Chapter 14 #2
“Oh crap. They’re headed right for us,” Dutton said, steeling himself.
“Go. I’ll head them off and meet you back at the T-bird,” Dahlia said.
“No, I—” Dutton started.
“I’m not going to let them ruin our night. Go. Now,” she ordered and then gave him a tiny shove. “I’ve got this.”
Dutton hesitated for just a moment, but when she gave him the evil eye, he turned and headed off in the other direction.
Just as he slipped into another throng of people, he heard her say, “Agents. Funny running into you here.”
A voice sounded over a loudspeaker, announcing the pumpkin pie-eating contest and drowning out whatever the agents said to Dahlia.
Dutton circled around a couple of food tents and was headed toward the exit when he spotted the agents again.
They were turned away from him, their heads bent together.
But then suddenly, one of them turned in his direction.
Dutton was right next to the haunted house, and without giving it any thought, he ducked inside.
He paused when he realized where he was and moved to stand near the door, intending to watch until the agents moved on.
But then without warning, the lights flashed and he found himself seemingly transported into a dark room.
His blood pressure spiked, and his adrenaline kicked in, making him want to flee. Only it was pitch black, so he had no idea where to flee to.
An image appeared on the wall. It was a fire in another town.
The city he’d grown up in. The fire burned behind a store window, crawling up the wood frame.
Cries from a woman screaming about her cat still being inside filled his ears, and panic took over.
Dutton felt his magic curl at his fingertips with the urge to control the blaze, to put it out, to do something, anything, to save the woman’s cat.
Only his magic didn’t work. No matter what he tried, it wouldn’t touch the fire.
He knew it was because what he was watching wasn’t real, but it didn’t change his desperation to do something to help the woman.
The woman turned to him, tears streaming down her face. “You have to help me.”
The cat stood at the front door of the store, peering out from behind the glass.
Dutton screamed and threw himself at the door, ready to break it down.
The scene shifted. The storefront and the woman were gone.
They were replaced by Dahlia standing at her front door, watching as he was hauled off in handcuffs by the Magical Task Force.
He wanted to rage and scream that he was innocent.
But deep down he knew he wasn’t. He hadn’t been responsible for any of the fires in Keating Hollow, but he was responsible for the ones in his youth.
And subconsciously, he knew he deserved to pay for them.
His mother appeared. The version that he’d loved and always wanted to protect from his abusive father.
She was young, in her early twenties, the way he remembered her when he was a young boy.
Her sweet expression suddenly changed to the hardened, angry one she wore years later after she’d succumbed to a life of addiction.
Her face contorted into disgust when she said, “You’re worthless.
I should tell those agents where you are and let them arrest you right now.
In fact, I’ll do it. Unless…” Her lips curved into a manipulative smile.
“If you make it worth my while, I’ll pretend I never saw you. A hundred bucks should do it.”
Dutton wanted to scream. He hadn’t seen his mother in years.
Hadn’t really even thought about her. He’d loved her as a little boy, but later, after addiction had taken over, she’d become someone he hadn’t even recognized.
Mean and vindictive and certainly not a woman fit to be raising two boys.
“I’ll never give you anything,” he told the hologram. “Never.”
She lunged for him, and again the scene changed.
This time it was a scene of Briggs and Melissa.
They were sitting on their front porch. Melissa was in Briggs’s lap, her arms wrapped around his neck.
They were the picture of happiness. But when they looked up and spotted Dutton, they both suddenly turned into zombies and started chasing after him.
As he glanced over his shoulder, he saw their skin flaking off and their limbs barely functioning as they fell to the ground.
Dutton let out a cry of frustration and screamed, “Let me out of here!”
The lights flashed, and he found himself at another door. He stumbled out, realizing he’d exited on the back side of the haunted house. There was a couple standing just in front of him, both as white as a sheet.
“That was… a nightmare,” the woman said.
The man hugged her and said, “Whoever created that haunted house needs to be committed.”
Dutton had to agree. He stumbled away, doing his very best to forget everything he witnessed inside the house of horrors while he scanned the area for the agents.
He didn’t see them or Dahlia and safely made it to the parking area.
He was careful as he approached his T-bird, realizing that the car was a dead giveaway of his presence.
If the agents had found it, they could be waiting for him there, and his trip into the haunted house would have been for nothing.
But they weren’t there. And neither was Dahlia.
He glanced around, worried that she was still caught up with the agents, but he didn’t want to leave himself exposed.
Hating that he was hiding like a criminal, he unlocked the door and climbed in.
His skin was itchy from his anxiety, and his mind was still trying to process his worst nightmares.
It took him a moment to realize that he was shaking, and he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to calm down.
It didn’t work. Or at least it didn’t until the door opened and Dahlia slipped in. “Whew. Those guys are exhausting,” she said. “Let’s roll.”
Dutton didn’t hesitate. He fired up the T-bird, put it in gear, and headed back to her house.
They’d been on the road only a few moments when she asked, “What happened?”
‘Nothing,” he said automatically, certain that he did not want to delve into the dark places of his psyche.
“Your face is white, and your hands are shaking.” Her voice was low and full of concern.
“Did you run into the agents after all? I told them that you’d taken off because of a stomach issue and that you were likely going to be spending a lot of time in the bathroom.
I made a big deal about you having a weak constitution when it comes to fried food and suggested you’d likely be spending the next twenty-four hours dealing with the unfortunate effects. ”
He glanced over at her. “That’s what you told them?”
“It worked like a charm.” She smiled sweetly at him.
He couldn’t help the bark of hysterical laughter that escaped his lips. “That’s… I don’t know, somehow perfect.”
“I thought so.” She paused and then asked again, “If you didn’t run into them, then what happened? Parden the cliché, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“That’s because I feel like I have,” he admitted. “In order to avoid being seen by the agents, I ended up taking a detour through the haunted house.”
“No.” Her eyes widened with disbelief. “The people I saw coming out of that place looked like they’d lost ten years off their lives. What happened? Did an anaconda try to eat you?”
“No. Worse. It showed me my worst psychological fears. You know, stuff that haunts me.” He swallowed hard. “And my mother.”
“That’s… I have no words,” Dahlia said softly. “Other than whoever spelled that thing deserves prison. It’s a harvest festival.” Her voice turned angry. “Not a horror fest.”
He agreed. That spell was far more damaging than running from a bear.
There should have been legal paperwork involved making sure people knew what they were in for.
Or at the very least, more warnings. But in reality, he thought it had no place at a festival in Keating Hollow.
He’d always thought of the town as magical and wholesome.
That was its charm. And just because magic and spells existed, it didn’t mean they needed to be used to torture people.
“I wonder who put that haunted house together. It’s not very on-brand for Keating Hollow. ”
“I agree, and I haven’t even been here that long. Surely the city council will have some permits on file. I’m sure we could find out if we really wanted to know.”
Dutton shook his head as he pulled into her driveway. “No, not really. I just don’t know anyone in town who would put something like that together. It’s very out of place.”
“Very much so.”
Dutton jumped out of the car and ran around to the passenger side to open the door before Dahlia could even get her seatbelt off.
She looked up at him and smirked. “You’re eager.”
“I’m a gentleman,” he said, forcing a smile. The last thing he wanted to do was end the date as a headcase who’d been spooked by an unethical haunted house experience.
“You’re definitely that.” She held out her hand and let him help her out of the car.
Dutton was fully prepared to kiss her goodnight and then head on home. But instead, Dahlia unlocked the door and tugged him inside.