Page 221 of Stay Scared

Of course his move arrives through a law firm.

The envelope is thick enough to hurt somebody. Inside is an offer for half of whatever eventually grows out of the wreckage Crimson Night left behind.

Half the company.

Half the intellectual property that survives the investigation.

Equal ownership of anything he builds next.

He has put my name above his.

I sit at my kitchen table with the founder key beside the paperwork and stare at the first page for a long time.

The paperwork reads more like architecture than apology.

Ash apologizes by constructing something around the damage, and apparently this time he has built me half a future out of the ruins.

It feels closer to a claim.

Half the ruins, half the future, half of whatever monster he intends to build after the police finish pulling the old one apart.

I leave the signature line blank and slide the packet into a drawer instead of the trash.

Three days later, I email the attorney one sentence.

I want access to the property Friday night.

Nothing else.

Ash replies through the lawyer within seven minutes.

Granted.

I almost laugh. Instead, I close the laptop and spend the next two days wondering whether I just opened a door I worked very hard to shut.

Friday arrives anyway.

Mark drives. The amusement park looks smaller without police lights pouring across it. Most of the evidence tape is gone, several buildings remain sealed, and a temporary fence divides the sections investigators have released from the sections nobody is allowed to touch.

Three vehicles sit in the lot.

I recognize all of them.

Mark sees where I am looking. “You told Ash.”

“I requested access.”

“You told Ash.”

“That is technically true.”

“He told the others.”

“Apparently he did.”

Mark turns off the engine. We sit there for several seconds with the founder key resting cold inside my coat pocket.

“You want me to come in?”