The sky was dishwater gray, and a cold drizzle began. It wasn’t a rain, but just enough that I needed to periodically use the windshield wipers. Oh, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Erica and I’m the lead investigative reporter. Well, that’s the title they gave me. In reality, I’m the only reporter for the newspaper I write for. It’s for a small town. So small in fact, that we don’t even offer an online newspaper. There is one thing that everyone in this town loves to read about- haunted houses. Not ghosts, poltergeists, or flying Ouija boards, but the people who go to the Halloween stores that are set up in abandoned ShopKo. They buy a bunch of cheap animatronics and turn their garage into a haunted house. It isn’t quite like Knotts Scary Farm, or Halloween Horror Nights. Trust me, I have tried going to them. My boss just tells me we don’t have it in the budget to send me across the country and that we barely have the money for new office chairs.
This was a rare occasion. I was at my desk typing on my computer that was still using Windows95. I was putting the finishing touches on the big story of the year- who was going to be crowned Pumpkin Queen at this year’s harvest fest. It was at this moment that a letter came across my desk. It read:
Congratulations to the lucky recipient of this letter! You have been selected to participate in the media day for the opening of the Devil’s House. This new Haunted House is opening this October. As we know, budgets might be tight, so we are including a fifty dollar gift card for gas. It is yours to keep regardless if you come or not. Although we are “frightfully” looking forward to hearing you scream. The address is listed below.
Sincerely,
Lucy
Devil’s House Owner and Operator
I brought the letter up to my boss. He was more than thrilled to send me there, mainly because it would not cost him anything to do so.
My GPS took me off the main highway and onto a dirt road. A little ways up was a big hand painted sign saying ‘Parking’ with an arrow pointing to the right. Parking was just a big open area in the woods. There were about a dozen or so cars already parked there. On top of a hill sat a house. From the distance all that could be seen was the top of its roof and a few spires sticking up. A stone wall surrounded the house and between the wall and the house was a forest of trees. The tops of the trees were bare of all their leaves. People were gathered in front of a gate. As I walked up, I opened my handheld notebook and quickly jotted, ‘Fake trees with no leaves. Very spooky! Excellent details.’ I took out my digital camera and snapped a picture.
I looked over and saw someone I knew, “Frank?” I said out loud. The man turned around.
“Erica?” he said, with a questioning tone. “Oh my gosh Erica! It is you! How have you been? I haven’t seen you since college.” Frank walked over and gave me a hug. He was just a head taller than me, has brown eyes, and isn’t too bad to look at.
“How are the wife and kids?” I asked Frank.
Frank let out a sigh of sadness. “Barbara and the kids left me six months ago. I was overseas covering the war and she said enough was enough. There was a note on the table and everything.”
“On my gosh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said.
“How are you and your husband? Is he still working at the sheriff’s department?”
“No, he works as a..” I was not able to complete my sentence. A man wearing a striped three piece suit and a fedora hat strolled up to the gate. With a smooth almost snake-like voice he said, “Welcome to the Devil’s House.”
The gates opened with a cryptic creak on its rusty hinges. We all walked through the gates, noticing on our left that there was a small wooden shack that said ‘Tickets, Food, and Souvenirs.’ The letters of each word had little trails of paint under them as if written is still wet blood. The group of reporters and photographers started to make their way up the winding forest path. About halfway to the house, the group stopped in a large opening in the woods where a fire was already blazing away. The man in the suit stood in front of the fire pit and explained, “Oh, this is where the main waiting area is. The path to the left takes you to the graveyard and the exit of the house. The right path takes you to the house itself, and here is where the scare begins.”
The fire flared up and a man jumped out from the woods. He raised a chainsaw above his head and revved it. I’d be remiss if I did not say I might have peed a little. The chainsaw cut out and left only the sound of the fire crackling. The man in the suit shouted, “Be gone demon! Your master commands it!” The man with the chainsaw walked back into the woods. The man in the suit turned back to the group and said, “Where are my manners? My name is Lucy and this is my house.” He raised both hands in the air dramatically and the fire flared back up. “And the bathrooms are to your left.” The group let out a collected laugh. I snapped a couple of photos and wrote in my notebook, ‘Waiting area sets the mood with a campfire and trees all around. There are also clean bathrooms.’
