I’m not Scared, Part Three (Masked Men of Fear Island)

CHAPTER ONE

Vero

My paper-cut princess has been gone too long; I know because I’m starving and my sugar levels are crashing.

Clay and Ares are still fighting over what is wrong with the fucking carousel, and I’m almost tempted to cut the belt just so it’s actually broken.

I sit on the edge of the wooden deck and listen to them bicker, swinging my legs while picking cobwebs out of what little hair has grown back since I cut it off.

I stare at the gate Kayla left through, still unable to see her.

She is fine, I repeat in my head. I bet she got distracted. We probably left dishes in the sink, and she’s cleaning them up—she does that a lot. But as more minutes tick by, I decide maybe she isn’t fine, so I jump down off the platform.

Brawley looks over at me. “Where are you going?”

“To find Kayla. I need sustenance to deal with those idiots fighting over an issue neither knows how to fix.”

“She went to get us food and will be back soon.”

“She’s been gone too long. Kayla should have been back by now,” I insist.

Brawley pulls out his phone, and his brow furrows.

“I’m hungry anyway. You keep those two alive until I get back,” I yell over my shoulder as I push through the gate.

“Vero . . .” he warns.

“I’ll be back.”

“No fucking, just bring back the food.”

I snort. “No promises.”

I take the path she would have gone, unlike me, who would have wandered cross-country. The island is too quiet today, and I don’t like it.

“Kayla,” I call, hoping she hadn’t taken a shortcut through the cornfield.

I keep walking while muttering aloud, “She wouldn’t cut through.

Everyone knows not to disturb Cave unless you really have to.

Maybe she came across Gerald and his bunnies.

I would stop for the bunnies—they are so cute.

That must be it, but I am starving, and she knows that.

Honestly, it’s a little rude—I could fade away to nothing. ”

When I reach the house and go inside, I find the kitchen empty.

I do a sweep upstairs to make sure she isn’t here and come up empty, so I head back outside.

My hands start to shake. “Stop it,” I tell them with a scowl.

“She must have taken a different path back. Kayla will have something with sugar for you, and she will tell Brawley to deal with it. She isn’t afraid of him. ”

I walk faster, taking the shortcut near the cornfield, making sure I’m quiet. If Cave hears me, that straw-brained idiot will chase me with his new corn sword. I make a note to steal it and eat it, then he won’t have a weapon to use against me.

I freeze mid-step when I see the bag of food scattered on the path, our food spilled out everywhere.

Shit, where the fuck is she?

Everything goes very loud inside my head, increasing all at once, as I race over to the bag and spin around in a circle.

I crouch down. “No, no, no. She just put the bag down. Cave must have chased her. She must be here somewhere.”

My legs move before I can think, and I’m running back to the guys. By the time I get there, I’m out of breath, and my thoughts are bouncing against the side of my skull. I know what this looks like, and I don’t care.

“Vero?” Brawley says as I race through the gate.

I rush straight into his arms. “There is lettuce, Brawley, on the ground. And the apples rolled off the path. But she’s not there.”

“We need to look for Kayla,” Brawley says, taking my hand. I don’t know if Clay and Ares follow us, but I drag Brawley to where I left the bag.

“Kayla,” Clay yells out.

“Kayla,” I yell and my voice wobbles. “Say something, I need to hear you. This isn’t funny anymore. I’m going in, and if Cave comes near me, I’ll kill him.”

Brawley grabs me from behind, both his arms wrapping around me and pulling me back from the cornstalks.

“Let me go,” I snap fighting against him.

“Calm down,” he whispers, holding me tighter. “I’ve got you.”

“She is in there. Kayla has to be in there. Why wouldn’t she come back to me?”

“Look at me, Vero.” He turns me around and puts both his hands on my face, making me meet his eyes. “Breathe. We will find her, I promise.”

“She dropped it,” Ares says, from where he is crouching down near the bag.

“Of course, she fucking dropped it,” I say, my voice rising. “We all have fucking eyes.”

“Vero,” Brawley warns, his hand tightening on my arm.

Clay gets on his radio to the security team.

He instructs Khodi to start an entire grounds check, and that no one is to enter or leave the island until we find her.

Clay is too calm. Kayla is missing, and I want to scream at him.

The radio crackles to life, and Khodi reports that the cameras on this side of the island are down.

“What if she left me again? I have been good; I promise I have. What if she left me again?”

“She hasn’t left us,” Brawley reassures me, but how does he know? Maybe she decided I was too much and simply walked out.

The corn beside us moves, and Cave steps out. He silently strides to the edge of the path and stops, his head turning slowly toward us. I take a step forward, but Brawley holds his arm out to stop me from going further.

Cave stares at us all, but doesn’t say anything.

Does he not know that my paper-cut princess is missing? Why is he wasting our time?

I look down and see that blood coats his hands, it’s dried into the creases of his knuckles. My stomach drops to the ground.

“It was you,” I breathe, the rage building, ready to unleash itself. “What did you do?”

Cave doesn’t answer me; instead, he tilts his head and opens his mouth, spilling out a riddle.

