The minute the words left her mouth, the lights on the stage flickered and died.
“This isn’t good,” Eric whispered.
The hair on Avery’s arms stood on end when shuffling noises filled the room.
“I think we should go, now!” Sandra said.
Before they could move, the lights blazed back on. Avery blinked as the sudden influx momentarily blinded her. It took a few seconds for her vision to clear, and once it did, she gasped when she spotted a hundred corpses standing on the stage. Their bones weren’t showing, but the skin was peeling off some of them and they reeked of death.
A teenage boy with green eyes and brown hair stepped forward. “You’ll die here as we did.” His hoarse voice gurgled as it rattled out of his rotting throat.
“You’ll never make it,” another said. “He’ll never let you, and when you’re trapped here too, we’ll get to play with you.”
“I want to play now.” A man raised a graying hand to point at Sandra. “Give me the pretty blonde.”
Sandra gave the corpse the finger.
“Sandra,” Karen said. “I shouldn’t have to tell you not to flip off dead people.”
Sandra shot her a look before lowering her hand.
“Give me the boy in front!” a girl cried, and more chimed in with their claims of who they wanted.
The corpses’ voices rose until their cries reverberated in Avery’s bones and she panted for breath. When the corpses crept toward them, their feet scraping against the wooden stage caused something inside Avery to shatter. She couldn’t take any more death or tolerate the screaming.
But this time, instead of fear, fury filled her, and her power rose up and surged out of her with a frenzy that startled even her. It raced across the stage in a bolt of sizzling blue that ripped into the corpses and ceased their hideous cries as it threw them across the stage.
Avery’s chest ached from her rapid breaths as her skin tingled with the power crackling over it. Her explosion hadn’t eased her fury; it still simmered below the surface, waiting to be released again.
And the next person to feel it would be Regan.
Taking a steadying breath, she turned to look at her friends. They stared back at her with their mouths open and their eyes wide. They knew she was powerful, but they’d never seen her power come out with such force, and it had surprised them more than her. Gradually, their shock wore off and everyone, except Talia, grinned at her.
• • •
“A cheeseburger,” Mario said as they trudged through more hallways. They’d put out their flames when lanterns with flickering candles started lining the walls again. “With lots of onions, ketchup, and pickles. Extra pickles.”
“What are you talking about?” Karen asked.
“The first thing I’m going to eat when we get out of here.”
“Oh. Mashed potatoes with lots of butter.”
“Steak,” Eric said. “A big, thick, juicy steak.”
Avery could almost hear him drooling, and she couldn’t suppress a smile. “Cheesecake,” she said.
“There’s something up here!” Reid called out.
Avery’s smile vanished as they entered a tiny room and stopped before an escalator humming its way up. She craned her head to see the top of it but could only see twenty feet before the escalator vanished into a black void. Glancing behind her, she wasn’t surprised to discover a wall had replaced the hall they’d come through.
They could only go up.
When Reid stepped forward, Avery stretched a hand out to stop him, but he was already ascending on the clanking machine. Sandra, Talia, and Isla followed him, and the three of them disappeared into the blackness. She waited for Mario to step onto the escalator before climbing onto the rickety machine behind him.
Her knuckles were white as she gripped the railing of the escalator while it clattered to the top. She’d envisioned too many horrible things happening to people on escalators to believe Regan wouldn’t use this as an opportunity to torture them.
Mario stood only a couple of feet before her, but as soon as he hit the dark spot, he vanished. Avery had only a second to panic before entering it too. She’d never experienced such absolute blackness before and couldn’t see her hand when she lifted it before her face.
Reid, Sandra, and Isla were shouting, “We’re okay!” and she realized they’d been yelling the entire time though she hadn’t heard them.
“They can’t hear you,” Mario said, and their shouts ceased.
“Oh,” Sandra said.
The stair beneath Avery vanished, and she staggered onto solid ground. Hands gripped her arms and steadied her before she faceplanted.
