It took me a moment to register that Jason kept pulling on my dress, trying to get me to move unnoticed. I stumbled backwards, tripping over my feet, because I couldn’t look away from the man. His gaze locked onto mine and held. The blue irises of his eyes were now fading away into a slate grey that was glossy and empty, like a film had covered his eyes. Just as it seemed like Jason was about to pick me up himself and run, a sharp, guttural scream ripped from the man’s mouth, making me cover my ears. Then the light overhead went out completely.
“Move!” Jason yelled at me. “Fucking run, October!” he snarled in my ear, his grip on my arm bruisingly tight as he pushed me in the opposite direction.
I couldn’t stop glancing back as my feet ate up the road, watching as all the lights turned back on at once, but the man was gone. He just vanished. We kept running, harder than I’d ever run before, and my feet felt like they were about to fall off. I was seriously regretting my choice of footwear.
We rounded street corners and sprinted through empty roads. I wanted to stop and gape at every familiar building we passed, but I couldn't get the man out of my head. I needed to get away from whatever he was. I needed to be as far away from that gas station as possible before my lid flipped completely off.
The town was entirely empty, but there were a few times I thought I saw the flickering of a candle in a window or a curtain here and there flipping open, as if someone was peering out. I only had a brief few seconds to scan the store fronts, but I didn’t recognize any of them. It was like the layout of my town was still here, but that was the only similarity.
The farther away from the countryside we got, the more streetlights were on, and the buildings looked a little more put together. No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t streetlights—they were lamp posts. Like, the kind of lamp posts from the Victorian era, with real fire inside.
What the fuck is going on?!
By the time I called it quits, we were halfway into town and a few blocks from my aunties house. Thank god, I would be home soon, locked in my bedroom and hidden away under the covers. I didn’t think that guy was following us anymore, and I really loathed running with a deep passion. So, we slowed to a brisk walk. I was barely holding on.
“Stop! I need a break!” My breath came out in pants as I bent at the waist to draw in a proper inhale. “Oh god, my lungs are on fire! This is why I failed PE every year…” I wheezed out before each pant.
Peeking through the curtain of my hair, I saw Maddie lying down on the ground with her arms stretched out wide as she took shallow breaths. That girl might have been athletic as head cheerleader, but I knew she’d rather be home, snuggled in a onesie and eating a twinkie. That was probably why we got along so well along—laziness breeds friendship.
Freddy held up Norman, muttering quietly into his twin’s ear as they took a minute, then they straightened up from their crouched position. Norman didn’t look so good, sweat coating his forehead and his eyes unfocused. He might have been in shock.
“Well, that was quite an adventure!” Jessica announced, sounding way too chipper right now. “We’re almost to the manor. Just have to pass the Killer Clown Hotel up on the right, and it’s homebound from there!” She appeared on my arm, crawling down and pointed to the right side of the street.
“Tell me the words ‘killer’ and ‘clown’ didn’t just come out of your mouth,” Jason muttered, trying to hide a slight tremor. His eyes were full of dread as he looked at Jessica, before slowly spinning on his feet to look behind him. “Tell me you didn’t say that.”
I was terrified to look, my eyes squeezed shut for a few long heartbeats. I muttered a quick, hopeless prayer. She said the C word. This couldn’t be happening right now.
Back in the day when the guys and I were still small and innocent, we’d shared our fears with each other as we sat in a circle in the attic, our old hangout spot. Back then, we’d taken a blood oath to protect one another from those fears. I remembered pricking our little fingers with one of my mom’s safety pins. I suddenly knew that I was going to have to protect Jason any second now, because his greatest fear was about to get real. Jason’s fear of clowns was soul deep, and I could see the guys glancing at him with pity in their eyes.
I took a deep breath and straightened back up with a groan. At first, I only saw Jason’s broad back, his muscles shifting under his shirt as he stood there with his fists clenched at his sides. Shit.
I looked over his shoulder and finally saw what he was looking at, my whole body starting to quake. Soft lights illuminated a building up ahead. I made eye contact with Michael as he tugged on Maddie's hand to help her off the ground, then over to Freddy, who was still holding up Norman. They wouldn’t make it far without a head start, and Norman was looking paler
