Page 11 of A Very Knotty Halloween
Whatever my friend was going to tell me, I’ll never know, because Sabrina’s expression changes and she says, “Yes, finally! The hunt!” She hooks her arm through mine, and we funnel out of the dressing room with the other omegas, trailing after our masked leader.
Hmm. Okay. I’ll drop it for now—mostly because I’m too anxious over what’s about to happen. But if Sabrina thinks I’m going to let this go, she’s wrong. Come morning, my friend will have some explaining to do.
We emerge into the main hall, heading deeper into the building that’s like a fortress in the middle of nowhere. The deeper in the building we go, the more I wonder just how big it is. Who is this Mr. Holiday, to have this kind of money? From what Sabrina says, these hunts aren’t stationary every year, meaning they happen all over the country. For someone to own property like this in multiple locations… I can’t imagine the wealth that’s necessary.
Eventually we’re brought to another long hall, though this one is narrower, with a lot of doors. Each door has a name on it—our names—and we are instructed to find our corresponding door. Sabrina’s door isn’t beside mine, so we are separated, with five other omegas in between us.
She grins at me, waves, and mouths what I think isGood luck, but I’d have to be blind to not see the relief in her eyes. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about what happened at the party, which I find incredibly odd.
The masked alpha paces a line behind us as she speaks, “The alphas will be given your scarves. They will have the chance to take up your scent while you are let loose for a head start in the maze. Be warned: there are dead-ends aplenty. The sun has gone down, so you might get lost. When the alphas find you, they’ll bring you back to the compound, where they’ll get a key to a room, where you will all stay until morning. Remember your safe words: the alphas will now be wearing collars that will go off should any of you speak your safe words nearby.”
Some omega further down the hall raises her hand and asks, “And that’ll really stop them from going too far? If we don’t want them to.” She hurriedly says that last part, as if it wasn’t already obvious why any of us would say our safe words.
“Yes,” the masked alpha says, stopping her pacing before the omega who asked the question. “The collars are equipped with an injector. Speaking your safe word will cause them to inject asedative directly into their bloodstream. If that happens, we will be notified, and we will handle it from there. Out of all the times Mr. Holiday has held hunts, safe words have only been spoken twice. It is not a common occurrence. Any other questions?”
Another omega speaks out, “What if no alphas pick us?”
“That won’t be a problem, I assure you. Mr. Holiday had many more applicants than those he accepted tonight. Each of you, and each of them, have been carefully curated, so that there will be no one who isn’t chosen.”
Huh. I suppose that’s a good thing to know. If Jack and Damien were chosen specifically for me, it’d make sense that they had no desire to speak with the other omegas at the party. That said, it does make me wonder which omega Cas was chosen for—I don’t think he actually spoke to any of them. He only glowered on, behind his mask. Every time I glanced over at him, it was the same.
“Now, if you’ll face your doors and get ready, I’ll begin the countdown. When I say go, you will enter your doors and follow the path that is laid out for you. Good luck, and have fun.”
The omegas all turn toward the door in front of them. I don’t know about any of them, but my heart is practically beating out of my chest, thrumming so hard it might just burst. I can’t remember a time in my life that I felt this anxious, and that’s saying something. I glance over at Sabrina and find she’s tapping her fingers against her side.
Wonder what she’s thinking right now. Heck, I wonder what she’s hiding, but that’s something for morning Marnie to worry about. Right now, I need to focus on what’s in front of me, both literally and figuratively. A door, and then… then a maze, where I’ll have to book it if I want this hunt to last more than thirty seconds.
I don’t know where exactly the alphas are being let loose in, so that could give us an advantage too. I wonder if any of theseomegas aren’t going to bother running, if maybe they want to get a head-start on the afterparty portion of the night—being alone with their chosen alphas sooner rather than later.
Not going to lie, it’s tempting. Something about Jack and Damien pulled me in instantly. This Mr. Holiday fellow is good at what he does.
The masked alpha behind me starts the countdown: “Three… two…” And I catch myself wondering which of the omegas around me Mr. Holiday got for Cas. I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t care a single bit, but… “Go!”
The sounds of omegas opening their doors and rushing inside snaps me back to reality. I need to stop thinking about the stepbrother I haven’t seen in years and focus on the tangible stuff in front of me, like Jack and Damien. Like the freaking door handle. I yank open the door and go in, only a few seconds behind.
The door opens up into a dark hall. And I mean dark, dark. Like, pitch-black. So pitch-black—and apparently not straight—that I ram myself into a wall about three seconds after the door closes behind me.
Crap. If this is part of our head-start, we’re screwed.
The door behind me literally blocks out all light from the hall. I’m standing in a field of utter darkness. I extend my arms and use my hands to rub against the wall as I push onward. I foolishly assumed each door would simply open up to a hall that would empty out into the maze, but it’s clear this is part of the maze. It’s not a straight hall. In fact, it gets narrow and has random ninety-degree angle turns—hence why I rammed myself into the freaking wall.
Feel bad for the omegas who yanked open their doors and took off in a run before they realized it. I can imagine the bruises will be plentiful come morning.
Turn after turn, I don’t know how long it is before the mini-maze ends at an opening—as in, the outside world. The actual maze. The moon is damn near full, so its silver light shines down upon the earth, its light dimmed by the huge trees all around. But still, it’s more light than I had before, and it lets me see what I’m dealing with out here.
Cornstalks. Over-the-top fake spiderwebs. You know, actual maze stuff. We must be in the back of the building, because we sure as heck didn’t see any of this when we were driving up.
It’s a real maze, like the kind you get lost in when you’re a kid and your parents take you to a pumpkin patch for a hayride. Even the air smells like autumn. It’s a blast from the past, nostalgia on steroids, and for a few seconds, I’m motionless, caught off-guard.
Can’t linger on it for too long. Need to push forward. Need to get going.
From where my personal maze opened up, I can’t see any of the other omegas. I don’t see any alphas, either, so I must still have some time. I’m not going to waste a head start, even if it means I wind up in a dead-end somewhere deeper in this maze. I do the only thing I can do at a time like this.
I run.
Chapter Five – Damien
The alphas are busy talking amongst themselves, in their own little packs, about the omegas that caught their eye at the party. Jack is beside me, a silly smile on his face, the same smile he wore ever since he took off his mask. We turned in our masks and are now waiting for the next phase of the night.
