Sharp

We headed towards the final haunted house. Walking away from the house, we could still hear all the screaming coming from behind us. I almost wanted to go back a second try and see if they would do the same stuff, or make it a completely different experience. Which was probably why some people went back around for a second time.

The closer we go to the next house, I could hear metal cranking. Similarly to a roller coaster. From the distance, I also noticed that the line was filled with children. The house’s name was the Clown’s Circus. Which I’m sure scared many kids with the name. To a teenager, it made no sense for Halloween and didn’t seem slightly entertaining. It seemed for a carnival or a birthday party. I’m sure they wanted to adhere to many ages, not just the thrill and scary seekers. To kids too, which makes total sense.

The roller coaster was located inside the building and you could see parts of the roller coaster from the large set windows of the building. It wasn’t as big as the one previously but I’m sure it was a thrill for young kids.

“Umm, maybe we should skip this one.” I shrieked to the sight of all the screaming kids alongside their parents.

“Sounds like a good idea. I don’t want us scaring the parents, let alone the kids.” Alexis looked up and down outer outfits, making me giggle a little. “What should we do then?”

“Hmm.” I tapped my index finger on my closed mouth. “Maybe we could go back to the Prison haunted house. Maybe go separately this time? No point in wasting the last pass.”

The ticket was a pass for all three of the haunted houses, but you could use all of the three passes for just one house. The ticket was just ripped off and collected by the ushers.

“Plus, the prison haunted house would be fun just going through alone. Seeing other people’s reactions. I felt like I didn’t get to see much of that.”

“Sounds good to me. We could go into the lines at different time. I’ll even volunteer to go first.”

“Alright.” I smiled and we turned around and headed back towards the prison house.

Looking at all the different costumes only warmed my heart. People dressed up as different kind of things. Some of the costumes you could tell were created with time and effort, while the rest were store bought. Just like mine.

Alexis still had the fangs present the whole time we’ve been together. I wondered how she was able to do that. Unless they were in fact fake but they didn’t appear as so. It was too seamless against her gums. It made me wonder what Tony’s canine teeth looked like elongated and ready to pierce.

Alexis noticed me constantly looking at her fangs.

“If you keep looking, I might need to bite you.” She said playfully.

“Sorry.” I gently shook my head while my eyes were closed. “They just look so amazing. The sharp tip of them look like a tip of a needle. Your teeth are also incredibly white, unlike mine. The makeup artist did such an amazing job making sure the color was completely identical.”

Alexis grinned to the endless compliment and stood a little straighter.

“Thanks.”

We arrived back in line, this time it was much longer and was receiving heavy traffic. Alexis went into the gated line while I waited outside of it. Seeing people walk in with groups and many couples. I decided to count to 50 people before heading into the line. The number didn’t take long and I was surround by a bunch of guys wearing masks. One of them stood behind me while the rest were ahead of me.

The guy behind me didn’t seem to be apart of the group but seemed to be listening to everything the guys were saying. For that moment I thought it was Tony, but I could see blond hair poking through the bottom of the masking covering his whole head. I wasn’t even sure what he was suppose to be dressed up as but it seemed like some sort of anime character.

“Have you gone through the haunted house yet?” The guy asks me. Without hesitating, I answer.

“Yeah, it’s pretty well thought out. I’m usually tough to scare and they all teamed up and got me. Impressive at the least.”

“Oh wow, that’s cool. I haven’t gone through yet but I’ve seen a lot of people going straight for here.” The way this guy was talking, it seemed very familiar.

“Andrew?”

“Yeah. Surprised you didn’t figure out sooner.” He lifted the front part of the mask to reveal his face. “Glad I found you though. Something happened after you left the house.”

I hold my breath, almost awaiting bad news.

“What?” I ask seriously.

“These two hot chicks came to our house and knocked on the door. I don’t remember what they were there for.” He shrugged his eyebrows. “Weird.” He seemed lost in his thought.

“What? What’s wrong?” I started to become worried. Did they go back to the house to ask him questions about me. If I knew Tony. Ask him things that would reveal something valuable.

“Oh yeah, I remember. They asked me if you knew a guy named Tony.”

Oh no. They did. Yet they didn’t compel him to forget.

“What did you say.”

