My friends and I were too old to go trick-or-treating, but that didn’t mean we stopped going. The adults always frowned at us when they opened their door and saw our fab five group waiting with open bags to put candy into. We heard the same line of questioning at almost every house: “Aren’t you too old to be doing this?”
This year, Jace prepared a monologue and told the adults that this was our last year. He fed them a sob story about an imaginary younger brother that passed away too soon. Jace was, in fact, an only child.
After the sixth house this happened at, I spoke up.
“I don’t want to trick-or-treat anymore,” I said, hesitantly. “We don’t even eat the candy.”
“Are you too good for us now?” Dara glared at me. Her raven hair was cut into a vicious looking bob that made her look intimidating.
“No, that’s not it,” I stammered. I was never any good at standing up to my friends and this was why I normally kept my mouth shut.
“Then what is it?” Parker crooned. He was my weakness and everyone, including him, knew it. His brown eyes and mischievous smile made me weak.
“These are kid games,” I whispered. “We barely made the effort to dress up.”
“Listen to Alice,” Amber taunted. “It is kind of childish. What else did you have in mind?”
She directed the question at me and I knew what she wanted me to say, even though I just as equally didn’t want to do that either.
“What about haunted houses?” I inquired, feeling everyone’s intense gazes. Amber and I had talked about it a couple of days ago. She convinced me it would be fun and that our friends would love it, too. The gleam in her eyes, told me that I had said the right thing.
“Haunted houses, huh?” Jace mused.
“You know,” Amber replied, as her red hair danced in the fading glow of twilight, “I think I may have heard about a house that goes all out every year.”
Always eager to take charge, Jace acted like he knew the place. “I’ve heard of that one,” he declared with a wicked grin. “The story goes that the location changes every year. Supposedly, a rich family goes from state to state looking for the creepiest houses they can find, buys it, then spends the entire year leading up to Halloween renovating it. It’s how they make a living.”
“I’m in,” Dara leered, wanting her night out with Parker to continue.
“I’m in if Alice is,” Parker promised and stared at me in a way that would make me agree to anything.
I quickly nodded as words failed me.
“Great!” Amber exclaimed as she took Jace’s arm smiling up at him. “We’ll lead the way.”
Dara and Parker followed in step and I drug up the rear, as usual.
My friends’ relationship with each other seemed to be purely for pleasure and entertainment. Jace and Amber were your typical jock and cheerleader disaster, which coincidentally, is how they dressed up this year.
Parker was on the basketball team with Jace. He never dated anyone, but was always seen with someone new. It was easy to understand why, since I desired him the same way every other female at our school did. His big, bad wolf costume was not far from the truth.
Dara was Parker’s new toy. She was the dangerous type who hung out with the goth crowd. Our classmates all believed she was a witch. She had a piercing stare that made your blood run cold. That’s probably what drew Parker to her. A fun conquest.
I tagged along with Amber. We had been friends since grade school and I was always the person she ran to when she needed someone to hang with. I was more of her excuse than anything. I often got left behind while she snuck off with a guy or used as the reason she left a party early when it was lame. I really didn’t mind most of the time. At least someone knew who I was.
“There it is.” Jace beamed with a twisted grin.
Amber danced with excitement.
“Whoa,” I blurted as my body froze up.
For once, Parker looked apprehensive.
“Don’t worry, love,” I saw Dara whisper in Parker’s ear. “I’ll protect you.”
He shifted his gaze from her, all dolled up in her little red riding hood outfit, and back to the house that looked like it belonged in a horror movie.
The house stood two stories high with a wrap-around porch that had heavy, iron chains dangling all the way around it. The windows had bars on the inside as though they were trying to keep something in, instead of out.
I was scared we would never escape if we set foot in that place. I walked a little toward the side of the house to see if it had an exit somewhere. I halted when I saw the lawn decorations.
I stared incomprehensibly at the girl that was cut open and tied to a post, revealing the inner workings of the human body. Propped up like a scarecrow with her arms spread out to either side, blood caked her hair and face. She was unrecognizable. Her intestines spilled out of her body and oozed onto the grass below her. Her costume was ripped to shreds, revealing torn up flesh.
