This wasn’t a set.
This wasn’t pretend.
This was art.
Prime watched my face instead of the house.“Pretty wild, right?”
“Wild?”I whispered.“This is… incredible.It looks like it was dragged out of a nightmare.”
“Pearl says the same thing,” he replied.“But she means it as a compliment to herself.”
I stepped forward slowly, drawn in by the detail.“She did all this?”
“Pearl, Bernice, and her painting crew,” Prime said softly.“Hundreds of hours.”
“It’s amazing,” I murmured.
“It is,” Prime said, and there was a break in his voice he didn’t bother to hide.It was a haunted house, but it was the way the Kings made their living.Without this, they didn’t have anything.
I stepped forward hesitantly.“Can I… touch it?Go in?”
“Yeah,” he said.“It’s meant to be touched and explored.”
We climbed the front steps, and my fingers brushed the wood.It felt smooth in some places, rough in others, textured to look like age and neglect.I could almost picture Pearl painting it.
“I can’t believe how talented Pearl is,” I said quietly.
“Bernice, too,” Prime pointed out.“She and Pearl did all the murals and gory details.”
We walked through the front door, and the boards creaked beneath our combined weight.Even in daylight, the house gave off a hum of tension, like it knew its purpose was to be feared.
“Are you guys really reopening?”I asked and glanced at him.
His eyes hardened with determination.“We are.We have to.”
“Because of the town?The cops?”
“Because of everything,” he said.“This place is our lifeline.Our cover.Our income.Club won’t last long without money coming in.”
I nodded.I wasn’t a club girl or an old lady or whatever they called women in their world.But I understood survival.I understood doing what you had to.
“You’ll pull it off,” I said.“People will come.”
“They always do,” Prime replied.“Especially if they think they might get the shit scared out of them.”
I laughed, and God, it felt good to laugh.
We walked around the first floor, and I gasped again.Painted hands stretched up from beneath one of the windows, distorted and shadowed, like souls trapped inside the walls.
“Holy…” I stepped closer, eyes wide.“This looks like real hands are trying to claw their way out.”
“That was Pearl’s idea,” Prime said.“Bernice argued with her about it for two days.Pearl won.”
“It’s perfect,” I said.
“It’s creepy as hell,” Prime muttered.
“That’s the point.”
