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“I’ll take the rear again,” Leonard volunteered quickly.
“Pussy,” Kyrous muttered.
It took me a second to catch on as to why he said that. I thought Leonard was going last to be helpful; I hadn’t considered he felt safer all the way behind us. Clearly, he was an idiot. If the incident with the clown girl strolling up on him hadn’t been clue enough that none of us were safe, he was a lost cause.
Grace slapped Kyrous’ arm and shook her head but didn’t object when he linked them together. Huh, Mel had been on to something after all. She always saw what most people failed to until it was right in front of them. I’d certainly overlooked this strange development.
She and Maverick paired up, which she didn’t seem thrilled about, leaving an even less happy Selena with Charon. I almost felt bad for Margo because she had to walk with Abby. Leonard was alone, all the way in the back just like he’d wanted to be.
“You ready?” Ciaran asked me, his tone soft.
“Let’s do it.”
He led, and I followed.
We passed through the gate without incident, immediately having to descend a small flight of concrete stairs.
No one said a word when the gate closed behind Leonard. I think we all just expected things like that to happen by this point.
The ground felt wet and slippery, like it was coated in something, but there was only the moon beaming down to offer any light. On either side of us was fencing and buildings, ensuring we remained on this path.
A strange smell began to creep in and ruin the natural evening air. It wasn’t neither a good scent nor a bad one.
“What is that?” Margo asked, sniffing loudly.
“Bacon?” Leonard guessed.
“It’s a body,” Ciaran answered casually, as if he’d just announced to them it might rain soon.
“How… how do you know that?” Selena asked.
“Maybe we’ve dealt with a few.”
I bit my lip to hold back an amused smile. I seriously dug how straightforward and unapologetically screwed-up he was. It made my dark heart beat a little faster.
We wound through the passage, slowing when the flicker of a flame began to dance ahead of us. Just beyond that was another gateway. This one looked as if it led to a clearing.
The smell—the body—was stronger here. As we slowly proceeded, the aroma grew. It was an extremely sweet smell and somehow familiar. That was more disturbing to me than when we passed an alleyway and got an up-close look at the burning corpse.
The fencing prohibited us from getting any closer to it, which was a small blessing because two masked figures were on either side of the makeshift pit—a man, and clearly a woman if the shirt dress and knee-high boots were anything to go by.
They stared at us from behind their masks, the man lifting his hand to wave.
“He hasn’t been burning long,” Kyrous remarked from right behind us.
I took in the person they had strung up by his arms, stripped naked. His face resembled something less than human. It looked partially smashed in or something.
As I was trying to figure out what they’d done to him, his bushy mustache gave away his identity.
“That’s our driver,” I said quietly, not wanting to cause an uproar for the few individuals that would freak out if they pieced that together. The lower half of him was already being eaten by flames, splitting open the flesh on his legs and leaving grease-like fat to drip down and fuel the fire.
“We should keep going,” Ciaran said, resuming our slow place.
There was a soft gasp from behind us, I think from Abby once she got a look at the body, but at least she didn’t start sobbing again.
Ciaran and I emerged from the passage together, entering what turned out to be an actual clearing. The fencing changed here, forming a half circle of sorts.
To the left was another sign with two images painted on it. Straight ahead was another gate, not yet open.
A type of lighted platform ran along the perimeter of the fence, lined with the masked men we saw before, plus three more additions. The clown was up there with them. I could feel their eyes on us, watching our every move.
Once we were all through the passage, one of them shut us in, slamming the rear gate by pulling on a rope. A lock clicked into place, ensuring we wouldn’t be getting out unless they wanted us to.
The man with the automatic bow lifted it up and angled it at us.
One of the newer masked figures cocked a shotgun, doing the same on the flip side of the platform.
Ciaran gave my hand a gentle squeeze, a reassurance, I think.
“Woah, woah!” Leonard yelled, holding his hands in the air. “No need for any of that. Just tell us what you want, all right?”
