Sighing, I kept to the shadows, staying away from the massive iron gate that had thousands of people standing and patiently waiting. The secret entrance to the maze was through the first abandoned house.
The flashing strobe lights, thick clouds of fake fog, and cheesy screaming from the idiot mechanic characters made my head throb instantly.
I kept going toward the back, memorizing the entire arena. I knew all the secrets, all the dark places where the cameras didn’t reach. I knew where the reporters waited to get a taste, and where the real woods began.
I was here for the quiet moments. The seconds when the game peeled away, and the real fear shone through. The momentwhen someone finally realized there was no safeword to stop the chase.
When they began to run from me because they knew it was life or death.
When they knew I’d won.
The sound of hushed giggling broke through the chaos of the haunted house, and when I stepped into the corn maze, I saw the two women. They were here without permission, likely sneaking through some weak link in the chained fence around the perimeter.
They were clearly drunk, staggering, and slurring words as they bumped into the maze’s edges over and over again.
This was pathetic.
Was anyone a challenge at all nowadays? Where is the fun? It’s like drowning a fucking kitten when you want to skin a fucking lion.
I walked behind them, following in their staggered steps, not bothering to hide the sound of my footfalls. My smiling mask was put into place, and all the ridiculous blood and baby oil had me shining like a dumb glittery vampire.
There were cameras all around this area. Twenty-four-hour CCTV footage was streamed in the lobby for the waiting guests, enticing and building suspense for their turns.
I couldn’t do as I wanted.
I had to divert these morons away from the cameras and into my own line of shadows.
“Excuse me, ladies.” I interrupted their giggles, trying to exude some form of frat-boy charm like my moronic cousins. The accent felt weird in my mouth, and I couldn’t help but shiver as the words seemed to soak into the stalks surrounding us.
The inebriated females stopped and turned around with zero reaction time. I could have run up and sliced both their necks,then gone back to my place in the time it had taken for them to turn around to face me.
“Oh no, Rai! We’re caught.”
Bouncing eyes stared at me like they were trying to undress me with the pure willpower of thought.
And people fear me? These book humpers are the true monsters.
“By a deliciously sexy masked man. What do we do?”
The girls hiccuped and laughed, giving me creepy, growling cat calls and plastering even more unsettling expressions on their faces.
“You’re not authorized to be here. You could get hurt. Why don’t you turn around for me and come back to the entrance? Play the game the right way?”
“Oh, em gee! Yes, Mr. Scary Masked Man. We’ll be good…if you give us a reward,” the black-haired woman gasped, gripping her redheaded friend’s shirt and squealing so loud I had to stick my fingers in my ears.
Despite the smell of vomit and reasonably priced whiskey permeating the air from their cackling breaths, I smiled.
The stupid accent broke into my own deep, gravely, vibrato.
“Sorry, darlings. I’m not very good at rewards, but I can assure you if you don’t obey me, you’ll find I’m extremely well versed in punishments.”
More giggling, more squeals. And more of my absolute best efforts not to ring their necks—cameras or not. Finally, the one girl, Rai, gripped her less ballsy friend’s arm and nodded, stumbling over to me.
The smile on my face reflected the one on my mask. Eerie and deadly.
“That’s my good girls.”
Ilet them stumble around through the maze. Elated and thinking they were untouchable, while letting them follow me like the little bitches they were. Their laughter grated on my nerves, like the fog against my skin, sharp and too fucking bright.
