Kiss Of Death (Are You Afraid Of The Dark)

22

"Quinton is the Devil?" Adam asked again, a frown on his freckly face. The firelight flickered across his face, casting an otherworldly glow on him. 

Louise, Adam, and Rachel were all sitting by the fire, warming up from the freezing cold they had been living in since they all got there. Adam had built a small shelter for all of them to hide under that was as close to the fire as possible so they wouldn't get attacked by any of the creatures that lived in the Land of Scary Stories. Well, Rachel and Louise built it while Adam directed them. For right now, the three of them were safe together. Rachel couldn't have been happier.

"Yeah, he is," Rachel said with a satisfactory nod. "The same one who Marcus Cochran sold his soul to. At least, that's what I assumed from his little speech to me right before he kissed me."

"Wait, slow down," Louise said with a wave of her hands. She glanced over at Rachel. "He kissed you? Are you and Gavin still together?"

"He just kissed me on the cheek, and Gavin and I are definitely still together. I think," Rachel said, flustered. Maybe her insomnia was making her lose her mind a little because she definitely shouldn't have said that to them. Or maybe it was this place making her say the wrong things to bring out the worst in people. "That's not the point, though. Quinton is the one behind all of this. He left little cards with our pictures on them and the words 'kiss of death' on them along with a picture forming in the background of our portraits."

"I didn't see anyone when I disappeared," Adam said. He leaned his elbows on his knees and was resting his head in his hands like he was so exhausted from this place and its terrors. "All I remember doing is writing down my greatest fear in my journal, hearing a piano melody in my head, and then ending up here."

"The same thing happened for me, but I told everyone my greatest fear," Louise said with a nod.

"That must be how Quinton got all of us to disappear," Rachel said slowly. She pictured everything that had happened, all the disappearances and the circumstances surrounding them. It seemed like every single time that one of them disappeared, they talked about their worst fear. "This realm that we're trapped in is called the Land of Scary Stories where all evil things appear here, like our nightmares. Quinton must have gotten us to reveal our greatest secrets to make us the most vulnerable we have ever been in our lives."

"But why would he want us?" Adam asked. His voice sounded so stretched thin. It must have been taking a toll on him spending this much time in the Land of Scary Stories. "Why target us again?"

"None of us figured that out before we were all taken by Quinton," Rachel answered softly. She stared deep into the orange fire, wishing she could find all the answers to the questions in her mind. The only thing that she saw was the sparks dancing around the edge of the bricks, getting closer and closer to their little lean-to. "We weren't in Argento anymore because Akiko's brother kept trying to get ahold of us. Besides, my mom kept trying to contact me. It was way too dangerous in Argento for us to stay there, so we went to a random town in Washington. That's where the rest of us disappeared without finding out any answers."

"So much happened while we were gone," Louise said, shaking her head. She pulled her shirt closer to her body like she was still freezing and couldn't stay warm for the life of her. "How long has it been since we disappeared?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I wasn't really sleeping much, so all the days are meshing together in my head. I know it had been longer than two days, though, because we took a trip to find someone else from the Midnight Society in the nineties, and we also took a trip to Henryville. We also tried to do a magical spell with Sardo, so that could have been a third day."

"A magical spell with who now?" Adam asked.

"Sardo, someone the Shadow Bay group knows," Rachel told him. "He's a magician as well as knower of all things ghostly." Louise had a thoughtful look on her face. She looked over at Rachel, who frowned at her in return. "What's going through your mind, Louise?" 

"I think I've heard of that name, Sardo," she whispered, blinking a couple of times. Rachel stared at her. "Before any of this started happening to us, I was looking for inspiration for one of my stories online." She took a deep breath. "I stumbled upon this random website that had so many scary stories on there. I swear that I remember reading about a Sardo on there."

She wanted to continue talking about Sardo, but an idea struck her brain like a lightning bolt. "It seems like it was so easy for the three of us to find each other," Rachel whispered suddenly. She glanced over at her friends to find them both already watching her. Both of them had similar looks of confusion on their faces, like they couldn't believe she was thinking about the cons to their situation. "I feel like I've been wandering around this place forever, and I found the both of you within minutes of each other. Doesn't that sound way too easy?"

"We shouldn't focus on that right now," Louise said. Her voice was hard and determined, like she was ready to fight all the monsters in Rachel's head and the monsters around them. "We found each other. Now, we need to find the rest of our friends. That's what we need to focus on."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea."

Rachel looked over at Adam with a frown on her face. Why in the world did he suddenly sound like an old man? He had a scared look on his face, which meant that he didn't say that like she had originally thought. Louise was watching something ahead of them, something that Rachel really couldn't see. But it still scared her.

"The name's Dr. Vink," the crazy old man said with a wide grin, stepping in front of them. His wild hair swayed in the breeze that blew around them, and shadows danced across his face. Rachel, Adam, and Louise were trapped in their lean-to with a strange man. They had nowhere left to turn. "I'm a man of many interests. Do you three like movies? What about soup?"

"Dr. Fink?" Adam asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"Dr. Vink," the man said, "with a vuhh, vuhh, vuhh." He stared expectantly at all of them. Rachel had no idea what to do. He didn't seem like such a bad guy, but there was something off about him. He took a step closer to them, saying, "My cottage is just around the next tree if you want to visit it. I have a lot of curios there that children like you would love to see, and you guys can solve riddles there, too. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"We need to run," Louise whispered to them, barely moving her mouth. She didn't want that crazy old man to understand her. "We can easily break down our little hut and run."

"On three," Rachel whispered. "One, two, three."

"He was on that website, too," Louise said as the three of them started running together. "I vividly remember reading about him and his eccentric tendencies."

"That's good that you know about him, but we all need to focus on running right now," Rachel told her.

"I am not a nutbag!" the crazy old man shouted behind them.

"Follow me," Adam said quickly. The only way Rachel could see him was because of his bright orange hair. "I've learned my way around this place since I've been here the longest. Try to keep up or else we're going to lose each other."

Rachel grabbed onto his shirt before he got away from them. She felt Louise do the same thing to her. As long as they kept hold to each other, she knew they would make it out of this place alive. Now, they only had to find the rest of their friends and figure out how to get out of here together. They were even closer to getting rid of this wretched curse once and for all.