She wasn’t the only one there, either. There were two more people placed throughout the yard. They were boys around our age. They hadn’t been in costumes, just band T-shirts and jeans that dripped with blood. How could anyone see this and think this house was safe to go into?
I let out a scream as a heavy hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see who it was and a giant man stood before me. His stringy hair hung over one eye as the other abnormally large one jutted out from his head. He was missing teeth and his fingers had long, yellowing nails.
I stepped back, but fell over my own feet and heard my friends laughing behind me. I pulled my dress back down as I stood. It was the same costume I had worn nearly every year, Alice in Wonderland; cliche, but I liked it.
The man that had frightened me stepped away with his hands up showing that he intended me no harm.
“I’m terribly sorry if I frightened you,” he said. “I’m Mr. Meyers. I saw you admiring the decorations and I wanted to assure you that they are fake. We’ve had a lot of people afraid to come up to the door tonight. I think we outdid ourselves this year.”
“I think they’re great!” Dara laughed and walked right up to one. She put her hand in the intestines and when she drew it back out, the brownish-red substance was pulling away with it.
“It’s even warm like blood,” she confirmed. She kneaded the goo in her hand before Mr. Meyers handed her a towel to wipe it off.
“We don’t like the props to be touched. That’s why the signs are up,” he announced with a warning in his voice. There were indeed signs up around the yard telling people to stay on the path and not to touch the decorations. I shrank back a little realizing I broke the rules first.
“Are you interested in walking through the house?” Mr. Meyers asked our group.
“Hell yes!” Jace cheered and walked toward the door with Amber close behind. Parker helped me up from the ground and Dara shot me a death glare.
My nerves were on edge, as everyone else bounced with excitement. That body looked way too real and the girl looked familiar, too. It couldn’t be real, though. It was a haunted house and people flocked to it. If anyone had really gone missing, mutilated, and hung out for display, the police would know by now, even in this part of town.
“It’s ten dollars each, which is non-refundable,” Mr. Meyer’s said. “Some people don’t find this house up to their level of scare, but my wife and I work all year round to make the house as special as possible for one day. All of the money earned goes toward next year’s house.”
Mr. Meyers gave me a warm smile. He was very polite and easy going, even if the makeup he wore was a bit creepy.
After collecting the money, he walked us into the main entrance. It was a large, circular area that had three paths laid out before it. One went upstairs, the second stayed on this level, and the third led to a basement. Each path was painted in yellow bricks that were dimly lit.
“Before you choose which path you take, you have to hear the house rules. We take these very seriously, so it’s important that you follow them. It’s all for your own safety.”
My friends were barely listening to him as their excitement overtook them. Jace and Amber were eyeing the upstairs and talking excitedly as they playfully touched one another. Dara was running her fingers over the bars of the window and glancing down the path that led to the basement. Parker’s eyebrows knit together, as he watched Dara’s eyes light up with glee at the sight of a whip that hung on the wall, as though he second guessed his decision to ask her on a date.
Mr. Meyers didn’t look at all surprised, so he focused his attention on me as I waited patiently to hear the rules. I did not like breaking rules, especially in someone else’s house.
“First, you will have to sign a waiver saying if anything happens to you on this property, we, the owners, cannot be held responsible as you entered on your own free will.”
He passed out papers which everyone eagerly signed.
“Are you reading that?” Jace scoffed. “Sign the papers, Alice. He already told you what it says.”
I glanced up at Mr. Meyers to see him smiling. My friends were all huffing their impatience with me, so I signed it and handed it back.
“Do not step outside of the path that is marked for you. I cannot stress this enough. There are things in this house that should not exist in this world, but are allowed to travel here on Halloween night. They are restless, they are hungry, and they are without a conscience.”
I swallowed hard and glanced at my friends who had a gleam in their eyes as though this was all part of the act. I didn’t get that feeling. To me, it felt like he was warning us and that message only sunk in deeper as his eyes bore into mine with a pleading look.
“There are weapons you can take with you to protect yourselves if you do get caught out of bounds.”
I could feel the terror showing on my face as he walked over to a bin full of weapons.
