Page 52 of Unmasking My Dark Knight

Ivy Jade

Inever realized sneakers could be just as loud—if not louder—as heels. Each step I took, another squeak.

Damn—sorry.

I snuck through the chateau, hiding behind one of the marble pillars at the top of the staircase. My room was just across the hall. I looked left, then right, but nobody was here. I didn’t want to run into a single soul, especially not Mami. I was out longer than expected, and I worried my family would bust me for being gone. It was so obvious at this point that I couldn’t even hide it.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

Stupid shoes!

“Ivy Jade!” I heard Tallulah yell after me. I turned around and made eye contact. Big mistake, Ivy Jade!

Why did she look like some Gothic ghost roaming down the hall in her white gown? She was just missing the candlelit candelabra.

My only way out of this was to keep running towards my room.

“Ivy!” Tallulah yelled once more.

Resist saying anything back right now.

I skirted away like a fancy rat, racing to my room like I was none the wiser. Tallulah continued to say my name–again and again.

Ignoring her, I almost started sprinting, but felt too embarrassed and compromised with some horrible speed walk that made my shoes squeak even louder.

Before she could say my name again, I reached for my door, yanked it open, and slipped inside. Slamming it shut, I held my breath to stay silent. Then Tallulah knocked. “Is everything okay in there?” she asked.

With my hand placed on the center of the large door, I replied, “I’m fine. Everything’s okay! Don’t worry about me.”

“It’s almost midnight. Where have you been?” she persisted.

“I didn’t realize you were my mom, Tal. Like I said, everything is fine. Go… I don’t know… have sex with my brother to entertain yourself.” I shuddered internally. Ew. I was that desperate to get her to leave. I just wanted to be by myself.

“Fine. I’ll figure out what you’re doing eventually. I’m here if you need me, byyyyye!”

I locked the door. Thank the entire freaking universe she left.

My room was fairly dim, and while normally I would have turned every single light on, I didn’t want to tonight. The dark ambiance stirred within me. Especially because I needed to scratch the itch that’d been High Jynx.

He’d been nonstop on my mind from the moment we rode the carousel together, and I convinced myself that any kind of feeling toward him was just a horrible misunderstanding.

I didn’t have a crush on a clown from a Scare Park! I was a lady! A dignified one, with specific tastes and expectations. And this? This thing High Jynx and I shared? Well… it was just unreleased tension manifesting into psychosis.

Duh! Of course it was. It was so obvious now.

I paced around the room, dissecting each and every emotion pouring out, reminding me of every lingering glance and smirk High Jynx beamed my way. Those moments weren’t real. They were just me compartmentalizing my scrambled thoughts into little boxes that made more sense.

“You’re just stressed about the rings. And the stress is trying to leave your body. Right?” I stopped pacing and looked in the mirror. Oh god, I was talking to myself now.

I was so immersed in this fantasy with High Jynx that I allowed myself to get sucked into a world wholly different from mine.

It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just harmless flirting.

Our interaction was as benign as turning the page to another steamy chapter of ‘Unmasking My Bright Knight.’ I mean, Roman Knight had this same effect on me—he also gave me that incurable itch that needed to be scratched. But was that real? Of course not. Because once the deed was done—the itch scratched—my thoughts were free. And the same would be true with High Jynx.

I had to get over him.

I wanted him out of my head and back into the category of creepy clown.