Page 47 of Road to Redemption

And just like that, we were off. Lady squeezed between Spencer and I in the back, while Leo rode shotgun to Dom’s driving.

The grassy pastures around the airfield stretched on for miles, and my lovers’ chatter was the perfect noise machine. I was still exhausted from our sexcapade on the plane, and everything about this drive was threatening to fast-track me to sleep.

But as Lady nuzzled her head into my lap, I fought hard to keep my eyes open.

There’ll be time to nap when we get home.

We weren’t going home, though. I didn’t remember that until Dom made an early exit off of the highway, driving through a wooded backroad on the outskirts of Valemont. And suddenly, I wasn’t so sleepy.

Despite opening up more since our trip to the Summit — and particularly since last night — Dom still hadn’t told us much about our new refuge.

For all I knew, we’d be hiding out in some cave in the middle of nowhere. And the deeper we got into the woods, the more I thought that might be the plan.

But thankfully, the winding dirt path eventually opened to a wide main road that was better paved than most of Valemont. It was strange, considering how isolated it was. As we drove farther and farther down the boulevard, I was surprised that there wasn’t a single other vehicle in sight.

Just us, the trees at the edge of the road, and the vague promise of civilization at the end of the paved path. As we drove, the mountains that looked so small from town rose behind the tree line like jagged teeth.

I scratched Lady’s head, trying to take comfort in the fact that this car was full of animals who would kill to protect me. But it felt like we were being swallowed by the very earth.

And apparently, my anxiety was shared. As we reached the top of a hill, Lady’s ears shot up, and she lifted her usually sleepy head to peer out of the window. I wasn’t sure what she’d heard, but then suddenly, a big wooden sign cropped up at the edge of the road.

“Feverpoint Amusement Park…” I muttered, shocked by how familiar the name felt on my tongue. I squinted at the big blocky letters, now faded from decades of sunlight and grime.

There’s no way…

But the next thing I knew, we were past an abandoned old toll booth and halfway through the parking lot.

“Where are we?” Leo frowned as Dom drove past the admissions gate and toward a small service road labeled Employees Only.

“The safehouse,” Dom grumbled, not slowing as we approached the wrought iron gate at the edge of the lot. I gripped the door, bracing for impact — what was her plan, to ram down the fucking fence?

As we approached though, the old automatic gate rumbled open. As if it had been waiting for us. Spencer, Leo, and I exchanged hesitant looks as the car bounced over the cobblestone of the main walkway.

But Dom just gripped the steering wheel tighter as the gate clanked shut behind us. “Welcome home.”

27

SPENCER

Not this fucking place. I could already feel my shoulders tensing as we rocked over the cobblestone pathway that ran through the heart of the park.

I hadn’t been back here in decades — the park closed when I was a still kid. But I knew one thing for sure; there wasn’t this much barbed wire and fencing back then. Covered in overgrown weeds and grime, this place looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie set.

But it wasn’t the grit that gave me the creeps. It was the people who allegedly lurked in the shadows of the broken-down rides.

There had always been rumors among the Valemont kids about the park being haunted, and it only got worse after the place shut down. But in the last couple of years, the story had taken on a new life.

Rumors flew around the Hollow about them — the circus freaks who’d taken up residence here, the sick games they liked to play. But that was all hearsay cooked up by bored locals. There was no reason to believe any of it was true.

And no reason to freak Kiera out with a bunch of tall tales.

Peering out the window, I tried to rein in my imagination. I didn’t see any signs of life. But if there was a safehouse here, someone had to be keeping watch over the place.

As Dom careened down the main path, my eyes caught on the alley of game booths. It didn’t take a close inspection to tell that it had been years since they’d been played — the metal on the Krazy Kans had completely rusted through, and half of the glass bottles at the ring toss were shattered.

What a shame. This was one of my favorite parts of Feverpoint as a kid.

Jess and her friends would take me every once in a while, but I was too young for most of the rides. Some years, Jess would work the admissions desk and sneak me in. Still, if I was lucky, one of her boyfriends would flip me some cash to play carnival games while they went on the coasters.