“Don’t worry, they’re only props until you need them to be something more.” He winked right before he showed us how bendy the plastic pitch fork was.
“You’re going to want this one,” he asserted as he handed it to me. “It has a long reach, so it’ll keep things at more than arm’s reach from you.”
I took it. It was long and awkward, but it made me feel a little safer, even if it was only plastic.
“Go ahead and find your weapons.” He nodded to the rest of the group.
My friends went to the bin and sorted through it. Parker found a sword that looked like real metal in the light. He slashed it around a couple of times as he tested it out. Dara picked out a utility belt that had a wooden stake, a dagger, a butcher’s knife, and a grappling hook on it. She tied it around her waist and played with all of the toys by pulling them out one by one and making stabbing motions. She wasn’t sure what to do with the grappling hook, so she tossed it off the belt.
Jace had decided to take a baseball bat. No surprise there since that was his favorite sport to play. Amber had grabbed a long staff that had a point on one end and began twirling it. Again, very cliche as she was a cheerleader who twirled a baton.
I decided to stick with the pitch fork. If Mr. Meyers had told me it was the best for me, then I would not question him.
“Good, you all seem like you’ve got the hang of this. Your goal is to make it out of the house. It has been constructed in a maze-like pattern, so you’ll have to use your wits to find your way out. The exit is located in the basement, but the basement is not the true way to reach the door. There are trap doors and hidden staircases that you have to find in order to get to the correct part of the maze. There are clues hidden throughout the house to help you find your way out as well. Pay attention to them.”
At the mention of the trap doors, I picked up the grappling hook Dara had tossed aside and put it in my dress pocket, just in case. Mr. Meyers gave a small nod at me that no one else seemed to notice.
“My wife will be at the exit door dressed up as a white witch. That’s how you’ll know you’ve made it. The exit will lead you out the back of the house, into an alleyway, that you can take to get back to the main road. Once you are out, there is no coming back in. It’s best if you don’t wait for your friends at the back door. Follow the path to the road and wait at the stop sign for them. Any questions?”
My friends had stopped paying attention half way through his speech, but I hung on every word. I didn’t have any questions other than what the fastest route to get out was. I didn’t think he would answer it.
“You’re going down, Parker.” Jace sneered.
“I’ll be waiting for you outside, Jace,” Parker retorted.
Amber squealed with delight as this had now become a competition.
“All right. If there are no questions, then good luck,” Mr. Meyers said as he walked to the front door and bolted it shut.
Jace and Amber ran up the stairs, hand in hand, and giggling the entire way. Parker and Dara walked the dark path that led to the basement. As usual, I was left alone, except for Mr. Meyers, who was still standing there waiting for me to make a move. He subtly pointed forward toward the main level of the house and I graciously took the hint.
The walkway was dimly lit, but I didn’t have a problem following the path. The yellow paint’s reflective glow was bright enough for me to spot. Step after step, I became more afraid when nothing jumped out to scare me. There was something unsettling about the house. Maybe it was thinking about that girl outside that looked too life-like, or maybe it was the caution from Mr. Meyers that these weapons were only plastic until we needed them to be something more. Whatever it was, I hated the fact that my friends had left me alone. They probably didn’t give me another thought as they raced off to beat each other out of the house.
I was always in the back of people’s minds. This may have been my idea, but it was an idea Amber had planted in my head, knowing I would say what she wanted. Why was I such a sheep?
A light flicked on, pulling me out of my downward spiral of thoughts. It revealed a living room area that had a small couch and chair facing a television. Each cushion was worn and molded as though sculpted to the person who sat there day after day. Brown bottles littered the floor by the chair. One of them was broken with liquid coming out of it. The place smelled of cigarettes as smoke wafted from a freshly lit one that was perched on an ash tray. The windows behind the couch were boarded up and painted black.
“Where’s my dinner?” A rough male voice growled from nearby as he slammed his hand down on something hard. A new light popped on, hovering over a kitchen table that was lined with plates of half eaten food. I carefully continued down the path, looking around for the man that spoke and felt something squish under my black, slip on shoes. The floor was covered in squirming maggots. My breathing became ragged. Why did it have to be maggots? They only meant one thing, something dead was nearby.