“Come now everyone, let’s continue to the manor and stay with the group. I don’t want to lose anyone. Well not yet,” Lucy said and then let out a devilish laugh. Creepy ambient music started to play as the group made its way to the house. The house was big with a small waist high stone wall with mossy overgrowth encircling the front. A small gate was open, and the path turned to stone as two sets of small stone stairs led up a small hill to the house. A stone wall followed the path and lanterns were flickering every ten feet or so. I took a picture with my phone along with my digital camera. Movement of shadows flashed by the windows and a small light glowed faintly in the center spire window. I noticed a plaque hidden by overgrowth. I moved part of the shrub away and I could just make out the word ‘Ravenswood.’ I wrote in my notebook, ‘A three story Victorian manor run down and dilapidated, background music, combined with the overall spooky atmosphere definitely will cause even the bravest among us to have their anxiety heightened.
Lucy greeted us one by one, shaking hands as people entered the manor. It was just then that I realized I was the only female in the group of people which consisted of about fourteen or maybe eighteen in all. When I got up next to Lucy he said, “Welcome, so glad you could make it.” He looked at me and instead of shaking my hand, he kissed it. A wave of euphoria rushed out from my hand down to my feet, then up to my head, finally returning to the back of my hand where he kissed me. The feeling could be best described as overjoyed. It’s like the feeling of running out of your bedroom on Christmas morning mixed with the panic of going over the first drop on a roller coaster. All these feelings happened in just a few seconds. I looked up to see Lucy giving me his best seductive look as his eyes met mine. I smiled back awkwardly and said,
“Thank you.” The seductive look faulted for a mere second. He then leaned in and whispered,
“My, my, my, aren’t we the strong willed one. I got my eye on you child.” He handed me a scrap of paper with the number eleven on it.
I walked into the waiting area. Once the last person was in, Lucy said, “Good luck. Oh, and one last thing. If you make it out of the Devil’s House, you will be granted one wish.” With those parting words, he closed the door from the outside. The two suits of armor that were standing Sentry inside the doorway turned on a pedestal and their lances crossed making an ‘X’ in front of the door, barring any escape. The waiting room had a Victorian era feel. The wallpaper was torn in some spots, exposing the wooden wall behind and a small table was in the center of the room. A second story walkway that overlooks the main room has a large set of stairs in the middle that rise up a few feet before splitting left and right and connecting to the walkway above. A voice came out of speakers mounted to the wall. It almost sounded like Vincent Price.
“Welcome! This house is full of thrills and chills and is meant to be walked alone. When your number is called, please enter the room on your left. There is only one sure way to leave.” Just then the room went black and a scream could be heard. The lights came back on and a skeleton was hanging down in front of the small table in the center of the room with a noose around its neck, with the toes just scraping the top of the table. The voice called out the numbers one at a time and the person would enter the next room. The door closed behind them and a few minutes later the next number was called. Frank was number seven. He gave me a thumbs up as he walked into the room. After a while, my number was called. I had butterflies in my stomach and was excited to see what was coming next.
I walked into the manor’s smoking room. It was just as oldl and run down as the waiting room. A fireplace, which was cold and dark like the rest of the room, was in the middle of the far wall. Two chairs sat by the fireplace and just behind them was a table with a moldy old wedding cake. I looked around and saw a small bookshelf on one side of the room. Sitting in one of the chairs was a shriveled up corpse wearing a faded yellowing wedding dress. I wrote in my notebook, ‘First room is creepy yet cozy. The makeup on the body is top notch.’ Just then a woman’s soft, wispy voice called out, “There once was beauty in this house.” Just then the lights dimmed to complete darkness, then the light started coming from the bottoms of the walls which continued to get brighter until the room was well lit. The fireplace burst to light. The room itself looked like it was brand new, even the wedding cake was mold free and looked very moist and ready to be eaten. The dried up corpse in the wedding dress rose out of her chair and turned toward me. A beautiful woman was in its place. She held a bouquet of flowers in her hands. The bride walked up to me and asked in a soft voice, “Will you marry me?” I held up my left hand and showed her my wedding ring.
“First off I’m happily married and second I don’t play on both sides of the fence if you know what I mean.”
