Page 47 of The King of Halloween
“Ah!”
A terrifying creature dangled off a wooden cross, its massive hat hiding the blackened eyes. Wind pulled at it, rustling the straw inside its overalls. The hands shifted as if reaching off the perch for him, and two crows landed on its shoulders.
Oh. It’s a scarecrow.
“I’m guessing you found one of old Mac’s surprises,” Adam called out from somewhere behind Raj.
“I think it’s that scarecrow from your story. Stitches.”
“It’s not my story,” he said. “But you best say hello, just in case.”
Bowing his head slightly, Raj said, “Hello, Stitches.” Then he turned to try to find his way to Adam and freedom. “Are they all so terrifying?”
“I’ve never seen a happy Stitches if that’s what you mean.”
Raj wiped his hands on his thighs, and he turned right—more corn. “I suppose you don’t tend to see a jolly version of vengeance.”
“Though…” Adam’s voice paused, and Raj did the same. “A man who’s laughing like a bowlful of jelly while he peels your skin off would be pants-wetting.”
Raj shivered and laughed at the idea when Adam asked, “Or is that too morbid for you?”
“I’d say it’s just the right amount.” Raj caught a hint of him on a path over. Was that one he’d just been on? Raj took off, trying to find him, while Adam seemed to have gone still. This time, Raj kept a hand on the corn, using the wall trick to guide him.
“I didn’t try to one-up you.”
Adam’s sudden plea froze Raj in his tracks. “What?”
“My haunted house. More like my haunted store basement.” The corn shifted in the distance. Raj could just about see him now. All he had to do was make a few turns, then it was a straight shot. “When you complimented my mummy, it made me think about all these old animatronics we have, props. Things we never use. I wanted to give them a purpose. And…”
Raj made a left, checked for no more surprise scarecrows, then he took off down the stretch. “And what?” he prompted, trying to locate him by his voice.
What Adam said next nearly threw him onto his ass.
“And I wanted to impress you.”
Impress him? By undermining him? By cutting him off at the knees? Raj froze, one foot in the air, his brain fighting with his body to put the pieces together. “Huh?”
“You were this mysterious movie man who knew all about animatronics and fake ghosts. I guess I just thought maybe you’d think more of me if you saw what I could put together.”
“But…the war. You called it a war, not me.”
“I don’t know if you’ve caught on yet, but I can be a little overdramatic.”
“You don’t say,” Raj managed with a straight face.
“I was wrong about that, too. You belong in Anoka, in the old hotel with the mysterious drowning cellar.” Adam played it off as a laugh, but Raj’s heart sank.
“It’s on thin ice.”
“The cellar?”
“The hotel. The haunt. All of it. I sunk everything I have into it, into making this foolish idea work. And when I saw your haunt, I…well, I lost it. Tried to set up my own store and, holy shit, those margins—”
“Razor thin?” Adam said.
“Pennies, at best.”
“You have to get it bulk outside the season or they’ll bleed you dry.” He offered advice without a second thought to the man who just confessed to being his competition.
