Ready Or Not (The Hunter’s Club #2)

Chapter 2

2

Somebody’s Watching Me - Rockwell

The hot, dry wind whips around me as I bounce on my toes, waiting in line for the haunted corn maze. Brown leaves rustle around my feet, catching on me for a second, then blowing away.

For two weeks after my failure, I did nothing but go to work, eat (sometimes), and sleep. I could barely work, but I needed the money and the routine. It kept me from picking all the skin around my fingers completely off. Coincidentally, I also had the worst customers call in, yell at me, and complain to the shop because I didn’t cut their hair just right, even though they were happy with it when they left the store.

As Halloween approaches, I get more antsy. Cali made me promise I’d go to the corn maze with her since we both loved them, and I couldn’t get that promise out of my head as much as I tried. What was the point? She’s not here anyway.

But I made a promise. It got to the point where it was either taking a bubble bath with the toaster or going to the corn maze.

Unfortunately, here I am.

A scream comes from the maze, and the girls ahead of me titter and laugh. As they chatter, one backs up and bumps into me.

“Oh, sorry!” She giggles.

Her arm is sweaty, leaving a wet swipe on my shoulder. Immediately, I want to claw my skin off. The girl is probably in her early twenties, with an odd expression on her face. I blink, trying to look chill.

The girl’s eyebrow quirks up. I still can’t tell what she’s feeling, so I laugh awkwardly. “It’s okay.”

Immediately, her other eyebrow goes up, making me laugh more uncomfortably.

The girl continues giving me a look, then turns back around with her friends. They laugh again, and shame heats my face.

I laugh when I’m uncomfortable. People tell me it’s not the proper reaction, but it’s compulsive in social situations—I can’t stop. I laughed when Karen made a complaint about me today, and my boss yelled at me.

I wish Cali was here.

Give me nature and animals any day of the week. Or monsters. It’s easy to tell what a monster wants from you. There’s no guesswork. Which makes my life so much easier. It’s probably why I’ve always found comfort in Halloween. That, and I’ve always loved the costumes.

I realize I’ve wrapped my arms around myself, and the pit stains are back. I force myself to unwrap my arms and, instead, pick the skin around my nails.

I heard this place has absolutely no contact. Which is perfect.

Halloween music plays over the speakers as I get closer to the entrance. It grounds me and sends a wave of nostalgia through me. There’s a scarecrow at the beginning of the maze with tattered clothes and an angry, white mask. It glowers at me as I wait. The electronic tones, the recorded screams, and the smell of sun-baked straw makes me suck in a deep breath.

The group ahead of me laughs. It sounds mean, and I catch one of the girls looking at me.

Despite myself, my face flushes. Thank god their group is next to go.

As I scan over the maze, I catch sight of someone in the corn maze staring at me.

It’s a woman in the last row of corn. She’s in a full law enforcement uniform, with a half mask pulled up over her nose. She’s tall as fuck, I would guess almost six feet, and holds her vest with both hands, staring at me.

I swallow.

The woman’s dark eyes burn into mine. A tingle runs through me. I’ve never seen a scare actor with this kind of costume on. She looks like a real cop. Wait, maybe she is?

I glance around for a cruiser or another cop, then back at her. Only, she’s gone. There are just empty rows of corn.

Goosebumps prickle down my neck, and suddenly, I’m up next. I didn’t even realize the other girls had gone through. The person manning the line tries to bunch the people in line behind me with me.

“No,” I clear my throat. “I’m alone.”

Please let me go alone. I need to go alone .

I don’t know those other people. I don’t want them touching me. Crowding me.

The employee rolls his eyes but motions at the other group to wait.

The maze is dark. Occasionally, lights flash, and there are distant screams. I suck in a breath, pulling in the energy of the air around me. I wish I could take my shoes off and run through this barefoot. I want to feel the hard, dry dirt and ground myself. But I don’t. People would yell at me.

The man jerks his head at me to go.

I move forward on my toes, too jacked up to fully touch the ground. The corn grew tall this year, and the stalks tower over my head, dry leaves rattling in the wind. Smoke hisses on my right, and I jump. An automated voice cackles: “Ready or not, here I come.”

