Page 58 of Shadowed With Fear

Hordes of people stand around chattering, screaming every now and then when one of the actors comes up behind them.

I’ve seen a total of ten chainsaw wielding creeps, like a dozen freaky ass clowns, and a couple of zombies maybe.

The first weekend of October, of course the place is going to be buzzing. Any other time I would say that I’d probably be right there with them in my excitement. I love shit like this.

But I don’t love how fucking difficult it makes keeping my yes on Dahlia.

Luckily, I blended in with the crowd. Or at least the actors. No one would cast a second glance at a guy in a weird mask walking around this place. And if this haunt is as big as I have heard, I might even go unnoticed by the directors and the rest of the cast.

That’s the hope anyways.

I wander around the vast grounds, scanning the crowd intently looking for her, but I still haven’t found her.

Maybe she isn’t here yet? Which would be weird considering her and Liz left Brahm’s house about an hour and half ago. That’s plenty of time to get here.

I’m about to text her when the notification lights up my screen.

Little Flower: Are you going to come find me, shadow?

I smirk at my phone. Of course, she wants to play here.

Shadow: Maybe I already have.

And I begin my search again.

This time it doesn’t take me long to seek her out. She is standing in the front of the line, Liz by her side, in black ripped jeans and a Michael Myers shirt, wearing those same old ratty ass boots.

She looks fucking good. Damn fucking good. My mouth waters as my eyes trail down the slope of her waist and how fucking great those jeans hug her ass.

But I’m not the only one who takes notice. Off to the side, three actors stand staring at her, whispering to each other. One is a tall guy, wearing a tore up flannel open showing off his blood painted abs and a burlap sack on his head, holes cut out around what I assume are his eyes. The other guy is slim wearing a white dress shirt also covered in blood, kind of reminding me of Adam in how he seems less likely to challenge the other guy, or hell even the girl. He just nods to everything the other two say, his thin face painted like a skeleton.

The girl though. She sets off some alarms in the back of my mind. From what I can see of her, she has that sort of hollowness like Henry, but that mania in her eyes, it’s the same addicted look in Adam’s when he sees fire. And she’s focuses all of that on Dahlia, eying her up like she’s her next fucking meal.

The clown girl twists her fingers around her pigtails, tilting her head one way and the next, studying Dahlia. I don’t fucking like it.

My feet move swiftly, placing myself between the group and my little flower.

The sack-head dude straightens, placing a hand on the clown’s shoulder. He sent me a small nod, and I returned the favor.

I don’t know what sort of plans they had, or if they knew I wasn’t an actor too, but one thing is for sure. Dahlia’s mine tonight. If she wants to scream, I’ll make sure she gets her wish.

Little Flower: If you’ve found me, why haven’t you kidnapped me yet?

Shadow: Trust me, sweet girl. You’re going to regret that.

I watched her search through the crowd for me. My heart’s thrumming erratically in my chest. The idea of scaring her, and her wanting it, enjoying it, it’s doing something to my head.

It’s not hunting exactly, cause I’m not chasing her down, but maybe Alex has been onto something.

With one more backward glance to her, noting the creepy clown guy that made the announcement earlier is walking back to the front porch, I move quickly to the exit.

It’s dark inside, but only slightly disorienting. It takes a second for my eyes to adjust but I easily make out the other actors sitting around the exit for the final scream.

“Hey, man, you’re cutting it close.” One of them comments while holding a chainsaw.

I nod. “Yeah, sorry man. Had to take a leak.”

I skate by them, rounding the stairs by the kitchen. They must be the service staircase leading from the kitchen. If I had to guess I would say that they use the front staircase to take the groups up and use this one to come down.