Chapter One

The waning crescent moon shone against the darkness of the sky, illuminating the trees surrounding Treglyn Manor in an eerie glow. I locked my car and tucked the key into the zip-up pocket I’d sewn into my cheap costume skirt, and a chill ran through me. Goosebumps raised the tiny hairs along my arms, and I pulled my great-great-grandmother’s velvet cloak tighter around my shoulders. Hopefully she wouldn’t curse me from the afterlife for using it as an accessory to a store-bought witch costume that barely covered my arse, but at least it was out of the attic. I was the snuggliest slutty Sanderson sister.

Electric lanterns, designed to look like flickering flames, lined the path from the car park to the visitor centre at the edge of the manor grounds. The estate was huge, with over ninety acres of gardens surrounding the seventeenth-century mansion, though originally, the land spanned in the tens of thousands. Pieces of the land had been sold off over the centuries until the local council preserved the remaining area as a historical site. Ideal for school outings, historical recreations, film sets, and most importantly, one of the best Halloween festivals in the country: The Treglyn Manor Night of Horrors. After all, there’d been more than a few mysterious deaths on the ground over the past four-hundred years, starting with the original owner, William Treglyn. Lovers of the supernatural were just as obsessed with this place as historians.

The best part about the Treglyn Manor Night of Horrors was that it was a strictly adults-only event. It made the tickets pricey as hell and quick to sell out—this was the first year I’d been quick enough to snag a pair—but it was worth it to have more macabre attractions and not have to worry about running into a crying child.

Ornately gilded gates were propped open, welcoming guests to the ticket booth inside. A bass line thumped from the festival grounds beyond, while distant screams and laughter mingled in an excited harmony I couldn’t wait to join.

A familiar figure next to the gates waved me over, and I beelined to my date for the night. Over the past few weeks, I’d made a pact with my sister, Lena, to try app dating a bit more seriously, in an attempt to get our cancer-ridden grandmother off our backs about being husbandless cat ladies. Lena’d had mixed matches that ultimately hadn’t made it past the first date, but somehow, I’d found Andy. We’d bonded over the anxieties of filling out a dating profile and had a few classic, slow-burn dates: coffee, action-comedy film and drinks, then we graduated to dinner just two nights ago.

Unfortunately, dinner hadn’t gone great. Between uninspiring conversations and an unnecessary complaint to the manager, I honestly hadn’t intended to see him again. But when Lena had been forced to work tonight, destroying our Halloween plans, I’d given Andy another chance. Maybe it was fate that Lena couldn’t join me, and an activity was what we needed to strike a spark.

Mutual online terror had brought us together, so maybe we just needed potentially life-ending fears of the supernatural for us to seal the deal.

Yep, that was the goal tonight. If anything could get me to like a man, despite overwhelming levels of boredom, it was sex. With that, Andy could last up to a year in my life. Long enough for Nana to kick it, happy in the knowledge that at least one of her granddaughters wasn’t going to die alone. As the last of our family, it was the least we could do for her. And it would be easy to get in the mood at a Halloween festival. I’d always gotten a little turned on by horror movies ever since Scream. Damn Matthew Lillard.

“Hey there, Hazel. I almost didn’t recognise you dressed in that.”

Andy looked me up and down, forcing a smile as he took in the costume. “I didn’t think you were serious about costumes.”

I eyed him curiously. Not off to a great start. “Why wouldn’t I have been serious? I mean, it’s Halloween.”

Despite making it to a fourth date, Andy had become more of a buzzkill every time I saw him. He’d really fooled me into thinking he was fun and “always up for adventures”, like he’d put on his profile. But I guess he’d just suppressed his beige-personality for our first two dates. He’d started letting it out after the cinema date last week, and now he was finally comfortable enough to be his bland self. The human equivalent of boiled chicken and rice. At least he was comfortable around me. That was sort of a compliment. Maybe halfway to sex. Nana would be proud.

The ticket clerk was a petite zombie girl in an Alice dress, with perfect blond ringlets and a raspy voice like she’d smoked forty a day for the past decade. She scanned the QR code on my phone and fastened our red fabric wristbands. They had the words ‘Treglyn Horrors’ sewn across them in a shiny, black thread. I was definitely scrapbooking that later.

“Okay, here are your wristbands,”

she rasped, her maniacal grin enhanced by her makeup. “You’re booked on the last tour of the manor at ten thirty. We ask everyone to please arrive five minutes before the start time, so there’s no delay. Just follow the gravestones if you get lost. Have fun!”

We thanked her, then headed down the path towards the festival. The music became louder with every step, and my hands shook with barely contained excitement.

“Ah, wait! Stop a second!”

Andy pulled me over to a lantern, frowning down at me. “Okay, stay calm. There’s a spider on your shoulder. Just stay still.”

He tugged the sleeve of his jumper down over his hand and leaned in slowly, never taking his eyes off my shoulder. But before he could flick it away, I pulled my cloak across my chest a little and gently cupped a hand around the spider. It was big, at least by UK standards, but I waited for it to move. Nice and easy.

