Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
QUIN
What’s the Siren’s Revenge and should I be scared?
I crack a smile, then type that I’m on my way to rescue him—and he should be very scared. I tuck away my phone and change directions, heading away from the food kiosks and over to the oddball stuff.
The Siren’s Revenge doesn’t have a line, so I head right in through the tall front doors and quickly find myself lost in a house full of distorted mirrors. Despite the freaky mirrors, calming blue lights shine and shimmer like ocean waves, giving the place more of a mystical, magical vibe, and the soothing music that plays over the speakers is full of sweeping, crystalline pads that make the place feel like a new age meditation studio.
“Quin?” I call out as I turn a corner. Two giggling girls appear out of nowhere, exploring the maze themselves, then turn a corner and are gone, their twisted reflections in the mirrors fading into blue light. “Where are you?”
“Adrian?”
I stop.
That wasn’t Quintin.
“Kent …?” I say with no effort to mask my annoyance. “The hell you doing here?”
“I lost Jonah somewhere after corndogs and before the photo booth. Now I’m just wandering around looking for him like an idiot. Have you seen him by chance?”
I sigh to myself. “No.”
“Are you and I talking yet?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
I continue moving through the halls of mirrors, then find myself in an octagonal room. Or at least I think it’s octagonal. I forgot how disorienting this place is. “I’m just here looking for a friend myself. No need to small talk ourselves to death.”
“Who? Finn? He’s in the office with his dad.”
“A new friend.”
“The one you left the party with last night?”
How the hell does he know that? “I’m not talking to you, Kent.” I head toward a way out, only to realize it’s another mirror and abruptly stop before I crash into it. “This fucking place …”
“Lost again?”
“Shut up.”
“I remember when we were kids and you got lost in here,” he goes on, voice smooth as silk, echoing all around me. “You cried like a baby. I had to hunt you down.”
I spot the way out of the octagonal room and head off, only to find myself in the mirrored hall I just came from. “That wasn’t me. That was Skipper.”
“Oh? Are we rewriting history now?”
“I’m not talking to you.” I almost crash into a wall again. Seeing my own irritated face all around me is only succeeding in making me more irritated. All I want to see is Quin, right here, right now.
“I’m not sorry about what I said.”
I roll my eyes as I head the other way. “Great. Kent being an unapologetic dick. Nothing new there.”
“Not trying to be a dick. I’m actually trying to help. Hey, tell me more about this friend of yours. Is Quin his name? Is that the name you called out earlier?”
My phone buzzes again. I stop and give it a look.
QUIN
Okay, apparently we’re not doing the funhouse. Merry-Go-Round instead?
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek, foot tapping on the shiny floor. Merry-Go-Round. I tuck my phone away yet again with renewed determination to find my way out of here. “Well, it’s been nice catching up,” I mutter, making my way back down the hall and taking the correct turn to the outside, “but I’m outta this damned—”
I swing around the corner and stop short, nearly crashing into my brother standing right in front of me, face-to-face.
Kent puts his hands in his pockets and shrugs. “Tell me more about this Quin guy. You into him?”
The last thing I need right now … “We’re not having this conversation.”
“C’mon. If we were on good terms last month when I met Jonah, you would’ve been the first person I talked to about him. Why can’t I be that person for you now?”
“Out of my way, Kent.” I brush past him and make my way to the door, relieved to see the shining lights of the fair pouring inside like glitter.
“Dad’s in town again.”
I stop. My eyes find the floor. “I know.”
“Do you know why he’s here again?”
I shrug. “Guess our old man didn’t get the message the first time that he’s not welcome here anymore.”
“Guess not.”
After a moment, I turn back to him. “Is Skip okay?”
Kent shrugs. “Ask the punk yourself. It’s his birthday tomorrow. Mom’s doing a whole party thing on the beach.”
That catches me off-guard. “Already?? Fuck, didn’t he just turn seventeen?”
“Now he’ll be eighteen in a few hours. And twenty in a few days. Forty in a week. Sixty. Eighty. A hundred by the time someone actually puts a ring on your finger.”
I ignore the taunt. “I’ll be there.”
“Bring your new guy if you want. I’ll keep out of your way.” He lets out a soft chuckle. “Really, at this point, you and I should be joining forces in kicking our dad back off this island for good. Why are we still bickering?”