Haunted House

Blood. There was blood spattered everywhere as I ran through the hallway. A mutated spider dropped in front of me and I screamed. Spiders had always been my trigger, why would my friends leave me in here? A ghost clanked behind me, dragging its chains.

“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” a skeleton chattered as I ran past. So much blood. The exit was up ahead, spilling light into the otherwise dark space. A lady with sunken eyes stood in front of the door.

“Come here, my dearie,” she cackled.

“Not a chance, I yelled back, and darting into the outside. I panted, looked behind me, and laughed.

“Whooh!” I cheered. The sunken eyed lady came out and pulled off her mask. It was my best friend, Anna.

“Jaime, your scream when you saw that spider was amazing! I caught it on tape so we could use it as a part of the soundtrack. This is the one thing we were needing!” another one of my friends, Sarah, said as she jogged up to me.

“Yeah, man, it was great!” said Anna. Sarah was the master of special effects, like making the skeleton laugh on cue, or make you feel as though a chained ghost was following you. Anna was in charge of dressing up as a creepy lady and buying the spiders and skeletons. Me? I had the important job of being the guinea pig. I would be welcoming kids into the house as soon as we had perfected everything. Except for my glorious scream, it was done.

“I’m going to run in and put this tape where it needs to be,” said Sarah. Me and Anna watched her run off to work her SFX magic. We waited a few minutes for her to come back. A shrill scream that wasn’t mine came ringing out from the decrypt house. We rushed past skeletons and ghosts to find Sarah staring blankly at the wall across from her.

“Sarah? Are you okay?” Anna asked tentatively. Sarah turned towards us in a slow, unnatural motion.

“Sarah is dead,” she rasped, “There is only me.”

“Okay Sarah, tricks over,” I laughed. Sarah wasn’t much of a prankster, but this totally felt like a prank. Sarah didn’t move.

“Only me,” she repeated in the same raspy monotone.

“J-Jaime?” Anna stuttered, “I don’t think that is fake.” Sarah’s eyes still looked empty, hollow, as if someone had killed her and inhabited her body. Sarah wasn’t that good of an actor, either. She must be possessed.

“Snap out of it,” I yelled at Sarah. She turned towards me. I looked back at her in fear. Slowly, she grinned.

“Man, I had you fooled!” she exclaimed. Anna let out a nervous laugh. Sarah’s eyes still looked hollow.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she answered. We left and put out a sign declaring the house open. Kids began flooding in. Almost instantly, sounds of screams rang through the night. Kids ran and stumbled out the other side.

“It’s a hit,” Sarah told me, smiling. I smiled too. I had basically forgotten about Sarah’s prank when a kid came running up to us, looking panicked.

“My brother’s in there. He’s staring at the wall and won’t move!” The kid practically dragged us to the same spot Sarah had been earlier.

“Hey, kid, you’re blocking the way!” Sarah told the boy. Anna was giving me a meaningful glare. This was the same wall Sarah had gone into a trance. A tense moment passed and the kid shook his brother.

“Snap out of it,” he yelled at the kid. The brother looked at his sibling and grinned.

“Man, I had you guys fooled!”

The haunted house was closed for the rest of the night, and Anna and I never told anyone what we saw.