Playing Cards With Aliens

by Erin Raegan

“Talking?” I asked.

  He sighed. “Promisin’ a bunch o’ shit he doesn’t intend to follow through on.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s going to end badly.”

  “I know. Not tonight, Theo.”

  “Whatever,” I muttered. I needed to stop worrying so much about Abby and Holden’s relationship. I had my own—or lack of one—to worry about. She was a big girl and could handle herself.

  “Where’s your crew?” he asked Killian.

  The brooding man stepped up beside me as he gave Jeremy some excuse.

  I wasn’t listening. I searched the tent for Abby, hoping she would save me from my awkwardness. Leo and Oren hadn’t even entertained the idea of coming here. It wasn’t their thing. Shocker. Though I had really thought Leo would come to at least load up on his carbs for the night. Oren had somewhere to be.

  Something about needing to take Jeremy’s truck for the night even though Jeremy usually used it to transport their equipment. Killian had stressed how important Oren’s plans were to him and Jeremy had caved unusually easily.

  Before I had been happy, but now, I was feeling bitter about it. Had Oren and Leo agreed to come, I never would have gotten the chance to get the wrong idea about tonight.

  “See you later, Theo,” Jeremy called, walking back to the tent.

  As he popped open the side of the tent, I caught Abby and Holden making out in the corner. I turned away, my mood morose. Killian watched me with a frustrated expression. A sullen twist to his mouth. Neither of us seemed willing to break our silence, so we ended up standing there for far too long, him staring at me, me at everything but him.

  People were crowding the cleared field around us, getting their tickets for the haunted maze and lining up at the food booths and game stations. Another hour or so and we would be packed in like sardines. Friday night was always the busiest night of the weekend. I had been excited earlier, but now I just wanted to go home.

  How easily my heart could manipulate my wants and desires.

  It sucked.

  Maybe it would have been for the best if Peterson had found me yesterday.

  Killian blew a heavy breath through his nose and dragged me closer to him, spinning and walking toward the line for the haunted maze.

  “Slow down,” I mumbled, nearly tripping over my feet and trying to tug my hand from his.

  “Sweets,” he snapped as he slammed to a halt beside the line, “I’m beginning to get angry.”

  “Oh yeah? Well I’m already angry.” Angry at him and myself.

  He raised one dark brow at me and I flushed, my ears hot. I was being bitchy but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I felt like all my sparkly, girly dreams had popped and exploded into a goopy brown mess at my feet.

  He stepped closer to me. “I want to experience this festival with my Theo, not this angry girl scowling at me.”

  “Sorry,” I bit at him.

  “Once more with feeling, sweets.”

  I sighed and closed my dry eyes.

  “I’m sorry, all right? I just thought…” I winced and tugged on my ear, looking at the ground. “I don’t know what I thought.”

  “I do. You were not wrong to think those things.”

  “But you don’t want them with me,” I said to my shoes. My shoulders sagged. The last thing I wanted was to pressure him into feeling something for me he didn’t. But I was being a brat. “I’m sorry for pushing.”

  Killian huffed a dark laugh. “Not want them?” He pulled me closer to him, tightening his hand around mine. “If I could have those things, sweets, they would be with no one else but you.”

  Confusing man.

  With that cryptic statement, he pulled me into the chattering line and sparked a conversation with the older couple in front of us. He kept his arm around my shoulders as he spoke with them, my head tucked into his chest. I relaxed against him in defeat and listened to his rumbly laugh, feeling his chest shake underneath my cheek.

  If this was all I could ever have from him, I would take it.

  I would take anything Killian was willing to give me. How sad was that?

  His lips touched my forehead and I looked up at him.

  He smiled softly and pulled me closer, mumbling something into my hair.

  I snugged closer to him. I may be sad and stupid but I refused to regret any minute I spent with him. I didn’t know how many I had left.

  “I should have probably told you something,” I said, so quiet Killian had to lean down to my mouth to hear me. Not that he had any other choice—I was plastered to him, gripping his arms and waist like a lifeline. “I get scared pretty easily.”

