CHAPTER 12
October 9. Ten years ago.
The moment the door creaked shut behind them, the noise of the fair was cut off as if by a knife.
Inside, it was darker than it had seemed from the outside. The lighting was fragmented and sparse, more hindrance than help: cold neon flickered in places, while elsewhere the shadows swallowed everything, leaving corners completely blind. Old floorboards creaked beneath every step. Chains hung from the ceiling — rusted and cold-looking, swaying almost imperceptibly in the draft and clinking softly somewhere overhead.
Rick snorted, tilting his head slightly.
For him, it was all a little too obvious. Even so, that familiar tingling sensation still stirred somewhere inside him. Adrenaline.
“Scared, Parker?” came a voice from the side, almost lazily.
Rick glanced over.
Aaron was walking beside him, slightly behind. A chain clinked softly in his hand as he pushed it aside. He was looking at Rick with a faint, barely noticeable hint of amusement, as though he was genuinely curious whether Rick would end up getting scared after all.
Rick smirked.
“Of this?” He nodded toward the stuffed poltergeist hanging from the ceiling. “It's just a kiddie scare.”
And without giving himself time to inspect the decorations any further, he stepped forward.
“Come on.”
“Yeah, sure,” Aaron huffed quietly, following after him.
“Guys...” Katie's voice sounded much less confident now.
Both of them turned around at the same time.
She was standing a little behind them, practically pressing herself against Steve, and for the first time all evening she looked not determined but... uncertain.
“Maybe I overdid it,” she admitted with an awkward smile. “I'm suddenly not having as much fun anymore.”
Steve gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
“Too late to back out. Besides, you're the one who dragged us in here,” he said with a chuckle, though he stayed close enough for her to lean on him.
“I've changed my mind,” she muttered, clinging to him more tightly.
Rick watched her for a second before turning forward again. Somewhere deep inside the attraction, a stranger's sharp scream echoed through the darkness.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Don't worry,” he said. “At worst you'll be disappointed. At best, one of the three of us will always be nearby so you won't be too scared.”
“Thanks,” she said, finally stepping after them.
The neon lights flickered in fragments, pulling crooked walls and hanging installations out of the darkness. Rick stopped in front of a door marked DO NOT ENTER.
“Too obvious,” he muttered. “If it says don't enter, that's exactly where we're supposed to go.”
“Makes sense,” Steve replied calmly from somewhere behind him.
Katie let out a quiet snort, though she still slowed her step and unconsciously moved closer to him.
Rick grabbed the handle and stepped inside without hesitation.
The ceiling pressed down overhead, creating an instinctive sense of discomfort, while the walls closed in around them, forcing them to walk nearly shoulder to shoulder.
He caught himself noticing that someone was walking beside him far too close. His gaze slid sideways of its own accord, catching the calm profile and unbothered expression.
“Bit cramped,” Rick remarked casually.
“One way through,” Aaron replied dryly without even looking at him, earning an annoyed eye roll from Rick.
“Riiick,” Katie whined, “are you sure we're going the right way?”
“Absolutely,” he tossed back. “I've been in places like this before. If it feels like they're trying to disorient you, congratulations — you’re heading the right way.”
The passage led them into a small room that looked more like a child's bedroom, with crooked furniture and faded wallpaper that was unsettling even without any special effects.
Suddenly, something crashed loudly behind them, and Katie jumped, grabbing onto Steve again.
He flinched too, swallowing hard.
“It's fine,” he said quickly, instinctively squeezing her hand. “It's just — ”
A figure flashed somewhere off to the side, accompanied by a shrill burst of children's laughter, far too sharp for the confined space. A second later, it was gone.
Katie let out a distressed squeak, while Rick exhaled shortly — more from surprise than fear.
“If that's the best they've got, it's pretty weak,” he said.
“Disappointed?” Aaron asked quietly.
“So far, yeah,” Rick snorted.
They opened another door. Then another. Then another. The rooms began repeating themselves — almost identical, differing only in small details, until the space gradually lost all sense of shape and logic. The persistent feeling of confinement pressed harder and harder against his mind.
After several more transitions, Rick suddenly realized it had become far too quiet behind him.
No Katie.
No Steve.
Only his own footsteps, the creaking floorboards, and someone else's shoulder beside him.
Far too close to ignore.
He stopped and turned around, peering into the darkness behind them. There was nothing there but fractured light and emptiness that seemed unwilling to give back what it had swallowed.
