Becca bit her lip before answering, her fingers wrapped tightly around the ladder rungs as she climbed. “Oh yeah, that,” she finally answered, a fresh sweat breaking out over her forehead. “The answer is clowns.”

“Clowns?” her friends called out all together, their voices laced with the beginnings of panic.

“Clowns are absolutely terrifying,” Miguel agreed. “Geez, Becca, why couldn’t you have been afraid of, like, puppies?”

Becca burst out into nervous laughter as she finally finished the climb to the attic. Looking around, her eyes took a few minutes to adjust. The room was large, with thick beams that stretched diagonally over the ceiling. It was even dustier than the living room—dust bunnies and cobwebs gathered in massive clumps over the floor and corners of the room. There were a few boxes scattered here and there, unmarked and in piles.

“Does it make anyone else nervous that the only thing included in the clue was the question about what Becca was afraid of?” Miguel said. “If the Game Master is hiding up here dressed in a clown suit, I’m going to freak out.”

“Uh, so would I.” Frankie nodded as they stood up, finally able to see enough. “Hey, Danny, maybe you could turn on the light from your camera.”

“It’s like you read my mind,” Danny said, flipping the switch and standing to join Frankie. “Let’s check out the attic, then.”

Kylie, Miguel, and Matt joined Danny and Frankie, but Becca lingered behind, anxiously scratching at her arms as she looked around the room with darting eyes. She thought that Miguel was probably joking about the Game Master hiding up here dressed like a clown, but the very thought scared Becca so much it made it hard to walk.

She thought about the first time she realized she was horrified of clowns. Her parents had taken her to the county fair, and she’d insisted that she was big enough to go through the funhouse all by herself. They tried to talk her out of it, but she’d always been headstrong, and she assured them over and over that she’d be fine.

When they finally agreed to let her go inside, she couldn’t have been more excited. She went through the shake house and the bouncy bridge without issue. But then she’d found herself in the mirror maze, surrounded by endless reflections of herself, and kept accidentally walking into the trick walls. Apparently, the people running the ride were able to see Becca struggling on the security camera and sent someone in to help lead her out.