Page 4 of Hell's Fear

Shit was going down around us, but their happiness meant we were protecting them from a lot of it. And that was our job. To stand in front of them and the kids and ensure they understood they were loved and adored.

“So exciting!” Phoe cried.

“How can you be excited when you know what’s coming up?” I asked, amused, as Phoe hugged me and backed away, bouncing on her toes.

“I don’t! This time, I’m going in blind. I sent the lists to Marissa, and she’s picked our suites,” Phoe chortled.

Oh fuck. Heads swivelled towards Phoe with horror written across some expressions, and others held pure fear.

“Did you just say my cousin organised the rooms to match the teams?” Nando demanded.

“Yes!” Phoe cried, clapping her hands together.

“You do realise these fuckers are going to hold me responsible for whatever Marissa puts them through?” Nando asked through gritted teeth.

Phoe smiled sweetly. “Nando, dear, I very much doubt that.”

Nando glanced at us.

“Dead man walking,” I sang at him, raised my fingers in a gun shape, and made a trigger motion.

“Fuck!” Nando shook his head. “I’ve disowned Marissa. That has to count for something.”

“You got the Hawthorne name? Yeah, you’re responsible,” Tiny grunted out.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Just put me out of my misery now,” Nando complained.

“Oh no, fucker. You get to suffer like the rest of us, and then we’ll get you after,” Inglorious promised.

“No wonder the boss has been hunting Marissa down for the last two days,” Davies mused as he eyed the huge building in front of us.

“Oh, come on!” Phoe called as she began marching forward. The women followed her, all shooting us various degrees of smirks.

I sighed. This was going to be a nightmare.

Phoe

I was laughing at the looks the guys kept sending me and then each other. The car park was downhill to the warehouse, and we had to walk along a windy, treeline path with spooky lights, and broken and tilted gravestones, which looked genuine. There were a couple of bodies hanging in the trees, and I saw several move to avoid them.

I was really looking forward to this. Usually, I understood what was going to happen. This time, I didn’t, and it was exciting walking into the unknown. I knew for a fact that Marissa would have planned an excellent show. Plus, I was enjoying the looks of trepidation on the faces of the others.

Last year, half of the men here had completely lost their balls and bottled out of doing my fright night with Dave Schrader.

This was my revenge. Well, a second revenge, considering the zombie actors I’d hired to plague them last year for being cowards. A haunted escape room would be loads of fun, and I couldn’t wait to get started.

It was a clever idea of Marissa’s to open the warehouse up as suites, and she could hire out to multiple teams this way. It made good business sense, and it wasn’t built far from the haunted maze and house on the same land. Whenever I’d driven past, the car park was always full, which meant Marissa, Lina, and McKenna were making money. That made me happy, as those three women worked so hard.

We reached a road fork. One way led to the haunted house, the other to the warehouse. We took the path leading to the Escape Rooms and soon ended up at the huge building.

“Woah, who painted that?” Ben asked.

The outside of the warehouse was decorated with scary faces and figures and dark scenes.

“McKenna got someone in,” I replied. “There’s no mistaking what’s inside looking at those images!”

“They’re definitely graphic,” Ben murmured with a hint of trepidation.

“This is so exciting!” Clio squealed, and I grinned. Yes, it certainly was.

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