She looked taken back in shock, and replied with, “You’re a woman? Oh no, oh no, no that’s not good. Do you know what they do to women in this house?” She handed me her bouquet of flowers, lifted up her dress and ran to the book shelf. She pulled a book and the book shelf swung open, revealing a hidden passage. “You have to go, you have to go now. Don’t get caught and remember the only way through is to keep moving forward.” As I was walking towards her and the secret door, the light in the room started to dim. The air began to get musty and old. The wall paper began to fade and the cake started to grow mold. Even the woman and her dress were growing discolored. As the secret door began to close behind me, the last glimpse I got was the sadness on her face as she turned into a dry husk. The door closed with a soft click. “Hey lady, wait I still got your bouquet!” I was waiting for the door to open and for the actress to take her prop back. That’s when the flowers that were once beautiful and colorful were blackened, dry and dead. How the heck? I thought as I examined the flowers. “Ok, well I’m just going to leave them on the ground.” I shouted so she could hear me.
The secret passageway was cold and damp, my footsteps echoing along the faintly lit hallway. Hmmm uplighting and scrim maybe mixed with a projector. Yeah that’s it, I thought as I snapped my finger in a haha I figured it out way. Change the angle of the light, white out the scrim, and project a new image on them. The path leads down some steps to a door labeled ‘Spirit Room.’ Spirit room- I wonder what’s in there. Probably ghosts, séances and stuff like that. I slowly pushed the door open. Two big wooden barrels with taps in them sat behind a wooden bar and empty wine glasses covered in dust and cobwebs lined the bar. Three bottles with liquid in them read ‘Vampire Breath,’ ‘Monster Blood,’and ‘Mummies’ Curse.’
Behind the bar a skeleton wearing a red jacket with the name Isaac displayed on the rusty name tag was doing finger guns. I let out a laugh,“Hahaha, I’m old enough to get that reference.” I heard a soft hiss as a fog machine discharged in the corner. Fog slowly filled the room. I took out my notebook and wrote, Thirsty? Stop In the Spirit Room for a drink, though the staff is not that lively. I took a moment to look around. Upon seeing no one, I stupidly asked out loud, “Where do I go?” I heard a crack and a snap and turned to see Isaac’s arms and hands there both pointing right. The cracking and snapping sound was the elbow of his right arm snapping the wrong way to point right. He was pointing towards a small doorway, with the words ‘Tasting Room’ written above it.
Inside the room, a table was set up in the middle and two chairs sat across from each other. One chair was empty while the other had a lump of something closely resembling a man. Portraits hung on the wall and a wine rack was in one corner. The room itself was covered top to bottom in spider webs like someone brought in a cotton candy machine, turned it on and let it spray the room down. A muffling sound could be heard as I got closer to the middle of the room. This is something I was reluctant to do as I hate spiders. The lump was wriggling and sobs of help could be heard coming from this spiderweb’s cocoon. It was then that I saw the spider. Its body had to be two inches in length. I shuddered as I watched it crawl out of the wriggling cocoon man. The spider was followed by a second one, and then another.The left part of my brain was like, That’s just a projection image. The right part of my brain was like, That’s nice, I’m going to run now. I rushed right out of that room and slammed the door behind me. I turned back around and looked through a small window in the door. The lump convulsed in the seat and then the mass began to expand bigger and bigger until it burst opened and hundreds of spiders crawled out of the chest cavity, spilling into the room. This immediately gave me the heebie-jeebies. I wrote in my notebook, tasting room- who is doing the tasting; the humans or the spider?
That was a cool special effect. I wonder how they got that small of a TV in the door to act like a fake window. I turned away from the door. As I emerged from the darkness, a huge spider jumped out at me. I let out a scream as its sticky web hit me. Then with a pneumonic hiss the spider retracted into the darkness. I examined the sticky web and let out a chuckle. “Silly string, it’s just silly string.”
The transitional hallway took me to an iron door. I put my hand on it to push it open. Wow, this feels almost real. That could not be possible though. It would weigh hundreds of pounds. It took some extra effort and pushing with both hands to get it to open. The room on the other side was dark- lit by only a few flickering lanterns on the wall. An iron prison cell was against the wall. Three feral looking humans were locked up. Their clothes were torn and barely hung on their bony frames. They made inhuman sounds at me. A small light appeared from an opening and a deep voice boomed out, “Meat for the master, scraps for the prisoners.” Just then body parts- hands, feet, individual fingers, and some internal organs fell from the hole and into the cage. The creatures inside went crazy and dove into the pile, attacking each other like starving dogs. One grabbed a foot then ran over to the bars and started eating it in front of me like corn on the cob. Its teeth were broken and stained red. Blood leaked from the chunk of flesh ripped from the severed foot. I took a step away in shock. The smell in the room was that of a full portable toilet on a hot summer day.
