Nathalia tried her best to eat her cotton candy without getting her hands sticky, but it just seemed impossible. Every now and then, the wind would blow her hair in all directions, including the one where the cotton candy was. Besides, she was still carrying the huge plushie around. All this made eating it extremely slow, but she couldn't care less. It wasn't often she could get real cotton candy.
Supermarket cotton candy just didn't feel the same to her.
Beside her walked Darius, who was working on a box of popcorn. At first, she was surprised. She'd never seen him intentionally eat anything unhealthy. But it seemed like he just didn't care about his health at this moment.
He checked his watch before turning to her, "we've got time for one more thing. Is there anything you want to do before we leave?"
Looking around, she scanned the area for things they could do before leaving. Her eyes landed on a dark and dimly lit attraction that read 'Haunted House'. Usually, she was too scared for these kinds of things, but what could go wrong with a literal bodyguard by your side?
When she pointed toward the haunted house his eyebrows rose, but he didn't say anything. As they approached she felt more and more nervous. But she wasn't going to wuss out. But it did make her think, why did she choose this one of all attractions?
It was the kind of haunted house where you'd walk around on your own, while a scary story played out.
As soon as the door closed behind them she regretted her decision. But it was too late now. Ominous music played and a voice over the speaker urged them to walk, but Nathalia couldn't move her feet.
"Can uh-- Can you go first?" She asked Darius, who stood behind her. This earned her a laugh as he walked past her, completely unfazed by the spooky setting.
As she walked behind him she suddenly realized her back was unprotected, which also made her scared. But he could hardly walk in front of her and behind her at the same time. So she chose to keep as close to him as she could without clinging to him like a child. She held her Pikachu plushie in front of her, ready to throw it at whatever she needed to throw it at.
They hadn't been walking for a minute before the first jump scare appeared, earning a loud scream from Nathalia but no reaction from Darius. He just looked at her while she tried to regain her composure. When she'd caught her breath again she saw that he was smirking.
Well at least one of us is enjoying this.
They were lucky the haunted house wasn't popular towards the end of the evening, and they appeared to have it all by themselves. She couldn't hear any screams from other people so she assumed they were the only ones.
When she suddenly heard a loud bang from her left, she couldn't take it anymore. Deciding she just didn't care anymore, she grabbed Darius's jacket and clung to it for her dear life. Despite the fact it didn't provide her any additional protection it made her feel safer.
"You good?" he asked more amusedly than concerned.
"Yes, I'm just holding on so... so I won't get lost. I can't see that well in the dark, you know? It's easier this way." The last thing Nathalia wanted to do right now was to admit to him that she was scared.
She was so close to him now she could smell his cologne. She couldn't quite pinpoint the smell but it was manly and by now she associated it with him. The first time she'd been made aware of it was when he'd given her his jacket just before the power outage a few weeks ago. She had even dreamt of the smell once or twice.
She was so preoccupied with his smell she hadn't noticed they were in a completely different room now until the door closed behind them. The room was dimly lit and foggy. It was decorated like a graveyard while a voice over the speaker talked about some ghost hauntings in the late 1800s.
Darius had stopped moving, something Nathalia didn't appreciate as she wanted to get out of the haunted house as fast as she could.
"Darius, can we move on?" she whispered. Somehow it felt inappropriate to talk loudly in a graveyard, even if it was a fake one.
"Sure love, as soon as you tell me where the door is."
Sure enough, there didn't seem to be a door in sight. Even the one they'd come through seemed to have disappeared completely.
How she didn't start completely panicking at that moment was beyond her, but it might have had something to do with her tight grasp on Darius. But she still wanted to get out as soon as possible.
"Alright maybe it's an escape room?" she suggested.
"I've never seen an escape room in a Haunted house, kat," he sighed while he walked around the room, his hand feeling up the ridges of the walls.
"I've never been to a haunted house before," she said as she followed him.
"Color me surprised," he said in the least surprised voice ever as he stopped.
They stood in front of a wall that seemed to be made of old stones. Darius's hand was on one stone that protruded further out than the rest and he looked down at her.
"Have you ever seen Indiana Jones?" he asked while he pushed the stone into the wall and a door popped open. A spooky voice over the speakers complimented them on solving his riddle, which Nathalia hadn't even heard because she was too engrossed in sniffing Darius's jacket.
Behind the door was a staircase, and Darius went up without hesitation. Paranoid something or someone would follow them up the stairs Nathalia kept looking back until they were at the very top. The staircase ended at the roof of the attraction. Compared to the other rooms it was relatively sparsely decorated, which came as a relief.
From where they stood they had a nice view of the Carnival as a whole, and they decided to hang around on the roof for a while. The attraction they stood on was actually a few stories high, and she wondered if the roof part was the last part of it.
"You know, my parents used to take me to carnivals like this one when I was younger." She smiled at the memory. "We'd stay until it got dark and I'd fall asleep in the car. Then my dad would carry me to bed, even if I did wake up."
She looked back at Darius who leaned on the railing beside her, giving her his full attention.
"They've been gone for many years now, but I've got these great memories to hold on to. They'll always be with me this way, I can feel it."
Darius just nodded but didn't say anything. He didn't have to.
"I haven't really had the opportunity to go to a carnival like this since they've been gone, but I wanted to. So badly. And I know you told me to stop thanking you but I'm really grateful. I'm grateful you took me here but I'm also grateful for you. You make me feel normal and I- I'm just really glad you're my bodyguard and not someone else. And I... I--"
She didn't know where she was going with that last sentence, but she never got to finish it. Before she knew it his lips were on hers and the world stopped.
He was all she could feel right now, his impossibly soft lips, his hand on the back of her neck, his tongue against hers. She put her hands on his chest which seemed to radiate heat, despite it being a chilly evening. She couldn't breathe, but who needed oxygen?
Darius groaned as he deepened the kiss even more. He pulled her flush against him, causing her to slide her hands to his sides and downwards. Finding the hem of his shirt, she moved her hands up against his rock solid abs.
It felt as if all the tension from the past few weeks had been leading up to this moment, building up the pressure until it had no way but to explode like this. She'd never thought that when people said they'd feel sparks during a kiss, they meant it. It was the best way to describe what she was experiencing right now.
But the moment came crashing down when a scary murder clown turned the corner and screamed at them before running off again.
Nathalia was sure she'd never screamed as loud as she had done at that moment, while Darius just glared at the clown. Way to ruin her perfect moment.
But it also gave her a moment of clarity, making her realize he'd kissed her and this time she wasn't even dreaming. She looked back at him only to find him staring at the ground down below. by now the clown had disappeared again, leaving them alone on the roof. Picking up the plushie she didn't remember dropping she turned to him.
"Darius?" she asked tentatively.
"Let's get back."