8. Max

F or once, I didn't feel the need or desire to taunt him any further than I already had. The look in his eyes when he told me to run, was enough to make me question what would happen if I stayed, and for once, I didn't want to find out.

Slamming my palms into the black door marked ‘EXIT', I stumble out into the cold air and down the slope directly outside, managing to recover my footing perfectly.

Bent over, I take some deep, cleansing breaths, and soon enough, it turns into hysterical laughter I just can't seem to control. I stand, pulling the zipper of my jeans up and popping the button through the hole. My hands sliding up the side of my face and into my hair, tugging at the slightly sweaty roots .

"Shit," I giggle.

My heart is pounding so hard, I feel like it might break through my chest any second. I lean back, looking up at the night sky with my hands on my hips, trying to level my breathing. I can already feel the thin sheen of sweat building at the nape of my neck.

Thank Satan, I brought a hair tie with me.

First off what possessed me to open my goddamn mouth and ask him to make me come? I'm never this forward with someone I've met on the first night. Hell, even the second or third. I took myself by surprise.

That being said, I'm slightly annoyed I didn't get to come, but boy, oh boy, do I have incredible wank bank material for tonight. With the Playhouse of Mirrors being tucked away from where most of the crowd seem to be walking, I'm standing just outside of the door I smashed through.

"Priorities, Max. Friends first." I'm not even sure where to start looking. This place is absolutely huge and trying to find three people in a place like this, is going to prove tricky.

Matter of fact, how long have I been gone ?

Backing up a few steps, I turn around and walk head-first into a body dressed from head to toe in green.

I really need to watch where I'm going.

"Sorry, my body refuses to cooperate with my brain when it comes to walking lately."

"No need for an apology, cutie." Holding onto my shoulders, he steadies me and smiles. Once I'm situated, he releases me, opening his mouth to speak but it's then that I realize who he is.

I smile; "You're that Pepe Le Pew guy, right?" I release a breathy laugh, pulling my hair up into a high pony and wrapping the hair tie from my wrist around it .

"Fearful Lephee but," closing his eyes briefly he shrugs, focusing back on me, "close enough." Crossing his muscular arms across his broad, defined chest, he takes his time gazing over me. "How come you're out of breath?"

Pointing my thumb behind me, I smile. "Playhouse of Mirrors, it's crazy in there." Stepping further into my personal space, naturally, I move my head back. "Personal space bro." One of his nostrils twitches twice as he breathes me in.

"Delightful." He hums in response.

"Yeah," I drag out the word, pressing my lips together and nodding once. "I'm gonna go." I step around him and with a yelp, I'm pulled back to my previous position.

"I've chosen you, sweet thing." He leans in further as though he's about to bite me. I push back against his chest and grimace.

"The fuck you have!" Who the fuck is this guy, Hanibal Lecter? The moment I lean my head back, trying desperately to get as far away from him as humanly possible he stops.

"How did you get this?" Tugging me forwards by the neck, he presses forcefully against the cut just under my jaw, and I hiss at the sting.

"The Big Guy." I point behind me again.

"Big guy?"

"You know, yay high," I stretch my arm up above the both of us. "Practically mute except for a few mumbled words... uh," I click my fingers while I think. "Speaks French."

His eyes bulge, pushing me back and out of his grasp like I'm infected with a deadly virus. "Grim!?" I don't actually think he wants me to answer that. Where there was desire and dominance before, the look on his face is now filled with worry. " He marked you? "

Running my finger along the underside of my chin, I wince slightly at the sting, "Oh, that's what that was?" Pulling my finger back, I notice a small amount of blood covering the tip. "Huh."

This is going to be fun.

I can't shake the feeling of excitement as the door behind me slams shut, and I pirouette. My eyes fixed on him again, the one with the most intoxicating eyes I've ever had the pleasure of looking into.

His head briefly turns to the left of me, looking at the oversized piece of broccoli behind me. Walking down the slope he stops a few feet from me. Jutting his chin at me, I hold up my hands.

"Ok, Big Guy, chill. I'm going." After a few steps back, I turn and run the short distance back to the crowd. Knowing I've been chosen by Grim, makes me even more excited for the events of tomorrow. It makes me feel more excited than it should.

When he cut me in the house of mirrors, I put it down to the fact that he has a thing for knife play. Which for me, is absolutely fine. The last time someone had their hands on me in that way, it became the sole reason why drugs, and alcohol, are what I generally stay away from.

