Page 40 of Stay Scared

I choose the opening. I slip through and pull the panel shut behind me. Cade hits the opposite side a second later.

“Salem, open the damn door.”

I run.

The carnival maze folds around painted mouths and warped mirrors. Gravel shifts beneath my boots where the temporary flooring has separated, and the music swallows Cade’s voice.

I take the first turn that hides the door.

A mirror on my right catches movement behind me.

The beaked black mask enters the maze.

Chapter 8

The beaked mask appears in the mirror behind me.

I turn before the reflection finishes moving.

Painted canvas walls crowd both sides of the carnival maze, stretched across temporary frames and covered in grinning mouths. The figure stands at the last intersection, half hidden behind a striped game curtain, his worn black beak pointed toward me. He stays where he is.

Behind him, somebody hits the concealed panel hard enough to shake the wall.

“Salem, stay where I can fucking see you.”

Cade’s voice reaches me through canvas and distorted carnival music.

The beaked man slips around the next turn.

I follow.

My boots skid over gravel scattered across the temporary flooring. I catch one painted wall before my shoulder hits it and push farther into the maze as the calliope swells overhead.

Cade forces the hidden door open behind me.

I glance through a narrow gap between panels. The skull mask is back on. He must have grabbed it before following me. Painted teeth catch the weak bulbs as he steps into the maze with one hand still braced against the wall he shoved aside.

His eyes find mine, then move past me.

“Which way?”

“Right at the last intersection.”

“Did he touch you?”

“Not here.”

Cade’s shoulders tighten. “Keep moving. I’m coming.”

That would be the sensible option.

I back away instead.

The skull angles slightly. He knows exactly what I am offering him.

“You wanted distance,” he calls. “Earn it.”

I run.