Page 245 of Stay Scared

I face them again.

The masks stay where they fell behind us: Cade’s skull, Owen’s blank white face, Ash’s black Voice.

Cade closes around my waist. Owen moves behind me while Ash steps into the space in front.

The founder key presses against my hip from inside my coat.

I leave it there.

Then Ash kisses me, Cade’s grip turns bruising, and Owen’s hand slides into my hair.

The open gate remains exactly where I left it.

Chapter 28

The old red room is darker than I remember. Most of the renovation lights have been stripped out since the investigation, leaving one portable lantern burning low behind the empty chair mount. Red washes across concrete, catches in the exposed steel where the observation window used to be, and disappears into the corridor beyond.

Someone removed the chair.

I prefer that. I want the room altered from the version Rook left behind.

Cade waits near the public entrance wearing the skull mask. Owen stands farther back beneath smooth white plastic. Ash wears the repaired Voice.

All three hold their places.

That almost makes me laugh.

Six weeks ago, I could barely get these men to stop putting themselves between me and every door. Tonight, all three stay where I left them, tension visible from across the room.

I set my phone beside the old control shelf. Tonight belongs only to the four of us, with every feed dark and every audience gone.

Ash watches me put it down.

“You wanted darkness,” he says through the Voice.

His real voice sits beneath the mask now, without distortion or a speaker carrying it through a wall.

I look at the skull. “Give me a head start.”

Cade’s shoulders shift. “How much?”

“You’ll figure it out.”

His hands flex beside him.

The skull tips down once.

I walk through the public entrance.

The first corridor is almost black. Someone left low red floor lamps running along the walls, just enough light to keep the concrete from disappearing completely. Torn curtains drag against my arms when I pass.

I make it through the first turn before Cade starts after me.

His boots hit the floor behind me without a countdown or announcement.

I run.

The sound catches immediately, low and hot instead of frightening. My body remembers the first night. The impossible hallways. The skull closing distance. The anger I carried toward him tangled with the part of me that wanted him to catch me anyway.