"What's the surprise?" Sam chirped from the back of the car, but Wade ignored him.

He'd been asking this question every five minutes like clockwork ever since he and Violet had picked him up from school that afternoon. At first, he'd thought that their dinner at the diner had been surprise enough, but now that the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, Wade could practically feel the excitement radiating off the little boy.

"I have to admit, I'm getting a little curious myself," Violet said. As usual, she'd sat in the back of the car with Sam while only occasionally reaching over the car's center console to a switch the radio station.

"We're almost there," Wade said, and when he turned, he grinned at his own genius.

This, he knew, was the perfect plan, and when he parked the park beside the rest of the trucks and sedans in the grass, he gave them both a satisfied smile. "We're here."

Violet looked out the window, then back at him without unbuckling her seatbelt. "We're at Travis Bennet's farm."

"I know that." He nodded.

"This is part of the festival," she said blankly.

"I know that, too. I sometimes listen when you talk, you know."

"But," she blinked, then stared out the window again. "You hate town stuff."

"But you and Sam don't," he countered. "Now, come on. We're going to be late."

"For the hay bale maze?" she asked.

"What? No. That's for little kids."

"We do have a little kid." She gestured to Sam who frowned at the insinuation.

"I don't have my compass," Sam said. "I can't do the maze."

"That's good because we're not doing the maze."

"But if we're not doing the maze, then..." Violet stared out the window again, horror plain on her face. "No. That is not appropriate. We are not taking Sam on a haunted hayride. He's seven."

"Exactly. I loved that stuff when I was his age and you know he likes scary movies."

"He likes--" Violet began to splutter, but Sam interrupted her.

"I'm not scared by fake blood and people in masks. I think it'll be fun. Come on, Violet."

"I don't see what the harm in just going through the maze is," Violet countered.

"You're doing this because you're scared." Wade practically laughed, but Violet balked at the suggestion.

"I'm not scared. How dare you--"

"You're not worried about Sam. I see your face when we watch Halloween movies. You're scared of the Hayride."

"I don't see how that matters," she shot back, though he knew he'd touched a nerve.

"It won't be scary, Violet,” Sam said. “I'll tell you how everything works and we'll get through it together. How does that sound?"

Violet looked down at the little boy, then at herself. "I'm in a skirt. I shouldn't"

"Are you coming or what?" Wade hopped out of the car, then opened Sam's passenger side door and pulled him onto the ground. Then, moving quickly, he went around the car and opened Violet's door, too.

When her gaze met his, he was all too aware of the anxiety behind her eyes, but he held out his hand all the same. "Come on, Violet. Sam and I will protect you."

She glanced down at his outstretched hand and, for a moment, he expected her to reach out and close the door in his face. Instead, however, she unbuckled herself and took his hand, allowing him to lead her to the line of people waiting for their turn on the hayride.

As soon as she was out of the car, she pulled her hand away from his, but he pretended not to notice. The important thing was that she was on board.

* * *

Waiting in line gave Violet plenty of time to consider all the things she'd done wrong in her life. The worst of her fashion choices, the worst of her boyfriends, and still, after all the crimped hair and would-be rock stars, she couldn't help but think that this moment still ranked in her top ten.

Beside her, Sam jabbered on about Houdini and all the different books he'd read and shows he'd seen on Halloween tricks, but she only nodded, half listening, as she watched group after group of people climb onto the farm's overlarge tractor and disappear into the night. In the distance, she could hear shrieks and screams, and occasionally Sam laughed at these, while she shivered her own revulsion.

"I'm sure you've done something scarier than this before," Wade said and she stared at him blankly.

"Nope."

"Come on, you never saw a movie that scared you?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "Never. In fact, I was too scared of some Pokemon to even go see the Pokemon movie."

"So...no Silent Hill? No Nightmare on Elm Street?"

"I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I've never even seen The Nightmare Before Christmas."

"Oh, that's a good one," Sam piped in.

"Maybe I should just go wait in the car, guys." She said, and then she heard the gentle crunching of the leave on the ground and the whirr of a motor. The tractor was coming, and they were the next group in line. It was now or never.

