Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I’m not letting you guys go in there alone,” Sienna returned. “She’s my friend too.”
“No one stays behind.” Bane tossed Sienna a gun that she fumbled, squawking as the thing bounced from palm to palm. “We need all the firepower we can get.”
“Point and shoot, Bestie,” Sunny told Sienna. He pulled me close even as he put a gun in my hand too. “Point and shoot.”
“Guys, are we sure about this?” I voiced it because I had to. Someone had to. “Bursting in there guns blazing. Won’t that put Genny in danger?” I wasn’t sure Sunny, Liam, or Bane heard me as they fanned around the peeling cardinal-painted double doors. “You’re the ones who told me you don’t bust in blind to an assassin’s lair.”
“And you’re the one who said Genny offered herself up to these bastards knowing they held all the cards.” Liam’s eyes were hard. “Besides, we’re not going in blind.”
My lips parted to ask what he meant when he jerked his chin at Bane.
“Let’s go.”
Bane busted in the doors, running in gun up with Sunny and Liam bolting inside after him. I threw my arm up, holding Sienna back until I heard—
“It’s clear,” Bane called. “Come in.”
Slowly, Sienna and I did. We crept in—me holding the gun up and steady, and her rattling the weapon like a jumping bean as her hands shook.
We entered the darkened, gloomy space, and a chill went up my spine. It wasn’t because it was old—because it was that. And it wasn’t because the movie theater was abandoned—because it was that too.
I shivered because it was... wrong.
Old, faded, moldy horror movie posters hung in their lighted display cases. Upturned buckets of popcorn littered the floor as if their owners had suddenly dropped them in their haste to leave. Spread out beneath my boots, the worn burgundy carpet boasted a strange, swirling, repeating design that vaguely formed the shape of an eyeball.
“Sunny, stay with Mackenzie and Sienna,” I heard Liam say.
I frowned, drawing closer to the movie posters.
“Bane and I will check the theaters.”
I opened my mouth. “Guys—”
“You won’t need to,” Sienna said, dropping her gun.
“You see it too,” I rasped as she fell in next to me.
Sienna nodded, lips trembling as she stared where I stared.
“What?” Liam cried, running over. “See what?”
“The posters.” I pointed. “Why are they lit up? Why pay the electric bill for this dead, abandoned place only to light up these posters, and why these five posters? They’re all horror movies.”
Bane and Sunny slowly lowered their guns, coming over to see what I was talking about, but I could tell by the looks on their faces that understanding wasn’t dawning.
“The monsters,” I hinted. “The monsters or the evil that was fought in these movies. Do you see?”
“You’re going to have to help me out, gorgeous,” Sunny said. “I don’t watch horror movies.”
“Me either,” said Liam.
“Same,” Bane agreed.
That mildly surprised me but it probably shouldn’t. Their lives were already steeped in blood, gore, violence, and the evil of mankind. Of course they didn’t want to deal with it in their off-time.
“Okay, well then, I’m sorry,” I said softly, squeezing Sunny’s hand, “but in Pan’s Labyrinth, there’s a monster who’s uniquely known for having eyes on his hands, not his face.” I pointed to the next poster. “In that movie, everyone is under attack by a large swarm of killer bees.”
“In this one,” Sienna said, taking over. “The main guy is tormented by horrible, gruesome visions until he loses his mind and kills himself. And in this one”—Sienna’s hand fell on the case holding a sinister poster of a wickedly grinning woman—“there’s a family of doppelgangers who are secretly killing their counterparts one by one and taking over their lives.”
“That’s right. So if we put all that together, we have...” My shaking finger moved through the air. “Eye. Bee. See. And—”
“You,” Sunny rasped, his knuckles whitening on the gun handle. “I’ll be seeing you.” And then Sunny shuddered too, feeling the same creepy wrongness in this space that I felt immediately.
“I’ll be seeing you?” Liam repeated, his gun slowly coming up and leveling at the posters like he wanted to blow away their disturbing message. “Are you sure? It could be coincidence.”
“I don’t think so.” Sienna backed away, slipping her hand in mine. “It’s like my sister said. Why waste money running electricity to this building just to keep these poster lights on?”
“They’re running electricity to this building because it’s their hideout.” Bane whipped around, eagle eyes scanning the gloom. “They’re here somewhere according to the tracker. We need to spread out and look for any sign of them.”
“Yeah,” Sunny agreed, although he didn’t look away from the posters. “For all we know, our folks put these posters up. Not those bastards. Plus, I didn’t see Get Out and even I know the bad guys in that movie were a bunch of racist, body-jacking shitheads,” he said, speaking of the final poster. “How does that fit into their message?”