table. Nobody. Fucking. Cares. He sighs like an angry teenager on their period. “Whatever,” he mumbles. “Update me if anything else comes up,” I say before clicking off the phone. I drag in another inhale of smoke and turn my attention to my laptop. The inside of my Mustang is decked out in gadgets. A laptop sits on a platform, a mechanical arm attached to the dash so I can push and pull it towards me for convenience. Dash cams, an alert system for law enforcement, and other illegal shit decorate the interior of my car. I pull the laptop towards me and fire it on. The bright screen stabs at my sensitive eyes. Squinting against the light, I pull up my programs and get to work. In pure curiosity, I want to know who 1s attending this haunted fair. It comes to town every single year, and I’ve never bothered to go. Haunted houses don’t scare me. Not when I see true horror every day. There’s nothing a couple of made-up monsters can do to horrify me more than the actual monsters polluting this world. Humans don’t need to decorate themselves in gory make-up and fake blood to be scary. It’s the insides of us—the darkness that lurks beneath the surface— that’s what’s truly fucking terrifying. That’s what leads people to commit heinous crimes every single day. That’s what leads innocent little kids to die horrific deaths for no fucking reason at all. The insides of us—that’s what keeps me alive. It’s the only purpose I have in life, and without it, I’d be nothing. I scroll through the list of names and stop short when I see one in particular that has my heart pounding. Adeline Reilly. I smile. Well, that used to be my only reason for living. But now... now I’ve discovered a new meaning to life.