A door to my side began to slowly open. On the other side of the door stood a short man. He said, “Guten Tag fräulein,” and gave me a creepy grin.
My one year of highschool German was finally paying off. “Hello,how are you?” I replied. He spoke in English but it was very heavily accented.
“Hello, I’m das dungeon master, und you are?“
“I’m Erica, one of the reporters doing a story on this haunted house. Hey, I know you are not supposed to break character, but can I interview you?”
“Ja but first sie must do something for me.”
“Well, I guess. What is it?” I asked, tentatively. In the past some actors liked to interact with their guests so I was hoping it would not be too bad.
“Follow me fräulein, no one can leave das dungeon with how you say, their innocence.” We walked into another room with arm and leg shackles on the wall. Medieval torture devices were laying on the center rack. There was a long table set at a forty five degree angle with rope attached to a log on the top and bottom. The wheels were attached to the log so that as you turn the wheel, the rope got tighter. The rope would be tied around the victims arms and legs and would be so painful until it ripped them apart. There was a person already tied up and gagged which looked very uncomfortable. “Ok, fräulein. What I need you to do is to spin bis wheel till das person screams.” The dungeon master told me. I know that this could not be real- that the limbs must be fake and the table must be hollow so as to cleverly disguise where he stored the prop limbs. I just wanted to get this over with and get to the interview. I walked to one of the wheels. The man was shaking his head back and forth in a frantic no movement. I gave it one full rotation. A loud pop rang out to simulate the cartilage in the shoulder joint snapping. The man on the rack let out a muffled scream and tried to plead for it to stop. “Oh wow fräulein, you did that with nein hesitation. Ok, we can do your interview now.”
We sat down at a small table and the anguished cries could be heard from the person still on the rack. Wow, I thought that person really doesn’t want to break character. I pulled out my notebook and began the interview, “So when did you start working for Lucy?”
“It was 1946, right after das guilty verdict in das Nuremberg Trials,” the Dungeon Master said. I eyed him suspiciously.
“Ok, then how did you get this job?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, that one is easy. Lucy was impressed with my work so he offered me a deal to work for him by torturing the souls of the damned for all eternity.” I let out a sigh and closed my notebook. “What is wrong fräulein? I’m answering your question nin…..ohh………ohh you think this is fake don’t you? Oh rest assured fräulein, it is all too real. I need an assistant and you will do just fine. Join me and we can rule this land.” Our conversation was interrupted by divine intervention, as another person could be heard opening up the heavy iron door to the dungeon. “I must go. Another victim awaits I’m thinking das Spanish Tickler” the dungeon master said as he walked over to a wall with a variety of torture devices. He grabbed a pair of iron gloves with two long and thick bronze curved spikes on the end. It looked like a tiger’s claw. He looked at me and said, “This is good for going deep into a man’s flesh und with a simple wrist flick separates das flesh from bones.” He tried handing them to me. “Would you like to try fräulein?”
I shook my head and said, “No, I’m good, but thanks.” With that, the Dungeon Master slipped on the gloves, gave the claws a quick swipe in the air and walked out. This guy is two shots short of a full bottle I thought. I looked around from room to room, noticing all matter of torture equipment until I came across a spiral staircase leading up. I was halfway up when I heard a hellish scream coming from the dungeon. When I reached the top of the stairs there was a small hatch. I walked through the hatch and found myself in a coat room. After locating the door out, I ended up in a long hallway. The door closed behind me. The sound startled me. When I turned around, the door was gone. I was left looking at a wall. The hallway had purple striped wallpaper which was ripped and had black mold all over it. The carpet was a bright red, almost like the carpet you might see in a movie theater. I looked left and right, not sure which way to go. Then I heard it- just briefly. The sound of ballroom music played. It was soft at first. I started heading toward the sound. It felt like the walls were closing in on me with each step. Just then I turned a corner and saw that I was on the second floor looking down into a great dining hall which was full of people.