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I don’t care.
I move closer. “You lived.”
Her smile widens then she points behind me.
I turn.
Nothing.
When I look back, she’s gone.
The corn-husk doll sits in the dirt with a red ribbon tied around its waist.
I pick it up.
The ribbon tightens around the doll. Its tiny husk face splits. A whisper comes from inside.
Find her.
“Mercy?”
The doll points.
I drop it.
It remains standing. Tiny arm extended toward the old barn.
“Sure.” I laugh because apparently insanity has finally arrived. “Why the fuck not?”
The Harvest roars somewhere behind me.
So I run toward the barn.
The doors are open.
They weren’t before.
I know that because Mariah tried to get us into this barn when we first arrived and some teenager working the event told her it was staff only.
Now there are no staff.
No guests.
Just darkness.
“Mercy?”
Something moves inside.
I step through the doorway.
The doors slam shut behind me.
I spin around. “Of fucking course.”
Blackness swallows everything.
Not dim light.