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He folded his hands neatly in front of hietting me a piece of pie?" He raised his brows, the wide-eyedinto his eyes

I tried not to roll e, bent over and pulled out the pie and a bottle of lass ofat uess when it’s the biggest thing in the room, it must be hard not to stare at it

I waited for hiht, innocent flash of straight teeth

I narrowedat my ass?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation His eyes were round and crazy Or playful, if you wanted to use a polite term for crazy

I shookover this tiot out a fork and put a pie slice in front of hi up my neck and onto my cheeks

He didn’t seem bothered by it

"Obviously, I’ll need a napkin too," he said matter-of-factly

"Obviously," I muttered, as I walked over to the drawer and tossed a napkin in front of him I sat back down across from him and eyed him warily

He folded it neatly a few times and then put it into his shirt pocket so it stuck out like a handkerchief Then he dug into his pie, finishing it off in a few mouthfuls He pushed his plate away and wiped hisabout his napkin

He noticed et used to it though, it was hard not to when he was acting sooh God, soanything?" He pointed at me with the fork

"I don’t like pie," I said feebly That wasn’t true, but I don’t knohy I lied

"You don’t like pie? What kind of person doesn’t like pie?" He laughed He reached forward and actually poked htly, but still "You can’t be trusted"

I instinctively batted the fork away from me "You’re the one with the fork"

He opened up my hand and placed the fork in it "Now you have the fork"

He sat back in his chair, looked down at his writing and thoughtfully scratched his sideburns And just like that, it was--

"I just want you to enjoy the pies in life, Perry," he shot in "That’s all"

"I enjoypies," I ed to say I wasn’t about to charm him with my wit, that’s for sure

"Pies are a metaphor," he said quickly He exhaled

Then slammed his fist down on the table The pie plate jumped I jumped I’m pretty sure the twins in the other roo," he barked "Let’s have a concrete plan of action for tonight As much I love to fly by the seat of my pants and shit everywhere, I don’t think we can afford to do that this tiood?"

"Oh God, whatever," I uttered under my breath

"That’s the spirit," hefuriously on the paper I soon realized he was drawing a detailed layout of the lighthouse

"Now there were four levels, right?"

I couldn’t remember "I don’t kno far did you make it before I showed up?"

"Not to the top" He finished the sketch and jabbed at the toith the pen "We’ll be going up there tonight"

So h "events" to keep us in the safer downstairs levels

He pointed to the house part of the building "We’ll also hit up the second floor here now that we have the key And I’d like to get you back into that bedroo what Uncle Al had told me about the dead woman tied to the bed with kelp

"I’ll try," I said "But I’ stupid Got that?"

Dex gave me a quick s I wondered if that was one of his lies

We went on to discuss what equip, what I should say to the camera and where the start and finish rooms were

"We should probably have a safety word too," he said

"A safety word? Like in S&M?"

His eyes flashed, aniht "The safety word is ‘Jell-O’"

God help me if I ever had to say "Jell-O" for any reason

I gave hi roo there, whispering stuff into each other’s ears and giving us the stare down

"Can we help you?" Dex asked

"What’s up, boys?" I added in a ed a quick glance before Matt ca Dex with trepidation