I couldn’t picture him having Damon’s dark side.

Taking our drinks, I twisted off the top of the aluminum bottle, the condensation wetting my hand, and took a drink, followed by a few more. Even just the taste got me in the mood for this, and I started to relax.

Sound effects of howls and screams filled the air, and Alex offered me her arm as we walked to our first experience, The Tunnel of Terror.

I heard a track and the clank of bars as we waited in line, and it sounded like a ride with cars that carried us along a path. I gripped Alex’s arm a little tighter, the adrenaline already warming my heart.

So this would be something where we’re locked in, unable to run.

The line moved, and we climbed in a car, Alex first, and I followed. Will squeezed in next to me, and I raised my hands to let the belt-bar come down on us, but I accidentally knocked his mask, and I winced.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” I laughed.

I patted the hard plastic in a sympathetic gesture, feeling the grooves of the skull paintball mask and what felt like scars designed across it.

“Why do you think I wore the mask?” he joked.

Oh, shut up.

The ride shot off, my head bouncing against the back of the car and then veered right, swinging us around the bend so hard, we both fell over into Will. Alex squealed, and I didn’t know if the squeaks of the wheels on the track were just a sound effect or actually real, but it felt seedy and cheap—kind of corrupting—and I rubbed my thighs together, sort of liking it. We pushed through the double doors, and I felt the fog thick in the air and heard blocks of metal and chains clanking.

I felt Alex and Will both jump a couple times, followed by disgusted sounds from Alex, so there was more to see than to feel in the tunnels, but I expected it. I’d told them in the car on the way here not to narrate for me. We’d just all enjoy what we could.

A whiff of air hit my ear, followed by a bark, and I jerked, laughing.

“There’s speakers and sensors in the back of the car,” Will figured.

Other sounds drifted out—chainsaws, potions boiling, screams, and bat wings cutting through the air—and Alex inched into me, forcing me into Will. She pushed farther into my space, and I heard a whimper and guessed an actor was on her side of the car, taunting her. I laughed at her fright, feeling a little superior that I wasn’t affected as easily.

We wound through more tunnels, both of them absorbing the darkness and creepy characters in bloody costumes or masks that I didn’t see, but as soon as I’d relaxed, the car stopped.

“What is that?” Alex asked.

“I can’t see anything,” Will replied.

Okay. Guess I’d just wait.

We sat there, and I couldn’t hear any other voices around us, so they must have considerable space between the cars.

“Will, what is that?” Alex blurted out. “Right there!”

And then, all of a sudden, I heard growling. Like a feral wolf, frothing at the mouth. Was that a sound effect?

“Ah!” Alex cried out, and I tensed.

Weight hit our car, jostling the front of it, I listened as the low growling got closer and closer.

And closer.

The deep rumble of an animal, and my toes curled and my body instinctively tried to crawl into a ball, but I couldn’t with the bar over my lap.

The growling came closer and closer, the breath falling on my face, and I knew someone was standing on the front of our car and leaning down right into my face.

It was breathy and scary and vicious, and my heart pounded as he taunted me.

Alex and Will either whimpered or laughed, and if I could see him, I might’ve been scared out of my mind, but like this it was just…frightening enough. A tingle shot between my thighs, and I clenched them as I breathed hard.

The cars started moving again, and I felt him linger for a moment longer before jumping off.

“Oh, he liked you,” Will teased.

My pulse still raced, and everything was warm. I rubbed my hands down my thighs and tongued one of my fangs, wondering what was wrong with me that it was kind of a turn on.

Did I like fear?

Or did I only like it because I knew I was safe?

The ride ended, and we left the car, taking our drinks with us. I uncapped my beer, taking a gulp to cool down and clear my throat, suddenly parched.

Tossing it in the trash, we headed for the maze next, and I took Will’s arm this time, since Alex didn’t want to lead, and I refused to take up the rear.

Actors reached though walls, grabbing at us, while others stood in the passageways, lurking still and quiet for some good jump scares. Hands grabbed at my arms, and I scurried to Will’s other side, laughing, only to be attacked on that side, as well.

Of course, there were things I missed that made those two jump, but I could feel the tight space of the walls and low ceiling and smell the cold air and soil. It felt like we were underground, but I knew we weren’t.

We rounded a corner, and Will halted, quickly backing up into me and stepping on my toe.

“Ouch!” I snapped.

But I didn’t get a chance to find out what scared him. Alex screamed behind me, and Will took my hand, turning us both around to find out what was wrong.

