Billionaire Ghost Tour - Stephanie Fowers Page 0,42

scare usually showed her how far she could take things with their reactions. She couldn’t see Dwayne’s. “Help.” She made the plea sound breathier and hollower than the last, like she was stuck at the bottom of a well.

He went dreadfully silent on the other end of the door. She held her breath, hoping his curiosity would force him to come after her, but there was nothing.

“Here we are again.” She channeled her inner childlike empress from The Neverending Story—she always copied that haunting voice when she wanted to sound extra creepy. “We’re reliving this night as we do... every night. Do you remember? Do you remember how you died?”

He punched the door. “Shut up or I’ll come in and make you.”

That was an option—annoying him so much that he came after her—she’d take what she could get, though she decided to go with the “They’d all been dead for years” angle and were forced to replay the horror of their deaths every night. Scary movies were always good inspiration. “We are all watchers,” she said, “—you and I—we watch this town as it moves on without us... for hundreds of years it has. Poor, poor mortals—they can’t hear us; they can’t see us... though sometimes they feel the cold prickle of our breaths as we pretend to be... alive.”

“That’s it!” he shouted.

She heard his breaking point in his voice, and she swung around and dashed from the door just as he ripped it open. Her back prickled in warning as she careened around the corner. She depended on the sinister overhead lights to make her seem almost translucent as her black dress flowed behind her through the tunnel. She ran hard to the mirror and shimmied around it, careful where she stepped to avoid falling into her own trap. “I see you!” Dwayne shouted.

She didn’t turn, doing her best to run like an ethereal ghost might, quietly, like she was stuck in another dimension. Presentation to a scaredy cat like Dwayne was everything.

Behind her, she listened to the rag fall from the rafters as he stepped on the trap. Dwayne let out a feral scream. “Operation Terrify Dwayne” was successful. Mollie tore away, hoping he wouldn’t go after her because she looked like someone from another world. She slipped through the cracked opening of the barred door. Her back arched in terror that he’d grab her before she’d get it closed. As soon as her feet clattered to the tan tiles of the floor, she turned. Dwayne was after her like an unhinged madman. She had seconds to slam the door shut. His bulking body rammed against it. She locked the door just as he grabbed at her through the bars.

She staggered back and knocked the curtain out of her way. She heard the bolt to the other door fall into place as Janson pulled back from the bookshelf. Dwayne was locked in from both sides. Now that she could no longer see their former jail keeper, she could almost fool herself into believing this was another prank from her childhood. Her brain refused to process that they were running for their lives.

The bookcase door shook. Dwayne had returned to the flimsier door. A crash followed that. Dwayne’s body. He let out a string of curse words and barreled against the door again. The wood warped under his weight. Yeah, this was very real. She didn’t wait to see if the door would hold. She ran for the stairs, her shin colliding with the wooden platform. Janson’s hands were on her as he helped her to her feet. His sling notwithstanding, he dragged her up the stairs with him.

The door crunched with a sickening sound behind them as it ripped from its hinges. And just like a nightmare, the Incredible Hulk was out. Letting out a shriek, she pumped her arms with her legs, having no idea what danger Dwayne chased them towards. Janson’s stepmother and Vin could be in the reception area—Vin had a gun, but they had to take their chances. They raced through the narrow hallway, pushing at the curtains to be free. The reception area was blessedly empty. Mollie rushed to her desk where she’d stashed her phone. Vin careened out from the back room. Janson picked her up with his good arm and half-carried her to the door.

“My phone!”

Janson didn’t care. He shoved her out the door and slammed it shut behind them. Gunshots blasted through the door and hit the brick buildings across