Page 6 of Stay Scared

“And you still want to go.”

I look toward the black invitation window behind the waiver. “I haven’t signed yet.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

He knows me too well to get hung up on technicalities.

“If you sign,” Mark says, “put me in the trailer.”

“You just spent five minutes explaining why the trailer is useless.”

“It has limited uses, but it’s better than nothing.”

I open the observer application. Mark gives me his information while he keeps reading, and when the form asks about our relationship, I select colleague.

“You hesitated,” he says.

“I was deciding if pain in my ass was an option.”

I submit the form. A gray status bar marks it pending.

“Read every page before you sign,” Mark says.

“I will.”

“And don’t make the mistake of thinking you know what’s happening because you’re used to other haunts. This one is different.”

I look at the invitation again. “Exactly, that’s what I need.”

“That is exactly what worries me.”

The call ends, and I continue reading. Most of the remaining pages expand the limits already established. Crimson Night can restrain me, isolate me, alter my route, and use information gathered through the application to personalize scenes.

Then I reach the section governing sexual contact and slow down.

Sexual contact is excluded from the general attraction waiver.

I reread the heading.

PARTICIPANT CONSENT TO THE ATTRACTION DOES NOT CONSTITUTE CONSENT TO SEXUAL CONTACT.

If sexual contact begins between a participant and a designated performer, the active attraction scene is suspended for the people involved. The participant must initiate the contact or clearly reciprocate it before the performer may continue.

During that suspension, the rules change. “Stop” means stop. “Let me go” means let me go. Three taps end physical contact immediately. When the contact ends, the attraction may resume unless either party terminates the interaction entirely.

I read the section again.

They can chase me through the dark, restrain me, pin me against a wall, and ignore ordinary attempts to escape because I agreed those reactions could belong to the performance. If I cross another line first, or choose to cross it with them, the game changes without requiring me to leave it.

The scratched mask from the video returns to me, followed by the slow turn toward the camera.

Did anyone else get turned on during the chase rooms?

Apparently, Crimson Night had planned for that possibility too.

By 3:41 a.m., I reach the final page. The acknowledgment repeats the distinction. Verbal refusal may not end an active attraction scene after entry, but sexual contact is governed separately. The attraction waiver can’t stand in for sexual consent.

I already understand the arrangement. Mark can watch from outside. Crimson Night controls the route. If I enter, I surrender the ordinary expectation that saying stop automatically ends the performance. If I decide I want something else from one of the men inside, that decision belongs to me.