Page 28 of Enter if you Dare: Part Two

“And he took the bait.”

The corn thrashes, and Valli’s shriek this time doesn’t turn to laughter.

Noa grabs my arm. “I think he may be using the rope.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I can imagine it. Him taking his time tying the knots.”

Her voice drifts out through the field as she moans his name.

“For the listeners at home, the female appears to be enjoying herself.”

Then the sounds get louder.

“And we have transitioned to the . . . yep, wow, okay.” Noa clears his throat. “Did it just get hot in here?”

I laugh.

“He is going for gold. Can you hear the slapping? Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be involved in that.” Valli’s cries of ecstasy echo around us. “Cipher, you have known the predator longer than everyone. Any words for our audience?”

“No.”

“Folks, I can see his ears are bright red right now.”

I shake my head at his teasing.

Their noises go on long enough that Noa’s commentary dies out, and he moves to sit back on the railing next to me with the corncob in one hand. We listen to the two of them finish, then the cornfield goes quiet.

“The four of us,” he says, looking toward the field. “How did it happen?”

“She walked in,” I reply, and he nods in agreement.

We don’t make sense on paper, but we work.

I don’t doubt that Cave is ready. It was our personal circumstances that led him to a moment of weakness, but he is strong enough to come back.

So long as no one touches what he deems his, everything will be fine.

Valli

For the last three weeks, we have been fully focused on Harvest Moon preparation, and tonight we will see all our hard work pay off. I have barely seen my men lately. Every night I fell into bed and was out cold as soon as my head hit the pillow, then I was up again before the sun.

Cave has been training and running test after test to make sure he is ready. Cipher has been buried in generators and backup systems because Nixie is leaving no room for error. Noa has been getting the cemetery ready and helping people in other zones.

I miss them and can’t wait to be able to breathe again. After tonight, everything goes back to normal, or our version of it anyway.

Tonight the island doesn’t look like it normally does; it looks possessed. Every zone is live and every hunter on the island is out. Tonight there are no wristbands, and the people who visit will be pushed to their limit, to the point that they might regret ever signing up. They have paid to scream, and Nixie calls those screams the sound of money.

Everyone who steps through those gates tonight will have their fears thrown at them. Each person had extensive background checks run, and experts have gone over them and picked them apart. Some hunters have targets, but everyone has been briefed on each person’s fears to play into, faces to remember.

As people arrive and everything transforms in front of my eyes, it’s amazing seeing all the hard work pay off. Time blurs, and Nixie and I become a two-woman army. Guest check-ins, rotation changes, a sprained ankle in one of the mazes, a VIP guest who wanted to negotiate his limits mid-event.

“Breathe,” Nixie tells me at around one in the morning, pressing a coffee into my hand. “Look around and see how magical it is.”

Looking around and across the grounds, I can see the cornfield, where the queue wraps around the cemetery fence. Grown adults are waiting an hour to be hunted by the Scarecrow, who is normally off-limits. From this viewpoint, I can see the stalks moving and know he is doing exactly what we made sure he is comfortable doing. Every few minutes a guest breaks free from the stalks—some leave crying, others laughing.

My chest tightens, knowing he is mine.