As I round the bend, a clown jumps out at me. I can’t help a scream as tingles wash across my skin.

The clown leers down at me, laughing. “Lost, pretty girl?”

I skirt past him, flying down the path and immediately being forced to take another turn. A chainsaw starts up with its loud rumbling. I whirl, trying to spot it, when the sound gets louder behind me. I dart away.

As I round the bend, something reaches out and snatches my arm, yanking me to a halt.

“No running,” a rich voice demands.

I whirl on the person and suck in a breath. The masked woman towers over me. It’s the cop from earlier. She’s stunning up close, her dark eyes rimmed in dark lashes, her skin creamy, and her gaze arresting. The rest of her face is covered in a black mask, but her brown hair is in two long braids down the sides.

The woman’s hand shoots tingles down my arm.

What the fuck? They aren’t supposed to touch us. I try to yank away from her.

A dark, manicured eyebrow arches up. The woman’s eyes are expressionless. It makes the skin on the back of my neck prickle.

She lets me go.

I back away, and immediately, the woman’s posture changes from bored to predatory.

“Sorry,” I stammer. I inch back, and she just watches me. When I hit corn, I turn and speed walk away. My body floods with adrenaline.

The next actor to jump out at me really makes me scream, and I bolt before they can also grab me. The deeper I go, the louder the music starts thumping and screeching from all sides of the maze. I can feel it in my chest, the pound, pound, pound.

As I turn a corner, the maze gets dark, and smoke fills the air. As it settles on my skin, I realize it’s mist. It wraps around me like a wet blanket.

There are so many sensations going on at once, and suddenly, I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to curl into a ball on the ground. Want to dig my nails into the dirt to feel just one thing other than everything . Why did I even come in the first place?

A form appears at the end of the row I’m moving down.

My stomach clenches, and I stop.

The form cocks its head. It’s the woman.

How is she everywhere? I shrink closer to the corn. Maybe I’ll blend into the darkness and the fog. The water in the air goes from ticklish to drowning. It’s everywhere. It’s in my eyes and hair, on my clothes, and it’s hard to breathe.

“Scared?” The woman’s voice is rich and…toneless. Uninterested, almost. It gets caught up in the mist.

Is she talking to me?

She’s standing still. I think she’s facing me, but it’s hard to see in the darkness.

I say nothing.

Her head shakes.

“I’ll give you a five-second head start. Then you’re mine, little deer.”

Alarm bells start ringing in my head. Something isn’t right.

“Five.”

I take a step back into the corn.

“Four.”

Fuck this. Something is weird about this maze, and I’m not sticking around for it. They can ban me for running through their corn if they want to. I turn and dart from the path and down a row of corn.

An empty laugh follows me.

“Three-two-one. Ready or not, here I come.”

I run. Dry leaves whip me in the face, and I hold my arms out in front of me to try and brush the leaves out of the way. I sprint as fast as I can, putting distance between myself and the maze, then dart to my left. I crack through stalks and slow down to reevaluate. Surely, she won’t follow me.

I slow, panting for breath. The music is quieter over here, so my pushing through the corn is louder. I duck down, trying to see through the thin bottom stalks. My heart is racing, and I put my hand on the dry dirt to ground myself.

I try to control my breathing.

This is just a weird moment. Maybe I’m making it up. She was just a scare actor, and I overreacted.

As usual.

Something rustles behind me.

Instinctually, I stand, but as I do, my vision is disrupted by the leaves. I brush them aggressively out of the way, only to be met with a masked face.

But it’s not the woman.

A man in a full cloth mask with the eyes cut out, a helmet, and full soldier attire stands there. He looks cold. Lethal.

A scream bubbles up in my throat, but it gets trapped there.

The man stares at me.

Say something! The words feel trapped in my chest. I stammer, “Uh s-sorry. I got lost.”

Instead of responding, the man just cocks his head. It’s eerie. He looks like a hawk, sizing up a rodent.

Nope. I need to go. But I stand frozen. My legs won’t move.

There’s a dark chuckle, and then the man’s voice comes out raspy and mocking. “Boo.”

That breaks whatever spell I’m under, and I turn on my heel and run—smack into a warm body.