Page 23 of Stay Scared

“You saw him.”

“We recovered the last intact segment,” Owen answers. “The image cuts out before he enters the room.”

“He stood beside me.”

“The feed doesn’t show him. That doesn’t mean you didn’t see him.”

“He wasn’t assigned to me.”

Cade places the skull mask on the chair. “Nobody on our crew is wearing that fucking mask tonight.”

The corridor feels colder.

I step through the doorway. None of them follows. Cade remains beside the chair, Owen stays near the wall, and the man in the glowing mask lets me put several feet between us.

The phrase works.

I stop where the corridor branches toward the CONTROL stairway, then turn around. “Who owns Crimson Night?”

The glowing mask answers. “The three of us do.”

“You own Decay Brigade?”

“We founded it.”

I look at Cade. “You joined a haunted-house company.”

“After you left.”

“That explains very little.”

“It wasn’t supposed to explain a damn thing.”

His anger is easier to see without the skull.

I stay in the corridor. “How did my invitation happen?”

The glowing mask rests one hand against the chair. “Final Girl Protocol existed before you opened the application.”

“You designed this for me?”

“I designed this version for you.”

“You knew Fright Circuit needed a Halloween finale.”

“The assignment was public. Your invitation carried an identifier tied to your business address.”

“So you knew when I opened it.”

“The system notified us immediately.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you knew enough about me to build this.”

Owen sets the white mask on the floor. “I supplied most of it.”

I look at him. “How much?”

“Your routines and public history, especially the way you respond when strangers approach you.”