“Hey!” he yelled. “That’s mine! Give her back!”

Huh? I inched closer to him, holding on to his arm. What was happening?

Alex’s squeals kept filling the corridor, but they started to fade, echoing from down the hall. My mouth fell open.

Did they take her? Where did she go?

Oh, my God.

“Shit, let’s go,” Will said, a laugh following.

He pulled me onto his back, and I hooked my arms around his neck, while he held me under my knees, and we ran back the way we came, going after Alex.

The actors—since they were allowed to touch us—must’ve grabbed her and carried her off.

Will bolted down the tunnel, and someone nipped at my back, growling and clawing. I cried out, squealing as I scrunched up my shoulders and hugged Will tightly. “Hurry,” I gasped. “They’re going to take me, too!”

He ran unbelievably well with someone on his back, and my heart raced a mile a minute, about to beat out of my chest in the excitement. He turned corners, listening for Alex’s screams, and the muscles in my arms and legs burned as I tried to hold onto him.

Alex’s cries sounded closer, and then I heard her.

She was laughing. “Will?” she shouted. “Oh, my God. He threw me over his shoulder like I was a feather. I thought I was going to get eaten.”

We stopped and Will let me down. I kept hold of his arm as he bent over, maybe to help her up to wherever the actor had dropped her, but we barely had time to collect ourselves before growls and loud motors filled the air and we were swarmed by what felt like ten chainsaw murderers. They came at us, nipping at our legs with their bladeless chainsaws, and we all stumbled, scurried, and veered in any direction we could to get away.

“Winter, where are you?” I heard Will shout from farther away than I thought he was.

But then, all of a sudden, he was there, grabbing my hand and pulling me away.

I breathed a sigh of relief. He walked fast, dragging me as the air blowers shot at my legs, and I laughed as the hay sack tunics the slasher killers wore brushed my arms as we passed, telling me just how close I was to getting caught. Chills spread across my body, and my pulse went wild, unable to contain the frenzy of danger and the intoxication in my head it created. I was high from it.

We turned right and then right again, and as the noise fell away and no one came at us anymore, he slowed his walk, pulling me around walls and passageways in the maze.

I panted, still holding his hand but bringing my free one up to his mask and feeling it. “That’s you, right?”

Just making sure.

I still laughed a little but relaxed when I felt the hard plastic skull with grooves.

“This is so much fun,” I told him.

Silence filled the corridor now, except for the sound effects of wind howling, a heart beating, and clocks chiming drifting out of the speakers, his hand tightening around mine as we walked. I didn’t mind. He wasn’t doing it because I couldn’t see. He probably did it, so I wouldn’t get stolen like Alex.

Alex.

I turned my head left and right, listening for her footsteps.

“Where’s Alex?” I asked.

She was with us, wasn’t she? He only grabbed me for a quick escape.

But just then, I stepped in something wet, my foot sloshing in something on the ground.

“Oh, yuck.” I stepped away, inching into him to get away from whatever the pool was on the ground. Smelled like vodka. Someone must’ve spilled their drink.

Wrapping his arm around my waist, he picked me up, and I circled my arms around his neck as he carried me over it.

“Thanks,” I told him.

But he didn’t put me down.

My legs dangled as he slowly walked, the sound of his breathing through his mask even, like a machine.

Awareness made the hairs rise on my skin, and I felt so dizzy all of a sudden. My voice barely registered above a whisper. “I can walk now.”

He still didn’t put me down, though. Instead, he hefted me up so my legs circled his waist, and the realization that the man in my arms wasn’t Will washed over me in a panic so savory it sank down low in my belly, warming every inch of my body.

He carried me, his steps perfectly paced and heavy, echoing in the hallway like they were coming for me and knew exactly where I was hiding.

This wasn’t Will.

I knew it even before I slipped my fingers into the back of his hair and felt the same little scars I’d come across years ago.

But in this moment, in the dark where I was someone else and he was someone else, I didn’t pull away.

Why wasn’t I pulling away?

God, he felt good.

In my arms. I’d almost forgotten.

For just a few minutes, he was my ghost back in the house.

Taunting me.

Playing with me.

Making me feel things I wanted to feel.

I’d missed this so much.

I locked my ankles behind his back and held my head in front of his, quiet and calm on the outside but every emotion I’d ever had raging on the inside. I wasn’t sure if he could see where he was walking, but it seemed like we both were on auto-pilot.