Page 60 of Stay Scared

A laugh almost escapes me.

This time I let it.

Ash’s mouth tightens, though he keeps watching me instead of Owen.

“And Cade?” I ask.

“Cade would solve a software problem with a pry bar,” Owen says.

“That is not an answer.”

“It is the most accurate answer available.”

Owen opens the carnival-maze loop. The recording begins on the empty path I crossed after leaving Cade, warped mirrors reflecting canvas walls beneath the weak bulbs.

The clip resets.

Movement appears in the rear mirror.

The beaked mask steps into the reflection and faces the camera.

Owen freezes the image. “That was not in rehearsal.”

“You’re certain?”

“I filmed the rehearsal.”

He advances one frame. The man raises a gloved hand.

Another frame moves it sideways, then back.

Ash steps closer to the monitor.

We watch the loop restart.

The beaked figure raises his hand again.

He is waving at us from inside the recording.

Chapter 10

The fourth mask waves from footage recorded before tonight.

Owen lets the loop run again. The beaked figure enters the warped mirror at the rear of the carnival maze, raises one gloved hand, and moves it slowly from side to side before the recording resets to an empty path.

He knew which footage Owen would use. He expected Owen to find him inside it.

“Could he have altered this from somewhere in the park?”

Owen closes the loop and opens the source directory. “A camera terminal would let him insert material, but this file was modified before the system began using it.”

“So the wave was waiting for you.”

Owen goes still.

A radio on the console spits static before Cade’s voice breaks through. “We made it to the midway. Evan is conscious.”

My shoulders loosen.