"Look, I'm just going to--" she said, but Wade reached out and took her hand again.

She hated herself for it, but a thrill of pleasure raced through her at his touch, and she swallowed hard as their eyes met.

"You can do this, Violet. I'll be right next to you." Wade’s deep voice rumbled through every cell in her body.

"All aboard who's coming aboard," the man at the helm of the tractor, who she recognized through his scarecrow makeup as one of the men who frequently sat around the diner on Sunday afternoons, motioned for them to climb into the bed of the tractor. Not waiting for help, Sam clambered up the rickety metal steps and sat at the very front of the wagon. With a deep breath, she nodded at Wade and followed suit.

The hay pricked at the backs of her thighs as she sat down and placed a protective arm around Sam's shoulders. Closing her eyes, she reminded herself that they were in her town with the people she loved and knew most. This was all just for fun and nobody was actually going to hurt her.

But, just as soon as the thought entered her mind, the smell of crisp, cool, and expensive cologne overpowered the musty scent of the straw and she blinked her eyes open to find Wade sitting closely beside her. She glanced over at him, wondering how to ask him to move a little farther away, but before she had the chance to speak, the tractor lurched forward and they were rolling through the field, the twinkle lights of the hayride line growing dimmer and dimmer as the shrieking in the distance grew louder.

"When I was younger, my sister forced me on one of these when I thought I was too scared to go," Wade's hot breath brushed her ear and she shivered again as a new kind of warmth flooded her.

"That sounds cruel and unusual," Violet shot back, and when she turned to look at him she found that his face was only inches from her own, so close that she could practically feel the heat of his body radiating off of him.

She craned back a little, her heart suddenly beating even faster than before, but Wade didn't seem to notice. He only shrugged and said, "It's okay to be scared. If you want, you can just close your eyes and I'll tell you when it's over."

"No," she said, hardly thinking. "I'm not a baby. I'll be fine."

"Alright, but just so you know, I think it's about to start."

She swiveled around, following his gaze until she saw little dots of color around the edges of the trees in the distance. Her heart pounded into her throat, and she squeezed Sam in closer beside her, but he bustled against her hold on him.

"It's just some of the people from town. Look, that's the pastor right there." Sam stuck his arm out of the safety of the wagon to point at a man whose skin seemed to have been ripped away from his face. In fact, every person who leered at them and crept in from all sides seemed to have had the same horrible accident. A few of them even had teeth protruding from their cheeks.

"Can't you go any faster?" She asked the scarecrow at the helm, but a grating jerk of the stick shift was his only response.

"Relax, Violet. It's just make-up," Sam reminded her, and she focused her energy on keeping his words in mind. It wasn't easy, though. It was so dark, and she could hardly see the people moving toward her save for the glistening blood of their make-up. The barn was impossible to see, and even if she wanted to hop out and make a run for safety, the car was too far away now.

Maybe if she could just find a tire iron, she could...

But that was ridiculous. This was all make-believe. All make-up.

Who the hell in Sapphire Falls knew how to do make-up like that, though? And if they knew how to do make-up so well, then why did the mother Mary in the Nativity play always look so pasty?

She shivered. "Right. You're right, Sam."

The wagon gave another little lurch and she bounced on the hay as they sped off, closer to the woods.

"You can still close your eyes if you need to," Wade's deep voice sounded in her ear.

"Do...do you promise to tell me when it's over?" She stammered, but as Wade nodded, the wagon jerked again and the Scarecrow turned to face them.

"The tractor's broken down, you'll have to go the rest of the way on foot."

"But...but it's a haunted hayride. I thought the whole thing was that you're, you know, riding." Violet protested, but the man ignored her.

"There's a path through the trees that should be safe enough. Now hurry before--"

Something loud and guttural sounded behind them. The zombies were still moving closer, and now one had an axe in his hand, his eyes gleaming with dark intent.

"I did not sign on for--" She started, but then Sam hopped out of the wagon and sprinted off through the trees. "Sam! Wait!" She yelled after him, and, unthinking, sprinted from the back of the wagon herself. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, but it was no use, by the time she'd made it through the line of trees and onto the dark path, Sam was already gone.