I scanned the table and found the source of where the maggots were spilling out from. A lifeless body of an older woman was contorted with limbs in a defensive position and head thrown back searching for a god that didn’t exist. The maggots came out of every slash that was made across her body.
A man with a pudgy belly that rested over the table was leering at me. His smile widened as my face filled with horror and disgust. My breathing came out in rapid, shallow gasps, as the panic rose in my body. I backed away and into a something solid that shook the contents inside of it.
I turned around to see what I hit and found more horrors waiting for me in a cabinet made of glass. It held jars of human organs that were carefully preserved. Blue eyes stared back at me from a clear jar. On the shelf above, a brain sat in a large jar. Below the eyes were a heart and a pair of lungs. Intestines threatened to bulge out of its container.
Sprinkled on the shelves were other parts like fingers, toes, and an assortment of bones.
“Like what you see?” the voice crooned at me. “I made it myself. I’ve been searching for the perfect person my whole life, but I never found them, so I decided to create one of my very own.”
My body went rigid as the man spoke. I understood why the organs were placed the way there were on the shelves. He was building a human with the organs he collected.
“Can you tell what’s missing?” he asked calmly as I checked my feet to make sure they were still on the path. I listened as a chair creaked and the shuffling of feet moved closer and closer. I closed my eyes, unable to take in any more. Tears trickled down my face as the fear paralyzed me.
“I’ve always liked blondes,” his hot sticky breath sank into my cheek as he whispered it. My eyes flew open and I ran. The yellow path was still easy to find, but it was slick with red splotches. I slid off the path and into the kitchen cabinets, hitting my head on the stove door.
I didn’t have time to feel the pain as I heard the man squeal with delight. His footsteps were quick and heavy. Still grasping the pitch fork, I flung it up in self-defense and felt it shudder as the man fell onto it. The plastic pitchfork had turned into a real one. I let out a scream as his hands flailed toward me, trying to grab my hair.
He was too heavy for me to hold up, so I let go of it and watched him tumble to the floor. I scrambled to my feet, but my shoes slipped out from under me and I slid face first across the floor. I threw them off and made my way out of the kitchen, and to the path, on hands and knees. My heart was pounding in my chest and bile lurched up my esophagus.
I looked toward the kitchen and saw the man hadn’t moved. Did I just kill someone? Was this all part of the act?
If it was part of the act, though, I shouldn’t be in any real danger. Haunted houses were known for their pranks. That was how they worked. People were purposely hired to scare anyone brave, or stupid, enough to enter them.
There was no point in leaving the path again to investigate it myself. I had to find a way out of here, or find Mr. Meyers and beg him to let me out. I was not cut out for this.
After the tears stopped falling, I stood up and took a few deep breaths. The realization that I was on my own hit me. My friends hadn’t bothered to come find out why I had screamed. They didn’t care if I was hurt or that I was scared. I had to keep moving.
As I left the kitchen behind, I heard a soft moan. I turned back and watched as the man I thought I had killed, slowly rested on one knee and moved into a standing position. He pulled the pitchfork out and dropped it on the floor where it clanged like metal. Without even glancing toward me, he sauntered off to the kitchen table and sat back down as though nothing had happened.
Not caring to re-live that part of the tour, I walked as quietly as I could, further into the house. I needed to
look for clues on where to go next. Rounding the corner, I saw a sign on the wall.
You must first go up to get down.
I needed to go upstairs next, but there were no stairs, just a long hallway with vintage wallpaper of red leaves spiraling in a downward motion. There were doors on either wall, but the path didn’t lead to any of them and I was not willing to wander off. There had to be something I missed.
I followed the path all the way to the end of the hall, where it ended. I touched the wall, looking for a secret passage or lever that was hidden away. When I couldn’t’ find anything, I knocked on the wall thinking if it sounded hollow, there might be something behind it. Unfortunately, it was solid.
I turned and walked back the way I came. I noticed one section of the wallpaper had the leaves going up and not down. This had to be it, but the path didn’t stray from the middle of the hallway. Was it a test?