I’d never been scared of traditionally spooky animals. The major animal phobias, like snakes and spiders, never really made sense to me. They were different-looking, no denying that, but they were just creatures. I wouldn’t mess around with anything venomous, but in the UK? Chances were good that I’d be fine.

Andy gasped, shuffling away as the spider confidently stepped onto my fingers and stayed still. Almost like it was happy to sit there.

“There you are,”

I cooed, placing my hand next to a tree and waiting for my new friend to move. “Off you go. I’ve already got a cat waiting for me back home.”

After a few heartbeats, the spider climbed up the bark, and I quickly lost sight of it in the darkness. Turning back to Andy, I smiled. “All sorted.”

He shook his head, something between disgust and amazement lacing his features. “This is already such a weird night.”

I could barely contain my glee as I bounced on my heels. “I know. Isn’t it perfect?”

We headed into the festival covering the largest of the manor’s gardens. Smoke machines quietly released a low fog, obscuring the ground and adding to the spooky atmosphere. We entered the crowd, and the scent of popcorn and fresh doughnuts filled the air. Various striped tents, game booths, and rides covered the land, each decorated with hanging lights that shone through the fog, as well as a selection of jack-o’-lanterns, rubber bats, orange and black balloons, and cotton spiderwebs. Large fake headstones with painted cracks and moss dotted the gaps between booths, listing directions to the bigger attractions.

We followed a headstone towards the rear garden’s haunted hedge maze, only stopping to make a note of where the bar was and which snacks to get afterwards. I felt I was going to need the sugar rush of a toffee apple before the manor tour later.

The screams became louder as we approached the hedge maze, interspersed with animal roars and… were those chainsaws? A screaming cheerleader dived out of the maze, tripping on the grass and scrambling to her feet. She didn’t look behind her as she continued to run, and then I saw what was chasing her: a beefy man in a bloodied hockey mask. Classic. He waved a prop chainsaw around wildly, and I noticed it didn’t have a real blade attached. However, the noise sounded terrifyingly realistic, especially in the dark.

“This is so cool!”

I practically bounced on the spot. “Are you ready to go in?”

“Yeah, let’s go for it.”

Andy wrapped an arm protectively around my shoulders and huddled me close to his body. The move limited my happy bounces, but I figured he was trying to be sweet. He got points for trying, even though the lemony scent of his laundry detergent was slightly overpowering this close. If I had a cut somewhere on my body, his scent alone would make it sting.

We entered the maze slowly and followed the path as it curved around to the left and opened in a fork. Feeling lucky and trying not to think too hard, I headed for the path in the centre. Andy’s hand on my shoulder yanked me back, pulling me to the left.

“This way,”

he said. “You should always stick to one direction in a maze, so you don’t get lost.”

Good advice in a normal maze but getting lost wasn’t the major concern here. It was more about the people chasing us with chainsaws. Somewhere behind us, a wolf howled, and we picked up the pace. Smoke covered the ground, making it hard to see the path before us. The only light came from the few garden spotlights above us—not lighting the way well, but at least showing us where the walls were—and carefully placed lanterns in the maze corners. We took two more lefts and turned for a third, where we met a wall of cotton spiderwebs blocking the path. Andy stopped me from walking straight into it and getting a mouthful of webs, then steered me back down the way we came before we quickly ducked into a path to the right.

“Wait, wait.”

He stopped us just before some kind of demonic clown ran past the next fork, his insane laughter echoing into the distance. “Heard him coming. We probably would’ve had to run from that one.”

Oh, no. Running in terror from a haunted maze. That would have been awful and totally not the point of coming here. Ugh.

As we continued, Andy ensured that we avoided two more actors and even snuck up on one of them dressed as Ghostface and gave him a jump scare.

Here lies my Matthew Lillard fantasy. May you rest in peace.

We left the maze without triggering a single trap or getting chased by any of the actors. My date thought this was winning, and I could only smile politely through his gloating. I knew if I opened my mouth, the date would be over faster than Freddy Krueger could say, “Boo!”

The night didn’t improve from there. As we wandered the festival grounds, Andy didn’t seem interested in anything. Well, not exactly. He took part in the games and rode the rides with me, even bought me a toffee apple. But he wasn’t in the spirit of Halloween.

When I saw someone dressed in a bright red suit with horns grab a drink using a classically designed pointed tail, he just bluntly said, “Cool animatronic.”

Then carried on walking.

What the hell? Where was his spooky spirit?!

By the time we needed to think about heading to the tour’s meeting point, the actors who were supposed to sneak up and scare us were completely avoiding us. It was fucking embarrassing. If I’d seen a burial plot by any of the gravestones, I probably would’ve jumped in and dragged the dirt down on top of myself.

After checking the time quickly, I tapped Andy on the shoulder. “Hey, I’m gonna go back to the visitor centre to use the bathroom real quick. Don’t wanna need to go once we’re on the tour, y’know,”

I joked, already slowly walking away. “I’ll meet you back here in ten!”