“Easy,” Mario said.
Though he held her and his voice had come from close to her, she couldn’t see him. When Mario released her, she edged forward with her hands outstretched to feel for any obstacles as the escalator clattered onward and Karen and Eric joined them. She steadied Karen when her friend bumped into her and nearly went down.
Avery had expected something to happen once they were all together, but nothing did.
“Can you go anywhere, Reid?” Mario asked.
“I think there’s a hallway here,” Reid replied. “But I’m not sure. We need some fire.”
Before any of them could react, dim, sickly yellow lights flared to life and illuminated the hall in front of Reid. Reflected in the funhouse mirrors lining the corridor, the lights bounced around the corridor.
“Not again,” Karen moaned.
Avery silently echoed her sentiments as she scowled at the mirrors.
“Let’s just get it over with,” Reid said and strode forward.
Avery hung back as everyone filed into line behind him. If evil clowns started busting out of these mirrors too, she would be ready to destroy them all.
“I wish he would come up with something new,” Mario muttered before entering the hall.
Sandra stopped to study the mirror next to her. “He did come up with something new.”
Avery turned to look at the mirror on her left, and her stomach plummeted when she realized her black hair had fallen out in large clumps to expose her skull. Her once luminescent blue eyes were yellowed and milky, and through the hole in her left cheek, she saw the outline of four teeth. She lifted her hand to touch her face but froze when she saw her fingers were nothing but bone; she couldn’t bring herself to touch her face with them.
“Ugh!” Karen cried.
Avery tore her gaze away from the mirror and turned to look at the others. It took her a second to realize they were all still healthy and alive, but when she glanced at the mirrors, every one of their reflections was in various stages of decay. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until it exploded out of her.
Examining her hand, she was relieved to see only flesh and no bones poking through it. Before she could think about it, she touched her hand to her scalp and sighed when she didn’t feel any bald patches.
She was getting tired of Regan’s mind games. She’d rather face monsters than have her head screwed with like this.
“Keep going,” Eric said.
Sandra spun in front of the mirror before stopping and kicking her foot up to her ass. In the mirror, she was completely bald, had bones for legs, and large chunks of skin were missing from her face.
“Even dead, I look amazing!” she declared.
Avery laughed and hoped Regan was watching or at least listening to them. She was sure Sandra’s words and her reaction to her reflection would piss him off.
“You do,” Mario agreed. Placing a hand on her back, he nudged her forward. “But you can admire yourself later, Miss Corpse America.”
Sandra laughed as she fluffed her hair before turning to follow Reid. Avery kept her gaze resolutely focused on Mario’s head as they continued down the hall. She refused to look in the mirrors, but from the corners of her eyes, she still caught glimpses of herself and her friends in the glass.
“Th
is is new,” Reid said as he stopped before a slowly spinning, red and white tunnel.
Avery almost grinned; she usually loved these circles in funhouses, but she doubted Regan would let this one be as much fun as they could be. Unlike the ones in funhouses that were only ten to twenty feet long, Avery couldn’t see the end of this tunnel.
“I hate these things. I always feel like I’m in a giant dryer,” Eric grumbled.
“Wonderful,” Isla muttered as the others climbed into the spinning tunnel.
Stepping into it, Avery held out her arms for balance as the ground beneath her feet spun away. She stumbled to the side and rested her hand against the plastic to help her stay on her feet as the circle whirled beneath her. Ahead of her, the others staggered from side to side as they worked to keep their balance too.
They were only ten feet into the tunnel when it began to spin faster and faster. The colors blurred into a solid pink strip that caused her eyes to cross while a wave of dizziness assaulted her. Beneath her fingers, the wall spun so fast it abraded her fingertips, and she could barely touch it. Her feet moved more rapidly until she was sure she looked like one of those cartoon characters with their legs running in a blur beneath them.