My body shuddered at the thought of leaving the safety of the path. What other choice did I have, though? I would not go back to the kitchen of nightmares.
I heard one of the doors creak open and I tensed at the sound. Finding the source, I saw a little boy staring out at me.
“Push the orange one,” he commented.
Looking at the wall, I didn’t see anything that was orange. I shook my head at him. “An orange what?”
“It’s hard to see, but it’s there. It’s an orange leaf that only looks slightly different.
“What will happen?” I asked, finding my voice.
“You’ll go up,” he smiled slightly, though it didn’t touch his eyes.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked softly.
“Because I don’t want you to get trapped here, too,” the boy insisted and shut the door.
“Hey wait!” I yelled as I ran over to the door. I forgot all about staying on the path as I pushed his door open and walked in.
The room was decorated for a child who loved space. There were rocket ships painted on the wall and planets hung over the bed. When the little boy saw me, he forcefully pushed me toward the door.
“This room is only safe for me!” he screamed. “It’s not safe for you! Stay on the path. Please, stay on the path!”
I let him push me out, but before I got back on the path, a horrendous wail bounced off the walls, causing me to drop to my knees. I looked back and the boy was tucked into a ball, covering his ears.
“She’s coming!” he wailed. “You have to get upstairs before she gets here! My room will protect me and only me!”
Covering my ears, I left his room and made it back on the path. I moved down the hall as the wailing became louder.
I stood up and found the part of the wall where the leaves went up, searching for the orange one. The sound grew louder and I felt like my eardrums were going to burst.
Something wet dripped from my nose. Wiping it with my hand, I cringed at the sight of my blood. It was frying my brain.
As my vision blurred, I saw a different colored leaf. It was higher than I could reach. I jumped, stretching my fingers, grasping toward the orange leaf. I missed. I scrambled back on the path and tried again. The leaf was too high. My head was pounding. Blood coated my vision and when I pulled my hands from my ears, there was blood trickling from them too. I knew that the piercing wail would kill me if I didn’t find a way out.
Shouting in frustration and I jumped again. My fingers only grazed it, but it was enough. A door slid open from the wall and seeing the yellow path, I rushed in. The door slid firmly shut as I stumbled up the first few steps. The world around me was ringing. The wails mercifully stopped, but I heard nothing else for several minutes as I adjusted to the quietness of this new space.
I didn’t feel blood draining from ears, nose, or eyes anymore. I didn’t have anything to clean my face with except for my dress, so I used it. No shoes and coated in blood on my face and dress, I looked more like a prop of the haunted house.
The stairs twirled up higher than I thought they would, considering I started on the main level. When I got to the top, I noticed there was no door handle, which meant once I exited the safety of the closed off stairwell, I wouldn’t be able to get back in.
“JACE!” I heard Amber yell from beyond the door. Geronimo, I silently whispered as I pushed the door open and went to find her. I don’t know why I bothered since she, nor Jace, had come to find me when I screamed out. Nevertheless, I followed the path in search of my friends.
I found them in a bedroom. Amber didn’t have her top on and Jace was naked from the waist down, his back flat on the bed. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they had been doing.
“Amber,” I called. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you on the path?”
Amber looked over to me and recognition dawned on her. She ran over to me and grabbed me in a bear hug as she cried.
“Oh, Alice! I don’t know what happened. Jace stopped moving. We were having sex and then all of a sudden, he started spasming. I thought he was orgasming and I was really pissed because it was way too soon and I wasn’t done yet. Then, his eyes rolled up to the ceiling and he stopped breathing.”
I gently unwrapped myself from her.
“You look like hell,” she remarked. I exhaled, too tired to get into why.
“Amber, where is your shirt?” I asked gently.
She sniffled and looked around. When she saw her shirt in the room by the bed, she went to grab it, but I pulled her back.
“What are you doing!?” I yelled. “You can’t leave the path. There are things in here that want to harm us.”
“I need my shirt and I need to know if Jace is okay,” she scoffed. Leaving the path, she pulled her cheerleader top on and scowled at Jace.
“This isn’t funny anymore,” she cursed at him. “You can stop. I’m really scared, so, ha ha, okay?”
