Rule 1- Domino

Age 12

"Who"s there? Show yourself!"

I ducked behind a giant plaster elephant. My heart beat furiously and my forehead was slick with sweat. I wanted to close my eyes and hope the security guard didn"t see me, but I had to be on alert. I couldn"t close my eyes this time.

"Did you see something?" a second guard called out to his friend.

"I thought I did… I don"t know. I think I might have smoked a bit too much." They chuckled and walked away, their flashlights shining off in the distance, opposite of where I was going. I waited until I couldn"t hear them anymore and then tightened my hold on my backpack straps and continued my journey in the dark amusement park.

At night, everything looked creepier. I walked over a bridge and tried not to look down, but couldn't resist, and fear slid up my spine as I stared down into the inky black pool of water. I couldn"t imagine jumping into the twenty-foot deep, ice-cold water. I hated doing it during the day. I moved on quickly, passing by the too-fast water slides, the haphazardly maintained roller coasters, and the rigged carnie games. I"d spent my entire life surrounded by all of this, and despite knowing the dangers and horrors I"d witnessed, a small twinge of sadness gripped me as I passed by it all, ready to leave it all behind.

I reached the entrance and stared at the large archway, then clutched the camera hanging around my neck.

Risky Rush Park, come risk your life another day!

Hushed laughter caused me to spin around, and I froze. Oh no. I was caught!

"Hey, bro, hold up."

I recognized that voice. It was one of the GO"s. A game operator. They ran the games that were nearly impossible to win. I cringed as I tried to sneak behind a ticket booth, but it was too late since the group of teens had already seen me.

They stepped into the floodlights, and I saw their faces. Dennis, Koi, and Swayze. They were the most annoying of all the boys at school, even worse than the ones in my grade. They"d been best friends since elementary school and were the biggest pests at the park. This was their first year working here, having joined the crew the moment they all turned fourteen. I remembered because I"d been dreading it all year.

I couldn"t let them see me running away. They"d snitch on me.

"I saw someone," Dennis said, stopping twenty feet away from where I crouched in hiding. His glasses reflected the bright lights as he looked around, searching for me.

"Security is that way," Koi pointed in the direction I"d come from. "They don"t care. Obviously." The tall, muscular blond boy pulled out a plastic baggie from his pocket. He shook it eagerly. I knew what that was. I"d seen it in my older brother's room. "Let"s get going. I want to smoke this."

"We have to find a can." Swayze went to a nearby trash bin and took the lid off to start digging through it. His long, black hair kept getting in his face as he searched through the rotten garbage.

"Yeah, okay." Dennis stopped his search for me and went to help his friends find something to smoke that awful-smelling stuff in. Despite my need to stay hidden, my compulsion to capture interesting moments in time got the best of me, and I raised my camera, taking one quick photo of the boys digging through the trash. Thankfully, there was only a quiet click of the lens, no flash, and they hadn"t heard me.

Please leave, I pleaded silently. Go away and get high and let me escape. With each minute longer I stayed, the likelihood I"d be found grew higher.

Finally, Koi screamed out, "Got it!", and leaped out of a bin. "Let"s go!"

"Go where? Camp Frisky won"t let us in," Dennis said.

"We don"t want to hang out there anyways." Koi waved off Dennis"s complaints. "There"s plenty of time for that, and once we"re eighteen, we"re going to run that fucking place."He and Swayze gave each other high fives and shouted into the air.

I rolled my eyes. They were so ridiculous.

"Yeah, I don"t even want to fuck with the cabins. Let"s go hang out at The Gallows."

I shivered at the image of the platform that I"d just walked across a few minutes ago. There were three trapdoors that people would stand on, and then the operator would turn the lever and two of the doors would open, dropping you twenty feet into that pool. It was random every time, so you never knew who was going to fall.

As soon as they were out of sight, I headed toward the tall, metal fences. The gates were locked, so this was the only way out. I was so close now; I could taste it. I put my feet on the metal links and lifted myself up.

