Page 21 of A Smile Full of Lies
Josh answered on the first ring, like he’d been holding his breath for my call.
“Hello?”
“It’s Knox.”
He paused and cleared his throat. When he spoke, his tone was stunned, “Mr. Knox. Wow. Uh… hi. I didn’t expect?—”
“I changed my mind.”
Silence stretched on the line between us, and I could practically see him scrambling to catch up in my mind’s eye.
“About the — uh — the haunted house?” he asked cautiously.
“You said I’d have full creative control, and the final say on everything. That offer still on the table?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Of course.”
“Then listen carefully.” My voice was low, measured. “You follow my lead. You use my vendors. You don’t speak to the press unless I approve it. And you don’t alter a single fucking detail without clearing it through me.”
Josh exhaled hard.
“Understood. No problem. Whatever you need.”
“We’ll run the event over the next two weekends. October only. Friday through Sunday. Keep the crowds tight. The tickets should be high-end… limited.”
“Two weekends,” he echoed. “Got it.”
“And I want the VIP list for every night sent directly to me before tickets go live.”
“Of course. We can do that. That’s — honestly, this is going to be a huge draw.”
“I also want one VIP ticket held back,” I added. “For Saturday night of the final weekend. It’s for someone… special.”
Josh perked up.
“A guest of yours?”
I didn’t answer, just let the silence stretch long enough to make him uncomfortable.
“Noted,” he said quickly. “Absolutely. I’ll mark it down. Reserved.”
I nodded once to myself. He had no idea who the ticket was for. Good.
Josh was still talking.
“…we could bring in some local artists for the blood effects, maybe do a rotating room concept for each weekend — different themes, different setups. Maybe even real security footage projected in one of the rooms, like a digital séance — super immersive. That kind of thing pulls serious emotional reactions.”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, barely listening.
I had him on speaker. My focus was on the phone in my hand as I opened the app I never used in public. Not under my name.
It was built for short-form video content, mostly garbage, but the masked thirst traps always pulled views like clockwork. My account lived in shadows, carved out of hours spent editing voice distortion and night-vision overlays until I sounded less like a man and more like a myth.
Username:@NoxObscura
Followers: 271,000
Views: 14.6 million
