Page 37 of Shattered Souls

The owner of the park ran some sort of special for Saturday and Sunday to boost revenue. And due to that fact, the crowd outside the gate is beginning to form.

“Seek!” A familiar body comes bounding over to me and I have to pinch my eyes shut to suppress the annoyance.

“Hey, Beth.” Bethany has only worked here the last year, and during her time here she has become oddly fond of me.

It’s not uncommon for people to befriend—or at least try—the duo Hyde and Seek. But it is uncommon for someone to show a blatant sense of favoritism over one of us.

Bethany was glued to my hip most of last season. She would bound behind on light feet and scare the patrons right after I did with my machete. It was cute and innocent the first time, less the next. And by the third weekend of having her follow me, I was ready for the season to end as a whole.

And that was when we were only open in October.

“I haven’t seen you the last few days.” She twirls on her feet, her blonde hair swaying in the wind.

“I’ve been pretty busy. They had me on manor patrol last night.” I fucked myself at the beginning of last season by falling for the little injured puppy trick and slept with her.

“Well, want to try and catch up tonight?” She traces her finger down my arm. My skin recoils at the feeling.

“I have the cage of death the next two nights. But maybe we can find another time?” I don’t add any hint of suggestion to my voice. Since Rayvn was thrown into my life, of course by my brother, I can’t even imagine touching another woman until I’ve had a taste of her.

She’s something I’d gladly wait a lifetime to get my hands on.

“Yay! I love watching you in the cage of death. I’ll be there!” She winks, and saunters off towards the dressing room.

“Tonight,” I watch Rayvn as she slips her legs into a pair of leggings. “We are going to pick you out from the crowd and bring you on stage.” She nods, her eyes darker than this morning.

“Then I get to run?”

“So eager to run, little scarecrow?” She thinks about the question for a few breaths, something flashing across her eyes before she opens her mouth.

“Yes.”

Hyde walks past us in the living room, completely dressed in his muzzle and fake blood. Her eyes dart to him. He avoids hers like they might burn him if he does look.

I lead her out of the secret door and into the center of the maze. My mask is seated on the top of my head so I can see her clearly. Her green eyes catch the moonlight and reflect the soft glow right back.

“What if I don’t get in the crowd?” She challenges.

I grab the small heart lock that dangles right between her collarbones and pull her towards me. She gasps but doesn’t try to pull back from me. “See this right here? There’s a tracker in here. You don’t stand where you’re supposed to like a good little scarecrow—well, I’ll have to get a leash and drag you up there.”

That seems to do the trick.

She slinks back, forcing me to release her collar, and takes a few nervous backwards steps towards the long corridors of the maze. When I don’t advance on her and push her to her knees like I want to, she bolts.

I enter back into the house and head back into the park through the dressing rooms so as to not bring attention to my sudden appearance. A handful of people know that Hyde and I live under the park. But no one knows about the secret passages throughout the park—and especially not our other entrance in the maze.

Maverick and another scare actor, John, make their way down the path ten minutes later, and just like the weekend that started this all, they call out the grand entrance of Hyde and Seek—the most brutal duo the park has to offer.

Red spotlights sear into my skin as the crowd cheers for both of us. Hyde is stiff and out of his element beside me. It crosses my mind for a second that he might be going through one of his manic or depressive Bipolar episodes.

He presses forward and into the roped off walkway. We both take our time and scare the people that hug the ropes. A woman giggles when the man she’s with screams a little too femininely at my machete.

My eyes find Rayvn without much effort.

Her doe eyes, mixed with the pink leather around her neck, are hard to miss. I walk over to her. She takes a single step back but nothing more. I can taste the want to turn and run vibrating off her, but she doesn’t want to be made a spectacle more than she’s about to be.

I point at her then hold my hand out in invitation.

“What’s happening?” Someone whispers off to my side. Rayvn swallows, pushes her way through the crowd, and slips her hand in mine. I help her step over the ropes before dropping her hand and pointing her off to the stage.