"I knew it."

I froze.

Swayze.

"Dennis doesn"t lie. Come down, we just want to talk." Koi stepped out of the shadows.

"Fuck you," I spat and instantly regretted. One wrong word and they"d rat me out. I slid down the fence and turned to face them. "What do you want?" My eyes raked over the handsome boys. They were cute. That"s why they got away with everything. Everyone saw them either as innocent boys being boys or potential boyfriends. I was able to see through that, because no boy, let alone one as good-looking as any of them, would look my way twice. I was nobody important.

"You"re..." Koi looked me up and down, pausing at my feet. I shifted my short leg behind the long one, hiding my shoe that helped with my leg length discrepancy. A wave of embarrassment washed over me as he was aware of my shorter leg. Everyone knew about it. "Fabian's little sister. Your Dad owns this place."

"My family owns this place. My dad is dead." I corrected. "What about it?" My heart panged as the image of my late father flashed in my mind.

"What are you doing?" Swayze asked. His deep, ocean-blue eyes darkened as he looked me up and down. "Running away?"

"Maybe." I crossed my arms under my chest. "And what if I was? Are you going to tell on me?"

They glanced at each other. They hadn"t been expecting me to confess so quickly. What else could I say? I"d been caught red-handed.

"No. I mean, unless you want us to. Is this an attention thing because of your dad?" Koi asked.

"No, I want to leave as quietly as I can." I said, reaching for the fence.

"Is it because of your sister, Marisol?" Swayze asked. "Because she"s more popular?"

I laughed. "You think I"m leaving everything behind because she"s prettier than me? You guys really are stupid."

"I didn"t say she was prettier. I... just never see you much at the park. She likes to talk. Says you"re jealous of her." He looked around as if expecting lights to pop on and expose us.

I snorted. Jealous? I could never be jealous of someone so horrible. So cruel, so…

Koi nodded, as if hearing my thoughts. "She"s a brat. I can"t stand when she comes to the park. She"s always trying to be the boss."

She"s preparing. Now that Dad"s dead, she"ll own this place someday, and I don"t want to be here when it happens.

"Look, I can"t stay. How about this. I won"t tell anyone that non-camper employees are in the park after hours, and you won't tell anyone that you saw me leave."

"If you"re leaving, you"ll have no one to tell," Swayze pointed out.

I grinned. "Exactly. Deal?"

He chuckled, and the dimples in the corners of his mouth appeared. "Sure thing. Your name… it"s Domino, right?"

"Yeah. You two never saw me. Promise me." I paused. "Wait, can I do one last thing before I go?" Something about them being the last thing I see of the park left me feeling... sad. I lifted the camera and quickly snapped a photo of the two of them. Without another word, I turned back and climbed over the fence. This time, I made it over the top and dropped down onto the grass. My body hit the hard ground with a thud and the breath left my lungs. My short leg radiated pain, but I ignored it.

"You alright?" Koi asked. They rushed to the gate from the other side. His eyes went to my short leg. "Are you sure about this? You"re just a kid. You"ve got it good here. Your family"s rich."

"Money isn"t everything." I stumbled to my feet, brushing the dirt off. I stepped back from the gate and shook my head. "My half-sister and brothers can have this place. I want nothing to do with any of it. You know what, Swayze, Koi, if anyone asks, tell them to take my name off the wall. You know the one with the family tree? I don"t want to be a member of the Risky family anymore. Got that?"

On the other side of the fence, with the highway just over the hill, I felt brave. Nobody was going to scale that fence just to get me. My life wasn"t worth it.

"You got it, Domino. It was nice knowing you, I guess." Swayze nodded, and they backed away from the fence. "Good luck."

I gulped, nodded, and then fled toward the highway.

My luck had never been good. Perhaps leaving the Risky empire behind would be my first good stroke of it.