Page 140 of Stay Scared

His fingers close around the strap, and he carries it at his side.

At the doorway, Cade opens it completely and steps aside. I pass first, and he follows me back into projection.

Owen has moved from beneath the monitor bank to the portable receiver. One hand stays on the relay while the other works the outgoing feed.

“Do not touch that cable,” he says without looking up. “If the signal drops, nobody moves until I confirm the relay state.”

Ash stands over the theater-release diagram. “Can you replace the outgoing feed?”

“I’m doing it now.”

The live stream stutters. Rook’s edited footage freezes with Cade’s hand around my wrist, and the viewer count stops climbing.

Owen watches the signal meter. “Hold position.”

Static tears across the image, then the missing footage bleeds onto the live stream.

My palm strikes Cade’s chest once, then again. The third tap lands. His hand opens immediately, and he backs away as white lights rise in the memory house.

The public comments stall, then the feed erupts.

Owen switches to the next sequence. “The relay is holding.”

Ash leans closer to the theater map. “How long will it hold?”

“No reliable estimate. Rook will know what I changed as soon as he checks the outgoing stream.”

Mark fills the stage feed. He is still bound and still working one hand loose. Evan’s medical beacon remains active.

Owen looks up from the receiver. “You can move.”

Ash points toward the theater route. “Then move.”

Cade lifts the skull mask. For a moment, I think he is going to pull it over his face.

Instead, he looks at me.

I look at the painted teeth. “Your choice.”

His fingers tighten around the strap, then the skull goes over his face.

The man beneath it is still there now.

I close my hand around the founder key. Mark is waiting below us.

We go.

Chapter 18

The projection-booth screens show the version of tonight Rook wants the world to believe.

Cade hunts me through the abandoned carnival with the skull mask fixed over his face, painted teeth flashing beneath dead ride signs. His pursuit fills the frame while my laughter is gone, and the footage cuts before he stops for Evan.

The next screen fills with Owen’s archive. Photographs cover the display as a narrator reads excerpts from his notes. Rook has mixed Owen’s surveillance with pictures taken from inside my apartment until the stolen images all look like part of the same collection. Owen watches without blinking.

Then Ash appears. The red room glows crimson around his black mask. His altered voice tells me there are no safe words inside Crimson Night. The footage ends there.

Every monitor changes at once. Cade and I appear inside the projection storage room. My wrists are secured above me by his belt, but the angle hides the open doorway. Our conversation has been removed. Rook keeps the leather around my wrists and Cade between my knees before cutting forward to my hands free and my body moving on his lap. With the missing minutes stripped away, the difference barely exists on-screen.