CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ella yelled down the phone while Luca floored the gas. ‘Sheriff, tell me you have someone watching Nocturne House.'

‘Nocturne House? Which one's that?'

‘Mercia Lane. Edge of town.'

Redmond fidgeted with something on the other end of the line, then, ‘No eyeballs on that one. Had someone watching it last night but I needed him somewhere else.'

Ella glanced at the dashboard. One-fifty-eight PM. Two minutes to go, and they still had three miles of road ahead, according to the dwindling numbers on the GPS screen.

‘What's at Nocturne House?' Redmond asked. ‘A suspect?'

‘Roland Pierce. He's working there.'

‘Pierce is there? I can be there in ten, fifteen tops.'

Ella said, ‘Step on it. I've got a good feeling about this, and if Roland's our man, we'll need to sweep every inch of Nocturne House.'

'Got it.' Redmond hung up without a sign-off. It seemed to be a pattern amongst small-town sheriffs.

‘Hold on tight,' Luca said. ‘I don't watch NASCAR for nothing.'

Ella felt the car lurch as Luca floored the accelerator. He took a turn hard enough to leave half the tread on the asphalt. Ella braced herself against the door, wondering if this was how astronauts felt on reentry. The GPS squawked at them to make a right, and then the Oregon wilderness whipped by in a dizzying blur of greens and browns.

‘What's the plan? What if there's punters in there?' he asked.

‘Catch Pierce. Don't hurt the punters.' Ella said as she mentally spat out the worst-case scenarios. Pierce with a hostage. Pierce with a gun. Pierce with a hostage and a gun. If any of these scenarios turned out to be real, then Ella had her work cut out for her. Deluded psychopaths weren't known for their leniency, especially ones in the throes of capture.

As they crested a hill, Nocturne House suddenly came into view. It wasn't the Gothic nightmare Ella had half-expected, but rather a large, utilitarian complex that looked more like a repurposed warehouse than a house of horrors. The exterior was painted a deep, matte black, with ‘NOCTURNE HOUSE' emblazoned across the front in glowing purple neon. A sprawling parking lot, already half-full of cars, stretched out before it.

‘Looks like the place is in full swing,' Ella said.

‘Good. Our guy only strikes when places are empty.'

Ella wasn't so convinced. If history had taught her anything, it was that serial slayers tended to up the ante on the third kill. More confidence meant more risk, and more risk meant killers might strike in busier areas.

Luca slammed the brakes and stopped the car inches in front of a giant red door. Ella jumped out with her hand pressed to her Glock and made for the entrance with Luca in tow. They found themselves in a plush lobby that boasted that distinct kindergarten-classroom smell. A bored-looking woman sat behind a ticket counter, separated from them by a sheet of bulletproof glass thick enough to stop a tank round. She barely glanced up from her computer as they approached.

‘Welcome to Nocturne House,' she droned, clearly bored of reciting from the same old script. ‘Where your darkest nightmares come to…'

‘FBI,' Ella cut her off as she pressed her badge to the glass. ‘We need to shut this place down. Now.'

The woman blinked, her brain visibly struggling to process this deviation from her usual spiel. ‘I… what? Shut down?'

‘You heard her,' Luca chimed in. ‘Kill the lights, stop the ride, whatever you gotta do.'

The ticket-taker's eyes darted between them, confusion morphing into something closer to panic. ‘I can't just... I mean, there are people inside. I don't have the authority to…'

‘Is Roland Pierce working here?' Ella cut in.

‘Roland? I'm not sure. I think so. I'll just need to check the…'

Ella was two seconds away from punching the glass. ‘He's a giant teddy bear. Ring any bells?'

'Oh, the teddy bear. Yeah, he's in there. Nightmare Forest Zone. Why?'

Beyond the curtain that Ella presumed led into this horror maze, she heard muffled screams punctuated by bursts of laughter. Not the desperate cries of genuine terror, but the exhilarated shrieks of thrill-seekers getting their money's worth. But that could change in a heartbeat if Roland decided to go off-script.

‘That's all we needed to hear,' Ella said, already moving towards the entrance. ‘Hawkins, we're going in. Ma'am, I strongly suggest you start evacuating this place. Now.'

‘Going in? You can't. You'll ruin the… flow.'

Ella was already at the curtain. ‘I don't care if I ruin Christmas. If you can't get Roland out, I will.' She plunged through the curtain into the maze and received a sensory sledgehammer for her efforts. Strobe lights, machine fog, a low bass chug that vibrated through the floorboards. The only reprieve was that this room – some kind of tacky graveyard – was mercifully empty.

