mid to late-twenties, talking and laughing among themselves. They’re all vastly different yet act the same, all dressed up in Halloween attire.
One of the guys stands out, giving the whole vibe of not giving a fuck if he’s here or not.
Same. But compared to me, he’s not dressed up.
He doesn’t need to be. He’s got that lumberjack vibe, wearing a flannel shirt stretched across a muscular chest, enough to draw anyone’s attention.
A few days’ worth of stubble shadows his jaw, and he appears almost bored.
As if he got dragged out here by his friends, much like me.
The night is colder than expected, and I hug myself in an attempt to warm myself. Eveline’s gaze flicks over, but I catch it just in time to plaster on a smile, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze.
“This will be so fun,” she exclaims.
I need to try to have some fun, at least. “Sure.”
She turns back to her men, quickly picking up their conversation. I cross my arms, stomping my feet gently to a melody playing in my head just to try to pass the time.
I wish I had a good book to read. I always carry one with me, but it was apparently not appropriate for a night out.
Then, something catches my attention.
I glance up, noticing it’s the guy from the group ahead.
Even from a distance, I notice he’s tall, towering over his friends.
“Not excited to be here, either?” he asks, increasing his tone to be audible through the masses of people surrounding us. He grins as he looks at me.
My stomach flutters at the move. Damnit.
“Is it that obvious?”
He lets out a chuckle that’s dark and rumbling, seemingly vibrating deep inside my own chest despite standing at least one foot away from me.
Fuck, he’s handsome. Not in the typical, drool-worthy way of most women’s fantasies, but there’s something undeniable about him.
He’s unconventionally hot. A rugged appearance, with a fading scar lingering right along his forehead, barely perceptible.
His eyes aren’t as breathtaking as the men in the books I read, but they’re pulling me in like gravity.
Bright gray ones, impossible to look away from.
I’m staring, probably drooling, quickly averting my gaze to make it less obvious.
Apparently, he notices, because he sidesteps one of the guys in his group to come closer to me, a smirk tugging at his lips.
Even from here, I get the distinct whiff of his cologne, something tinged with sandalwood that has female appreciation washing through me, but also a note of something else.
He smells like the forest. When he scratches his chin, I catch sight of calluses on his hands. One hundred percent a lumberjack.
He winks.
“Oh, you’re trouble,” I mutter, feeling my cheeks flush.
“You have no idea,” he grins. “See ya inside, beautiful.”
With that, he and his friends turn to enter the circus.
I can’t help but feel something stir deep inside of me. An attraction I haven’t felt in so long, flooding through my veins like pretty poison. For a few minutes, I’m lost in the memory of him, remembering the way he looked down at me with such intensity.
A sharp clearing of a throat breaks me out of my reverie.
“It’s your turn next,” someone says.
Standing at the entrance is a woman dressed in the same clown dress I recognized earlier, but without the stilts. There’s something different about her, though.
A cold wave washes over me, curling down my body.
How could she have been over there and then here so quickly?
“Here’s your card. Keep this with you at all times.
For each level you finish, you’ll get a stamp on this card that proves your validation.
Four stamps lead to a reward. But I have to warn you…
” She makes a dramatic pause as she looks at the four of us, her eyes lastly sliding over to me.
There’s no blood in her mouth now, as if washed away by the rain I can feel trickling in over the sky.
But it’s the same dark expression, watching me for something I can’t make out.
I cannot even tell if it is the same woman or if I have gone utterly insane.
“No one barely ever makes it out of the four levels.”
“We will,” Zack replies with a sardonic grin, looking down at Eros with a hungry expression on his face.
The attendant scoffs loudly, earning a scowl from Zack. “Everyone says that. No one ever keeps up with their words.” She pauses. “Remember: No mercy here. The deeper you go, the more it warps.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask, frowning.
Her gaze slides to mine again. “It means that the joke is always on you.”