Ahead of her, Talia and Eric fell as they lost their battle to maintain their balance. Talia’s legs kicked Karen’s knees out from her and knocked her to the ground. Sandra lunged for Karen and missed her as Karen spun around and shot up the side. Sandra’s awkward motion caused her to lose her balance, and she went down. Reid and Isla fell next, followed by Mario.
Avery cried out when her foot caught awkwardly, and she crashed onto her knees. Before she could attempt to stop it from happening, the tunnel rolled her up the side before gravity flung her back to the floor, and then she rolled again. Dimly she realized why her socks always disappeared from the dryer; they couldn’t handle this.
Her legs, hands, and elbows smacked off the hard plastic as she bounced around the tunnel. She kept one hand over her head to protect it while she attempted to use the other to brace herself; it did little good as she was thrown around like a ship on a hurricane-tossed sea.
Mario came down on her hand, and she yelped, but before she could pull her hand free of his offending weight, he was thrown away from her. Despite the dizzying confusion, she realized the tunnel was spinning faster while it grew smaller. The ceiling, which had been five feet over her head was now only a foot.
She closed her eyes in an attempt to ease the nausea twisting in her belly; it took all her willpower not to throw up, but she did not want to be bouncing through her vomit in here. Opening her eyes, she glimpsed Reid as he bounced upward before vanishing. She cried out when he didn’t reappear and attempted to crawl toward where he’d been, but she was thrown around again.
Avery’s teeth clacked together when her hand and head crashed off the ceiling before she plunged down. She would never sit again, she realized when she landed on her ass and it felt as if her tailbone exploded. Before she could try and figure out if she’d cracked her skull, the tunnel rolled again, and she was thrown forward.
Falling over the edge, she spotted a smiling mouth, sharp teeth, and an array of colors before she hit the ground.
CHAPTER 35
“I think Regan really hates me,” Karen said.
When Avery looked dazedly over at her friend, pain sizzled across the top of her head. She squeezed her eyes shut as her vision blurred and the room seemed to tilt beneath her. She raised a hand to her forehead and touched the sticky, warm blood trickling down her face.
Opening her eyes, she squinted when her vision blurred, but it corrected enough for her to see they’d tumbled into a small room. Karen stood before her with her hands on her hips as she stared at something over Avery’s head. Avery lowered her hand and turned to follow Karen’s gaze.
The flash of colors, gaping mouth, and enormous teeth she’d glimpsed when she fell out of the tunnel belonged to a clown head hanging on the wall. The thing encompassed over thirty feet of wall, and its mouth was a good ten feet wide. Its malicious green eyes were focused on them as its grin revealed a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. The red nose lit up and glowed for a few seconds before fading away only to light up again. Though it was just a head, Avery wouldn’t haven’t been surprised if it tore itself from the wall and climbed down to eat them.
“I don’t think it’s just you.” Isla rose and cast the clown a disdainful look. “I’m not a big fan of the red-nosed and big-footed club either.”
“Ever see Killer Clowns from Outer Space? That movie gave me nightmares for a week,” Eric said.
“The clowns in Dumbo bothered me,” Sandra added.
“One word: Pennywise,” Mario said with a shudder.
“That’s three words,” Sandra said, and Mario flipped her off with both hands.
“So, clowns bother most of us,” Avery said. “That’s why they keep popping up.”
Karen turned away from the hideous clown. “It’s good to know he doesn’t have a personal vendetta against me.”
“You’re bleeding!”
Avery looked up as Reid knelt before her and gently touched her scalp before sitting back on his heels to pull off his T-shirt. Avery itched to grab him and hold him close as she gazed at his bronzed skin and well-muscled chest. Over the months they’d been together, she’d memorized the dips and hollows of his chest and stomach. He’d become hers, she was his, and she loved him.
So why did she feel like she was losing him? Why did she feel as if everything was about to change?
