Chapter 98: The Fall Festival, Part Thirteen

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The Fall Festival, Part Thirteen

Chapter 98: The Fall Festival, Part Thirteen

Cyrus pushed aside the curtain at the haunted-house entrance and stepped into the classroom with Faye close behind him.

Daylight disappeared almost completely after the fabric fell shut behind them. The students who had handled the setup had covered every window well enough that the room could have been midnight outside. Thin purple lights ran along the cardboard walls, casting just enough glow across the floor to show where they were supposed to walk.

The route ahead twisted between temporary partitions.

Fake limbs lay scattered near their shoes. A plastic hand reached from beneath a torn sheet. Several painted balloons, each one designed to look like a bloodshot eye, hung from the ceiling at uneven heights.

Cyrus had helped carry some of the supplies and watched other students assemble the props. Nothing near the entrance surprised him.

He had also heard that the haunted house was supposed to tell a story if visitors paid close enough attention. The class had arranged four short scenes around a single route, with hidden spaces between them for students to make noise, pull fishing lines, or jump out when someone looked distracted.

Cyrus stopped near a pile of fake arms and looked around.

He saw a cluttered room full of painted plastic and purple light.

Whatever story people claimed to find in it had escaped him.

Faye stood beside him without speaking. Her attention kept moving through the shadows, careful in a way that suggested she was waiting for someone to yell from behind a curtain.

Cyrus glanced toward her.

"Do you want to check the next room?"

Faye nodded.

"That sounds fine to me."

They moved forward together.

The curtain between the first and second sections brushed Cyrus’s shoulder as he passed through.

A distorted woman’s voice suddenly cracked through the darkness.

"Please, let her go. She cannot be taken by you."

The recording cut off beneath a violent thump, followed by the sound of something heavy striking the floor.

Cyrus startled despite himself.

The voice had been loud enough to do its job, and the poor-quality speakers made it worse. It sounded less like a real person calling for help and more like an old horror clip played through a damaged phone, but the abruptness still made his shoulders tighten.

Faye did not react much.

That made Cyrus look at her again.

The next section was darker than the first two. Purple light barely reached the far wall, and Faye’s dark hair, lowered bangs, and quiet posture gave her the look of someone who belonged in an old horror movie more than the fake body parts around them did.

Cyrus kept that thought to himself.

Faye was probably more unsettling than the haunted house.

The route continued past several more props. Some looked as though different pieces had been stitched together. Cyrus did not recognize those items from the supply run, and the paint colors were slightly different from the rest.

He crouched briefly to inspect one of them.

The fake limb had been assembled from foam, fabric, tape, and a layer of dark paint that made it look wetter than it should have. The detail was not bad. It was just not something Cyrus could appreciate for long while standing in a room that smelled faintly of dust and artificial blood.

Faye waited beside him.

"Did you find something?" she asked.

"I was trying to understand the story," Cyrus said.

"Can you?"

"I cannot see it yet."

Faye looked down at the scattered props.

"I cannot either."

That made Cyrus feel better.

They reached the final curtain.

The lights went out.

Cyrus and Faye stopped where they were.

The blackout had been listed in the class plan, so neither of them screamed or ran into the wall. A few seconds passed in darkness, filled only by the low hum of the building’s ventilation and the fading sound of visitors outside the classroom.

Then the lights returned.

This section looked completely different.

The purple lighting was gone. Harsh white bulbs shone from the ceiling, making the room feel more like a clinic than a haunted house. Fake limbs and torn clothing still covered parts of the floor, but the white light made every red stain look flatter and more obvious.

A narrow table stood near the far wall.

It resembled an operating table, with dark red paint splashed across its surface. Beside it sat a clean white sheet draped over something taller than a chair.

Cyrus looked at the sheet.

Faye looked at it too.

They both understood what it meant.

Someone was hiding behind it.

Cyrus had no interest in helping the classmate under that sheet perform their scare. He had already spent enough time wondering when somebody would jump out at him. Faye seemed equally uninterested in playing along.

They started toward the exit curtain instead.

The white sheet dropped.

A white figure appeared behind glass.

Cyrus stopped.

Audra lay inside a narrow display coffin, the transparent front framed by black material and uneven strips of silver tape. Her white costume covered her from throat to ankle. With her eyes closed and her hands resting together over her stomach, she looked still enough to be part of the set.

