Rule 40 - Domino

Idropped the mask and fled. Georgie followed behind quickly and only once I realized that I"d abandoned him again did I pause and grab for his leash. I jerked my head side to side, searching for someone in the trees, and walked the rest of the way back out of the woods. That mask had been freshly written in. Georgie didn"t just stumble upon it. Someone had given it to him.

I shuddered and kept looking over my shoulder as I walked back to camp. By the time I got back, the boys were awake and waiting for me by the cabin door, smoking their morning cigarettes and arguing.

"Where the fuck were you?" Swayze demanded when I grew closer. "You know you"re not supposed to go anywhere alone."

"You got a fucking death wish?" Koi asked, taking a long drag of his smoke. "That was stupid, Domino."

I brushed past them, going into the cabin to get my shower pack. They followed behind, continuing to scold me.

"Georgie wanted his morning walk. Nothing happened. I"m fine."

"Fine? You"re covered in dirt? Did you go back into the woods?" Koi grabbed me from behind and spun me around. I couldn"t meet his eyes, which told him everything he needed to know. "Jesus Christ, Blessing. You can"t be doing that shit. We just got you. We can"t lose you now." He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed.

I melted into his arms and inhaled, and then winced back.

"What?"

"You stink." I laughed, and after a long moment, he joined in.

"Well, you don"t smell like roses yourself, Blessing. Let"s go shower and then..."

My shoulders slumped. Despite having slept between both men, I was exhausted. Not my body, but my mind. We were due at the park in an hour. We had to go and ride the rides and play the games and laugh and joke like we didn"t just see someone die last night. I wasn"t sure if I could do that.

"Remember your list." Koi reached for my chin, lifting my face. "Do it for all your Johnny Blues. You can do this."

"And now you"ve got us to help." Swayze stepped closer to us. "We got promoted, remember? We get to hang out with you as Park Ambassadors now."

I pressed my lips together tightly and steeled myself. He was right. I had too many people to help to give up now. Johnny"s life had been changed for the better because I"d been able to gift him that money. I wanted to do that more.

"Let"s go shower and go."

I fed Georgie and we went to shower and head over to the park. It was a weird feeling. Most of the staff had moved on from Ruth"s death and were loud and excited to go back to work. Then, there was us, the handful that knew what actually happened to both her and Blane, and that somewhere around the camp or park, was a killer. And we had three days to figure out who it was before another one of us died.

Koi and Swayze had been promoted to the same job I had. It was nice, having people I knew and enjoyed being around to do my job. Before, I"d been finding random groups of people to take selfies with and join on rides. While the park guests loved it, I hated only spending a few hours with people, only to never see them again. It felt fake and made me miss the road and the friends on my list.

If I stayed… would I ever see them again?

I shook the thought from my mind and turned to Koi.

"What ride do you want to go on next?"

"Can we stay as far away as we can from the Cyclone?" Swayze said, staring at the ground. He still hadn"t given us details, but we"d heard that Ruth"s body had been found near the coaster. It was still closed for another week.

"Yeah, let"s do the bumper cars," Koi agreed.

We spent all morning finding guests and hyping them up about the park. Swayze and Koi had a social media account that they went live on. I was slightly uncomfortable, as I didn"t use any social media, but I followed their lead. They spoke to the camera and the people commented as if they were right here with us, and that seemed to make them more popular. I watched in awe as hearts, crowns, and money signs flooded the screen.

At lunch, Koi turned off the stream and we took lunch at a hot dog cart, just the three of us.

"How much money do you make that way?" I asked, adding ketchup to my dog.

Koi shrugged. "Not much. A couple hundred a month from our subscribers. Usually, with gifts and stuff, it"s about a grand total."

"And that"s if we"re online a lot," Swayze added. "With work and... the other stuff, we"ve been too busy to go live." The mood darkened for a moment and Koi knocked Swayze"s shoulder.

"Well, now we have time. It"s literally our job. Maybe we"ll get a bump in subscribers." Koi grinned, forcing the shadows away. We ate and the conversation stopped for a bit. My mind wandered back to last night.

"Koi, why were you in just your underwear when you came in last night?"

His eyes widened and he blinked.

"They were filthy. Marisol?—"

"Marisol what?" Swayze cut him off.

"She took them. We were all fucking tired. She said she was going to burn them..." The realization hit Koi"s face as he said the words. He slammed his hand on the table and stood. "Fuck me, man. I"ll be back." He grabbed the rest of his hotdog and drink and stormed off to go find my sister.