Jace didn’t move. I watched as Amber got closer to him. That’s when I saw something under the bed. It’s eyes were red and it’s fingers had claws as long as cutting knives.
I hesitated, and by the time I reached her, the creature had slashed her legs. Blood spurted everywhere as she buckled and hit the floor. I quickly pulled her toward the path, but the creature grabbed her legs and she let out a blood, curdling scream.
Shaking him off, we made it and watched as the creature looked around, as if it couldn’t see us. Giving up, it turned back to the bed that Jace was lying on and started cutting into him with it’s sharp claws.
Screaming, Amber fought to get to Jace to stop the carnage as I held her back. Slipping from my grip, she toppled head first into the room. Regaining her footing, she found the spear she had taken at the entrance and drove it into the creature’s back. The beast wriggled and whirled. It lunged off the bed to the opposite side of Amber, clawing at the spear. Amber frantically pulled Jace’s body from the bed.
“Help me!” She yelled and I obeyed. I grabbed Jace’s legs and she held his arms. He hit the floor with a loud thump. The creature turned to us, forgetting about the spear in it’s back. Lunging at Amber, she dropped Jace and ran from the room. I was left holding his feet and wondered, why? Why had I come in here when she asked? Why was I still holding onto a dead man? It was clear what had happened to him on the bed as I saw the mattress ripped to shreds beneath him with a pool of blood soaking the sheets.
I looked up at the creature who eyed me hungrily, as the man in the kitchen had done. Whatever was going on in this house, it fed off scared humans, who had very little defenses. Dropping Jace, I grabbed the bat by the bed and swung it at the creature as it came after me with the spear still in it’s back.
“Amber, help me!” I cried out. “Grab the spear and push down.”
Amber simply stared at me with wide eyes. She glanced between me swinging the bat to the creature who easily deflected my attempts. With no sense of remorse, she turned from the room and ran.
The wind was knocked from me by the betrayal. I had left the path to come help her when she called out to me, but she didn’t do the same. She left. In my moment of being stunned and hurt, the creature was able to knock the bat from my hands. I fell backward and scuttled toward the open door. I wasn’t going to make it to the path before it got me. I was dead and I knew it.
As the creature bounded from the floor to try to land on me, I reached into my pocket, pulled out the grappling hook, and fired. It went through the creature’s chest and hit the back wall. It slid down the rope that was still connected to the device in my hands. I dropped it and didn’t wait to see if it too, would come back to life and resume it’s original position under the bed.
I tried catching my breath when I reached the yellow brick road. The realization that Amber had left me to die slammed into me. I sobbed hysterically as I felt utterly alone. A small part of me believed that no one came for me earlier because they were too far away to hear my scream. Now I knew that even if they had heard it, they wouldn’t have come anyway.
Braving the room once again, I pulled Jace’s body to the safety of the path. He may not have done the same for me, but I didn’t feel right leaving him in there when the monster reanimated again. I didn’t believe this place was for a haunted house attraction anymore. This was a place for survival and sacrifice. The sacrifice was to the monsters that were trapped here that survived off of fear and human flesh. I intended to make it to the exit without becoming a victim. If I got out, I could bring the police and safely walk them through the murder house to find Jace’s body. It was the least I could do.
I found Amber down a winding path that brought us back to the main stairs that her and Jace took at the start of this ordeal. She was tucked in the fetal position, crying. Without a word, I looked for another clue. I knew that going back down the stairs would only start the maze over again. I would not go back to the beginning. I walked down the hallway that forked from the one we just came from.
“That one loops around back to this one,” Amber sniffled. “It’s one big circle.”
“Then you missed something,” I screamed.
She cried harder at my tone and I felt bad, but with no reason to. She abandoned me. My best friend abandoned me. I could not talk to her without hateful words flowing from my mouth, so I walked. I walked down the hallway and let it take me around the hall and back to where she was crying.
I walked again and again looking for clues or a sign that told me what to do. I watched the patterns in the wallpaper. I followed the path and made sure it didn’t lead off anywhere else. I tapped on the floors looking for a trap door when I finally noticed something. There was a large door with a handle that was different from the others. This handle had a curved design to grip, whereas the other handles were round.
