And that’s when we heard it. The crowd gathered outside of the maze, murmuring. The silence hugging us was louder than any song she could sing.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star,” she started, and everyone joined her. “How I wonder what you are.” They were like a choir, all singing along with her.
“Up above the world so high.” I could hear the smile in her face. “How I wonder…” she trailed off, lowering her voice to a wicked whisper. “If you’ll die.”
“Fuck this shit,” Dominic cursed and disappeared around the corner.
“Dammit.” I ran after him. “Dom!”
“This is the way!” he shouted. “Just trust me.”
The crowd quieted down as she said that last part. I wasn’t sure if it was shock or just the amazement at what came out of her mouth.
“Oh, come on now. Don’t go quiet on me. It is Samhain after all. Halloween, the most sacred night of all. And I am here to tell you all the secrets your seemingly perfect hosts have been hiding.”
“Damn her,” Kairos cursed.
“Secrets?” I asked. “Which secrets?”
But I knew which secrets. We all did. We all dreaded the day they would come out.
“Our favorite golden boy, Kairos. Those dark eyes, that dark hair, he could charm even the Devil himself and get away with it. But beneath all that charm, that perfect posture and a thousand-dollar suit, hides a little boy whose father never really loved him.”
“That motherfucking b—” Kairos started cursing, but I was lost on every word she’d been saying.
“Daddy issues are apparently extremely common for guys as well, and here I thought girls were the only fucked-up people on the planet.” The crowd laughed with her, their whispers and murmurs surrounding us from all sides.
The maze wasn’t big enough to truly get lost, and with a crowd this size, we could almost hear what they were saying.
“But then little Kairos decided to leave home, after his daddy dearest fucked the only woman he ever truly loved—his sister.”
“What?” Dominic and I asked at the same time, looking at Kairos.
He was frozen in place, his fists clenching and unclenching.
“I often wondered if his love for his sister went deeper than the simple sibling love. Was he actually really, really in love with her? After all, an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Kairos,” I said slowly, approaching him as a wounded animal. “Ignore her. Ignore everything she’s saying.”
“Step away from me, Alex,” he grunted.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Whatever you’re about to say, keep it to yourself,” he said, looking at me. “I don’t want your pity. Dakota… she… fuck!”
“We should do this more often.” Echo chuckled through the speakers. “I think we could call it Halloween Central, where everyone’s dirty laundry gets aired for all of you to hear. I mean, we all deserve honesty, right?”
“Yes!” The crowd agreed with her, and I knew they were enjoying this a lot more than she did.
“Anyway, moving on to our second contestant, Alexander Hale.”
Gritting my teeth, I continued walking, hoping she would be somewhere in the maze. She had to stop. She had to stop all of this.
“Such a strong name, right? Such a strong man with a hero complex. But he couldn’t save his own mother, how could he save anybody else?”
“She didn’t,” Dominic mumbled.
“Born in the Eastern World, Alexander Hale was seventh in line for the crown. I mean, I knew monarchs were weird and kinky, but I didn’t know they had so many mental issues. Trust me, I’m not Miss Sunshine myself, but drowning my own kid, that’s too harsh, even for me.”