“Where'd they go?” he asked with a frown.
“Don't know,” Aaron replied shortly.
“They were just here with us.”
“Then we got separated.”
Rick let out an annoyed breath.
“That's weird. I didn't even notice when.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Obviously,” he said indifferently. “They just couldn't keep up.”
Rick grimaced and continued forward.
“So now it's all my fault?” he called over his shoulder.
Aaron shook his head.
“I didn't say that.”
Rick clenched his jaw and looked away. This place was beginning to irritate him — not so much the attraction itself as the feeling that everything here was working against him.
“If we're lost,” he said without looking back, “it's because of you.”
“Why?”
“You were walking next to me. You could've stopped me.”
“And you would've listened?” Aaron asked with faint amusement.
Rick fell silent at once and took a few more steps. A chain overhead rattled unpleasantly.
“...Probably not,” he admitted reluctantly.
An awkward silence settled between them.
Ahead, the passage grew darker, dissolving into nearly solid shadow from which cold air drifted toward them.
Rick slowed down. Almost immediately, he noticed Aaron doing the same.
“Are all Californians like this?” Aaron asked casually.
“Like what?”
“Stubborn.”
Rick snorted and stopped, turning toward him.
“Does it really look like I'm in California right now?” he narrowed his eyes. “Wouldn't surprise me if everyone in Montana was...”
He deliberately stretched out the pause, savoring the anticipation.
“What kind of everyone?” Aaron asked lazily, slipping his hands into his pockets.
Rick held his gaze a fraction of a second longer than he'd intended before looking away as though it meant absolutely nothing.
“Boring.”
“So I'm boring?”
“Terribly,” Rick replied theatrically.
Aaron didn't answer the accusation, though the corners of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
The final door led them into a strange little room almost entirely submerged in darkness. Somewhere off to the side came a rhythmic sound, like droplets striking rusted pipes.
Rick stepped inside first, slowing slightly as he tried to see where he was putting his feet.
At that exact moment, something suddenly moved to his right with a loud squeal, almost like a rat's.
Everything happened too fast.
He didn't even understand what it was. All he felt was something brush briefly against his leg, and he instinctively jerked away, turning far too sharply in the narrow passage.
And immediately collided with Aaron.
Practically chest to chest.
For a second, everything seemed to freeze: movement stopped, the muffled sounds of the haunted house faded into nothing, leaving only deep breathing and the all-too-distinct awareness of another body close by.
Rick instinctively grabbed onto him, trying to keep his balance.
Instead of the thick fabric of a jacket, his palm found a thin T-shirt. The warmth of a tense body was unmistakable even through the fabric. His thumb twitched ever so slightly, accidentally sliding higher.
“Parker...”
Rick looked up.
“What?”
For a brief moment, silence settled between them again.
Somewhere very close, Aaron swallowed almost inaudibly. For some reason, that sound made it suddenly far too hot.
“Let go...” The quiet, slightly uneven breath brushed against his ear.
Something inside Rick tightened sharply. Warm breath skimmed over his skin, and goosebumps immediately raced down his neck and along his spine.
He frowned in confusion.
“What do you mean...?”
Only then did he follow his gaze downward.
His hand was still resting against Aaron's stomach, tightly gripping the thin fabric of his T-shirt.
He released it at once as if burned, but the distance between them didn't disappear. In the cramped space, there was nowhere to step back right away.
“Then what was that?” Aaron added just as quietly, almost neutrally, though his voice seemed a little lower.
Rick exhaled sharply through his nose, more irritated with himself than with Aaron.
“An accident. I didn't mean to.”
He finally took a step back, but the sense of closeness refused to fade. It lingered somewhere beneath his skin, tangled together with Aaron's warmth.
“Mm-hm.” Aaron tilted his head slightly, studying him in the half-dark. “Next time, if you want to touch me again, you can just ask.”
It was said so calmly, as if nothing unusual had happened at all, but Rick suddenly felt as though he'd forgotten how to breathe.
“Asshole,” he shot back, turning away sharply and taking a step deeper into the room, as though there was anywhere else to go.
His cheeks grew uncomfortably warm, and he bit the inside of his lip, trying to regain the control that had slipped from his grasp for a second.
Without paying attention to where he was stepping, he bumped his thigh against a table. If everything on it hadn't been glued down, something definitely would have fallen.
“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath.
A quiet chuckle sounded behind him, followed by slow, muffled footsteps.
