Curious, I look over the railing, and my stomach bottoms out.Beneath is a massive, blow-up pillow balloon thing.The ones people use to jump on from long distances.My eyes bulge, and I turn back to Lexie.She can’t be serious.
“Hurry!”she orders, letting go of the broken handle so she can focus on our escape as the lights flicker back on.
You have got to be kidding me.
I look over my shoulder at the cracked-open door.Hawke rubs at his shin, his body bent at the waist while watching us.
“You really gonna jump, Lex?”he calls.
Lexie barely peeks at him before climbing over the wrought iron railing.“Come on, June.”
“This is dangerous,” I seethe.
“Oh, come on, they wouldn’t have set it up if they didn’t plan for us to use it,” she argues.
The girl makes a good point.I hope.Before I can overthink it, I toss one leg over the edge, then the next.Holy crap.Are we really doing this?My fingers grip the cold iron.It brands itself against my palms as I try to slow my breathing.Seriously, I think I’m going to pass out.
“You ready?”Lexie asks me.
“Better hurry,” Hawke goads from behind.“I might only have blue, but the guys in the stairwell are coming up, and I know for a fact they have green and yellow.”
Lexie looks down at the sky-blue handprint encompassing her wrist before glaring at Hawke behind us.“Like you’d let them touch me,” she volleys.
Darkness swallows his gaze as he cocks his head.“Maybe I like to watch.”
Her breath hitches before she fumbles for my hand and takes a deep breath.“One.”
“Lexie, I really don’t think?—”
“Two,” she orders as Hawke takes another step toward us.
I squeeze my eyes shut.“Three.”
Gravity takes me in an instant, and a scream rips from my lungs as we plunge toward the giant blow-up pillow.
“Ahhh!!!”we scream.
Pfft.
We land with a whoosh, and I open my eyes.Now that my life is done flashing before my eyes, I can take a second to, you know, compute what just happened, and holy crap, did I really jump from the second floor of a building?Throwing my arms over my face, I shift onto my side and giggle like a little kid.Lexie bellows beside me, laughing so hard I have no doubt her stomach hurts as badly as mine.
“Watch out below!”Hawke bellows.
“Come on!”Lexie pulls me up between bouts of laughter.“We need to keep moving or Robin’s gonna land on us!”She tugs me toward the edge of the giant blow-up thing until my feet hit pavement again.The lights shut off.
As we round another corner and find a safe spot to catch our breath, I press my hand to my chest and wipe the tears from my eyes.“How did you get away from him?”
“Kicked him in the shin.”Another round of giggles rolls through us, and she bends at the waist, holding her belly.“Oh, my god.You have no idea how much I needed this.My abs.June, my abs hurt so bad!”
“So do mine!”I laugh even harder.“I haven’t worked out my abs this hard since PE in middle school.”
Lexie giggles even more.“I cannot believe we jumped off that balcony!”
“Me, neither!”
She wipes at her tear-streaked eyes one more time.“Okay, we gotta hurry.Come on.”
We tiptoe into another part of the grounds, dodging skeletons and zombies and squealing women.Thankfully, there are enough girls participating that it’s relatively easy to slip around buildings and hide in the shadows until there’s an opening to move again.If only my nerves could grasp that little tidbit, but nope.My adrenaline is working overtime.So much so, I feel like I’m directly connected to a live wire, and I could combust at any second.This is legitimately insane.At least I’m not alone.
