Page 47 of Stay Scared

Cade looks toward the nearest wall camera. “Emergency override. Open the south service route.”

Still nothing.

The injured actor grips his wrist. “He shut the panel.”

“Which panel?”

“Old booth access.”

His eyes close.

Cade presses harder over the wound. “Stay with me. What’s your name?”

“Evan Ross.”

“Eyes on me, Evan.”

Cade glances toward me. “Kit’s beside the operator station.”

I move to the station beyond the bench and open the white medical box mounted to the wall. Sealed dressings fill the upper compartment, with gauze and a trauma pad below.

I bring the kit back to Cade. He replaces his hand with the pad while I tear open the gauze, blood slicking his palm and running beneath the cuff of his vest.

“This wasn’t staged.”

“Not even fucking close.”

I take over pressure while he secures the dressing around Evan’s torso.

The actor opens his eyes again. “He knew the route,” Evan whispers.

“Who was it?” I ask.

“The bird. He changed the cues.”

A heavy impact travels through the building.

Every door in the tunnel closes at once. The maintenance panel slams first. Steel shutters drop over the public route, and a fire door descends at the far end until it seals against the floor.

The ride lighting switches to solid red.

Cade rises. “Stay with Evan. I’m checking the controls.”

He crosses to the operator station and opens a recessed panel. Rows of switches fill the compartment beside a small screen displaying the section map.

Every exit reads locked.

Cade enters one code, gets ACCESS DENIED, and immediately tries another.

The same rejection appears.

“Use Ash’s master code.”

“That was Ash’s master code.”

The public-address system activates overhead, but no voice follows. The calliope song returns without vocals, slowed until each note drags into the next.

Cade opens another compartment beneath the controls, breaks the protective seal over a red handle, and pulls.