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“It’s just…?” I pressed, and he sighed as we began to walk. The pathway cut between the game stalls, where I swore the clowns’ eyes followed us with every step we took. Unease slithered up my spine, and I forced myself to look anywhere but at them.
“The last time I was here, I was ten, maybe eleven,” Tanner confessed. “My mom was still alive at that time, but she’d moved back to Australia to be with her own father, who was struggling with cancer. It was just me and Dad and my dad’s mom. Nana.” A pensive expression flitted across his face, there and gone in less than a second. I gave his hand another squeeze, encouraging him to continue if he wanted to. We walked in silence for a few minutes, the twinkling carnival music imbuing the night air.
“You know, I’ve never been to a theme park before,” I began conversationally as we moved through the congested pathway. I swore the number of clowns lining the pathway increased exponentially every few feet, their faces covered in a fine layer of dirt and grime. The grass around them was overrun by mangled weeds that reached their knees, and more than one statute had a body part missing.
They’re not real,I told myself firmly.They’re plastic.
That didn’t stop icy tendrils of terror from caressing the back of my neck. It was almost as if the temperature had dropped drastically. My body broke out into shivers that I wasn’t positive had anything to do with the cold air.
“And I’m sure after this, you’re never going to want to,” Heath noted casually from where he walked in front of me, his hands still tied behind his back. He glanced at me over his shoulder.
“Shut up, Heath,” Tanner and I both snapped at the same time.
The crazy man’s grin only widened, revealing tempting dimples in both cheeks. “Believe it or not, doll, I care about you. Do you really think I would do anything to harm you?”
“I don’t know what you would or wouldn’t do anymore, Heath, which is exactly the problem. But the facts are…you know more about this place than anyone, yet you claim not to be a part of it. How can that be, unless you’re somehow involved?” I cocked an eyebrow at him, and he winked before focusing ahead once more.
“Maybe I am a part of this.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “But maybe I broke every single one of the rules by helping you guys escape. Maybe I’m not the bad guy you so desperately want me to be.”
“Why would I want you to be the bad guy?” I snapped as we turned at a fork in the pathway. To the left, darkness hung over the park like a cloying cloud of smoke, almost as if the lights of the park couldn’t quite reach that corner. One of the metal roller coasters cut off abruptly, half of its track disappearing into that pressing, malevolent darkness. Something growled menacingly, forcing me to pick up my pace, practically running face first into Heath’s hard back.
“Because,” he began casually, seemingly oblivious to my mounting panic. Or maybe he truly didn’t care about the monster lurking in the darkness behind us.
“Because?” My voice shook, and I couldn’t help but glance behind me like a stupid idiot in a horror movie. I could’ve sworn I saw a pair of glowing red eyes before wisps of smoke obscured it from view.
“Because you’re attracted to me,” Heath said nonchalantly, ignoring my disbelieving look. “You don’t want to be, so you’re secretly hoping I’m the enemy.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” I snorted before I could stop myself. Beside me, Tanner scoffed, rolling his eyes.
Heath shrugged once again. “It’s the truth. We both know you find me… What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, irresistible. Yes, we both know you find me irresistible.”
“I do not find you irresistible.” My eyes rolled so far back in my head, I saw gooey brain matter. Who the hell did Heath think he was? He had the most inflated ego I’d ever seen in a man.
“You do too,” Heath pointed out, winking. “But it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, doll. We both know I find you irresistible as well.”
“Oh for the love of…” I trailed off, pinching the bridge of my nose. Tanner snorted beside me, but when I cast him a scathing glare, he pretended to be extremely interested in his shoes instead.
Our group once again descended into silence. I was fuming over Heath’s comments, while the infuriatingly smug man cackled to himself.
And then… “My dad left me here when I was ten.”
Tanner’s voice was a soft whisper, so I almost didn’t hear it at first. My feet stumbled at his unexpected confession, and I forced my shock not to visibly show on my face.
“Oh?” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, but his face was cast in shadows, his expression utterly unreadable.
“I hated this park, but Dad thought I loved it. I’d always been terrified of clowns, but I didn’t dare tell him that. It was the one place I felt…well… It was the one place I felt loved, you know? My dad barely gave me the time of day, so the few trips we took here were blessings in disguise.
“I remember that we were playing one of the games—I desperately wanted to win a stuffed giraffe—when Dad received a phone call. When thirty minutes passed and he didn’t come back, I got worried. I looked everywhere for him, but I didn’t dare tell the staff. The last thing I wanted was for Dad to get in trouble and stop taking me on these trips.” Pain and anger flared in his eyes, a corrosive mix. Fury radiated off of him, so potent that it scratched at my skin like dozens of rusty nails.
“Tanner…that’s horrible.” I wanted to take away his pain, as ridiculous as that notion was. The agony in his eyes spoke to a part of me I didn’t want to look at too closely. A part of me that yearned for family and love.
“I found him an hour later talking to a shady-looking guy in the parking lot right outside the park. They were arguing about money and shit. It was then that I realized…my dad wasn’t a good man. At all. My mom didn’t leave us because she wanted to be with her parents. She left us to escape him and all he represented.” He bit down on his lower lip as something flashed in his blue gaze. His brows pressed together as if he was struggling to recall a specific memory. “Even though leaving didn’t save her life.”
“Your mother… She died?” I gasped, my heart breaking for him.
“I…I think so.” He scratched at his neck. “I have vague memories of…something.”
“You know,” I began slowly, my mind reeling with the onslaught of information, “I noticed that we usually struggle to retain certain memories when they concern our deaths. Or almost deaths, as the case may be. Do you think that what happened to your mom has something to do with how you got here?”
He scrunched his eyes together. “I think—”
“Guys!” Aiden barked, forcing our eyes towards the front of the group.
“What is it?” Caleb asked before I could.
Aiden pointed towards the Ferris wheel in the distance.
My blood turned to ice as horror clogged my airways, making breathing impossible.
The Ferris wheel was on fire, and that fire was rushing towards us rapidly.