The last time I trusted people to take care of me, I ended up in a situation that took complete control from me, in a way I'll never be able to get back. My soul shattered that day and gave birth to a person I hardly recognize anymore. The person staring back at me in the mirror is a shell of the woman I once was.

Someone that's void of every feeling you can think of. An abyss of trauma that would make someone lesser than me kill themselves. Yet, in the mirror maze, when he had me in his grasp, something in my cold, dead chest moved. Shifted and for the first time, I felt something other than hatred. I've masked it for so long now it's second nature.

Taking one more glance over my shoulder before I blend in with the crowd ahead, I watch as Grim towers over the broccoli boy. Making me wish I was partial to the conversation going on with them right this minute.

I searched for the others for the better part of twenty minutes before I eventually found them lining up for Papa Legba's Voodoo House.

"Jesus, how big was that maze, Max?" Ben asks, pulling me in front of him, arms circling my waist. It's uncomfortable, but I don't have the energy to argue tonight.

"Uh, it's not that big really. However, I have exciting news." I dance in his hold, Sasha immediately turns to me, a grin on her face ten feet wide.

"What?" She asks. Lifting my chin, I point to the underside, and she shrieks. "No way?" Clapping her hands in front of her.

"Yes way!"

"Will someone say what we're supposed to be excited about before I lose it," Ben interjects.

"Show me!" Deck demands, tilting my chin up.

"Someone cut you? What the fuck?" Ben exclaims.

"It's not like I asked for it," I chuckle. "It's what happens, you know the rules while we are here."

"Yes, I'm not completely oblivious to the goings on of the traveling hippie carnival." Ben crosses his arms. "I also know the inner workings of a psychopath's mind."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was unaware you worked for the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico. Please, do tell me how this makes him a psychopath? "

"The fact that he walks around a carnival with a fucking—"

"Can you both just relax, it's not that deep." Standing between Ben and I, Sasha tries desperately to calm the situation before it escalates.

Pressing the tips of his fingers to his temple, he sighs. "I just think–" He doesn't get a chance to finish the sentence before Blonde-Shell whips Deck around on the spot, taking his hand in hers and before he even realizes what's going on, she nicks the skin. As blood softly pools from the cut, she sweeps it up with two fingers and rubs it over one side of his face.

"Nobody touches you but me Fairy, got that?" Her muffled voice has an element of humor to it. He nods silently, turning on her heel, she begins skipping off to another hunter I think is called Dobby. He looks absolutely nothing like the house Elf from Harry Potter.

Deck turns back to face me. "Is it possible for me to go full circle and turn straight again?"

I burst out laughing, because by the look on his face, he may just have fallen in love with a woman for the first time.

"Oh baby." I move from Ben's grasp and pull Deck's head to rest on my chest, his arms encircling my waist, Sasha just shakes her head.

"I think I love her, Maxi-pad." He sobs playfully while we take a few steps forward. The line to Papa Legba's Voodoo House decreasing slightly.

If there's one thing, I can say about the attractions here, they're very well designed. No wonder it costs as much as it does. The base has green and purple strobe lights that shine from every which way over the front of the house. Haunting sounds of screaming and creepy voodoo prayers play through the speakers scattered around by the strobe lights .

Bones and skulls of different shapes and sizes are attached to the outside of the house, spines hang from the porch toward the entrance. The windows of the house are boarded, and the glass behind them smashed open. The faint sounds of people screaming and laughing inside, flow through the air to the waiting patrons outside.

A tall man paces back and forth in front of the doorway, muttering to himself. All kinds of animal skins and creepy crawlies are draped over every single surface of the outside.

"How many?" The attendee asks, looking utterly bored with his job.

"Four," Sasha smiles.

Turning to the attraction entryway, he lifts his hand and counts the other people, finally turning back to us and lifting the latch he nods to the left. "Off you go."

Squeezing through the small gap the gate provides, he slams it behind us. Taking one final look from outside, my eyes land on him, standing by the side of the attraction. Watching me. I was under the impression that once the Hunters have chosen their prey, they skulk back to their mazes, to prepare for tomorrow night's debauchery.

Ben yet again slides his hands around my waist, giving me shivers and not the ones that Grim gave me earlier. Sliding my hand over Ben's, I grin and raise my free hand, flipping off Grim as we enter the fear attraction.

" Eat me." I mouth and by how rigid his demeanor becomes, it's clear to me he's pissed.