Fortuitous {WLW}

Chapter Twenty: Spook Season

Saylor's POV:

Emerson, thankfully, ended up staying after Ophelia caught us.

When I saw her under that door frame, I was irritated, annoyed, concerned, and relieved. I was glad it was her. Out of all the girls that could catch us, our best outcome was her, but I'm still nervous about her having that information at all.

We haven't talked all day, breakfast, lunch, or even on our way to the haunted maze, but we have made tons of eye contact, her smirking every time our eyes met. I haven't had time to talk to her, not without all the other girls around, which means hopefully she hasn't had time to leak the information.

We enter the haunted maze, Emerson and I staying apart. I had to convince her to come, she didn't want to, not with how last night went, but I didn't want to do this alone and honestly, I enjoy our time together... as limited as it is.

The actors come in hot from the beginning of the maze, Melanie being scared so badly she ends up pissing herself and blaming her 'mom bladder' on the incident. Chloe is better than the rest of us, being the first and most willing girl to cover her as she escorts her back to the entry of the maze and brings her home.

We hardly get deeper into the maze when a little girl appears from corn maze, singing a tune, and tilting her head to either side.

"Fuck this." Kyle says instantly at the sight of the girl, grabbing Hadley and beginning to turn around when another girl pops out to stop him in his tracks.

"Don't you want to play with us?" The other girl asks.

"Little girl, you better move!" Kyle yells, his voice very obviously shaking.

"Pussy." Emerson says through a cough, causing me to smirk.

"I'm not a pussy, Emerson!" He yells.

"You sure seem like a pussy." The first girl says, her head still tilting to either side.

"Even the kid thinks you're a pussy." Emerson declares, causing Ophelia and I to laugh.

Ophelia loves horror. It's her comfort, so I know she won't scare easily, but me on the other hand... I can acknowledge that these are just kids and they're acting, that's why it doesn't really scare me. What could scare me, is someone popping out of nowhere and jump scaring me, but the actors, themselves, don't do anything to me.

"Don't make fun of him." Hadley defends as she clings onto her boyfriend, also sharing his fear.

"Are you scared too?" The second girl asks, getting close.

"We just want to play." The two little girls say in unison as they close in on the couple.

"Let's go!" Hadley yells out of fear, pulling Kyle back out of the maze.

"Pussies!" Both girls yell before laughing.

Emerson taps the two girls' shoulders, offering both of them a ten-dollar bill with a big smile on her face, "that was the most entertaining thing I've ever seen."

Both of the girls' eyes light up, "thanks," before taking the money and running back off into the corn field.

We continue on a little deeper into the maze, occasional actor popping out here and there, but nothing that scares anyone left in the group but Peyton.

I swear she's amping up her dramatics, clinging to Emerson at every slight thing. It's becoming distracting, seeing her hide her eyes into Emerson's chest to shield them or watching her grab onto her biceps out of fear.

I don't have room to feel scared when all I feel is jealousy.

I try to stay present in the moment but that doesn't happen until we come upon a fork in the path, one with a clown at the entrance, the other with masked 'killer'.