I’m Jacob, a guy in eighth grade who was part of a trio friend group, with me, Adam, and Jordan. We all had a strong connection together, and everyone liked everyone the same amount. We did lots of things together, like going to concerts, movies, and, most importantly, theme parks. We went to lots of theme parks together, having been to 3 theme parks already in eighth grade. This time, we decided to go to yet another theme park, this time during Halloween nights, meaning there were scare actors everywhere, haunted houses, and the best of all was that we were able to stay until 11 pm.
Jordan came up with the idea to go to the theme park, and we all thought it was a good idea. After convincing us to go to the theme park, he also wanted to visit one of the haunted mansions to see what it was like. I agreed because in my opinion, when you go to a theme park on Halloween and you can do this kind of stuff, you should. Adam was less willing to go because it was quite expensive, and he didn’t really like that kind of stuff. We still convinced him to go, though, and the three of us were very excited to go.
There were a few red flags about the haunted mansion though, because first of all, unlike the other haunted mansions, this one’s picture didn’t load on the website. Second of all, it was twice as expensive as the other haunted mansions. Third of all, there weren’t any videos of the haunted mansion, unlike all the others. I didn’t think much of it, though, and still really wanted to go.
Fast forward to the day of the theme park, my dad brought all 3 of us to the theme park, and when we arrived, we were all bouncing with joy. We entered the park and probably went on every ride AT LEAST 4 times. We were able to do that because the park wasn’t very popular, so the lines were pretty short. We even got some bat wings, which were just spicy chicken wings renamed because of Halloween. They tasted really good, and when we were done eating, we found out that we had to go to the cart that would bring us to the haunted mansion, which was at the start of the park. We showed the staff our passes, and we went on the cart with like 30 other people.
The first weird thing about the haunted mansion was that it was outside the theme park itself, so the cart transported us outside of the park. I didn’t really mind though, so I just started talking with my friends while we were transported. The cart consisted of a train, with like 5 wagons, with each of the wagons having a light strip on the roof so we could see in the dark, because it was like 9 pm when we went on the cart. On a road next to us, I could see another cart going back to the theme park with its lights off and no one inside. I thought that was just to scare us, so I didn’t really mind that either.
Then, suddenly the lights of the carts started flickering, and a voice said: “You should leave and return back to the theme park now, before it’s too late.” Again, I thought this was just to scare us, so I didn’t mind anything of it. Adam did, though. He said it was all a bit sketchy and he was getting scared. I told him that it was the point to scare you and said he needed to calm down.
After about half a minute, the voice came back and said: “You all had your chances to leave; now it’s too late.” I could see on Adam’s face he was scared, and to be honest, I was getting scared too. Jordan, on the other hand, didn’t seem scared at all. About a minute after that, we made a turn into the woods and arrived at a building. We were all told to get off the cart, and the doors of the building opened, and we went inside.
For some reason, I decided to look back, and I regret that now. I saw the cart driver, but something about his face wasn’t right. His eyes were nothing. They were just holes into nothingness. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me because it was 9 pm after a whole day of walking in a theme park, so I was pretty tired.
The doors were closed behind us, and I got a weird feeling in my stomach. It all just didn’t feel right. I asked my friends if they felt that too, and they both said yes. In the building, there was a house, which was the haunted mansion itself. I had no idea why they put a building inside of a building, but I really didn’t care.
We were there, told the guy waiting there we were with 3 people, and we waited until everyone before us went into the haunted mansion. Every now and then, you could hear screams, but I thought the screams were just for scaring purposes. When it was our turn, we went into the haunted mansion. We were greeted by a scare actor, who told us that we weren’t allowed to run. We all said okay, and he led us into a hallway that felt like it never stopped.
A bunch of scare actors started jumpscaring us from paintings, jumping out from fog, secret doors, etc. Then after a while, when we thought we were almost done, a demon-like spider figure with those same void-like eyes came running from behind. We all thought it was just another scare actor, so we kept walking at a normal pace for a while. When it kept running at us and didn’t slow down even the slightest, we got kind of scared, so we started walking faster and not looking back.
Then I suddenly heard a slash, a scream that sounded like Adam’s, and I started running at full pace. The scream kept going on, and after that finished, it was silent for a few seconds, and I heard Jordan screaming. At this point, I knew it wasn’t a scare actor, so I started running for my life. When I finally reached the end of the hallway, opened the door, and ran back to the theme park without stopping to breathe for even a second.
When I arrived at the theme park, I noticed no one was there, and every ride was suddenly gone. I looked back, saw the thing again, running full pace after me. Then I passed out. I woke up in the same spot in the morning, and the theme park was completely gone. I called the police, they arrived, asked me a few questions, and they brought me back to my house. My parents were so worried about me, and when I saw them, I hugged them both as hard as possible. Something just didn’t feel right about the hug, and them. Nothing feels right. Every now and then when I see anyone, I see the void eyes. I’m not safe. When I try to find anything about the theme park,I get nothing. Help me.