Page 8 of Hunting Ground

“Yeah,” I say finally, the word slow and hesitant.

“I think it is.”

4

I’m not sure how long we stand there. Horrified doesn’t feel like a strong enough word right now to describe my feelings, and a shiver goes down my spine when a stronger breeze blows off the water.

Finally, I glance back towards the expanse of the amusement park, my brain working slower than I’d like it to. “If they’ve turned on the power, then maybe the office has something we can use,” I say slowly. “On the shore. The manager had a small building back by the arcade when this place was open. I doubt the desktop is still there, obviously, but there was a modem and an emergency phone.”

“You think an emergency phone is going to be operational?” Lily asks, her voice dry.

“No but I also think my manager was a paranoid fuck who kept three guns in that office. One of which was in a vent,” I reply flatly. She blinks, looking a little surprised, but then nods her head in agreement with my sound logic.

“Equipment, flares, a weapon, or…anything. That’s kind of what I’m hoping we’ll find back there.” I zip my hoodie up over the Rest Easy Inn t-shirt, wishing that I was wearing something a little better for the incoming chilly night air than this. While I definitely don’t need Lily’s parka, an actual jacket would be nice. Or fleece-lined leggings, instead of the cheap normal ones I’d gotten a three pack of at Target.

Lily falls into step with me once I’ve made the conscious decision to start walking. Like she was waiting for me to do just that. Glancing her way shows me that her face is pale, though from fear or the cold, I don’t know.

“What was it like?” she asks after a few minutes. Her eyes are eternally wide as she looks around in a near circle, and I feel like if she could go full exorcist to walk and head-spin, she would.

“Hmm?” I have no idea what she means.

“Working here. Was it cool?”

“Oh! Yeah, no. Not whatsoever.” My tone is deadpan, my good humor dry as the Sahara desert as I answer. “Our manager was both paranoid and a drunk. So he was either sloshed or pissed with very little in between. Owners didn’t care. He was their nephew or something. His assistant managers were the only reason this place stayed going as long as it did, but he was always going to end up dragging Wonderlight under.”

A small touch of pity makes my stomach churn, and I bite my lower lip as we walk. At another gust of cold air, I shove my hands into my pockets, giving a full body shiver that ends with my teeth chattering.

“You must’ve made friends, though, yeah? Aren’t these places mostly teens in the summer?” Lily continues hopefully. I have no idea what she’s trying to find the good in this place, but I do shrug and take my time answering this one, to make it sound maybe just a little nicer.

“My two best friends worked here with me for a little while,” I manage to say at last. “Not for that long. Just two years. After that they…they left.” The words are bitter on my tongue, and I have to chase away the clouds of unhappiness that try to fog my thoughts. “They hated it. One of them got fired, actually.” A grin tugs up at the corner of my lips. “He set the Ferris wheel on fire. Which, at the time? Totally deserved. No one was on it, since it was down for maintenance. It was because of the crap our manager was doing to some of the employees. Did it to get his attention.”

I remember their faces. Both of my friends, who couldn’t have been more unbothered by getting fired. They were leaving anyway, and that had been the night of our worst fight. The night I’d told them for the final time I wasn’t going out to the west coast with them.

And the night I’d had to beg for my job back, after our manager had accused me of being part of the plan. I hadn’t been, but only because I needed this more than I needed anything else. I’d wanted out of the group home so badly–

“What happened to him after the park sold?” Lily’s voice drags me out of the unhappy memory and I blink at her.

“My manager?”

She nods.

“Oh, he’s dead. He overdosed a couple years after it sold when he was back here looking into some repair work for the new owners or something. Not very tragic, I’ll be honest. I doubt anyone even showed up for his funeral, except maybe some parts of his family.”

Somehow, that’s the thing that causes Lily to fall silent. Personally, I’d found it to be poetic justice for him to die inside the park on what would’ve most likely been his very last visit anyway. Now he would get to haunt this place with the ghosts of his old transgressions forever.

Poetic.

I gesture when we’re close to the shore for Lily to turn, both of us keeping our eyes out for any other people here. So far, it’s just been her and me, though I suppose it was unrealistic to think that there would be some secret civilian militia just waiting to be woken up and armed.

Clearly, I’d never get that lucky.

The manager’s office door feels stuck, when I tug on it, and when Lily suggests it’s locked, I shake my head, frowning.

“No, I don’t think so. I think it’s–” I jerk back again, setting my foot against the frame. “I think it’s just stuck.” To me, it doesn’t feel like the lock is even engaged, for all that I know about doors.

My foot hits the frame harder when I jerk again, and I can literally just feel Lily staring at me, judging my performance. That more than anything has me dropping to stand on the pier normally, and I fix her with a look to match her own unimpressed one.

“Okay, well, unless you have a key or a crowbar–”