Chapter 73: Team Bonding!
The next few minutes were a blur of laughter, teasing, and carefully executed evasion tactics.
Alex had managed to dodge most of the wild rides so far under the flimsy excuse of "keeping watch." It was a line no one bought, but no one challenged either. Maybe out of respect. Maybe out of pity. Maybe because they were waiting for the perfect moment to ambush him.
That moment came courtesy of Isabella.
She turned toward him, the sun catching in her hair, eyes glinting like she had just found a secret weapon. Her smirk was criminal. The kind of expression that made you brace yourself and check your health insurance.
"Time to face your fears, Coach," she said, hands on hips like a villainess in a soap opera.
Alex blinked behind his sunglasses, suspicion blooming instantly. "What fears? I’ve played in derbies with knives practically taped to my ankles."
"Exactly," she replied, reaching for his wrist and tugging him forward. "So a bit of gravity shouldn’t scare you."
The ride loomed ahead like a monument to regret.
It was called Il Vortice di Morte.
Even the name felt like a personal threat. The Vortex of Death. Great. Just great. The kind of rollercoaster that looked like it had a vendetta against spinal cords. The kind of ride UEFA would probably ban on principle alone.
The stairs up to the platform felt like a slow, deliberate walk to the gallows. The metallic clanking beneath their feet, the screeching of the coaster cars returning to the station, and the distant chorus of screams from riders still trapped mid-loop, all of it combined into one long, dreadful symphony of anxiety.