Epilogue
A Few Weeks Later
Miles
Why the hell was I doing this?
Right, because I loved Duckie, and because I wanted to support my brother.
I needed to remember that.
"Ready?" Duckie asked, an excited smile on his face, and I nodded, trying not to show my nerves. While I couldn't hide all my emotions from him, I could mute them to a certain degree so he wouldn't know how uneasy I felt.
I glanced up at the entrance of the Haunted House—all of Cam's fancy name ideas had apparently been vetoed by his mates—and swallowed hard.
Mateo was off making sure everything worked without a hitch.
While almost everything was ready for the big launch, a few things needed some last-minute adjustments, so Mateo would be working on those while we had our 'experience. ' Basically, we were guinea pigs.
The outside of the house didn't look too terrible. I could see Levi's contributions in the vines climbing up the walls, laden with fake cobwebs, spiders, and other bugs. The wide wooden double-doors hung open. The large claw mark on one door had to have come from Cam himself.
"Let's go! We get to experience it before the official opening. Isn't that great?"
"Mmm-hmm."
The official opening of the place was three days from now, but Cam had invited some of us today for a trial run.
Duckie squeezed my hand as we climbed up the steps, and I pushed my fear to the back of my mind, focusing on the warmth of his hand instead. I wasn't alone. I'd be okay.
Mateo was somewhere in there, figuring out his role as the manager of the place. Though he'd assured me he'd be watching my progress through the cameras. He knew better than anyone how bad I was with all things horror, and I knew he was ecstatic Duckie had convinced me to come here.
A chill washed over me as soon as we stepped over the threshold, and Duckie whistled.
We were standing at the beginning of a seemingly unending hallway, and I wondered how many of the clan members had helped with this place.
"Come on," Duckie murmured, leading me deeper into the hellscape.
As we walked, the hallway shifted, and I glanced back, swearing under my breath when I saw that the entrance was just... gone. It was subtle enough a human would think they'd been walking longer than they'd thought, but I knew this was the work of an illusion of some kind.
"Whoa!" Duckie said, stopping short, and I turned, following his gaze to the mirror he was staring at. I flinched. The mirror was reflecting us, sure, but instead of our normal faces, it showed us ones with manic grins on them. It looked like a Snapchat filter, but much, much creepier.
"Fuck," I mumbled, and Duckie chuckled.
"It's crazy, isn't it?"
I hummed, and we kept walking through the hall of mirrors. Each mirror reflected us in some weird way, and when we reached the end of the mirrors, I let out a grateful sigh.
"Oooh, looks like there are themed rooms!" Duckie exclaimed as he dragged me into the next hallway, and I braced myself.
A curtain of vines barred the entrance of the first room, with a plaque on the wall beside it proclaiming it to be the "Forest of Lost Souls" and to 'Enter at your own risk.'
Ghosts, really? Why?
Duckie pushed through the vines, pulling me after him, and I sent up a silent prayer to a God I'd never believed in as I went in after him.
I shivered as a cool breeze caressed my skin, glancing around at the trees crowding the room. I got the feeling they weren't fake, and Cam had somehow figured out a way—probably with Levi's help, since he was an earth mage—to grow them in here.
"Miles," someone whispered, and I turned to find another tree. What the hell?
"Miiiles," another voice called, teasingly dragging my name out.
"Shit!" I gasped out, stumbling a step back.
"Okay?" Duckie asked, and I nodded quickly, not wanting him to realize how scared I was.
Something brushed my leg, and I skittered back as much as I could with my hand still gripped in Duckie's.
Glancing down, I found a vine creeping toward me, and I knew it was going to wrap around my leg and drag me into those trees.
"Let's check out the next room," I said, and Duckie beamed at me.
"Sure! I'm glad you're having fun."
Ha. The things I'd do for this man...
We went out of the room, pausing in front of the next one.
This one had no door at all, and the plaque introduced it as "The Crypt."
"Fun," I mumbled, and Duckie chuckled as he hurried inside. I was grateful he was holding my hand, because I didn't think I could get through this thing without that anchor to the real world, to the reason I was doing this.
The crypt was full of coffins, some lying open, others closed, as well as stone statues. The air here was chill, practically freezing, and the sound of a crow cawing could be heard every few seconds.
Suddenly, the crows fell silent, and a wooden creak filled the air, pulling my eyes to the coffin whose lid had slid a few inches to the right.
My eyes were riveted to the gap that had opened up, waiting for something to leap out of the coffin, my whole body thrumming with the need to leave this room.
A hand clasped my shoulder, and I yelped, jerking back so hard Duckie lost his hold on my hand.
Suddenly, a thick fog filled the room, blocking my sight as I looked around, desperate to find Duckie again.
"Duckie!" I shouted, but it was like the fog swallowed my voice. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was beyond creepy. This was downright terrifying.
A hand clasped around my arm, and I almost ripped it away before realizing it was Duckie.
"Found you!" he said, giving me a look I couldn't quite read.
"Duckie, thank God—" I sucked in a breath as his face started to transform, turning pale and bloody. He grinned at me, revealing sharp vampire fangs, and I stumbled back, ripping myself out of his hold.
Logically, I knew it must be Bettino, the shapeshifter, taking Duckie's form. But my fear was getting the best of me, and if I didn't find Duckie soon, I was going to curl up in a corner and let it swallow me whole.
I should've told Duckie I wasn't up for this when he first asked me.
Duckie
This was so cool.
