Page 61 of Haunt the Mall

Victor hugged me tight and twisted me to his side as one of the other visitors ran into our room.

The sneakers guy stopped and looked around. “Have you seen the girl I was with?”

“No.” I frowned. Was she hiding from him?

He wiped some fake web off his sneakers. “Ah, shit. I don’t want to go back into that freezer place.”

“You lost her,” Victor said flatly. The implication was clear: You left her.

With cannibals.

“I…I’ll find her. She probably just slipped out the exit ‘cause she was scared.” He offered us an awkward smile. “You’re almost at the end. Good luck,” he said, trotting off.

I shook my head at his back. Thankfully, my semi-boyfriend wasn’t such a dick. If I did see that girl, I’d walk her through the end. Nobody deserved to be left like that.

“And then there were two,” Victor rumbled. He held out his hand.

I threaded our fingers together and stepped into the darkness.

If we had to go through hell, I was happy to do it with him.

27

Fall With Me

“There’s only one way out of this haunted house.” The crypt keeper wagged their brows and gestured to the array of oversized coffins littering the walls. “Any volunteers?”

There was a regular exit door for the faint of heart, but I wasn’t afraid of a little box. Or a little trouble.

I smiled at Victor. He shook his head, a silent, smirking admonishment.

There was no stopping me from this, though. It was destiny. An experience. And we’d already paid for it.

I raised my hand. “I—”

“I volunteer,” he said, stepping in front of me.

“Hey.” I tugged his vest and laughed. That was my gag.

“Plenty of room for two,” the crypt keeper said. “You first, Romeo. Stand on the mark.”

He shot me a wry look and sauntered over to the crude witchy symbol drawn in fake blood on the bottom of his coffin. He clasped his wrist by his groin and lifted his chin as if to say, 'do your worst.'

It was sexy as fuck. From the sly glances he kept shooting over, I had to wonder, was he trying to impress me? Because if so, it kinda worked.

“Ooh, tough guy. I love scaring them the best.” The crypt keeper fiddled with a control panel. “Now, hold your shoulders, cross your ankles, and don’t touch anything, or it may turn into an iron maiden situation.”

Victor gripped his shoulders, truly embracing the vampire spirit, though he did glance about as the crypt keeper closed the coffin on him. I doubted any of splinters would turn into spikes.

The door curved out a bit, with a big window in the front, but still, that was a tiny space. Victor almost had to strain himself not to touch anything.

“You look right at home in there.” I grinned.

“I doubt I’ll get comfortable,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry, darling. I’ll bring you back to life with true love’s kiss.” I winked.

He peered at the crypt keeper. “Can you kill me any faster?”