The exit came too abruptly.
The dark corridor suddenly ended, and it felt as though they had been pushed back outside. The cold evening air hit him in the face, stealing his breath and sobering him more than he wanted.
Rick blinked and squeezed his eyes shut for a second.
His heart was still beating too fast. Faster than it should have been.
Probably just adrenaline. Nothing more.
...Right?
He ran a hand over the back of his neck as though he could erase the strange feeling, but the skin beneath his ear still burned traitorously, and his fingers remembered Aaron's T-shirt far too well.
“Where were you?!”
Katie appeared almost immediately, hurrying toward them with obvious relief. Steve followed behind her, calmer now, though he was studying both of them carefully.
“We were right behind you,” she added, looking from one to the other. “Then you just disappeared!”
“Guess we got separated,” Rick replied with a shrug. His voice sounded steady. Almost.
“In places like this there are usually multiple routes,” Aaron added calmly. “We just took different ones.”
Katie exhaled, pressing a hand to her chest.
“That was awful. I'm never going in there again.”
Steve smirked.
“What happened to facing your fears?”
“I changed my mind,” she declared, though without her earlier confidence, and immediately brightened as another idea struck her. “That's it. No more horror stuff. I want something normal. No more of those stupid jump scares!”
She glanced around, quickly finding her target.
“The maze.” She nodded toward something off in the distance. “At least nothing jumps out of corners there.”
Rick followed her gaze toward the tall walls of corn visible beyond the lights. Ropes stretched at different heights, cans hanging from fishing line, little bells that betrayed every awkward movement with a ring.
“Maybe we should head to the bonfire instead,” Steve suggested. “By the time we get there, all the good spots will be gone.”
“Ste-e-eve...” Katie began sweetly, narrowing her eyes. “What, are you afraid you'll lose?”
“What? No.”
“You're looking at the best player you've ever seen!”
“Yes, but...” He let out a weary sigh. “Fine. I'm not even going to argue.”
“That's better. Let's go!” Katie was already dragging him forward.
Rick lingered for a second. Too briefly to look intentional. Even so, he shot a quick glance to the side.
Aaron was already walking ahead as though nothing had happened. Yet when Rick caught up to him,
Aaron inexplicably slowed his pace a little.
Rick frowned, not entirely sure why he'd even noticed, and immediately looked away.
Stupid.
He followed after the others, quickening his pace by barely a fraction. The haunted house was behind them now, but his pulse was still drumming somewhere in his ears.
***
The maze area was surrounded by a dense ring of people. Bells chimed somewhere nearby, children laughed, and someone was already arguing with the attendant that they definitely hadn't touched anything.
“I hope everyone knows the rules?” Katie asked, clapping her hands together excitedly.
“More or less.”
“Fine, I'll remind you anyway.” She turned to them, already gesturing as she spoke. “We split into pairs. One person is blindfolded, the other guides them — but only with their voice. No using your hands.”
She nodded toward the maze, where another bell rang somewhere inside.
“There are ropes with bells strung up throughout the maze. Touch one and it rings. Hit three of them and you're basically out.”
“Can we switch?” Steve asked.
“Sure.” Katie nodded quickly. “Even halfway through if you get confused.”
She smiled brightly, clearly looking forward to this.
“The pair that gets out the fastest and hits the fewest bells wins. Simple.”
“Very simple,” Rick snorted.
She clapped her hands again, obviously enjoying herself.
“So? Ready to lose?”
“As if,” Rick smirked, making no effort to hide the challenge in his voice.
Somewhere nearby, Steve chuckled quietly. He already knew exactly how this was going to end.
“Excellent.” Katie narrowed her eyes with satisfaction. “Then I'm with Steve, and you two are
together.”
“No!” both of them blurted out almost simultaneously.
But she wasn't listening anymore. She had already grabbed the blindfolds from the attendant and practically shoved one into Steve's hands and the other into Rick's.
He took it automatically, his gaze lingering on Aaron for a second before he immediately looked away.
“Perfect,” he muttered. “Couldn't have come up with anything better.”
“I'll graciously give you the honor of going first,” Aaron replied lazily.
“How noble of you,” Rick snorted, rolling his eyes.
They split up toward the entrances, and once he reached the edge of the maze, Rick tied the blindfold over his eyes, pulling it tighter than necessary, as though that could somehow restore a sense of control.
Darkness fell instantly.
Without transition.
