Page 20 of Camera Stays On

Kenny.

I fell back onto a bench and stayed there all night as my workplace and home turned to charred ash.

Kenny would never have been so careless to leave a lit cigarette in the screening room. I sat there, running through our last conversation. Something didn’t sit right. My gut was screaming to me that this wasn’t Kenny’s fault. This wasn’t a regular patron at all.

Dark thoughts seeped into my mind like slow, shadowy tendrils.

Could Sawyer have done this?

The thought was interrupted by Wilbur arriving, as well as the others who worked with us, and together, we watched in silence. The thought that this was done with intention didn’t leave my mind, but I had no proof, so I stayed quiet. The familiar pit of guilt and fear began to grow again, and by morning, when they put out the final flame, I knew what I had to do.

I had nothing. Literally, nothing but my gym bag. I set it on my lap and made a mental list of everything inside it. One spare set of clothes. A water bottle. Band-aids, washrag, soap, deodorant. My mind paused, as I remembered there were two more things I’d added yesterday.

A business card and a check to film a movie.

Chapter 8

Asher

“I CAN’T BELIEVE she agreed to come back, man.” I shook my head, still in utter disbelief from the news Sawyer had dropped on me this morning. I flicked my turn signal to the left, heading to the storage units where all my haunt stuff was sitting.

“I made it kind of hard for her to say no.” He snickered from the passenger seat.

“When is she getting here?” I pulled into the lot and started down the aisles, looking for unit 237. “Where is she staying?”

“She’ll be here soon. Had to get some things in order. She’ll be staying with me.”

I hit the brake briefly, startled, but then kept going down the row. “With you? Like at our house? Does that mean you two...” The very idea of Andi and Sawyer being back together made my body go into panic mode. Clammy hands, twisted stomach, racing heart. I was going to be sick.

There was no fucking way I could sit back and watch that happen again.

“Not yet,” Sawyer said, giving me a moment to breathe. “But I’m trying. I think it’s been long enough that I can forgive her, you know? Maybe now that we’re older we can actually talk about it. I’m willing to give her a second chance, and that’s all that matters.”

Yeah, but did she even want that second chance?

I wanted to ask him, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t hear me. Once Sawyer settled on something, that was that. However, I’d seen firsthand how Andi looked at him. I don’t think she’ll go for whatever speech he has prepared. Even if he’d convinced her to move back for the movie.

I hoped, anyway.

I found my storage unit, we parked, and I unlocked the door, pushing it up.

“Damn, you’ve really been hoarding things.” Sawyer whistled as I went to the truck and lowered the tailgate. “Is that a clown? Not a fan of that...”

“I told you it was full. Now let’s plan how we’re organizing it in the bed before we just start throwing shit in here.”

We spent the rest of the morning unloading the storage unit and filling my truck with scary props and decorations I’d collected over the last few years. There was a large clown with a vintage jumpsuit and menacing smile, a clawfoot bathtub, boxes of plastic bats, snakes, and spiderwebs. I had plastic totes full of strobe lights and smoke machines on one side. On the other, were boxes full of baseball bats, chainsaws without chains, and large rubber knives and mallets. It was a solid start to a good old-fashioned haunted attraction.

Once the entire unit was loaded and strapped down, we hopped back into the truck to head to the haunt.

“It’s about lunch. You want to grab something?” Sawyer asked as we started toward the exit.

“I could eat.” As we turned down the next row, we saw a group of people huddled around a unit. “Looks like they’re doing an auction.”

“Hell yeah, let’s go check it out.”

We parked and walked over, joining the small crowd of about a dozen people.

“What are we looking at, fellas?” Sawyer asked, his natural charisma taking over.