Page 73 of Run Like the Devil

“Don’t have sex. Horror movies don’t like easy women, so if you have sex, you’re dying. Also, don’t go alone anywhere and don’t follow any sounds.”

“Well you’re fucked then,” Hale said. “If to stay alive you have to not have sex and not do stupid shit, well, you’re for sure dying.”

“Well, at least I won’t die a virgin, then.”

“That hasn’t been a risk for you in a very long time.”

The back and forth with Hale felt oddly normal. Sure, we were in the middle of this weird-ass situation, we had no idea if we’d survive the next few hours, let alone longer, we were all quickly losing our minds, but we could still interact like our old selves.

It almost made me feel like things might be okay.

“We should stop here,” Gorrin said, his tone tense as if trying to get us back on track. “This is the first time we’ve seen somewhere that we might actually get a good rest. We should take advantage of it.” He didn’t wait to see if anyone else agreed, instead striding forward as if entirely unworried.

Tyrus and Yazmor followed, equally unfazed.

“They just don’t get it.” Hale shook his head as though unsurprised by their upcoming deaths.

“It’s because they’re all too fucking old. When they were alive, they didn’t even have television. Fuck, they didn’t have electricity. None of them know the horror movie rules.” I let out an overly dramatic sigh and shook my head. “They know not what they do.”

“Should we let them deal with whatever’s in there alone? We could just test out that whole no-sex rule on our own?”

“You know we can’t do that. Deny it all you want, but you don’t want them to die either.”

He sighed and held his hand out to me, waiting until I took it and laced our fingers together. “You’re too fucking soft-heated.”

“Probably. Still, let’s go stay in the creepy murder house.”

And fuck did I hope those were not my last words.

* * * *

“Who would have thought a weird house in the spooky woods could be this nice inside.” I had my legs stretched out as I sat in front of the fireplace, the flames roaring inside.

We’d had campfires many times, but they’d never managed to warm me up quite like this. It had to be because this focused all that heat in one direction, and it seemed as if this finally thawed some parts of me that had felt frozen this whole time.

“Worth getting murdered for?” Tyrus asked from his place in one of the chairs of the large living room.The place had furniture on the main floor, but on the second, the rooms were all empty. I’d been looking forward to the idea of sleeping on a mattress again, but it seemed that wouldn’t happen.

“Depends on the type of murder. Worth it for one bullet to the head? Yep! Worth it for getting flayed alive? Ohhh, that’s a harder one to decide on.”

“I’m sure,” Gorrin said, his tone flat. “Besides, how would you remain warm if you were flayed alive?”

Instead of calling him on his sarcasm, I just went with it. “Exactly my point. A little warmth now for no skin later? Not sure that’s a good deal, and we’re all about understanding a good deal, after all.”

The front door opened, drawing my gaze over to where Yazmor stood in the doorway, heading out. “Yazmor?” I called out to him.

He paused, then turned his head slightly but didn’t face me. “Yes?”

“Where are you going?”

“Out.” He said nothing else, so I jumped to my feet to follow him.

Tyrus and Gorrin remained in place.

The moment I stepped outside, it felt as if all that warmth I’d found leached from my body. I wrapped my arms around myself to fight off the chill.

Yazmor stopped and turned back toward me, his expression unnaturally flat. “You should go back inside.”

“So should you.”

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