Haunt

Chapter 1

1

I’m not even sure I’m in the right place.

Closing the door of the Uber with my hip, I shove my hands in the pocket of my oversized Texas Chainsaw Massacre hoodie and look around the almost empty parking lot. Am I in the right place? The address isn’t quite what Sienna sent me, but the driver hadn’t been able to find the exact street number, so…

The sound of the window rolling down catches my attention and I turn to look at the woman in the driver’s seat, who’s got a look of worry written clearly on her face. “Are you sure you want me to drop you off here?” she asks carefully, glancing past me at the old, cracked parking lot.

“Yeah, I—” A laugh catches my attention, and I watch as a couple gets out of an SUV, the woman cackling at something he’s said. “One second?” The woman nods and I take off across the parking lot at a jog.

“Excuse me!” The couple stops and turns to look at me, the woman’s smile wide and a little nervous. As I get closer, I can smell the booze on them, and decide not to comment on the decision to come to an extreme haunt while being at the very least tipsy. “Hey, umm, is this where the haunt is?” I ask, gesturing absently around with one hand.

The guy, who might be a few years older than my twenty-three, nods his head. “Yeah, you’re in the right place. It was a bitch to find, right?”

“Right.” I turn and give the thumbs up to my understanding driver, who slowly pulls out of the parking lot while her window rolls up slowly. “Seriously, I get why it’s so hard to locate but also…” My smile turns apologetic.

“You’re not here alone are you?” the girl asks, glancing around like I might have friends waiting to pop out from the cracks in the asphalt. “Who the hell would do an extreme haunt alone ?”

“Uh, not me.” I raise my hands as if in surrender. “My friends are just late.” That’s a nice way for me to say that Mason and Joey forgot what time we were going to leave and left their phones somewhere other than their bedroom while they acted out Joey’s latest bedroom fantasy.

Which, most likely, was only a few keys off of incredibly vanilla.

“Gotcha. Want to walk in with us?” The girl shivers in her lightweight jacket and leans closer to her boyfriend. “I’m Ivy.”

“Noa,” I reply, glancing back across the parking lot. I want to refuse. I want to stand here and glare as my friends pull up so I can hold it over them that I had to go looking for some viral back alley, underground extreme haunt at eleven pm in a shit part of the city without them.

But my pettiness loses the battle against the eeriness of the parking lot and the cold breeze that’s making my teeth chatter a little.

“Yeah, okay.” I flash them a smile and fall into step with the two of them. “Is this your first extreme haunt?” I can’t help but ask. I can’t help but be curious.

They glance at each other and Ivy bites her lip, seeming nervous. “It is,” she tells me finally as her boyfriend throws an arm over her shoulders. “Dalton found out about it from someone we went to school with. We got lucky and scored tickets before they closed them. It was crazy that you had to get an invitation to even sign up, right?”

I roll my shoulders in a shrug. “I didn’t get our tickets,” I admit. “My friend took care of it and just like, sent me a screenshot I can pull up on my phone.”

“Think they’ll let you in without the actual thing?” Dalton looks at me, not quite worried. But why would he be? He’s not my boyfriend.

And judging by the way he’s clinging to Ivy and glancing around nervously, I’m pretty okay with that. He seems…jumpy. Nervous. Like he isn’t quite sure of this as much as she is. If I was bringing my boyfriend to an extreme haunt, I’d want them to be as enthusiastic to dive into it as I am.

But, then again, I suppose I’d have to get a boyfriend first.

Thinking about his question, I just make a non-committal noise. “Kinda hoping it doesn’t come to that. They’re just late.” As if on cue, my phone vibrates in the pocket of my leggings and I fish it out to look at the screen.

I’m so freaking sorry. The text in the group chat is from Sienna, who is the reason we found this place at all. She’s the one obsessed with Grim Descent going viral a few years ago, and while I’ve always been interested in extreme haunts, she’s the one who seems to have a fetish for getting one of the prize t-shirts.

If she can make it through to the end, anyway. And I don’t have the heart to tell her I’ve seen her get nervous enough in regular haunted houses that I feel like she won’t last five minutes here.

We’re so late. God, Noa, we’re the worst. We’re getting there as fast as we can though, okay ? I can tell she’s anxious and feels guilty, and I frown at my phone as another typing bubble pops up, this one from Joey.

