Page 4 of His to Fear
The haunted fair isbustling with spine-chilling activity, guests and scare-actors milling around the streets. Right inside the entrance, food carts are strategically placed in miniatures of red and white circus tents, adhering to the eerie Halloween decorations littering the park.
Dried leaves crunch under my black combat boots as we make our way deeper into the park, a spark of excitement seeping into me at the crispness of autumn finally being at its full peak.
A woman, dressed as a witch, beckons from the shadows. A large kettle stands before her, smoke billowing out of it as she stirs something.
“Come here, my dears. It’s the night of All Hallows Eve, with a chill in your breath, and soon, you will join in on the dance of death.” She licks her lips, the motion revealing yellow and rotten teeth. “The soup is nearly done.Dead Soulsoup, anyone?”
Leaning closer to a few girls passing by—just about to touch the kettle—they scatter away.
They’ve truly outdone themselves, immersing the fair’s visitors in the whole full-blown haunted spectacle. The atmosphere pulls you right in, before scaring the life out of you. No wonder this is claimed to be the country’s best fair.
A man and a woman on towering stilts stalk through the crowd, rising well over six feet. At five-foot-four, I have to crane my neck just to meet their hollow gazes.
The woman’s messy, neon-pink hair spills down her back in drifts. A large circular ruff encircles her neck, flowing into the voluminous dress draping along her frame. The ends are all frayed and ruffly, exaggerating her proportions.
Blood cascades down her mouth as she laughs out loud, sharp and wild. The man beside her wears an equally grotesque costume.
“They really didn’t hold back, did they? ” Eveline breathes.
In the background, I hear Zack begrudgingly replying, but I’m too lost in my own world to hear them. Because the woman on stilts is staring at me, her eyes the brightest shade of red.
I’m entranced in a dance of my own volition: haunted bythatnight.
“Nadia, you coming?” Eveline asks, greedily taking in the park with excitement radiating off her pores.
Zack is right behind her, arms wrapped protectively around her waist. None of the scare actors dares come close to her, and a pang of something close to longing splits my chest. I wish I had something as precious as their love.
“The map showcases the first level over here,” Eros points to the ‘level 1’ typed out on the map, on the outskirts of the haunted fair. “There are four different levels we’ll need to get through. But there are also some haunted rides and attractions around the middle of the park.” His finger follows each station he mentions.
“This place must be huge,” Zack retorts.
“Yes, it expands all the way across the field. They apparently booked it just for this October. Otherwise, it’s usually a pumpkin field, but the harvest was bad this year.”
There’s a slight tilt to his lips as he says this, and I catch the glint in Eveline’s eyes as she meets Eros’ gaze.
I wonder what that was about.
“I think we should start with the haunted houses before we doanything else,” Eveline suggests.
The others agree, but I stay silent.
My therapist suggested facing my fears when I told her about coming here, assuring me that nothing like that would ever happen again.
What are the odds of it happening twice?
The killer is behind bars.
“Nadia? You on?” Eveline surveys me with a scrutinizing gaze.
I used to be the one watching over her. It wasn’t easy for her when she lost her parents a few years ago. I used to make sure she was okay, bring her over to my parents’ house for a night of forgetting everything. That was before I moved away from home a few years ago, now living in my own apartment. My awfully empty apartment after I found out Max was cheating and kicked him out.
Disgusting fucker.
“Yeah, of course. Let’s do this,” I smile at her, trepidation still twisting inside me, but a spark of excitement flares inside me.
It instantly makes relief spread through me. It’s been so long since I even remotely had fun or was excited about anything.
She smiles, hooking her arm through mine as we make our way to the first level—the Circus.
