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I can’t help the nervous laugh that escapes me. ‘You’re really good at this,’ I manage, my voice soft. ‘Scaring people, I mean. Making them think you know them personally.’

The corner of his mouth twitches as he shrugs. I stand a little straighter and avert my eyes, feeling the intensity in his stare, even behind the mask.

‘It’s a talent,’ he says smoothly.

I frown. He’s not admitting he knows me. There’s something in the way he moves, the way he watches me, that feels too familiar. Too personal. I look back to meet his stare and study those gorgeous eyes. It has to be Ash. The mask makes it hard to tell, but I’m confident it’s him. I’ve never met anyone else with eyes like Ash. Not many men are as tall as Ash, either, and this man looms over me much the same as he did.

Abruptly, he steps back into the fog, vanishing into the shadows as quickly as he appeared, leaving my heart hammering and my mind spinning. A thread of curiosity I can’t resist tugs me forward as I follow him into the fog, scanning the area around me, but it’s as though he has completely disappeared. I hesitate for a moment and then continue, heading in the direction of the haunted maze. The fog swirls around my legs, the lights flicker, and the distant screams of other visitors fade into the background as I enter the first corridor.

Adrenaline pulses through my veins, loud and insistent, like it’s shaking me awake. For the first time in forever, I’m not numb. For too long, I’ve felt like a zombie, shambling through days that blur together, but now my skin prickles, my pulse races, and my breath comes fast. Fear and excitement twist together until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. The feeling is so overwhelming I almost laugh. It’s been so long since my body reacted to anything.

As I move deeper into the maze the fog thickens, swallowing the world behind me. There’s only him now, and the path I’m choosing with every step. Something in me whispers that this is reckless, that I should turn around. Something else – stronger and more desperate – pushes me forward.

I need this. I need to feel something.

I catch a glimpse of him, but he’s fast, slipping between shadows like he’s part of them, always just out of reach. Every corner I turn, I see just a flash of movement, the glint of the mask, but then he’s gone again. My stomach tightens with a mix of frustration and thrill.

‘Wait!’ I call, my voice echoing.

There’s no answer, just the distant thump of footsteps. My stomach lurches when I see him again, a shadow moving ahead. I pick up my pace, heart hammering. Each time I nearly catch him, he slips into another corner, another shadow, and the chase feels endless.

Finally, he pauses at a dead end. I skid to a stop a few feet away, gasping, and he’s there, leaning casually against the wall, arms crossed, the mask hiding all but the intensity in his eyes.

‘You’re persistent,’ he murmurs, sounding amused.

I can barely catch my breath.

‘I’m curious about you,’ I manage, deciding to be honest with him. He tilts his head, studying me carefully, as though savouring every detail.

‘You’re curious,’ he repeats, like it’s a revelation. ‘And curious girls find themselves exactly where they shouldn’t be.’

‘What if I don’t want to stop?’ I whisper, my voice shaky, unsure if I mean the chase or finding out more about him.

He leans in a little closer, and my pulse spikes.

‘Then,’ he murmurs, his voice impossibly deep, the kind of deep that doesn’t need volume to command attention, ‘I guess you’ll just have to see where it leads.’ He’s just close enough for me to feel the heat radiating off him.

‘You move faster than most,’ he teases. ‘You’re enjoying the game.’ His voice curls around me, soft and intimate.

I swallow, the fog thick in my lungs, my heart still racing from the chase. He’s right, and the realisation startles me. I am enjoying it – the fear, the uncertainty, the way my body feels awake for the first time in years.

‘I didn’t know there was a game,’ I say, my voice coming out steadier than I expected.

A quiet laugh slips from him, barely more than a breath. ‘There’s always a game.’

The mask hides his face, but I can feel his gaze on me through two small eye holes. It makes the hair on my arms stand on end. My sensible side screams that this is a bad idea, but the side that wants to feel alive is desperate for more of his interest. The maze walls swallow the sounds of the park, leaving us suspended in this quiet pocket of tension. My heart pounds, not with fear now, but with something more thrilling.

‘I should go,’ I say, though I don’t move.

He tilts his head again, with a slightly slanted smirk on his lips. One corner of his mouth lifts while the other stays still. It looks lazy, almost effortless, like he’s amused by me. There’s confidence in the way he holds himself. His eyes are mischievous with a hint of challenge, as if he knows more about me than he’s letting on and wants me to play his guessing game.

The more time I spend with him, the more certain I am that he is Ash.

‘You should,’ he murmurs. ‘But you won’t.’

He’s right. I stay. Standing here in the haze, adrenaline surging through me, I feel present in a way I haven’t since everything fell apart, since I learnt how empty the world could be. Right now, with him watching me, with my blood humming and my breath shallow, I feel alive.

‘Curiosity will get you into trouble,’ he drawls. His words sound almost like a warning, but there’s a playful edge to them.