Page 48 of Stay Scared

Nothing releases.

The screen refreshes.

PRIVATE EXIT AUTHORITY: REVOKED.

Cade reads the message while blood from his hand marks the broken cover.

“What does that mean?”

He pulls the handle again, but the mechanism stays locked.

“It means somebody took the exits away from us.”

Chapter 9

Blood darkens the dressing beneath my palms.

Evan’s breathing has settled into a shallow rhythm, though his skin has lost color beneath the remains of his makeup. Cade kneels beside him with one bare hand on the floor while the other keeps pressure near the wound.

The operator screen still displays the same message.

PRIVATE EXIT AUTHORITY: REVOKED.

Cade enters the master code again. The system rejects it before he finishes.

“Quit wasting time on that. He needs medical.”

“I can fucking see that.”

His answer is sharp, though the anger belongs to the locked room rather than me. He tears open another dressing and layers it over the first while the slowed carnival music continues overhead.

Nobody answers his radio.

Evan’s eyes open. “The booth.”

Cade leans closer. “Which booth?”

“Old tickets.”

The effort brings fresh blood through the gauze beneath my hand.

“Save your breath,” Cade says.

Evan ignores him. “He came through there.”

“The bird mask?”

Evan manages a slight nod.

Cade looks toward the sealed maintenance door just as a narrow panel opens beside the operator station.

A white mask appears in the gap.

Owen reaches through and catches my wrist. I pull against him before I recognize the blank face.

“Let her go,” Cade says.

“The panel is already closing.”