Page 34 of Bitten By Desire
He smiled down at me.
“Not against what?” Zoey’s hat fell forward over her eyes and she pushed it back up.
“Nothing,” I said. “What should we do next? Maybe we should…” my voice trailed off. We were walking past the maze. I stopped and turned toward the entrance. “Actually…I think I do want to go into the maze. To experience all this Fall Festival has to offer.”
Bennett stared down at me. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “I mean, you promised you wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me, cowboy.”
He laughed. “I stand by that promise.”
I nodded again, more for myself this time. As if that would encourage me. Ireallydidn’t want to go in there. But it hadn’t been that long since Callum had disappeared into it. He was probably still lost somewhere in there. And I still wanted that picture of him.
To prove to Zoey that I wasn’t insane. And maybe a little to prove to myself that I wasn’t insane. And maybe a little more to slap him. Both for what happened ten years ago and for him watching me tonight. He deserved two slaps for sure. Maybe a third for lying about his name and making me feel freaking crazy.
The eerie music was louder as we entered the maze. And the fog denser. I could barely see five feet in front of me. I gripped Bennett’s hand even tighter as we turned the first corner.
There was hay on the ground too and it crunched under our feet, almost echoing around us. The path seemed to split as often as possible. I wasn’t sure if that made the maze harder or easier. But we’d only been in here for a minute and I was already all turned around. All I could see was hay and fog.
Zoey yelped and grabbed Bennett’s free arm. “Did anyone else just see that?!”
“See what?”
“The huge hairy spider!”
I shook my head, but held on to Bennett even tighter. I heard a screeching noise and jumped.
“It’s fine,” Bennett said. “Just part of the scary music.”
“Are you sure? It sounded like someone was being murdered…”
“I second that,” Zoey said.
He laughed. “You two are ridiculous. It’s all just pretend. Look.” He let go of my hand to pick up a spider that was attached to the side of a haystack. “Is this what you saw back there, Zoey? It’s just a decoration.”
“No, it was bigger,” she said. “I swear,” she added when he didn’t look convinced.
The sound of a chainsaw starting up made me turn around. I backed up until my butt hit one of the haystacks. And I realized a second too late that I’d moved too far away in the fog to see Bennett or Zoey.
“Bennett!” I yelled, but the screeching noise in the music got louder at that very moment. That really didn’t sound like music… “Zoey?!” I called even louder.
The chainsaw revving started again and it sounded like it was coming toward me. Like someone was sprinting with it through the maze.
My heart was pounding as I spun around. “Bennett?” My voice was quieter now. I could barely control the trembling. I backed up again and tripped, my butt landing on the ground hard. And I stared in horror at the bloody severed hand sitting there in the hay. Which didn’t look fake and plasticky. And some of the blood had gotten on the side of my boot when I tripped.What the actual fuck?!
The chainsaw sounded again, followed by the sound of crunching hay.
I pushed myself up off the ground and started running. But the sound of the chainsaw echoed around me.
Something popped out of the left turn ahead so I sprinted right. It was darker back here. Foggier. But at least the chainsaw noise had stopped. These boots were not made for running. I paused and leaned over to catch my breath.
I heard the crunch of hay and spun around but there was no one there. Seriously…there were hundreds of people at this stupid festival. How had I not run into anyone else?
Another crunch.
God.I spun around but all I could see was fog. “Hello?”
The music being quieter in this section of the maze somehow made everything scarier. Or maybe it was because I could hear myself panting.