  “I hadn’t guessed,” he drawled sarcastically, looking at the little moon prints my nails were leaving on his bare arm.

  I winced, relaxing my grip, but then something in the dark field cracked and I nearly knocked him to the ground as I jumped closer to him.

  “What—”

  Someone screamed deeper in the dark maze and I leaped up onto him. Clinging.

  Killian huffed a breathy laugh into my armpit, shifting my awkward monkey hold on his head so I was wrapped around his front. “They’re not real monsters.”

  “I know that, but I can’t see anything and I know these assholes.” I had grown up with most of the boys who liked to scare at Peterson’s. “They’re really good at sneaking up on unsuspecting victims.”

  Killian roared a laugh.

  I slapped my hand over his mouth, searching the dark corn stalks. “They’re going to hear you!”

  And no matter that it was makeup and tattered clothing, dozens of actors creeping through a pitch-black corn maze with the intent to jump out and scare the daylights out of me had me so on edge, I was trembling from more than the chilly air.

  “We have to find the exit,” I told him as he carried me through the maze.

  Killian laughed again. “As opposed to?”

  “Asshole,” I hissed, wiggling down. “My fright is not for your entertainment.”

  “Whatever you say, dear,” he mimicked Sal’s deep voice when he talked down one of Aunt Bets’s rants.

  “You know, you’re the man. You’re supposed to be protecting me and stuff,” I grumbled, tripping over a rock.

  “Oh? Protecting you from costumed monsters makes me a man?” he drawled, easily catching me.

  “Yes. You’re bigger than me.” I waved him to the front. “You lead and scare them away so they don’t attack me.”

  “Sweets, I will do no such thing. I’m enjoying your responses far too greatly.”

  I grumbled under my breath as I held my hands out in front of me, feeling in the darkness for obstacles and hiding scary things.

  Most people brought flashlights for a scary maze, but Friday nights at Peterson’s was for the older crowd. Black-out night. I had been so concerned about my night with Killian, I hadn’t given any real thought to where we were actually going. A rooky mistake.

  Someone screamed again and then there was a high creepy cackle. I jumped and spun around, straining to see past the darkness. It did not help at all.

  “I think we’re going deeper. This can’t be the way,” I mumbled.

  “I thought the point of this endeavor was to go deeper,” Killian mused, a tad too far away from me.

  I rushed to catch up to him. “No. The exit is often right next to the entrance. There should be a short cut.”

  Killian was laughing far too much. And far too loudly.

  “Maybe we could cut through the corn?” I asked, my voice high and trembling as another scream rent the air.

  “You mean cheat?” He scoffed. “I am no cheat.”

  I groaned in exasperation. “Killian.” It came out far too much like a whine.

  He snorted through another laugh.

  I froze as the corn beside me rustled.

  “Perhaps y—”

  “Shhh,” I hissed.

  Killian went quiet. Another rustle. My shoulders went up to my ears.

&nbs
p; “Come here,” he whispered.

  He didn’t have to ask me twice. He was too far way. I stepped toward him.

  A blur of black jumped from the corn in front of me and a white-painted face roared into mine. A blood-curdling scream tore from my throat and I spun on my heels, sprinting down the corn path.

  A loud cackle and then a chainsaw followed me.

  I screamed louder. My legs pumped faster and corn stalks whipped at my arms and face as I took turn after turn farther into the maze.

  “Theo!” I heard shouted under the chainsaw engine.

  A pumpkin man darted from the corn beside me and reached for me, and I screamed so loud I knew I would be feeling the burn tomorrow.

  “Theo!”

  He was laughing. The bastard was laughing at me.

  “Killian!” I wailed as I ran farther into the maze.

  Pumpkin man cackled and backed me into a wall of corn. I sagged into the nylon ropes along the pathway to get away from his pumpkin face, screaming bloody murder. Long spindly fingers danced in front of my face as pumpkin man raised a plastic axe above his head.