‘Clear,' Luca said. They charged towards the only exit, a door plastered with biohazard symbols. They stumbled into what looked like a mad scientist's wet dream. Beakers of neon goop bubbled ominously. A prop cadaver lay splayed on an operating table with its chest cavity spilling silicon guts.

Suddenly, a figure leaped out from behind a rusted autoclave. The guy was done up like a demented Doc Brown, complete with a white wig and blood-spattered lab coat. He brandished a comically large syringe filled with glowing green liquid.

‘Ah, fresh meat,' the man cackled. He waggled his eyebrows like a pair of squirming caterpillars. ‘Ready for your procedures?'

Ella flashed her badge. ‘Not now. We're looking for Roland Pierce. Where is he?'

The actor's manic grin faltered, and sanity crept back into his eyes. 'Roland? Nightmare Forest. A few zones ahead. Is this a new bit, or…?'

‘No.'

‘Oh. The guy in the next room can direct you to him.'

‘Thanks.' Ella burst into the next room – some kind of apocalyptic fever dream judging by the props. The walls were plastered with radiation symbols and battered hazmat suits hung from hooks like deflated yellow ghosts. A second later, a figure loomed out of the artificial fog, decked out in full containment gear.

‘This area's off-limits! Choose your path wisely, or suffer the consequences of…'

‘Roland Pierce. Can you point us to him?' Ella interrupted. Her patience was already thinner than gas station toilet paper. She saw two doors leading out of this place, neither of which were signposted.

‘Who is this Roland Pierce? We have no names in Apocalyptic City,' he asked in his best maniac voice. There were no Oscar nominations in his future.

‘Quit the games,' said Luca. ‘Which door leads to Roland?'

‘Foolish mortals! Your fate lies behind one of these doors. Choose poorly, and…'

Ella moved faster than a bullet with somewhere to be. In a blink, she had the guy's arm twisted behind his back. The hazmat mask clattered to the floor, revealing a pimply kid who looked barely old enough to buy cigarettes.

‘Jesus lady, what the hell?'

‘Which. Door.'

‘That one!' He pointed to the left-hand door with his free hand. Ella let him go and brushed him down.

‘Thank you.'

Luca was already at the door. He yanked it open, and then he and Ella stepped into room number three. Some kind of toymaster's workshop. Garish neon teddy bears with green eyes. Half-assembled toys hanging from hooks. Oversized building blocks, creating an obstacle course on the ground.

And in the middle of it all, a gaggle of punters giggling like asylum escapees.

Ella and Luca's arrival drew their attention.

‘FBI! Everyone remain calm!' Ella bellowed. But her words were lost in the electronic thump of hidden speakers and the shrieks of over-stimulated thrill-seekers.

A girl ran over and clutched at Ella's sleeve. Her mascara was running down her face. ‘Are you guys like, apocalyptic cops?'

Another shouted, ‘Those guns look so real.'

‘We're not part of the show,' Luca said. ‘This is legit. Everyone stay put.'

Confused murmurs rippled through the group. Then a guy shouted, ‘That's exactly what an actor in here would say. These guys are part of a secret scare, I guarantee it.'

Ella tried not to roll her eyes. ‘Maybe we are,' she said. ‘Wait here a second while we check for threats.'

She skirted past the group and made her way towards the only other door in the room. Luca joined her and whispered, ‘Good approach.'

'More flies with honey than vinegar.' She shouldered the door open, and the Nightmare Forest came into view. It was like stepping into a Dali painting that had been left out in the rain. Warped, blacklight-reactive trees loomed overhead and neon-bright flowers sprouted from the astroturf, pulsing in time with a throbbing electronic beat coming from somewhere. In the distance, a giant caterpillar with a human face undulated with kaleidoscope eyes spinning in opposite directions.

And there, in the center of this hallucinatory hellscape, stood a seven-foot-tall teddy bear wielding a rusty rake like some demented gardener.

This was him.

Ella trained her Glock on him. ‘Roland Pierce! FBI!'

For a moment, the bear didn't move. It just stood there, the flickering lights playing across its matted fur, its black button eyes reflecting the chaotic swirl of colors. Then, with a deliberate grace that seemed at odds with the bulky costume, the bear raised its paws.

Luca joined Ella at her side. ‘Don't move a muscle, Teddy.'

