Page 78 of Your Masked Haunting

But he saves me time from focusing on it as his fingers brush my ankle, panic shooting down my spine and freezing air ghosting my exposed skin.

“You’re haunting my house! I cast you out!” he roars, his voice moving as he walks around the pumpkin mountain to my right. “Come here! I’ll extinguish you myself!”

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

My hands fumble for the next pumpkin. I’m almost at the top, and then I can slide down the other side. Just one more leap. Kicking off the pumpkins, I jump, hoping the landing won’t hurt too badly.

I’m airborne, cutting through the air, but not toward the other side. Instead, I’m plummeting the way I came, being yanked by the man, his fingernails digging into the skin on my ankle.

Screams I’m not in control of leave me, tearing through my lungs in pulsing screeches. Everything happens in a blur, moving too quickly. I don’t know what’s occurring until it’s too late.

“Just calm down. I’m not a demon. D-don’t do this. It’s okay. I’ll stop,” I plead with him, begging.

His hands grab my throat as I crash to the ground, pinning me painfully to the tower.

“Leave me alone!” Spit hits my face from his ragged plea as I try to pry his hands off me.

Old man or not, he’s strong, stronger than I would’ve expected. But no matter how old or young a man is, they always have a built-in weakness, one my knee finds a second later.

He grunts, a shaky and pained groan leaving him. But before he releases me and steps back, he manages to land a blow against my cheek, his knuckles striking me hard.

Planting my hands on his chest, I shove him back, driving my knee into his balls once again until his steadiness wavers and he falls backward, tumbling to the ground. I spin on my heel and take off running in the opposite direction until I’m halfway across the yard, my vision a dark, helpless tunnel.

I glance back—the one thing you’re not supposed to do in a scary movie, but I do it anyway—finding him still writhing on the ground. If I turn back to the house, he might cut me off before I reach the stairs, and then I’ll be in the same goddamn predicament I just left.

My cheek is on fire. My head whips around as I’m forced to decide where to go, time of the utmost importance. And I run the only place I think he won’t find me—in the corn maze. I know it from running around with Peyton and Brett like little kids. I know there’s a pocket in the middle that isn’t a part of the path.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This is ridiculous. The scared girl has to run into a corn maze to escape the killer. I mean, I don’t know if he’s a killer, but I also don’t want to stick around long enough to find out.

My tennis shoes smack against a few fallen dried corn stalks as I enter the maze, running it solely from memory, one that isn’t a hundred percent confident. Left, right, around the bend, right. I smack into corn, suddenly confused as to where I am.

Shit. Did I take a wrong turn?

Terrified tears pour down my face, my entire body trembling.

Get it together.

Forget about the middle zone. I’ll hide in the stalks and wait.

“Where are you, demon?” the man’s gravelly voice calls out.

I don’t waste another second jumping into the thick, crunchy, and dried crop, dropping to a crouch, my feet still planted on the ground in case I need to take off again.

Stilling as much as I possibly can, I try to calm my breaths, which is the only noise around me that’ll give me away, other than the crinkle of corn when I shift in the slightest.

Just breathe. In for four, out for six. In for four, out for six.

But any chance at calming myself is thrown to the wayside when I hear his voice again, much closer than before. I think he’s on this path—maybe ten feet away? It’s so hard to tell.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are. I’ve killed demons before; you won’t be the first, and you likely won’t be the last,” he stammers. “I know how to rid the world of your evil. It was written in the book. I am a soldier of God, and you will be sent back to hell. You won’t kill me. I forbid it.”

I gasp heavily but silently, expelling the controlled air through pursed lips. You’re safe. You’re safe. Casper’s going to be here soon.

When I tighten my fist, an entire new wave of hopelessness crashes into me because I must have dropped my phone at some point and not even realized it.

Shit!

Maybe I could cut through the stalks, back toward the house, and escape while he’s stuck in here. Maybe⁠—