Page 189 of Stay Scared

The command carries the Voice even without the mask. Mark goes first. I follow. Ash stays behind long enough to pull the gate closed. The latch catches. Metal shrieks beside him as a maintenance panel tears outward. Rook explodes through the opening. Ash pivots before he clears it.

The flashlight hits the floor, and darkness swallows half the passage. Rook drives the knife toward Ash’s throat. Ash catches his wrist with both hands, stopping the blade inches from his neck. They hit the wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. Ash slams Rook’s knife hand into concrete once, then again. Rook’s fingers loosen, and Ash knees him in the stomach. The beak snaps downward. Ash rips the knife wrist sideways. Something cracks. Rook snarls and drives his forehead into Ash’s injured temple.

Ash makes a broken sound, and his grip slips. Rook shoves him into the gate. Ash rebounds immediately, catches Rook around the middle, and drives him across the passage hard enough to smash the beaked mask into the wall. One side cracks. Rook elbows Ash in the back of the neck. Ash keeps his hold. His hand catches the beak’s edge. For one violent second, I think he is going to tear the mask off him.

Rook slashes downward. The knife opens Ash’s forearm. Blood streaks across both of them. Ash recoils just enough for Rook to drive a knee into his injured side and ram him backward against the mechanical gate. Ash’s head strikes metal. The founder key swings loose against his chest. Rook sees it. His hand shoots for the cord.

Ash traps his wrist, and they struggle over the key. Ash’s blood slicks both hands. Rook yanks. The cord snaps, and the key skitters across the concrete. Ash lunges for it. Rook catches the back of his coat and hauls him upright. Ash turns, elbow cracking against the side of the beak. Rook stumbles.

Ash reaches for him again. I take one step back toward the fight. Mark catches my arm. “Salem.” Ash hears my name, and his head turns. That half second costs him. Rook crashes into him from behind, one arm locking across Ash’s chest. Ash immediately drives them both backward into the wall. Rook’s grip breaks. Ash twists and drives his fist into the beak. The mask splits farther.

Rook swings the knife, and Ash catches the blow on his wounded forearm. Blood sprays across the concrete. He snarls and grabs Rook by the throat, slamming him into the maintenance panel hard enough to shake the whole wall. Rook’s knife hand comes up between them. Ash traps it again. They stay locked there, face to broken mask, Ash’s blood dripping from his arm while Rook breathes hard through the cracked beak.

“You should have stayed buried,” Ash says.

Rook rams his thumb into the cut at Ash’s temple. Ash jerks. Rook tears free. The knife flashes. Ash catches his wrist too late. The blade stops beneath his jaw, but the point catches skin. A bead of blood runs down his throat. Ash locks in place because another inch means the artery. Rook hauls him backward.

Ash’s hands clamp around the arm across his chest, still working for leverage until Rook twists the knife. Then he stops. Mark starts to turn. I catch his arm. The cassette presses between us. He looks at me like I have lost my mind.

“Ash.”

My voice comes out rough. Ash’s eyes find mine. Rook uses him as a shield. His beak rises beside Ash’s bare face, and the knife presses hard enough to whiten the skin beneath it.

“Keep walking,” Rook says.

Ash’s hands flex around the arm holding him. He is calculating whether he can move before the blade opens his throat. I know the look now. Rook does too. The knife pushes closer. “Try it.” Blood from Ash’s forearm runs over Rook’s sleeve. I step toward them. Rook drags Ash backward.

The blade bites. A thin red line opens.

“Another step and I open him.”

I stop. Everything inside me wants to move anyway. Mark’s free hand catches the back of my jacket. The cassette under his shirt presses into my elbow. Rook looks at it, then me. He understands exactly what is stopping us.

“Take the tape outside.”

Ash’s voice comes out strained against the knife. Rook jerks his arm tighter. Ash’s face hardens. “Do it.” I hate him for being right. I hate Rook more for knowing it. Mark pulls me backward. Rook retreats into the maintenance opening with Ash locked against him. Ash’s eyes stay on mine until darkness begins swallowing them.

Rook stops once. The cracked beak turns toward me.

“You come back for him alone.”

His knife remains against Ash’s throat.

“No mask. No camera. Bring my key.”

Then he drags Ash into the dark.

Chapter 23

Rook reaches Ash before we clear the projection passage. The cable case Mark dragged through the instrument tunnel overturns behind us. Metal latches strike concrete, followed by something heavy scraping through the dark.

Ash turns toward the sound. “Keep moving.” He shoves the flashlight into my hand and steps backward into the passage.

I catch his sleeve. “We move together.”

“Mark needs Owen.” Mark stands several feet ahead near the projection stairs. His bruised face looks gray beneath the work light, but he stands upright and carries the only copy of Rook’s confession beyond Rook’s ability to erase it from a server.

“Take the tape,” Ash says. “Get it upstairs.” Mark looks at me. I stay where I am. The darkness behind Ash breaks open, and Rook comes out of it hard. A metal bar catches Ash across the lower back. He drops to one knee but twists before Rook can get cleanly behind him, catching Rook’s coat and dragging him sideways into the wall. The beaked mask cracks against concrete. Rook drives the bar into Ash’s wounded ribs. Ash’s grip fails, and Rook gets an arm across his chest and forces a knife beneath his side.