Because if they somehow made it out of this mess, things had to change. She had to distance herself from him; it was the only way he would put his safety ahead of hers. She’d realized it while traveling this maze, but she hadn’t wanted to face it. Now, the tears clogging her throat had nothing to do with her battered body or the throbbing in her head; instead, they were for the heart shredding in her chest.
Reid tenderly pressed his T-shirt against her wounded scalp. Avery winced and jerked away when the pain in her scalp tingled through her teeth and sent shock waves down her spine.
“Sorry,” he said.
“I’ll do it,” she said.
He leaned forward and tenderly kissed her cheek before giving her the T-shirt. When she lifted the shirt to her head, fresh waves of agony washed through her, but she kept it against her wound.
“We better go,” she said.
Reid held his hand out to her, and she took it as she climbed unsteadily to her feet. Her legs wobbled when her head spun.
“It’s time to finish this,” Mario said.
She had a feeling that they would soon learn what awaited them at the end of the maze and if they would be set free.
• • •
When Avery stepped into the room behind Mario, her eyes flew to Regan standing in the center of the stage. Behind him was a swirling black vortex. With his arms crossed over his broad chest, he gazed at them with a sly cat-that-ate-the-canary grin. Avery ground her teeth when his electric blue eyes raked leisurely over her.
She would give anything to be able to punch the smug look off his face. She’d never wanted to assault someone as badly as she did this monster. Attacking him would get them nowhere though, and even if she did manage to get in a blow against him, he would make her pay for it—most likely by going after her friends.
“It’s eleven fifty,” he said. “I had you pegged for eleven fifty-five.”
Avery stared at him as a terrible knowledge dawned inside her, and her hand fell away from her scalp. Reid’s T-shirt slipped from her limp fingers and tumbled to the ground as a red haze of fury clouded her vision.
“Careful, Avery,” Regan warned when she stepped toward him, and the smile slid from his lips.
“You never intended to keep us here!” she accused.
“No, I didn’t.”
She’d known the truth of it, but his simple confirmation robbed her next words from her.
“Then why did y
ou bring us here?” Sandra demanded as she advanced toward Regan.
Avery stepped in front of her cousin to block her. She had no doubt Sandra would go after Regan and bring his wrath down on all of them. Sandra’s emerald eyes burned with hostility when they flickered toward Avery before focusing on Regan again.
“Why?” she snarled at Regan.
“To show us,” Reid said. “To make us see what he’s done to these people and what he’s capable of doing here. He wanted us to see the atrocities he’s committed and how powerful he is.”
“Very good, Lover Boy,” Regan purred. “You’re not as stupid as I believed you to be.”
“You think it will undermine and weaken us; that we’ll fear you too much to fight you, but you’re wrong,” Reid said.
“Am I?” Regan murmured. “I rarely am, but we shall see.”
“I don’t understand,” Talia whimpered.
“No, you especially wouldn’t get it, you simpering idiot,” Regan said.
Talia gasped and cringed away from him when Regan gave her a look filled with loathing and disdain.
“Look at you,” Regan continued. “You’re pathetic. You couldn’t make friends, so you clutched onto Avery and tried to worm your way in with her friends, and look at where that got you. But then I guess you reaped what you sowed. Everyone here sees through your little helpless charade and understands the real reason you glued yourself to Avery. Well, all of them except for Lover Boy there.”
Regan waved a dismissive hand at Reid, who frowned as he stared at Talia before looking questioningly at Avery and the others. Mario and Eric shifted awkwardly back and forth while Isla and Sandra stared at him and Talia hung her head.
“What’s he talking about?” Reid asked.
Sandra rolled her eyes. “You’re so obtuse, Reid. The girl has been stuck to you throughout all of this.”
Then, Reid’s confusion cleared and understanding dawned on his face. He gazed at Talia’s bright red face before stepping hastily away from her. Tears filled Talia’s eyes as she hugged herself. Talia had never been her friend, but Avery wouldn’t stand by and let Regan torment her.
The Maze (The Coven, Book 2) Page 18
