Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

We cruised under the riverbed, past more dark vaults, under the village, across Old Pointe Road, and I spotted the fourth red light ahead, each one signaling a stop, and that one was ours.

I held up my arm, giving them a heads up, and I grabbed the lever, slowing us down little by little, so Kai and Banks didn’t rear end me and cause a pile up.

Pulling to a stop, the brakes screeching under us, I yelled, “Hit the button again!” The railcars came to rest, and we all climbed out, everyone following my lead as we grabbed the red, plastic gasoline containers.

“Are we doing what I think we’re doing?” Kai asked.

But I didn’t answer. They wanted the Cove gone, and they wouldn’t leave me to this on my own. Everyone won. They’d help.

Climbing up onto the platform, we headed through a doo

r and into the tunnels underneath the theme park. When the place was in business, the workers used these tunnels to avoid the crowds if they needed to get across the park, and as ways to operate the animatronics, but everything had been abandoned for years.

I looked left and right, searching for any eyes to be sure. I didn’t want any fatalities or witnesses. The place was empty, though.

“Hey, it’s Rika,” I heard Erika say behind me. “I need you to get to the fire station and borrow an engine. Bring it to the Cove and hook up the hoses. We’ll need it. And hurry.”

There was a pause as whoever on the other end answered her.

“Thank you,” she said and hung up.

I shot a look back to our mayor.

“I can’t commit arson and purposely put civil servants at risk, Will,” she explained. “Lev and David will contain the fire.”

I nodded once. Good thinking. Those two earned enough to do anything we asked them to.

Swinging myself around the railing, I jogged up the stairs and walked through the shop, papers and dust coating the floor as I exited into the park.

The stars dotted the night sky, the sea air tickling my nostrils as we strolled through the park and took in rotting paint and wood and the quiet bumper boats and Ferris wheel.

A lump filled my throat, and my heart pounded like it did when I had her in my truck that night after the game, and like that Devil’s Night I torched all of her hard work and the only presence she had left to torture me with in this town.

I wasn’t sure if she was going to forgive me for this, but I had to do it. I had to know if there was anything beyond this for us.

“Why are we doing this, Will?” Banks asked.

But I was done explaining myself. “Because I said so.”

I was done living in the past. I had an ocean of tomorrows to get busy building, and I was ready to live.

I looked to Michael and Rika. “Take the west side.” Then to Kai and Banks. “Past the swings.”

The four of them ran off to douse as much as they could with the fuel they had, and I walked toward the coast, the pirate ship, and Cold Hill with Alex and Damon.

“Are you sure this isn’t an impulse thing?” Alex asked.

“Are you sure he’s sober?” Damon asked her instead.

“Shut up,” I griped.

I realized that my life decisions could be characterized as questionable, but not every crazy thing I did was because I was drunk.

Just some things.

We all got busy emptying the containers on rides, game booths, and old food stands, keeping our eyes peeled for anyone who wasn’t us, but I just wanted everyone to hurry. I wasn’t going to stop myself. I wanted the challenge of never being able to look back. I wanted the Cove gone.

But that didn’t mean this wasn’t painful.