Page 263 of Stay Scared

“I am furious.”

“Close enough.”

Cade pulls the skull over his face. Ash watches him, then looks toward the wall cabinet where the repaired Voice mask hangs.

His restraint lasts less than a second.

He takes it.

The hallway speaker activates again.

Owen says, “You have about twenty seconds.”

I turn and run.

Cade starts after me immediately. Ash says something behind him, swallowed by Cade’s footsteps before it reaches me.

The hallway opens onto the midway. Most of the attraction is dark after closing, but low red work lamps burn along the floor, and the permanent exit signs remain visible at every route split.

I ignore all of them.

Cade’s boots strike behind me, fast enough to remind me that eighteen months changed his restraint without touching his appetite.

I hit the carnival corridor and cut through the old queue. A white mask flashes in the glass ahead, disappearing before I reach it.

“Coward!”

Owen’s voice comes through a speaker farther down. “Keep running.”

I grin and keep moving as Cade gains ground. His hand catches my coat, jerking the fabric before I twist loose.

He swears through the skull.

I reach the next intersection.

Ash’s Voice fills the corridor. “Go left.”

I go right.

He lets the silence sit for half a beat. “Of course.”

I laugh harder, and Cade almost catches me because of it. His fingers graze my waist. I slap his hand away and take the stairs two at a time.

The old observation passage waits above.

Owen steps into the doorway in a white mask and black shirt, blocking the route without moving aside.

I slow.

Cade is behind me. Ash is somewhere below.

Owen watches me approach.

“You planned this.”

His mask tilts. “Yes, I did.”

“Alone?”