Chapter 25: Thinking of Her Again
As soon as they stepped inside, Mia let out a scream when a creepy character suddenly jumped out at her.
“Chloe, Chloe, help me!” she shrieked, grabbing Chloe’s hand and dragging her forward in a panic. Chloe barely had time to react.
Meanwhile, behind them, Julian heard someone call out Chloe’s name. He paused, frowning as he tried to make sense of it. He scanned the area ahead but saw nothing. Confused, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Layla, however, was too focused on her own fear to notice Julian’s distraction. She clung tightly to his arm, clearly terrified.
“Darling, I’m so scared! You’ll protect me, right?” she whimpered, looking up at him.
Her voice snapped Julian out of his thoughts. He nodded absently, but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. The haunted house was dark, with occasional flashes of red and green light, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Layla clung to Julian as if her life depended on it, terrified of moving ahead alone. When a ghostly figure jumped out in front of them, Layla screamed loudly, holding onto Julian even tighter.
“Darling, is the ghost gone?” she asked, pressing herself against him with her eyes squeezed shut.
Julian gently patted her back. “It’s fine, it’s gone.”
But as he walked through the haunted house, Julian couldn’t understand why people found it so terrifying. The decorations were obviously fake, and the makeup on the actors was exaggerated to the point of being laughable. To him, it was all ridiculous.
Other people might be frightened, but Chloe would never have been scared of something like this.
Unknowingly, Julian’s thoughts drifted back to Chloe.
He didn’t understand why, but even though he had been determined to break up with her, he found himself thinking about her more and more since they’d separated.
“Darling?” Layla called out, noticing the distant look in Julian’s eyes. She saw something dark pass over his face but couldn’t decipher what it was.
“Let’s keep moving,” Julian said, pulling her along.
All around them, people were screaming and running from the ghosts. Mia had tried to psych herself up before entering the haunted house, telling herself she wouldn’t be scared. But once inside, the eerie decorations and makeup had spooked her badly. She ran wildly ahead, leaving Chloe behind.
At first, Chloe tried to keep up, but Mia was running so fast that Chloe couldn’t catch her. Sometimes, Chloe found the situation amusing. Mia was the one terrified, yet she was the fastest to escape, running as if her life depended on it.
As Chloe had suspected, Mia ended up sprinting all the way to the exit. Unfortunately, the exit was limited to a certain number of people, and once Mia rushed out, the door closed behind her, leaving Chloe to find another way out.
Chloe sighed in resignation. If she had known it would turn out like this, she wouldn’t have entered in the first place.
Now, Chloe had to find another exit. As she wandered through the maze–like haunted house, she
Chapter 25: Thinking of Her Again
encountered one of the actors playing a ghost, his white eyes staring at her. He tried to scare her, but Chloe remained unfazed. Instead, she reached out and adjusted his wig for him.
The actor stood there, stunned.
2/2
There were three exits, but the haunted house was so poorly lit that Chloe found herself going in circles. The eerie atmosphere didn’t bother her, but the fact that she couldn’t find the right exit was frustrating.
After walking in circles for a while, Chloe couldn’t help but sigh. This place wasn’t a haunted house for her; it was a maze. And to make matters worse, all the exits looked the same.
Just as she was considering giving up, an alarm suddenly blared throughout the building. Chloe was caught off guard–had she really just jinxed herself by thinking about an emergency?
As soon as the alarm went off, panic spread among the crowd. People started rushing toward the exits, fearing something serious might be happening. Chloe instinctively stepped aside to avoid the crowd, but she was eventually pushed along by the panicked masses.
There were too many people, and the space was too confined. Chloe’s breathing became labored, so she slowed down and moved to a less crowded area. Soon, she found herself almost alone as most people
had fled.
The alarm had brought more light to the surroundings, and Chloe spotted a sign indicating the way to the exit. She followed it and reached the final checkpoint, but from there, she heard the noise of a bottlenecked crowd, stuck at the main exit.
Chloe hesitated, wondering if she should join the crowd or keep searching for another way out. Just as she was about to decide, another group of people pushed past her, leaving her with no choice but to follow them.
The place was too crowded. Someone bumped into her, slamming her against a wall. Chloe winced at the pain, taking a sharp breath. As she regained her composure, she felt someone staring at her.
Instinctively, she looked up–and locked eyes with Julian.
Chloe, looking slightly disheveled, seemed tired and overwhelmed. Julian’s initial reaction was a mix of concern and anger. Was she being reckless? How could she not protect herself in such a crowded place? And he hadn’t misheard earlier–someone had indeed called her name.
Despite their breakup, it seemed Chloe was doing just fine, even enjoying herself in a haunted house. Clearly, life after him wasn’t so bad for her.
Layla, who had also spotted Chloe, became visibly anxious. She clung even tighter to Julian, afraid that he might go over to her.
But Chloe didn’t acknowledge them. She acted as if she hadn’t seen them at all and quickly disappeared into the crowd, heading for the exit.
Chapter 26: An Olive Branch
