Page 38 of Bitten By Desire
“Umm…left? Maybe?” I had no idea. “Wait, where is Zoey?”
“We found the exit while we were looking for you and she saved herself.”
I laughed. “Yup, she’s definitely no longer my favorite person. So you know where the exit is?”
“We were on the other side of the maze. So I’m not exactly sure…” He turned in a circle. “I think maybe it’s the next right?”
“Please just get me out of here.”
“Wait, I think it’s this way.” He made another right. And then a left. And the fog suddenly cleared.
“Thank God you’re alive!” Zoey yelled and ran up to us.
Bennett laughed as I climbed off his back. “The maze wasn’t dangerous. You two just get spooked easily.”
“Oh yeah? Then why is Emma covered in blood?!”
Wait, what?I looked down at the front of my dress, but there was nothing there.
“On your boot,” she said and pointed to it. There was definitely blood smeared on the leather, right above the heel.
I’d hardly classify that as being covered in blood. But that was beside the point.
“I thought you said Theo didn’t hurt you?” Bennett reached out and touched the side of my neck. Like he was looking for there to be a cut across my throat.
Why was that what he expected? When the blood was on my shoe? “He didn’t,” I said. Maybe he almost had. But Bennett had shown up. I shook away the thought. “There was a severed hand. I tripped over it while I was running from the chainsaw.”
“What?!” Zoey shrieked. Her floppy hat fell over her eyes. “Oh my God, I’m calling Officer Davis.” Shepulled out her phone and lifted it to her ear. But then she pushed her hat back up and stared at Bennett. “Wait, did you just say Theo?”
“Yeah, when I found Emma, that jerk was talking to her.”
Zoey shook her head and glanced at me.
“I told him about how I thought Callum was Theo.”
Zoey sighed. “So…was it…” her voice trailed off. “Yes, hi, Officer Davis?” she said into her phone. “I think someone may have gotten hurt in the hay maze.”
I tuned out the rest of her conversation. I wouldn’t say that losing your hand was just getting hurt. And I was a little worried about where the rest of the body was.
“Are you sure it was real?” Zoey asked me, her cellphone still pressed to her ear.
“I think so?” It had definitely looked real. But all this creepiness was getting to my head.
Bennett bent down and looked at the blood on my boot. He ran his index finger through it and then sniffed his finger. “It’s definitely blood.”
Zoey looked like she wanted to throw up. “Yeah, you need to come here right away, Officer Davis,” she said into her phone.
Bennett stood back up.
“Are you sure it isn’t just ketchup or something?” I asked him, praying that it wasn’t actually blood.
“Positive.”
I didn’t know how he was so sure. I certainly wouldn’t be able to detect the difference just by smelling it. I felt as sick as Zoey looked.
Bennett pulled me in close, like his embrace could somehow shake away the horror of the maze. But thatwasn’t possible. Seriously…why was there just a hand? Where was the rest of the body?
Red and blue lights lit up the festival. And the sirens covered up the eerie music. I expected the crowd to scatter. But everyone was too nosey to leave. They wanted to see what Officer Davis and several other cops were doing.
