Page 5

She nodded against my back.

At the end of the hall, a hulking shape stepped into the dim red glow—broad shoulders, dragging boots, gray skin stretched over butchered flesh, fingers stained with black grease and dried gore. Something wet dripped from its hands onto the concrete.

“That?” I murmured.

My mouth pulled into a sharp grin.

“That’s a monster.”

“What’s the difference?” she whispered.

I turned my head slightly, just enough to catch her eye. “Freaks perform. Monsters feed.”

“And which one are you?”

I didn’t answer.

The lights went out entirely.

Her scream filled the corridor, instantly swallowed by another roar of applause from the audience upstairs.

In the dark, I spun around, caught her by the waist, and pulled her hard against my chest. My mouth found the shell of her ear.

“Don’t run.”

Her heart hammered against my ribs, frantic and uneven. “Why?”

The heavy boots dragged closer over the concrete.

“Because everything in this House hunts what runs,” I whispered against her ear. “It’s the one thing in here that has never been a performance.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“And sweetheart?”

“What?” she choked out.

“You touched the freak.”

Emergency lights stuttered back to life along the baseboards. I looked down at her wide eyes, then glanced past her shoulder toward the end of the hall.

At the base of the red door, a thick, dark pool was spreading slowly across the floorboards, steaming in the cold draft. Blood. Fresh and heavy. Too much of it.

The monster was gone.

But the blood wasn’t.

I looked back down into her eyes. Her hand was still wrapped around my wrist. Her nails were still digging into my skin. She hadn’t let go.

My mouth pulled into a cruel grin.

“Now you’ve broken the only rule that mattered.”

Chapter 2

Zinnia

“THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND” BY BAD OMENS