“You kidding. I said no. That new guy was here and gone like the next day. I know you knew him but it didn’t seem like my place to answer truthfully. I felt bad for not standing up to you. You know, with everything that happened with Misty. Yet I felt like if I was going to be of any help to you, that was probably my moment to shine.” He smiled and I felt towards him to give him a huge hug.

If there was a moment I needed him to help me, that was the exact moment for him to do me the favor. My life could have easily been on the line without me knowing and he saved it.

“I can’t even tell you how happy I am about that. You literally could have saved my life at the very moment.”

“Really?” He seemed extremely confused and then shrugged. “Then I guess we’re even now.”

After talking some more, we ended up at the beginning of the line. The group of guys before us was let in and we were then grouped with a few younger teens behind us. They seemed excited to go into the haunted house. A few of them said they have never been to one yet. Making me believe they haven’t gone to this one yet.

“Tickets.” The large usher on the right asks. The girls and Andrew handed them over. I could find mine and realized Alexis had then the whole time.

“Crap, my friend has my last ticket!”

“You’re actually here with a friend? Where is she?”

“We decided to separate to make it more fun. To see people reactions since the first time we didn’t get much of it.”

Andrew rips one of his tickets off, for me. I felt like such a little sister being taken care of by my older brother. It felt nice but also so strange.

The guy put his finger over his ear piece as if he was receiving a message from someone. The other usher nodded his head to the usher on the right.

“Boss says let her through. She doesn’t need a ticket to enter.”

Andrew was shocked as I was, but I’m sure he was happy to be able to keep the ticket he paid for.

“What? Why?” I ask the gentleman.

“Don’t ask, just go.”

We head toward the door.

“Hold on. Rules, no photography or video footage taken is allowed. To harming the actors or touching them. No running. Don’t die.” Then he turned around and let us on our way.

Entering again seemed so natural at this point. The hallways looked exactly the same with the light swaying and flickering. The young teens in front of Andrew and I were leading, which gave me a perfect view of their reaction to the haunted house. I could tell these girls might get a bit scared.

After tunneling through the hallway, we turn the corner and just as I remembered. The jail cell bars and the same actors posted to scare. The hanging lights swinging over the path where we were designated to walk through. Making some of the haunted actors look like mere shadows.

The bloody pig was ready at the bars on the left and the guy on the right was constantly banging the metal bars with a tankard. The pig still had blood spewing from his neck, at this point his whole area was covered in fake blood making the girls squirm from his squeals.

The guy on the right threw his tankard at the pig. Hitting him right in the head. He flies backward as if it was heavier than a brick. The squeal became murderously loud and the man start yelling.

“Hey piggy pig! Give me my cup back you hog!”

The pig gets up and starts banging the cup even harder making ever louder bangs to the metal. Making me cover my ears from how loud it was. He was squealing to the man and kept banging it as hard as he could.

The man just yells and picks up the shovel by the way and start banging it even louder at the metal bars. The metal on metal sound echoes loudly making the girls cover their ears and try to walk a little fast. Once we past their general spot, the pig throws the tankard back at the man. Which then makes the abrupt metal noise to stop.

As we continue to walk through, I catch glimpse of Andrew slightly jump to an actor who hid in the shadow then ran to the bars with a soggy, dirty beard and his ripped shirt splattering blood onto him.

The girls were jumping as well to sudden movements. One of the girls was so close to the bar of one actor, the guy grabbed her long witch dress and tried pulling her into his jail cell. The girl was screaming for help. All of her friends rush’s you save her but it was no longer needed since true actor let go, making her fling to her friends.

I can overhear her tell her friends that that scared her pretty badly for a moment.

We now approach the stairs and the actor was different this time, wearing a mask and we couldn’t see his hair or his face. The mask was completely black, looked just like a black sheet was form fitted onto his head. You couldn’t see anything underneath it. Not even his eyes.

The light turned off for a few seconds then turned back on, leaving the stairwell empty.

“Oh my god! Where did he go?” One of the girls say that was right in front of us.

I didn’t say anything but her friends just shrugged and just proceeded up the stairs. After they all went up, Andrew went after and I was just a few steps behind. Probably not the best idea for me considering what had happened last time.

The girls mad it all the way up the stairs and Andrew was just about there. The lights turn off and I was a few steps up from the middle of the stairs. I stop stepping and start to panic a little. It was endless darkness and I couldn’t even see behind myself. I could tell that there was a panel that blocked the light from the main room automatically, which I hadn’t realized before.

