Page 27 of The Masks She Wore

?I glanced back at my name and felt my good mood sour at the sight of Max. “Seriously?”

?His eyes locked onto mine, anger clear in them. “Rae,” he shouted.

?I glared, worked my jaw, and turned away from him. “Come on,”I said, tightening my hand around Viv’s and pulling her through the crowd.

?“What’s wrong?”

?“My half-brother,” I answered, seeing the entrance to the tent come into view. “We’ll lose him in here.”

?“What the Hell? Why is he here?”

?Because she was right. He was a creep. He wanted to control my life for some ungodly reason, and I couldn’t fucking stand it. I threw our tickets at the Ghoul standing at the entrance and pulled her inside, the ambiance quickly shifting from lights and music to near darkness and moans of the dead.

?I had to slow as the lights from outside quickly disappeared, the sounds from the people fading away.

?“Holy shit,” Viv whispered, inching closer to me. “H-how did they do that?”

?The floor became slimy, gooey, as my eyes widened, letting in what little light they had in this place. A dim glow coming fromsomewhere, I just couldn’t decipher where. “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully, my already strained muscles whining as I tried to keep balance.

?This was creepy. I had to admit, I was actually, properly scared now, but not for the reasons Viv was. This place was creepy, but so was Max being here. So was that actor who I had seen several times since the carousel, standing in the shadows, always watching me. Iwas on edge, and this place wasn’t making it easier. My muscles tensed, the trembling slowing, my breathing growing weaker as I tried to listen to anything around me as well as forcing myself not to slip and fall. All I could hear were the moans.

?I found myself clinging to her just as tightly as she clung to me, my bat gripped at my side. It was fine, they couldn’t actually hurt us. We were safe here. They wouldn’t risk a lawsuit.

?But my mom had disappeared, hadn’t she? Not a trace of her to be found. What if the actor following me was that man? The person who had made her disappear.

?He could do the same thing to Viv and I and the police would just give up looking for us in eight months, just like they had my mom.

?The thought had my skin filling with goosebumps. I had never thought about people just disappearing like that before my mom had. Not in the real sense. I mean, I watched a lot of True Crime, a lot of news, I knew it happened, I just…I just never considered it as something that would happen to me. Which, I suppose, is what everyone says, but that didn’t make it any less true. Nobody thinks it would ever happen to them, to their family, to their friends.

?But it did. No body to bury, no evidence to document, no proof of a murder even happening besides that pool of blood. Just a record of her past and names that had come up more than a few times.

?The same thing could happen to us. And while Viv had a lovingfamily, who would look for me? I had no family, Viv was my only friend, and Max? Fuck, maybe they would convict him after looking through my phone records.

?I closed my eyes and shook my head. Focus. This was just a game. Agame. Max was a creep, but he was also a pussy. He didn’t have the balls to come into this place, I was sure of it. And that actor? He couldn’t touch me. If he did, I could have the park shut down. Unless he was some sort of psychopath, there was no way he would risk that.

?“You really need to go to the police,” Viv whispered, our steps agonizingly slow as we tried to concentrate on not falling.

?“For them to do what?” I whispered back. “They haven’t done anything about my mom’s murder, why would they help me with this?”

?“Because there’s proof of a crime,” she said, looking over, her foot slipping a bit, pulling a cry from her lips before she steadied herself. “You have the harassing phone calls and messages, and I’m sure they’d get footage from this place to prove he showed up here too.”

?I scoffed. “You overestimate the cops in this city. They don’t care.”

?“Max is going to kill you, Rae. This is getting serious.”

?“I won’t let him kill me,” I replied, feeling her eyes on me as she stopped.

?I paused and looked back, the light just enough to see her beautiful eyes. “What?”

?Her brows were furrowed as she searched my eyes. “You can’tfight him.”

?I shrugged. “I can sure try. He’s only a little bit taller than me, far scrawnier. One good kick to the balls and I’ll put him on his knees.”

?She pressed her lips together. “You should go to the police tomorrow.”

?I rolled my eyes and tugged her gently to keep going. “I’ll think about it. Come on, we don’t have time to lolly-gag.”

?She released a terrified squeak of a laugh. “Seriously?”

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