Page 257 of Stay Scared

Cade laughs under the skull.

I start walking.

The midway ahead is almost entirely black now. Only red floor lights remain, the safe-looking green indicators and screens stripped away.

Behind me, Cade’s boots scrape once as he waits.

I make him wait longer.

Another ten steps, then fifteen.

My heart starts pounding before anyone moves.

I reach the edge of the carnival maze. The old exit sign glows far to my left, and I look at it before turning toward the black route ahead.

Ash’s Voice comes through one remaining speaker, low enough that it almost disappears into the dark.

“You came back.”

I touch the founder key beneath my shirt. “I did.”

The skull shifts somewhere behind me, closer now.

I keep my face toward the dark.

Ash speaks again. “What happens if he catches you?”

I smile. “You’ll find out.”

Cade starts running.

I run first, the skull hitting the midway behind me while Owen waits somewhere ahead and Ash controls whatever remains of the dark.

Every exit is still open.

I choose the dark route instead.

Epilogue

Eighteen months after Crimson Night tried to keep me, another woman runs through the rebuilt carnival maze wearing terror like something she paid for.

Cade catches her near the final turn. The skull mask appears behind her shoulder, and his hand closes around her waist. She strikes his chest three times.

Cade releases her before the last tap finishes.

The woman stumbles backward, sucking air through a grin that looks halfway to panic. She points toward the exit. “I’m done.”

Cade steps away from the route. The door opens, and she leaves.

That is the whole ending.

Nobody argues, tries again, or follows her into the parking lot to explain what she should have wanted. I watch from the observation gallery until her girlfriend catches her outside and folds both arms around her. The woman laughs against her shoulder.

Cade looks toward the camera. The one-way glass hides me, but he tips the skull toward my side of it anyway.

I leave before he decides that counts as an invitation.

The new Crimson Night occupies less than half the old property. The theater remains sealed, one of the few sections never released for redevelopment. The underground passages were gutted. The original red room is gone.