  I knew it was fake. Of course I did. But knowing that didn’t stop me from overreacting.

  I screamed in terror and went to shove his arm away and ended up tackling him to the ground. I guess my adrenaline was pumping too hard.

  He grunted under his oversized pumpkin head. “Damn, Theo.”

  I knew that voice. It was Mr. Peterson’s nephew.

  “Vince, you dick,” I snapped, slapping his chest.

  He rolled and dumped me onto the ground, chuckling. “You should have seen your face.”

  I cursed and stood.

  “You can’t even see my face.”

  He huffed a laugh. “I could hear you though. The whole damn field did.” He picked up his axe and pointed behind him. “Better run. Mathew would have heard that scream by now.”

  I made a crude gesture and took off running again. This time at a slower pace. Now that the boys knew I was in there, they would all be coming for me. It was the burden I bore from my childhood reputation.

  I was an easy scare, unfortunately.

  Why exactly had I come here again?

  Oh yeah, dreamy dark eyes, a sexy mouth, and chiseled cheekbones.

  I was far too easily distracted.

  I heard Killian calling my name from a few yards away, but no matter how many turns I took, I kept getting farther from him.

  Three minutes later, I was running for my life again with a ghost girl and the grim reaper on my ass. This was not normal. You were not supposed to chase the patrons. But I guessed I was too good a scare to pass up.

  If I hadn’t known these fools so well, I would have taken offense, but I knew it was all in good fun. Though they better hope I remembered that when I got out of here. Otherwise payback would be two-fold.

  I was out of breath and my legs were exhausted. I was also grateful for the thickness of my warm clothes. Otherwise I would be walking out of here with more than a few scrapes.

  “Killian!” I shouted after I managed to lose my tail.

  I heard him hollering, the humor in his voice unmistakable.

  He, however, was not going to get a free pass.

  Ten long minutes alone in the dark and I was good and lost. My entire body was trembling, and it had stopped being good fun and had crossed clean over to a vendetta. Peterson must have pulled someone from the maze to cover my ass this year and they were making me pay for it.

  Assholes.

  I crouched behind several stalks of corn as Vince called my name in an eerie voice, taunting me. I saw his black boots cross right beside me on the path and I held my breath, pulling myself into a tighter ball.

  After he’d passed, I crept out and went in the opposite direction. If I wasn’t so afraid of really getting lost in the never-ending maze of corn, I would have cut right through the maze, but I was too short to see over the stalks to find the entrance.

  When Mathew finally found me, he went all out. He happened to be the masked monster with the chainsaw. The absolute most terrifying costume in the entire bunch.

  For a hot second, I tried to stay still. It was fake after all. It wasn’t as if the chainsaw was real. He wasn’t going to actually hurt me.

  But ten feet and then five feet and it doesn’t matter your age or gender—a huge linebacker in a white hockey mask comes after you with a chainsaw, you run. You had no other choice.

  I screamed again, wanting to both run and jump out of my skin, so I ended up doing an awkward hop-run down the path, nearly face-planting. Mathew chuckled evilly, his deep voice carrying over the chainsaw engine. A shiver ran down my spine and I ducked down a corner.

  “Killian!” I wailed in outrage and terror. “Where are you?”

  “Right here,” a dark voice drawled beside my ear.

  Hands reached for me around the corner and I screamed as I was pulled into a tall chest. I kicked and flailed until a deep chuckle left his mouth. Then I was smacking his hands and chest.

  “Dick, stupid motherfudging dickballs!”

  He roared another laugh, slapping his hand over my mouth as Mathew came around the corner with his chainsaw raised above his head. My high screech was muffled as I clambered on top of Killian. My hands wrapped around his head, shoving my chest deep into his face as my legs wrapped around his upper chest.

  My wail pierced the air as he was forced to release my mouth. Mathew laughed darkly, dancing around us and waving his chainsaw in the air maniacally. Killian’s hilarity was muffled by my chest, his hands trying to pull me back down. I clung tighter.

  After a few seconds Mathew lost interest—or busted his eardrum—and moved on and my wail lost steam, petering out into gasping breaths.