"He'll be okay," Wade said from behind her and she spun on her heel to find him standing there, his hands in his pockets. "But we should keep going." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "The zombies overtook the wagon driver."

Violet blinked. "But Sam--"

"Knows every single person working here tonight. He'll be perfectly fine and you will too, but if you know what's good for you, you should probably take my coat. You're shivering." He shrugged out of his jacket, and then handed it to her.

Not breaking eye contact, she slid the coat over her shoulders, forcing herself not to notice the way his cool, crisp scent lingered on the fabric.

"Right. Well. I guess we'd better just keep going. We're probably already half-way done."

"Probably," Wade nodded, and somewhere in the trees behind him, a wolf let out a long, loud cry.

Another chorus of screams rose up from somewhere in front of them, and it was with a great effort that Violet forced herself to walk again. For a while, there was nothing but darkness, marked occasionally by backlit signs with arrows on them and blood smeared over the light. No, not blood. Fake blood.

All of this was fake.

"How are you holding up?" Wade asked.

"Other than being in my own personal nightmare?" she said. "And Sam deciding to just run off? I'm swell. I just--"

She screamed, though she still wasn't sure how she'd managed to do it. From somewhere unseen, a withered, rotting hand had reached out to her and a low, long cackle had sounded from something or someone unseen. She reeled around, trying to catch her breath, but as soon as she saw the shadow of a hooded figure, she was sprinting through the trees as quickly as she could, not caring about the lights, sights, or sounds around her.

It was only from the thud of heavy footsteps that she knew Wade was keeping pace, and just as she'd begun to run out of breath, he moved ahead of her, leading her into a clearing with rolling fog and wide, tall gravestones.

"Oh shit," she murmured, forcing herself to keep going, but she couldn't see the ground below her in the fog, and with one false move her shoe had caught on something and she was toppling to the earth, her arms flailing to all sides.

She braced herself, ready for the cool earth and then the grasping, needy hands of the zombies that would inevitably feast on her flesh, but instead she collided with something hard and heavy, and when she looked up, it was to find Wade staring up at her.

She took a deep breath, suddenly more aware of the heat of his body and the hard plane of his muscles than the terror of their surroundings, but before she had a chance to do anything about it, something popped up from the grave farthest from them. Something covered in cobwebs and leaves and reaching for something that it could not see.

Her eyes widened, and she froze, her scream caught in her throat, but then Wade was pulling her to her feet, grasping her by the hand and leading her out of the clearing as one after another of these horrifying monsters unearthed themselves from the grave.

Wade squeezed her hand, and somehow the warmth and strength of his grasp settled her. As they hurtled through one terrifying ordeal after the other, she focused on his hand, the protection she felt there, the power and the trust.

When they came to the end of the path, she wasn't sure if they'd been gone minutes or hours, but she knew for sure that she was never, ever doing anything like that again.

Still, she was too grateful to be in a well-lit safe space to do much of anything other than breathe a sigh of relief and search for Sam.

"That kid is in so much trouble," she said, and, turning to Wade, she looked down to find that she still held his hand in hers. Quickly, she pulled away and cleared her throat.

"If he ever runs off like that again, I'll--"

"He won't. I'll make sure of it," Wade said.

A beat of silence stretched between them, and as Violet looked up into his eyes, she remembered with a jolt the way his body had felt against hers. How strong and powerful and commanding he had been.

"You owe me so much," she said, hoping he didn't note the slight shake in her voice.

"The way I see it, I saved you back there. You're the one who owes me."

"Oh, is that right?" She raised her eyebrows as he lobbed a mocking smile at her.

"Yep, that's right." He took a step toward her and, not for the first time that night, her heartbeat ratcheted up another ten points. Before he said a word, though, she heard a familiar, thoughtful voice behind her.

"That was fun. Thanks, Uncle Wade."

She spun to find Sam walking toward them, a piece of candy in his hand.

"Where did you get that? You know what, it doesn't matter. You are in so much trouble, young man." Violet said, then took him by the hand and led him toward the car without another look at Wade.