“I have no lock, but I keep you. I have no windows and hold in the dark. The air inside me is all you are given, and every breath you take is one less that remains. I was already counting before you knew to be afraid.”

Nobody moves.

“What am I?” Cave finishes.

Brawley shifts first, closing the distance between him and the scarecrow to grab him by his shirt with both hands and drag him forward.

Cave doesn’t flinch; he just looks at Brawley and blinks.

“Where is she? Tell me right now.” But Cave says nothing, and Brawley shakes him hard. “I will kill you and not blink an eye over it.”

Cave peers at him, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly as Brawley shoves him back.

“Whose blood is on your hands? Fucking say something that isn’t a riddle!” Brawley snaps.

“Vero,” Clay says. “Let’s figure out the riddle.”

I turn to where Ares repeats the riddle over and over.

“Fuck!” Ares shouts and starts running.

We all trail behind him, Cave’s manic laughter following behind us. I have plans for him later, but first I need to find her. I have to know she’s okay.

Ares runs to the cemetery, and my heart thunders in my chest, going way too fast.

Clay shouts orders, ones I can’t make out. So I manically search for her among the headstones.

Ares shouts in alarm, and we all race to follow the direction of his voice, coming to a stop at the same time, facing a grave with freshly dug soil. There is a shovel beside it, blood coating the end. Ares picks it up, but I rush forward.

“I’ll do it,” I yell.

Clay intercepts me as Ares starts to dig.

“It’s faster if I do it. Please let me do it,” I insist, pushing past Clay and grabbing at the shovel.

“Move,” Ares snaps and keeps digging, his pace brutal, dirt flying around us.

Brawley steps up beside me as I watch on, feeling helpless.

The shovel hits wood, and the dull sound goes through me like a shot of electricity.

It only makes Ares work faster, and he soon clears enough dirt that the whole shape has been revealed.

He falls to his knees, leaning down and sliding his hands along the edge of the coffin.

Clay drops into the hole beside him, and together they wrench it open.

I hold my breath; if she is gone, I swear I won’t ever breathe again.

Kayla is lying inside the wooden box, perfectly still. For the longest second of my life, I believe she is dead, and tears prick my eyes.

“She’s breathing.”

I don’t know who says it, but I release the breath I was holding.

Then, as the words run through my head, something inside me snaps.

I never feel the transition from reality to wherever my mind takes me.

One moment I’m myself and the next I’m simply not, and I never catch the in-between.

I never get a warning. It all just becomes too loud all at once, and then I’m somewhere else inside my head looking out.

By the time I realize what has happened, I am already in too deep.

I turn to walk away, knowing it’s coming. I need to direct myself elsewhere; I promised her, and I will not break that promise.

“Vero,” Brawley calls out.

“Just help her, I need a minute.”

“Brawley, we need your help,” Clay says, and I run.

I don’t know where I’m going, but I can’t stay there. Can’t stand and look at her in that box and remain functioning. Something has to give, and it’s going to be me. But I cannot let them see this; she needs them, and they can’t take the time to help me right now.

As I pass, I see Noa’s machete propped against the fence. He must have been clearing a path recently, so I pick it up. My mind races with ideas as I walk toward the cornfield. Cave doesn’t get to touch what’s mine. Yet I don’t understand why he would want to hurt her.

When I get to the edge, I don’t hesitate, swinging the machete as I walk in. I don’t bother following a path, making my own.

I want him to hear me coming this time.

“Cave,” I sing. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Swing.

“I know you know I’m here. You seem to know everything, you creepy, straw-filled menace.

So come out and tell me why you did this to her.

” The stalks fall around me as I swing, as I keep moving and yelling, hoping my actions entice him to face me.

“Come out or I will cut down every fucking row until there is nothing left of your stupid cornfield.”

Something moves to my left, and I spin toward it, the machete held in defense.

In my anger, I have reached the center of the field, and here stands Cave, tall and proud.

But he is not on his post where he normally waits.

No, this time Luca is tied there, his wrists bound behind him and his head hanging forward.

Blood mats his hair and runs down the side of his face, where his mouth is sewn shut.

I stare, trying to process what I’m even looking at.

Cave looks at me and smirks.

“He . . .” I start, but when Cave opens his mouth, my brain knows to shut up and listen.

“The one you seek is not the one to blame. Look to the one who hangs from the stake and pays for his sins.”

I look at Luca. But why would he want to hurt Kayla? I don’t have time to question it, though. I don’t like Cave, but it made no sense that he would hurt Kayla. So why would Luca? I have enough sense to trust the scarecrow, and I never in a million years thought I would ever admit that.

Tightening my grip on the machete, I look over at Cave. My hands have finally stopped shaking, and a sense of clarity settles over me. I know what needs to be done. I hold the machete out to him, and Cave looks at it, then back at me.

“The back of my neck, I need the chip gone for what I am about to do,” I tell him.

Cave nods and remains silent.

“Cut it out,” I say with finality.

There is no coming back from what I’m about to do, but I don’t care. He tried to take what’s mine. Lessons will be learned.