The room had been designed for that image.

The bright lights, the fake blood, the scattered limbs, and the crude operating table all pushed attention toward the one untouched figure in the center. Audra’s white costume made her stand apart from every stained prop around her.

She looked wrong there.

Too pale.

Too quiet.

Too close to something Cyrus had spent months trying not to remember.

The pressure in his chest returned before he could stop it.

White fabric. Cold hair. A girl lying still in a sealed space. The old fear rose with the memory of locked rooms and women who called restraint concern. In his head, Audra’s face overlapped with people from the Frostborn settlement until the glass coffin became something much worse than a school project.

Cyrus held himself still.

The reaction lasted only a second.

He forced his face blank before it could become obvious.

Then Audra opened her eyes.

Her expression did not change.

She only looked through the glass at Cyrus and Faye.

The stillness in her face made Cyrus’s body go rigid again.

A hand closed around his.

Faye had reached for him without saying anything. Her fingers were warm against his palm, and the simple contact cut through the cold fear spreading from his chest into his arms.

Cyrus looked down.

Faye did not look at him. She kept her eyes on the exit curtain ahead, as though she had only taken his hand because they needed to keep moving through the dark room.

That made it easier to accept.

They walked past the display coffin together.

Cyrus did not pull away.

Audra watched them leave.

Her eyes followed Cyrus first, then settled briefly on Faye’s hand around his. The look did not change her face, but something in her attention sharpened before she lowered her lashes again.

Cyrus and Faye reached the final section.

Nothing jumped out at them.

Several white lab coats hung from the ceiling on clear thread, their sleeves stretched by the air moving through the classroom. Dark stains marked the fabric. The coats swayed faintly as Cyrus and Faye passed beneath them, each one hanging at a different height like a row of strange scarecrows.

A heartbeat played through hidden speakers.

At first it sounded close and steady.

Then it slowed.

The sound weakened until it disappeared completely.

The route ended at the back door.

Cyrus pushed through the curtain into the hallway, and normal school noise rushed back around him. Students talked in line. Someone laughed too loudly near the stairwell. The smell of popcorn and sweet drinks from the food tents had drifted into the building.

Faye released his hand only after they were outside.

Neither of them mentioned it.

Iris stood near the entrance table with Owen, waiting for feedback from anyone who had gone through the haunted house.

Faye spoke first.

"It was interesting," she said. "The rooms fit together well."

Owen looked pleased.

"That is good to hear. Did anything need fixing?"

"The sound effect in the second room was loud," Cyrus said. "That part works."

He gave a small nod to show he had nothing else to add.

Iris checked something in her notebook.

"Thank you for helping," she said. "We will make sure the last room stays clear before tomorrow."

Cyrus and Faye stepped away from the entrance.

The festival had begun to shift toward evening. Light from the hall windows had turned warm and low, and more students were starting to move toward the athletic field for the fireworks that would happen later.

At the stairwell, Cyrus stopped.

"Thank you for walking through with me," he said.

Faye looked up.

"You do not need to thank me for that."

"I still wanted to."

Faye gave a small nod.

Cyrus lifted one hand in farewell and started down the stairs.

The stiffness had left his back. He moved like himself again, loose and unhurried, with his hands in his pockets and his head slightly lowered beneath his bangs.

Faye watched him go.

Even after he relaxed, something weighed on him.

She had felt how cold his hand was in the haunted house. The chill had stayed against her palm long after they stepped back into the hallway. Cyrus had not said he was scared. He had not asked for help. He had only stood in front of the glass coffin and gone still enough that Faye knew something was wrong.

She had been abrupt.

Holding his hand without warning was not something she usually did.

Yet she could not regret it.

Faye stayed at the stairwell for several seconds, looking at the hand that had held his.

Then she closed her fingers and followed.

She saw Cyrus going down toward the first floor.

By the time she reached the bottom, he had disappeared.

The sky outside had already begun to darken. The fireworks were scheduled for later, which meant Cyrus should still be somewhere on campus. He had said he wanted to watch before heading to work.

Faye checked the main hall.

He was not there.

She walked toward the courtyard, then looked through the doors near the auditorium.

She was not there either.

Faye took out her phone and opened the class group chat, intending to ask whether anyone had seen him.

A familiar voice spoke behind her.

The tone was cool and calm enough that Faye stopped before she could type a word.