Then, Ella heard the pounding of feet and excited chatter. The patrons had followed them in like ducklings chasing after their deranged, gun-toting mother. They lined up beside and behind Ella, jockeying for position like they were at a twisted peep show.

‘Man, this got real weird,' one of them shouted.

‘Stay back,' Ella hissed. ‘Seriously.'

Another shouted, ‘Wait, that's that chick. From the videos online. The courtroom for that killer.'

Ella paid them no attention, eyes still locked on the giant cuddly. In her peripherals, she saw Luca trying to herd the gawkers back, but it looked like he was trying to hold back the tide with a teaspoon. They surged forward, smartphones held high, ready to capture the next viral video sensation.

And in that moment of distraction, Roland made his move.

With a speed that belied his bulky costume, he pivoted and bolted for the far end of the room.

Goddammit. She couldn't risk a shot, not with so many people around. A stray bullet could turn this farce into a tragedy in a heartbeat.

So she did the only thing she could. She gave chase.

‘Luca, lock this place down!'

The forest blurred around her as she took off after Roland. The teddy bear crashed through a door hidden between a fake underbrush, knocking over prop trees and sending clouds of glitter and fake fog billowing in his wake.

‘Stop! FBI!' Ella shouted, knowing it was futile but compelled by years of training to give the warning anyway.

Roland, predictably, did not stop. He barreled through another door, disappearing from view. Ella skidded to a halt at the threshold as her training kicked in. Two exits. Of course. Because why make anything easy?

The room was set up like some kind of demented fun fair. Broken carousel horses impaled on spikes formed a macabre merry-go-round. Mutant clown faces leered from every corner. Two doors stood on opposite sides of the room, both plastered with ‘EXIT' signs dripping red paint that was probably supposed to look like blood.

'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,' Ella muttered. She darted between the two options, but a flash of movement to her left decided for her. She sprinted for the door, barged through, and found herself in a nightmarish parody of a child's bedroom. The walls were papered with a pattern of cute, cartoonish animals - bunnies, kittens, puppies – but their eyes had been gouged out, leaving dark, bloody sockets in their place. The furniture was all oversized, as if built for giants, giving the whole room a disorienting, Alice-in-Wonderland vibe.

The perfect place for an oversized teddy bear to hide.

‘Pierce, don't make this difficult!' Ella called out.

Where the hell did he go?

She skirted past a towering doll house, a massive rocking horse, a toybox with mangled action figures.

Still no sign of Roland. Maybe he'd squeezed out some hidey-hole while she'd been gawking at the decor.

Ella was halfway across the room when movement caught her eye.

The oversized bed.

A clump of matted fur hung out of one side from beneath the sheets. Ella zoned in on it, and then in a heartbeat, Roland erupted from beneath it like a grizzly emerging from hibernation. He landed on the ground with a thud and then barreled towards the exit. Ella instinctively pulled out her gun, but quickly decided against shooting. She didn't know who was behind these flimsy walls, and it wasn't worth finding out via a bullet.

So Ella opted for the alternative. She charged towards the fleeing bear to cut him off at the pass. Her shoulder found his padded midsection, but there was enough purchase to send them both sprawling on the floor in a tangle of limbs. Roland thrashed like a fish on a hook, flailing his paws in her direction, but Ella dodged and then gripped his bear head and tore it off. The mask ripped free with a sound like Velcro, revealing the man beneath the bear.

‘Stop!' Roland screamed. ‘I didn't do anything!'

Ella realized she'd drawn her fist back, ready to deliver a broken nose. She looked the bear-man in the eyes and saw the unmistakable look of defeat. Adrenaline still buzzed beneath her skin. She drank in the details she'd been too busy to process mid-tussle: the fake blood on his outfit, the smaller teddy bear sewn to his breast pocket.

‘Roland Pierce,' she said, ‘you're coming with me.'

Ella's fist froze mid-air as the thundering of footsteps echoed through the maze. She whipped her head around, half-expecting to see the punters back for an encore.

But no. Sheriff Redmond burst in, flanked by a couple of uniforms and a grim-faced Luca.

The look on his face said it all.

‘Hold up, Ella,' Redmond bellowed. ‘You might have this all wrong.'

Ella's stomach dropped like a lead weight. The triumph that had been coursing through her veins moments ago evaporated.

‘No. Don't tell me…'

‘I'm sorry. We've got a third body.'

Ella let her head fall back. The case she thought was closed had just blown wide open, and she was back at square one with a handful of nothing.