As I turned the knob to enter the room, Amber was right by my side. She winced and looked up at me sadly.
“Can I come? I don’t want to be alone with Jace’s body,” she pleaded.
I nodded once and grabbed the door handle. Turning it, the floor gave way and we both fell through. Screaming as the light faded and the trap door silently closed, I cursed the fact that I had used the grappling hook too soon. My body thudded onto something hard and I could feel myself sliding down instead of free falling.
I landed hard on Amber who let out a whoosh of air as I did. I rolled off of her and inspected our surroundings. The light was too dim to make anything out. We had to be in the basement. Did that mean we were close to the exit? Had I followed the path correctly? I moaned into my hands in frustration.
“Hello? Is someone there?” A panicked voice rang out.
It was Parker. My heart fluttered knowing he was alive.
“Parker?” Amber wailed as she too realized who it was.
“Parker, Parker, Parker,” she cried out to him over and over again.
“I’m here Amber!” He yelled back. “Where is Jace? Is he with you?”
Of course he would ask about Jace. No one ever asked about Alice.
“No,” she cried. “He’s dead. This place is trying to kill us all. I wish Alice never suggested we come here!”
“This was your idea!” I screamed at her. “I only suggested it because you complained to me the entire time we were getting ready for the night that you hated trick-or-treating and you wanted to come to this haunted house to impress Jace!”
“That’s not true! Don’t try to pin this on me. Jace’s death is on your hands, not mine.”
No longer able to control my rage, I flung myself on her. We rolled over the floor until we landed on something soft and unmovable.
I took myself off of Amber and looked in horror as Dara’s body lay unmoving with her throat ripped out. Blood coated her entire costume from her neck to her feet. Amber screamed and I backed into a wall.
“You found Dara,” Parker guessed. “We weren’t down here very long when things got weird. At first, we thought it was cool. There were bats flying around and strobe lights bounced around the path. Dara thought it was a vampire room and she wanted to explore. She pretended to be Buffy with the wooden stake on her tool belt, so went off the path and found a coffin. It was made of wood and sealed with iron chains. Dara took the chains off and opened it. The thing inside was not what vampires look like in movies. It was much worse. It was shaped like a human, but it’s features were wrong. It’s limbs were too long and there were too many teeth. It had black eyes like a demon. Dara didn’t stand a chance. The thing grabbed her neck and tore into her before I even took a breath.”
I followed Parker’s voice and found him, but he turned away from me when I approached.
“Parker,” I whispered softly.
“Don’t come any closer, Alice,” he stammered. “You can’t see me like this. No one can.”
This was why I had fallen for Parker. Everyone else saw him as a playboy who had an image to keep up with, but I saw his soft side long before high school cliques were the only way of surviving. His heart was bigger than anyone realized. I knew Dara’s death was affecting him more than he wanted to show.
I placed my hand on his shoulder, hoping he knew that I was here for him. He turned to face me. The fear that I experience in bursts all night long, came flooding back to my body. I couldn’t breathe as I looked into his eyes that should have been brown, but were now black.
“Get away Alice,” he growled. “I won’t let it be you. Anyone else but you.”
“What happened?” I choked out, holding back the tears.
“When the vampire took Dara and started feeding on her, I grabbed the stake from her belt and stabbed it in the back. I must have hit my mark because it dropped her. A shiver went from his body, through the stake, and into me. I felt sick at first. I thought I was dying. I convulsed on the floor and called for help. I heard you scream and I wanted to get to you, but I didn’t have any control over my body. I think, I died.”
I froze. My instincts were torn between running from him and comforting him. Amber leaned on me for support, though I doubted it was for sentimental reasons.
“I’m thirsty,” he rasped “I know that whatever this thing is inside me, it wants me to feed. I know what it wants to feed on, too, and I can’t do it. Please believe me. I don’t want to do it.”
“Then you don’t have to,” I assured him. “Maybe if you don’t feed, you can beat it?”
Parker shook his head.
“I don’t think so Alice. You’ve always seen the good in me and that is why I love you.”