  “Scare you later, Theo!”

  “You will not!” I shouted back weakly.

  Killian was gasping for air as he pulled me down to a more comfortable spot on his chest. But instead of putting me down, he wrapped my arms around his shoulders and supported my butt under his arm. He patted my thigh once and shook his head at me.

  “Don’t start,” I mumbled, frowning in his face.

  His laughter-filled eyes roamed my face before he placed a too-quick kiss on the corner of my mouth. I dropped my chin onto his shoulder as he walked, and I closed my eyes, feeling loads better in the dark maze with him so close.

  Late Night Interruption

  Theo

  I dropped my head onto the picnic table, my arms cushioning me from the hard wood. Groaning, I closed my eyes, and Killian chuckled.

  “It’s not funny. I’m so full I could explode,” I whined.

  His warm hand palmed the back of my neck and slowly kneaded the muscle there. I closed my eyes on a sigh, listening to Jeremy crooning about flying high and living your dreams. Holden’s smooth voice backed him, his fingers deftly plucking a sweet melody. With Killian taking the seat to my left, Abby was sitting on my right, her chin in her palm as she made moony eyes at Holden on stage.

  Though Holden had lost the spotlight for a moment once she met Killian for the first time.

  At first, I had been taken back by her enthusiastic greeting, not realizing she had yet to meet him. Time had flown by so fast, I hadn’t realized it had been two weeks since I’d seen her.

  She had fumbled and blushed, stars in her eyes as she enthusiastically spilled all my secrets to Killian, from how gangly I’d been as a child—to my mortification—to how I’d gushed over him at the bar weeks ago. Not that I’d been gushing per se. Abby could just read me that well.

  She was way too eager to spill all my skeletons and worst habits to him. He ate up every word, his hands on me in one way or another.

  He was a contradiction of mixed signals, but I was too exhausted to care after my adrenaline spike in the corn maze—followed by two corndogs, an entire caramel apple, and a whole basket of fried Oreos. I was done for the night. I could fall asleep right there, listening to Jeremy’s smooth singing, and
not wake up for a week.

  “Feeling sick?” Killian whispered in my ear.

  I nodded, pouting.

  He poked my bottom lip, chuckling.

  He’d eaten three times as much as me and could probably go back for more. It was part of the experience and I was so damn glad we had moved past my hurt feelings from the beginning of the night. I wanted Killian to have a good time and experience everything without babying me all night, and I felt as though he had. He seemed at ease and in a great mood.

  After the maze, he’d battled me at the game booths, then together we’d picked a pumpkin and painted it. My side was a black cat with a bright moon. He expanded the painting onto the other side with a beautiful mural of outer space with a colorful Milky Way galaxy, a tiny grey spaceship drifting past. Not exactly what I’d been going for, but we got more than a few admirers stopping by and exclaiming over the pumpkin.

  He was a surprisingly good artist.

  Killian had proudly carried the wet pumpkin out to the car to dry in the back seat. It was cute how carefully he’d handled it.

  “You ready to go?” he asked, still massaging my neck.

  I hummed my agreement, allowing him to pull me up from my seat.

  “We’re going, Abby,” I said as Killian pulled my hood up and around my face, pinching my chin playfully.

  She sighed and stood, hugging me. “I don’t blame you.” She looked Killian up and down. “Not with that tall glass of water to go home with.”

  She waggled her eyebrows, giggling when I smacked her side. I flushed and avoided Killian’s eyes as he said goodbye and walked with me out to the car. He opened my door for me and even bent to buckle me in as my head lagged back onto the headrest.

  With a gentle kiss to my forehead, he shut me inside and drove us home.

  “Did you have fun?” I asked tiredly as we pulled into the driveway.

  “With you? Always.” He got out and helped me out of the car, walking me to the door with his hand around my waist.

  I snickered as I thought about the maze, happy and sleepy as I looked at him. “Bet you weren’t expecting a chicken to take you to your first haunted maze.”