Page 103 of When Darkness Calls

Hordes of people stand around chattering, screaming every now and then when one of the actors comes up behind them.

I’ve seen a total of ten chainsaw wielding creeps, like a dozen freaky ass clowns, and a couple of zombies maybe.

The first weekend of October, of course the place is going to be buzzing. Any other time I would say that I’d probably be right there with them in my excitement. I love shit like this.

But I don’t love how fucking difficult it makes keeping my eyes on Dani.

Luckily, I blended in with the crowd. Or at least the actors. No one would cast a second glance at a guy in a weird mask walking around this place. And if this haunt is as big as I have heard, I might even go unnoticed by the directors and the rest of the actors.

That’s the hope anyways.

I wandered around the vast grounds, scanning the crowd intently looking for her, but I still haven’t found her.

Maybe she isn’t here yet? Which would be weird considering her and Liz left Cade’s house about an hour and half ago. That’s plenty of time to get here.

I’m about to text her when the notification lights up my screen.

Dani

Are you going to come find me, shadow?

I smirk at my phone. Of course, she wants to play here.

Me

Maybe I already have.

And I begin my search again.

This time it doesn’t take me long to seek her out. She is standing in the front of the line, Liz by her side, in black skirt, fishnets, a leather harness wrapped around her chest under a black shirt with mesh-like sleeves, and wearing those same old worn-out sneakers.

She looks fucking good. Damn fucking good. My mouth waters as my eyes trail down the slope of her waist and how fucking great those tights hug her thighs.

But I’m not the only one who takes notice. Off to the side, three actors stand staring at her, whispering to each other. One is a tall guy, wearing a torn up flannel showing off his blood painted abs and a burlap sack on his head, a hole cut out around what I assume is his eye. The other guy is slim wearing a white dress shirt also covered in blood, kind of reminding me of Keegan. He nods to everything the other two say, his thin face painted like a skeleton.

The girl though. She sets off some alarms in the back of my mind. From what I can see of her, she has that sort of hollowness like Nick, but that mania in her eyes, it’s the same addicted look in Keegan’s when he sees fire. And she focuses all of that on Dani, eying her up like she’s her next fucking meal.

The clown girl twists her fingers around her pigtails, tilting her head one way and the next, studying Dee. I don’t fucking like it.

My feet move swiftly, placing myself between the group and my sweet girl.

The sack-head dude straightens, placing a hand on the clown’s shoulder. He sent me a small nod, and I returned the favor.

I don’t know what sort of plans they had, or if they knew I wasn’t an actor too, but one thing is for sure. Dani’s mine tonight. If she wants to scream, I’ll make sure she gets her wish.

Dani

If you’ve found me, why haven’t you kidnapped me yet?

Me

Trust me, sweet girl. You’re going to regret that.

I watched her search through the crowd for me. My heart’s thrumming erratically in my chest. The idea of scaring her, and her wanting it, enjoying it, it’s doing something to my head.

It’s not exactly hunting, because I’m not chasing her down, but maybe Alex has been onto something.

With one more backward glance to her, noting the creepy clown guy that made the announcement earlier is walking back to the front porch, I move quickly to the exit.