My heart caught in my throat. Tears formed as my head spun. I had dreamed about this day since I met Parker, but I had accepted these words would never be mine.
“I love you too,” I choked out. What was the point in denying it now?
I watched him smile, but it was a sad smile. I knew what was coming. There was no chance of us being together. Not after all of this.
“Run,” he rasped as he lunged at Amber and I. Grabbing me around the waist, he threw me down the path.
“Follow it to the end. You’re getting out of here. Don’t come back.”
His face had turned cruel and his teeth shifted. There were too many in his mouth. His skin was pulled too tight around his already sculpted face. His skin stayed the warm brown it always was, but that too, was fading.
Holding Amber by the arm with his hand, he sank his teeth hungrily into her neck. Like watching a rabid animal eat it’s kill, he couldn’t control his thirst. Just like when Amber and I escaped the creature upstairs, an invisible forcefield held him where he was.
He was the new attraction. He could never leave this place. All of the monsters in this house were trapped within a room that was meant to torture them as much they hungered to torture us.
Unable to look at him, I ran, following the path. I didn’t look back as he yelled in agony after me. My vision blurred with tears and when I remembered to look at where I was going, I nearly collided with a woman dressed in white. My feet tripped over each other as they fought to control the direction my body should go and I landed hard on the concrete floor. Something snapped and I screamed.
“Hello, Alice,” said a woman dressed as a white witch. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Get away from me!” I yelled.
“Let me see your arm,” she murmured softly and bent down to examine me. I winced at her touch, but let her put my arm in a makeshift sling as I sat listening to what used to be Parker.
“My husband and I always know who will survive when they walk in the door,” she chuckled, making light conversation as she worked.
“You and your husband did this,” I seethed. “How could you? My friends didn’t deserve this.”
“Friends?” she asked. “You and I both know none of your companions were going to help you.”
I knew she was right and I was too broken to stick up for any of them like a good friend should.
“My husband and I do this every year to keep more people from being attacked. We travel from town to town, finding an abandoned house to fix up. Then we trap creatures who cross over on Halloween into a single place to prevent them from roaming free to hunt.”
My eyebrows knit together as I turned her words over in my head.
“What about that man that attacked me in the kitchen? Or the little boy that was trapped in that room?” I asked. “Those weren’t creatures. They were human.”
“The man was not human. He only appeared to be. You would have seen his true nature if you didn’t get him with that pitchfork. Nicely done, by the way.”
Of all the things that happened in this house, she was congratulating me on skewering someone or something with a pitchfork.
“Unfortunately,” she continued, “that little boy was in this house long before we were. Some creatures that pass-through feed on humans and spirits. He will be set free once the night is over. The best we could do was keep him safe in his room.”
“Why bring people in here?” I asked, glaring into her eyes.
“The creatures only have twenty-four hours to feed. It becomes a gluttonous rampage, but it doesn’t take many lives to satisfy them, so the sacrifice is small in comparison. We don’t like our job, but it’s the one we have.”
“Can’t you kill the creatures after you trap them?”
“You saw what happens when you try. They reanimate and come back to life as though nothing had happened to them. We keep trying to rid this world of them, but all of our attempts have failed. Instead, we find the next hotspot year after year and keep trying, hoping that one day, we can.”
I looked away from her. I didn’t want to know this place existed. I didn’t want to exist anymore. Seeing that my hope was gone, the white witch helped me up and opened the exit door. I stumbled into the darkness.
“If it’s any consolation, we always know who will survive because of the pureness of their heart. You listened to the warnings, you attempted to save your friends, even when they abandoned you, and you ventured off to save the little ghost boy, who couldn’t be saved. You are a good person, Alice, and one day you will do great things.”
“Wait!” I shouted as she was pulling the door shut. “What about the bodies? What if I get the police and bring them here?”
She smiled. “The police help us do this because they know what other horrors await if we don’t. They’ll take care of a story about you and your friends. Follow the path to the road and there will be someone waiting for you.”
She shut the door, leaving me in the moonlight. Too numb to think anymore, I walked the path to the road where there was a police officer waiting to take me home.