Page 26 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

“I still can’t believe you never brought another guy to your place besides me,” Nicholas said as he drove up dangerously close to a red Toyota. “I feel honored.”

“No one else bothered to take a job just to get to know me,” I replied, clutching the handle above the door. “Plus, no one tried to scare the crap out of me to convince me to go on a date with them. So you’ve more than earned the right to see it.”He should've just taken me for a ride. He'd have won our bet in minutes.

“I’ll take your word that you’ll show me the garden some other time.”

“I promised you, didn’t I?”

I told him it was dangerous to go there in the dark because it wasn’t being maintained at the moment—which wasn’t a lie, but also not the real reason. The thing was, besides the fact that I only had one eye to perceive this world, that one eye wasn't verygood at seeing things in the dark. That was why my part-timers took over the evening shifts, why I rebuilt the gas station and the hotel to have flood lights in the most critical places, and also why wehadto go to my place. I forgot to bring the extra powerful flashlight in case I somehow got lost in the dark—not that this was likely to happen, but my ambition to end up as a tragic case in the local newspaper was zero to none.

“Turn right on the next intersection,” I said.

The flickering treetops in the distance and the hundred cars already parked on the side of the road announced the bonfire wasn’t far away anymore.

“I see a parking spot back there on the left.”

“Trust me, we need to turn right.”

“You’re the boss,” he chuckled.

The closer we got, the more people we saw walking along the roadside, most of them dressed in Halloween costumes. Nicholas finally drove slowly, keeping his eyes on the lane to see if anyone would appear in front of us.

“Should we have worn costumes, too?” he asked.

“I can lend you my eye patch.”

“Wouldn’t it be awkward for you if I took it?”

"What if I said I wouldn't take you if you didn't wear it?"

“Then I couldn’t say no.”

I pointed to the right, where three traffic cones blocked off a parking space so close to the bonfire that we could already see it flickering. Jack, who was part of the team behind this event, had promised to reserve the spot for me and kept his word.

“This is us,” I announced.

Nicholas searched for my gaze as he stepped on the brake.

“One advantage of donating some money for this event,” I explained, yanking the door open.

I hopped outside. The piney smell of burning wood reached my nose as I removed the traffic cones and stacked them on top of each other.

Nicholas parallel parked into the spot perfectly while I put the cones in front of the car so Jack could find them easily in case he needed them before we left.

The fire was as massive as the trees, and at least five hundred people gathered around it, watching the spectacle. Most businesses in town had tents set up and were offering local goods. The farms provided food and games for the kids, like pumpkin bowling, bobbing for apples, and sack racing. The local vet and his family had set up a small petting zoo a short walk away from the fire, much to the liking of the goats because they got fed by every kid around. You could buy sandwiches, Halloween-themed donuts, cotton candy, and drinks at the Mountain View Cafe’s tent. And with the donations coming from other store owners like me and the local grocery store, they set up a spooky-themed hike through the forest, offered free candy to everyone making their way here, and paid people like Jack, who was working the entire night to make sure everything went well.

Nicholas gazed at the fire in awe as he joined me outside. "Wow."

Even though we were sixty feet away, we could feel the heat radiating from it so hard that I needed to unzip my jacket. I pulled out the eye patch and handed it to Nicholas. He took it with such care that one could think I just gave him a raw egg.

He pulled on the elastic string to put it over his head, and after some adjusting, it covered his eye like it should. “How do I look?” he asked, showing me his teeth with his wide grin.

“It’s like I’m looking in a mirror.”

“So I look handsome. Good to know.”

Heat rushed to my head, but it wasn’t from the fire. We locked our eyes on each other as if we both couldn’t wait for what the night had in store for us. I nodded my head toward the action.

“Let’s go,” Nicholas agreed.

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