I didn’t hear if Andy responded. I was too relieved to have a few minutes to myself. There wasn’t a queue to the visitor bathrooms, so I was in and out too fast to appreciate my alone time. Huffing out a frustrated breath, I wished Lena was here. We would’ve had so much fun tonight if she hadn’t had to work and I hadn’t latched onto a failing date.

Heading back outside, I decided to take a little detour over to a large tree in a shadowy corner. I needed my sister right now. Even if she didn’t pick up the phone, I’d feel better leaving her a voicemail rant and getting it all out of my system.

Something moved in the darkness in my hiding place. A shadow swirled, coming around the tree trunk, and suddenly a figure was directly in front of me. A male figure, grinning wildly.

Yelping in surprise, I leaned back too far in an attempt to avoid him, and his hand shot out to grasp my own, halting my fall. I stared up at him, unable to tear my eyes away. His outfit was simple, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, decorated with a black waistcoat and plain trousers. But his face was flawlessly painted in the style of a harlequin—ghostly white with black diamonds over his own equally dark eyes. A painted grin stretched his black lips into an unnatural smile that promised chaos.

“Better watch where you’re going, witchling,”

the harlequin practically purred as he pulled me to my feet. “The demons here would love to chase a pretty little witch like you.”

Before I could reboot my brain enough for a response, he was already on the move. Releasing my hand, he dashed into the festival grounds and swerved between a couple of guests, sneaking into their personal space so fluidly it was like he was skating over the grass. They screamed at his unexpected presence, but he didn’t linger, immediately moving on to his next victims.

Wow. He’d had my cheeks burning bad enough I needed to fan my cloak to get a breeze on my skin. Who was he? One of the actors, I assumed by the professional-looking makeup and lack of personal space, but he didn’t avoid me like the others had. All I knew for sure was that he’d blown my date out of the water in just one move.

Shit, my date.

Pulling my phone out of the zip-pocket in my skirt, I checked the time and figured I could still squeeze in a call to Lena. The harlequin had made me jump, but he hadn’t fixed the rest of tonight’s disaster.

Surprisingly, Lena answered on the third ring. “Hazel?”

“Hey, you free for a few?”

I asked, cautious about her answering while on shift.

“Yeah, I’ve got time. Ironic that it’s Halloween and the restaurant is totally dead. I’ve been cleaning around the same table for the last twenty minutes. I swear James just hates me and puts me on shift as a punishment.”

Lena huffed, and I heard the click of the latch as she went out the back door to the staff’s smoking corner by the bins. “Anyway, judging from the fact that you’re calling instead of sending a text like a normal human, I’m assuming your fella got worse.”

“He got so much worse.”

I groaned, taking a seat at the base of the tree. “First, he was freaked out that I dressed up, even though I told him this was the plan. We went through the haunted hedge maze, and he kept protecting me from the scares. Like, not pulling me back or getting between me and the actor in a sexy way. No. He would point out everything fake and explain the trick. And that’s when he wasn’t fucking predicting every jump scare so it wasn’t scary anymore! Even the actors were getting frustrated, and I just felt bad for them.”

“Ew, people like that are the worst. They deserve a punch in the nose and LEGOs in their shoes. Can you ditch him before the tour?”

A laugh bubbled out of me. I couldn’t help it. Lena was usually a pretty understanding person, except when she was missing an event to work a double shift. Then her brain-to-mouth filter took the day off and left her with the subtlety of a battering ram.

“No, I don’t think I can ditch him. Plus, that goes against the whole fucking him to trick my brain into liking him plan.”

“Stupid plan, by the way. Nana’s dying, not dumb,”

she deadpanned. “Sure, she doesn’t want us to be alone when she goes, but she wouldn’t be fooled by you bringing that wet blanket of a man to meet her.”

I chewed my lip, considering her words. My reasons for wanting to sleep with Andy really weren’t the best. He was attractive enough for me to want to sleep with him, but his personality could suck a bag of limp dicks for all it was worth. And I barely wanted this man in my life for the night, let alone for however long until Nana passed.

“Y’know what? I’m just gonna make the best of this.”

I got to my feet and looked towards the manor, the eerie building instantly hyping me up. “This tour has been on my bucket list forever, so I’m going to go on that tour and find a way to fucking enjoy myself, with or without the sex. I could go get orgasms any night. Halloween is for getting scared, and I’m not gonna let him get in the way of that.”

“Hell yeah! That’s my girl!”

After saying our goodbyes, Lena hung up to go back to work, and I pulled up my big girl panties, ready to get through the rest of this date. But as I headed to the tour’s meeting place to find Andy, I couldn’t help but feel eyes on me again. A wolf’s howl pierced through the crowds, deafening compared to all the laughs, cheers, and screams surrounding me, and I spun to see where it could be coming from. But while I frantically tried to figure it out, I noticed that no one in the crowds seemed bothered by it. In fact, I was willing to bet by their lack of reaction, they hadn’t heard it at all.

Forcing the howl out of my mind for now, I continued on to the manor, each step making my heart beat faster.