Page 39 of Stay Scared

Cade backs farther down the hallway.

“Stay there.”

He does.

The frame is still in my hand. Cade wants it. His body is angled toward me and the wall behind me, ready to move the second I let him, but his feet stay planted.

I lower the photograph and look again.

A pale shape occupies the edge of my apartment window. At first I think it is glare from the alley light. Then I tilt the frame and realize a person is standing inside my apartment behind me.

Only part of a dark mask is visible past the kitchen doorway.

“Cade, there’s someone inside the apartment.”

He stays where I left him. “Inside with you?”

“Yes.”

His head snaps toward the wall camera. He rips the housing from its mount, tearing a cable loose behind it.

“Control, open the damn section.”

The red light remains.

Cade looks back at the photograph while keeping the distance I demanded. “Put it down and get away from it.”

“You think it’s wired?”

“Somebody planted that picture, and this place locked down the second we found it.”

A strip of wallpaper behind his shoulder lifts in a draft, revealing darkness beyond it.

Another route.

Cade crouches near the broken camera cable. “That camera’s still sending somewhere else.”

“Can Ash trace it?”

“If Ash still owns the damn system.”

I place the photograph faceup on the floor.

Cade studies the figure inside my apartment from where he remains. “Whoever took this was in your apartment with you.”

The hidden opening widens behind him, and a recessed handle catches the red light.

I cross to it.

“Salem, don’t open that yet.”

I pull the handle anyway.

The panel releases without an alarm, and cold air reaches my face. Beyond it, painted canvas walls form a carnival maze beneath weak strings of bulbs. Distorted calliope music plays somewhere inside.

Cade rises. “Stay where I can see you.”

I look into the maze, then back at him. He is still exactly where I told him to stay.