Page 57 of Shadowed With Fear

So, I do, I recount the entire night I gave my shadow a show and the entire time, Liz is mildly dressed and highly amused.

“You’re shitting me!” She barks a laugh. “He did not!”

“I swear to God, he did the Mr. Darcy hand thingy, and then when I turned the lights off, before I laid down, I seen him. He…” I cough, “readjusted.”

She smacks the counter laughing so hard, causing a few heads to turn in our direction.

Tears stream down her cheeks and she only wipes them away.

“So, Midnight Manor?” I changed the subject, trying to keep her from nosying about the other night, before he had been called away.

“Fuck, yeah. I’m down. I’ll tell Ruthie I have plans and see if Maria wants the shift instead. I’m all yours for the night, babe.”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re leaving me again, and it’s for D, this time.”

Issac’s voice comes from behind me, and I roll my eyes. Liz giggles at me, before turning to him, kissing his cheek across the counter.

“Never dream of it, sweet cheeks.” She pats his cheek.

“What’re you two up to then?” He slumps onto the stool beside me as Liz grabs him a Coke.

“We are going to The Midnight Manor Saturday night.” I beam.

His chin lifts in understanding, recognition in his eyes. “The haunted house that travels right? The one you have been dying to go to for years?”

“The very one. They’re supposed to be setting up outside North View.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun. I hope you guys have fun and get all the scares.”

I smile wickedly. “It’s what I’m counting on.”

We spent the next hour talking about school and random shit between Liz’s table runs. It’s just like the good old days. The three of us hanging out while she works, when life wasn’t so…weird.

Issac sits up, lifting a finger at me as he chews rapidly. “I almost forgot. Here…” He digs around his backpack, pulling out a letter and a wilted rose.

“Some guy in a hoodie stopped me on campus and asked me to give this to you. Were you expecting something like this?”

My brows furrow, and Liz looks on in interest. “Uh, no. No, I wasn’t.”

Rip the letter open, and inside is a note written on haphazardly ripped paper.

The light looks so perfect against your beautiful skin. Every flower finds themselves chasing that light, face up, searching for the sun, and its nourishing rays.

But not you. You’re a flower found in the darkness. Instead, the shadows chase you.

My blood turns to ice.

It’s not his handwriting.

Grayson

“Welcome to a night of sin and scares. Welcome to…The Midnight Manor!” A maniacal looking clown screams into his megaphone standing on the stairs of this huge ass fucking estate.

This thing is a mansion, and I know what a mansion looks like after visiting Brahm’s dad’s new place. I’ve never seen a house this huge. And it’s run into the fucking ground.

Stone columns chipped away; crumbling cross the overgrown lawn. It looks like some places had been trimmed to create waiting lines and set up a makeshift looking carnival thing around the grounds. But the rest of it is just…dilapidated.

Windows are smashed, there’s a whole in the roof, and a large oak tree has fallen a nearly missing the left wing of the house.