Page 19 of Make Her Scream

Movement to my right catches my eye, and I brace, ready to fight, but it’s the girl with the wide, terrified eyes. She beckons for us to follow her, and we do, heading around the back of the parking lot, to an area full of overgrown shrubs, bushes, and a few trees. She hides behind two big trees, and we follow her.

This could be a trap; the thought is alarming. Yes, she’s helped us so far, but that could all have been part of their games.

“Hey, who the fuck are these people? What do they want with us?” Cain demands when we reach her.

“They’re my brothers. I’m sorry they’re doing this to you. I want them to stop. This… this isn’t the first time.”

“So why the fuck haven’t you gone to the cops?” he asks.

“Because they’ll kill me. They’ll kill me if they so much as found out I was talking to you. And even if I went to the police, they’d just run. It’s what we do. We never stay in one place long.”

It’s hard to feel sorry for her when we’re all in such a fucked-up situation.

Roman steps in. “What did they do with our truck?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. They normally just hide the vehicles, at least initially, and then burn them once they’re… done.”

Understanding dawns about just how practiced these sons of bitches are in what they’re doing. This isn’t the first time they’ve hunted people, or even the second or third. It’s practically fucking routine for them.

“Do you have a phone we can use?” Cain asks.

“No, sorry. They don’t let me have one, and they always make sure the cell signals aren’t working when they play their games. Even if I had one, it would be of no use to you.”

These men are practically professionals at this shit. I exchange a glance with Cain and Roman and see they’ve come to the same conclusion. We can’t underestimate who we’re up against.

With a furtive glance around, the girl whispers, “I managed to get these for you.”

She lifts her shirt up, and taped around her middle are a couple of large knives and a damn cleaver. This is perfect. Yes, knives aren’t great against guns—if the men are even armed—but it is better than nothing, and if we’re stealthy enough, it might just give us the upper hand.

She glances around again, visibly trembling. Her fingers are so shaky, she can’t get the tape undone.

“Can I?” Roman asks.

She nods, and he carefully unwraps the tape, handing out knives to me and Cain, and shoving the cleaver down the waistband of his own jeans, before covering it with his shirt. He pulls her shirt back in place and she gives him a wobbly smile.

“Where do they have the cameras placed?” Cain asks, keeping his voice low. “And where do they view the footage?”

“They view the feed from the small temporary office located behind the twister cars, and they don’t have many cameras. It’s costly to be using lots of them when we’re always on the road. They are only focused on the main safe and the lock boxes, which are at the far end of the carnival, and of course, the entrance.”

So, they’ll have seen that we ran for the truck, probably just as they’d planned.

“Is there another way in here?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes, right around the back, beyond the Helter Skelter. There’s a small gap in the fencing with some tarpaulin thrown over it. We keep the trash cans out there.”

“No cameras?” I ask.

She shakes her head.

“Will they follow us if we run through the woods? Or let us go?” Ophelia’s question is desperate, her words rushed and full of fear.

“Yes, they’ll follow you. They like to hurt people in the woods. They like to hurt them here, too, though. They just like to harm people.”

“How many?” I ask, meaning how many unsuspecting visitors have been killed.

Her eyes shimmer in the dim light and I think she might be crying. “Too many to keep count.”

Jesus Christ.