I'd been to a haunted house once before, when I'd been seven. Back before everything had gone to shit. I remembered how fun all the jump scares had been, how Dad had screamed with fright while Mom and I laughed in delight.
But Cam's haunted house was so much better. It was spookier, for one, and all the little paranormal contributions made even me feel a little scared.
I pushed through the fog, aiming for the spot Miles had pulled away toward. Mateo had told me Miles wasn't a big fan of horror, and I'd been trying my best to keep him from getting too scared. Holding hands helped, but he had to be scared as fuck right now.
"Miles?" I asked as my hand brushed something warm, and I waved some of the fog away, smiling when I spotted him. "There you are."
"Can we get out of here?" he asked, his brown eyes a touch wild, and I nodded instantly.
Taking his hand in mine, I linked our fingers before leading him through the fog and out of the room.
"Do you want to skip the rest of the rooms?" I asked, and he pursed his lips.
"You want to see them, right? We don't have to."
I eyed him for a moment, taking in the harried expression on his face. I could hear his heart racing in his chest, and his hand felt clammy against mine. I couldn't force him through more rooms, not when he was this scared.
"I can see them anytime, Miles. I'll come back with Mateo later. I should've done this with him in the first place. I'm sorry."
Miles shook his head, giving me a soft look. "I said yes. I didn't realize how terrifying it would be. I have to give Cam and Mateo props for this. They brought this place to life."
"That is true. Come on—let's get out of here."
"Mateo will give me so much shit for wimping out," he grumbled, and I rolled my eyes at him.
"You're not wimping out. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, and I'll deal with Mateo if he says anything," I said, and a soft smile spread across his lips.
"Yeah? You'll protect my honor?" he teased, and I leaned over to press a soft kiss on his lips.
"Of course I will. You're mine, aren't you?"
"I am."
His heartbeat was much calmer now, and I smiled, turning my attention to the hallway and eyeing the long corridor. "The exit has to be somewhere at the end of the hallway, right?"
"I guess so. Then again, this place feels a lot bigger on the inside, so who knows. They must've asked Dad or Rhiannon for help."
Mateo had told me a little about how they'd designed the whole place, and I'd found it fascinating how many people had helped just because.
They didn't want money or credit. They did it simply because Cam—that was, a member of the clan—was building this place.
I'd never belonged to a community like this before, but I was excited to be a part of it now.
"Does this hallway feel a little weird to you? How long have we been walking?" Miles asked, and as I opened my mouth to agree, an exit sign flickered to life above a door a few feet down the hallway that hadn't been visible until now.
"Well..." I trailed off, waving toward it, and Miles shook his head, squeezing my hand tighter.
We pushed through the door, but instead of coming out of the house, we found ourselves in another damn hallway.
"Fuck!" Miles exclaimed, pushing into me as a vine reached out of the wall to caress his cheek. Another grabbed at my leg, and I jerked away, almost tripping Miles.
"Run!" he demanded, and we raced down the hallway, dodging vines and hands that reached out of the wall. We took a right, then a left, but the hallway was never-ending.
"Wait, what's that?" I panted as I spotted a flicker of something white move around another bend.
We raced after it, and I sucked in a breath when I finally spotted it.
It was a unicorn. Or at least, the illusion of one, since I knew it wasn't Alden.
This unicorn had a complete horn, unlike Alden's broken one.
It glanced at us, then threw its head back, and we followed after it. It led us through a couple more hallways before stopping in front of a door and stepping aside.
Miles looked uneasy as I slowly opened the door, then exhaled in relief as fresh air blew in.
"Finally," he exclaimed, and I glanced back at the unicorn, who dipped its head at me before trotting off.
We stepped outside, and the door slammed shut behind us with a bang, making Miles jump.
"I am never doing that again," he declared as we walked down the steps, and I paused, turning to pull him into my arms.
"Thank you for saying yes despite your fears. I enjoyed doing this with you."
"I didn't hate every moment of it because it was with you."
I laughed because I knew he was being completely honest.
"I'm happy I made you hate it a little less. Can I try to kiss it better?"
Miles smiled, then nodded, and I leaned down, pressing my lips against his. I kissed him, brushing my lips against his in a gentle caress as I ran my palm up and down his back.
Slowly, the last of the tension seeped out of him, and he sank into me as his fear dissolved completely.
Pulling back, I cupped his face between my palms, and pressed a kiss on his forehead.
"I love you, Miles."
"I love you too, Duckie. Now let's go tell my brother how fucking terrifying this place is."
Laughing, I linked my arm with his before walking around the house to the front, where Mateo was waiting for us, hip leaned against the car.
Mateo was supposed to lock up before we left so a human didn't wander in—Mateo had said the human teens in town were extremely curious about the place, and if not for Cam's wards, they'd have already broken in to look around—and I was surprised he'd done it in the time it'd taken us to get here from the back of the house.
"So? How was it?" Mateo asked as soon as we reached the front, stepping toward us from where he'd been leaning against the car.
"Awesome!" I said with a wide grin at the same time Miles said, "Terrifying."
Mateo laughed, then threw his arms around both our shoulders. "Perfect. Come on, let's get some ice cream. That will calm you down."
Mateo started grilling us about our favorite parts as we got into the car, and as Miles answered his questions, I let their voices wash over me, soaking it all in.
A few weeks ago, I'd thought I was destined to be alone forever. Now, I had Mom back, I had two wonderful mates, a dog who loved everyone he met, and a clan that looked out for each other like they were family.
I had the best life I could've ever dreamed up, and I was going to enjoy it every moment of every day.