Page 6 of Ready Or Not

“No running,” a rich voice demands.

I whirl on the person and suck in a breath. The masked woman towers over me. It’s the cop from earlier. She’s stunning up close, her dark eyes rimmed in dark lashes, her skin creamy, and her gaze arresting. The rest of her face is covered in a black mask, but her brown hair is in two long braids down the sides.

The woman’s hand shoots tingles down my arm.

What the fuck? They aren’t supposed to touch us. I try to yank away from her.

A dark, manicured eyebrow arches up. The woman’s eyes are expressionless. It makes the skin on the back of my neck prickle.

She lets me go.

I back away, and immediately, the woman’s posture changes from bored to predatory.

“Sorry,” I stammer. I inch back, and she just watches me. When I hit corn, I turn and speed walk away. My body floods with adrenaline.

The next actor to jump out at me really makes me scream, and I bolt before they can also grab me. The deeper I go, the louder the music starts thumping and screeching from all sides of the maze. I can feel it in my chest, the pound, pound, pound.

As I turn a corner, the maze gets dark, and smoke fills the air. As it settles on my skin, I realize it’s mist. It wraps around me like a wet blanket.

There are so many sensations going on at once, and suddenly, I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to curl into a ball on the ground. Want to dig my nails into the dirt to feel just one thing other thaneverything. Why did I even come in the first place?

A form appears at the end of the row I’m moving down.

My stomach clenches, and I stop.

The form cocks its head. It’s the woman.

How is she everywhere? I shrink closer to the corn. Maybe I’ll blend into the darkness and the fog. The water in the air goes from ticklish to drowning. It’s everywhere. It’s in my eyes and hair, on my clothes, and it’s hard to breathe.

“Scared?” The woman’s voice is rich and…toneless. Uninterested, almost. It gets caught up in the mist.

Is she talking to me?

She’s standing still. I think she’s facing me, but it’s hard to see in the darkness.

I say nothing.

Her head shakes.

“I’ll give you a five-second head start. Then you’re mine, little deer.”

Alarm bells start ringing in my head. Something isn’t right.

“Five.”

I take a step back into the corn.

“Four.”

Fuck this. Something is weird about this maze, and I’m not sticking around for it. They can ban me for running through their corn if they want to. I turn and dart from the path and down a row of corn.

An empty laugh follows me.

“Three-two-one. Ready or not, here I come.”

I run. Dry leaves whip me in the face, and I hold my arms out in front of me to try and brush the leaves out of the way. I sprint as fast as I can, putting distance between myself and the maze, then dart to my left. I crack through stalks and slow down to reevaluate. Surely, she won’t follow me.

I slow, panting for breath. The music is quieter over here, so my pushing through the corn is louder. I duck down, trying to see through the thin bottom stalks. My heart is racing, and I put my hand on the dry dirt to ground myself.

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