I feel a hand grab my ankle and I scream out loud. Sending my brother trying to step back down.

“Becca! I can’t find you! What happened? There’s a net in the way? Where are you?”

The hand releases from my ankle and I could almost feel the body right behind me. Even though I couldn’t see him.

“The actor grabbed my ankle, just scared me a little. You guys have to keep going for the net to reset.!” I yell back at Andrew.

I could see the bodies go through the plastic curtain door as each of them went through. Giving just enough light to see each one of them pass through. After Andrew passes through, the darkness continues and I expected the light to reappear.

I could hear the slight breathing behind me, sending chills down my spine. This seemed like something a haunted house wasn’t allowed to do.

All of a sudden the actor grabs my hand and put a folded up piece of paper into my hand. It felt pretty thick, like a full sheet of paper was folded up until it couldn’t anymore. I hold the paper tightly and stand completely still.

I then got a whiff of a cologne that I knew all too well.

“Ton...”

The lights turn back on and he wasn’t there anymore. I look down back at my hand and saw the overly folded piece of paper. On the outside it said: open in privacy. I shoved the paper into my bra underneath my boob, concealing it from everyone. Most importantly, Alexis.

I quickly continued up the stairs and went through the plastic door curtains. Andrew had continued on without me and I hustled around the large jail cell. At this point I wasn’t interested in the haunted entertainment. I wanted to get out and get to Alexis as fast as possible. I needed to go home and figure out what the folded up note had inside. My room was going to be the only place I could go for complete privacy. I might even had to go into my closet for this one.

The actors didn’t even bother trying to scare me and almost knew I wanted to just get out of the house. The path I took was the same one Alexis and I took earlier. Which wasn’t the way the girls and my brother took.

I kept going and reached the stairwell that lead outside. After a few steps the light went out like it did earlier as well, but I confidently kept going down the stairs and reached the complete outdoors. I saw Alexis waiting in the gift shop area. It looked like she already bought something since she had a small black plastic bag in her hand.

She turned her head to me and smiled. I approached her but tried to breath my urgency away. I didn’t want her to think there was something going on.

“You forgot to give me the ticket.” I laughed as I finally got to her.

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry.” She pulls the last ticket out of her purse. “How did you get in?”

“Funny, I saw my brother in line and ended up using a ticket on me. He was a life saver.” I lied.

“Wow. Perfecting timing.” She took the item out of the black bag. “I decided to buy both of us a cup coaster. Just for our memorable date. And remind us about the roller coaster and why we didn’t go. Thought it would be an interesting gift.” She laughed as she passed the coaster to me. It was made of cork and had a plastic sticker on one side that had the logo of the prison haunted house on it. “Unfortunately, I need go. My sister are here to pick us up to send you back home. Today wasn’t all that long but I seriously enjoyed it. Thanks.”

Her smile showed true and seemed completely genuine. I smiled back since it was perfect timing and I needed to see what was in this note.

As we walked back to the street of where the diner is located. I couldn’t stop thinking about the note. About Tony hidden under the stairs, waiting for that perfect moment. What would he have done if I did go back to the haunted house? Was he the boss of the house? I just could understand how it all came to happen. Was he trying to get me the first time but since Alexis was with me, there was no possible way of doing it.

~

Alexis and her sisters dropped me off. The car ride was oddly quiet again. There was a hint of iron smell back inside the car but not as outrageous as the first time I step foot in the car.

Anastasia was driving more abrupt and even drove around a car to pass them up. I didn’t understand the rush but I can only imagine it had an underlining purpose. Maybe Alexis knew I almost said Tony’s name in the prison house. Maybe Alexis knew he was there and was trying to find him separated from me. Maybe they found out he’s ran away. That would mean that Tiffany would have spoken to them.

Deep down, I was thrilled for the rushing. It would mean I would be able to read the note in private. I needed to know what was written. Nothing mattered more to me.

“Alexis. I had a lot of fun today. Thanks for the date.” I turned to her with a smile.

“I had fun as well.” She turned to me with a fangless smile.

I couldn’t focus on the fangs missing. I didn’t want to attract attention where it was unnecessary. Clueless was hard to fake since I was so observant. Yet, in order to be friends and not to be considered a threat. It would be the only way I would survive.