The Outskirts: The Sky Raiders (Jace x OC)

Part 3

Ham grinned. "You weren't supposed to hear that. Pay it no mind."
I started getting really worried. This guy scared me, and we were looked it the basement with him. The young voice that had yelled had sounded realistic. Either it was, or they were experts.
The curtains at the far side of the area parted and a women came out. She was short and had a stocky build. She had wispy black whiskers above the sides of her mouth. Strands of grey highlighted her tangled black hair. Her clothes looked like layers of tattered rags.
"Last group," she said. "Ansel wants to get going."
"Ansel is the boss." Ham replied.
The women turned her attention to us kids.
"You came here to be scared. What do you know of fear? What do you know of hardship? You come from a soft, fat world full of soft, fat communities that breed soft, fat children. What kind of world celebrates bleakness on its holidays? A world that knows no bleakness. A world where bleakness has become a novelty."
"Is this going to be educational?" Blake sighed with despair.
If I'm being honest, I wanted to smack him.
The women smiled. "I expect it might be very educational. You came here for thrills, boy, and thrills you will have."
"I hope so," Blake said. "These bones are about as scary as a museum."
"If you had any sense, the bones would scare
you plenty," the women said. "The bones are a warning. The bones are trophies. You came here to feel fear, and it is only fair you should be rewarded. Fear can be relative. What frightens one may not frighten another. Take this hunter roach for example."
She held up a brown cockroach the size of a bar of soap. The roach squirmed and hissed, legs wriggling. A pair of long antennae swiveled and twitched. As she held it, the roach curled it's head to repeatedly strike her thumb.
"See it biting me?" The women asked. "On the prairie, you either build up a tolerance to the venom, or you die, would any of you care to hold it?"
Nobody volunteered.
The women shrugged. "To you this critter might seem scary. And maybe it should, because it's venom would burn and fester beneath your skin. Might even kill you. But to me it's a snack." She popped the cockroach in her mouth and chewed. I could hear it crunching. Black juice dribbled from the corner of her lip. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, leaving a faint smeared stain. I gagged. I saw Dalton doing the same. Cole and Jenna looked away disgusted. The woman's eyes were on Blake.
"Scared yet?"
"A little," he said. "That was more gross than scary." I was extremely tempted to smack him upside the head.
The women have a small smile. "You have know idea what lies beyond those curtains. You are all in quite the predicament. Would it scare you to know your time in this world is over? Would it scare you to know that you will never see your family again? Would it scare you to know that all your plans and expectations for what your lives would hold became irrelevant the moment you walked down those stairs?"
"This isn't funny." I said.
"Yeah, Halloween or not, you shouldn't make those kinds of jokes." Jenna said. I could tell everyone else agreed with us. The threats crossed a line that shouldn't be crossed.
The woman nodded. "Your catching on. None of this is funny. You belong to us now. You kids want to be scared?" She raised her voice. "Time to pack up! Tear down the drapes! Let's round up these stragglers and get gone!"
The curtains fell, torn down or hurled aside.
Various men were revealed. A muscular redhead in a leather jacket and buckskin trousers clutched a short metal rod. A pale, lanky man with white hair and bared teeth that had been filed down to cruel triangles.
A few other men were in view, but I was focused on the cages behind the men. The cages were packed with kids in Halloween costumes. They looked defeated. This definitely wasn't a hoax.
Some of the kids in the cages I recognized from school, so they were all from the neighborhood.
One guy charged forward and shoved Blake to the ground. Ham was reaching for Jenna. I swung my candy bag at the lantern. The casing clattered to the floored and shattered.
The room went dark.
Someone pulled me down and I fell under the curtains. I opened my mouth to scream when I realized who it was.
"Shhhh." Cole hissed. We were hidden under the curtains.
A moment later a light came on. Me and Cole tried our best not to move. I peeked out from under the curtain. Our friends were being manhandled into cages. I moved to get up and help them, but Cole pushed me back and shook his head.
Ham tromped up the stairs and knocked three times. The Boo guy opened it.
"We're done." Hame said.
"Good." Boo replied. "Great. I take it your satisfied?"
"You did your part." Ham grunted, handing over a bulging sack. The sound of clinking and rattling was unmistakable. Coins. Gold coins.
Ham was paying the Boo guy for helping capture us.
"Do you need anything else from us?" The boo guy asked.
Ham shook his head. "Just get far away from here. After that the rest is easy. Nobody will be able to follow us. Nobody will see these kids again. They'll soon be forgotten."
Boo saluted them. "A pleasure. Safe travels, happy Halloween." He said and went upstairs and shut the door.