You got there okay with the Uber?

I wonder if I should tell them the address they gave me hadn’t worked in the driver’s GPS. If I don’t, they’ll probably have to drive around like I did until they find the creepy parking lot with the telephone pole ringed in orange lights.

Before I can do more than type a quick yes and send it, I collide with a larger figure, yelping softly. “Oh my god, fuck!” I gasp, stumbling back from the person I’d just walked into. “That was so rude of me. I am so sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going. I?—”

The person turns, surveying me from behind a black mask that looks vaguely like an animal skull. It covers most of his face, with only eye holes for me to judge his expression by. When his mask catches the dim light from outside of the abandoned building, I see it has an upside down red cross carved into it and painted red.

“Oh, damn.” Momentarily distracted, I take a step forward toward the silent man, my phone forgotten in my palm even as it vibrates again. “Your mask is so cool.” I realize Ivy and Dalton have abandoned me to talk to another couple, but that’s okay. I’m not offended, considering I’d been sucked into a text conversation. “Sorry…again. I guess you’re in character and won’t talk to me, but?—”

He lifts a gloved hand and reaches out to tuck my black and orange hair back behind my ear. My stomach does a little flip, and I wonder how realistic it is to want to date a scare actor at an extreme haunt who’s hiding his face behind a mask.

With my luck, he’s probably fifty-seven and covered in very poorly done tattoos with bad hygiene.

“Sorry,” I murmur again, a bit absently. “Umm. By the way, I’m supposed to be here with my friends, but they’re running super late. I have a screenshot of my ticket, but—” He lowers his hand enough to crook two fingers at me, still not talking.

“Okay, well, you are very committed to this no talking thing, huh?” I mutter, swiping out of my text conversation and to my pictures. He leans in close, the scent of his cologne is subtle and spicy in my nose when I inhale sharply.

Fifty-seven and poor hygiene , I remind myself before I can get my hopes up. I’ve been here before and I’ve always been disappointed when the mask came off. “Here.” With a small, jerky movement, I lift my phone between us until it illuminates his eyes behind the mask.

He definitely has the darkest brown eyes I’ve ever seen. They look almost black in the stark light of my phone as he narrows them to look over the ticket. “Is this okay? For now? Just until—” He cuts me off with a nod and pushes my phone back toward me with one finger. His gaze finds mine, and the look there is unreadable.

“Thank you,” I murmur. I don’t know what else to say.

Something about my words makes his eyes narrow shrewdly. Then he tilts his head to the side for just a moment before turning on his heel and prowling across the parking lot toward another actor, this one’s wearing a skull mask and staring at me.

Right at me.

My stomach twists and I look away, eyes landing on the group of four that includes Ivy and Dalton. Clearly sensing my distress, the pretty brunette whose name I’ve known for all of three minutes waves me over, and wastes no time in introducing me to her friends.

“Noa’s friends are late,” she tells the other couple who’ve introduced themselves as Alec and Harley. Harley gives me an apologetic half smile, but Alec doesn’t even seem to notice me, since he’s so wrapped up in his phone.

“They’ll be here,” I say, waving my own phone dismissively. “Apparently they’re…” I glance at the new messages, my heart sinking. “Well, apparently they’re about thirty minutes away. Crap.” That’s…far.

Especially when the heavy door of the warehouse swings open with a loud creaking that makes me grit my teeth, my eyes are drawn toward it automatically.

“Hope they’re here soon, or they’ll miss it. I don’t think they let anyone else in after they start,” Ivy murmurs with a sympathetic glance in my direction.

I don’t reply, but I watch as another six people filter into the large, open room beyond the door that’s well lit and probably warmer than out here. The two couples leave me as well until I’m all alone in the parking lot with just my phone and shivering.

Well, almost alone. The man with the animal skull mask is now standing beside the open door ten or so feet from me, his attention never leaving my face. He glances inside, then back at me, the question clear in the air between us.

“Okay,” I sigh. “Yeah, okay. I just…My friends will be here,” I tell him, taking a few steps toward the door. “Can I let them in when they get here?”

He doesn’t say no or shake his head.

He does nothing except watch me. So with a groan, I jog into the warehouse, and the door closes ominously and loudly behind me with a clang.

They’d better get here soon. I’m not sure I can do this completely alone. No matter what claims I may have made with the help of cheap, gummy bear vodka.