Page 90 of Stay Scared

“Then watch.”

Rook raises one gloved finger.

“Be careful what you open, Salem. Authority has a habit of feeling safer in a new hand.”

The control-room door unlocks. Ash checks the physical latch before pulling it open.

Owen glances toward the monitor.

“He wants us moving.”

“Staying here leaves Mark in that chair.”

Rook wants us moving because movement puts us back inside the parts of Crimson Night he understands. Unfortunately, staying still only lets his countdown keep running.

We leave the masks behind. Without them, Crimson Night looks unfinished. Paint ends at staff doors. Wires cross exposed ceilings. Costume racks sit beside emergency equipment that failed when anyone actually needed it.

We descend through a maintenance stairwell behind the old arcade, where the air grows colder near the basement. Owen keeps the old map open in one hand.

“The compression corridor is through here.”

A steel door waits ahead with several locks surrounding one central handle.

Ash comes close behind my shoulder.

“Lower lock. Deep notch toward the hinge.”

I pull the key from beneath my jacket. His hand rises automatically. Then stops before reaching mine.

I glance at him. He lowers it. Good.

I insert the steel into the lower lock.

“Press inward first.”

I do.

“Now turn.”

Resistance catches halfway. Ash moves closer behind me, close enough that the heat of his chest reaches through the back of my jacket.

“More pressure.”

I push. The mechanism gives. Heavy bolts retract inside the wall. Ash keeps his hands to himself.

The door opens onto a long corridor lined with segmented black panels. Faded tracks run beneath them. Restraint rings remain welded into several sections at shoulder height.

“The walls moved inward during pursuit scenes,” Ash says.

Cade looks at the rings.

“How far?”

Ash’s mouth hardens.

“Farther than they were supposed to when Rook operated them.”

The answer changes the corridor immediately. This was one of Rook’s rooms. One of the physical systems he controlled before Ash removed him. And the machinery is still here.