"Eddie? Are…are you okay?" a girl who I faintly remembered as Janice asked me after a long period of silence.
I gave her a smile. "Yeah, yeah…I'm fine, sorry for stalling. It just…it gets a little hard for me to recall sometimes" I explained, playing around with the flashlight on the ground. "Anyways…when I woke up, I was inside an entirely different room…"
I opened my eyes, the sting of the orange lightbulb that hung above me making me sit upright. My vision was blurry at first, but I soon saw the tall figure again, sitting on a chair beside a large trunk a few feet away from me.
He looked at me, the mask still on his face. I immediately screamed. I scrambled to my feet and tried to run…but then he took off his mask. Without the mask he…he actually looked normal. It may seem like an understatement, but after seeing all the high budget zombies and monsters in that house, I wasn't sure what to believe anymore.
I stopped in place, keeping a good enough distance away. Looking around, dozens of different clothing racks and shelves were scattered about in the small room. Most of which held all sorts of costumes and props--a realistic looking severed head even sat on a table. The whole place looked like a very cramped backstage to a theatre.
The tall man walked closer to me, telling me that I wasn't in any danger. I started stepping back myself, soon reaching the wall behind me. It felt hollow to the touch, and somehow made me recall the wall opening from the first room of the haunt right before I passed out.
After seeing how I didn't want him to get close, he gave up and walked back. He didn't look frustrated by my presence, if anything, he looked embarrassed.
He sat back down on his chair, with him saying "Sorry, you're still…you know, pretty freaking confused, huh?" I turned to look at him, still unsure on what to feel whenever I saw his face. He chuckled to himself, letting his head hang back. "Where do I begin?"
He explained to me that everything and everyone in that house, all the scary things that I had unfortunately come across, were, and had always been, fake. In the back of my mind, I had already known about what he was saying…but somehow, the way he told me all of that…made me feel more at ease.
Apparently, we were in one of the many dressing rooms that the haunt had hidden within its walls. These were rooms that were made for any behind the scenes work that needed to be done; costume changes, prop storage, machine controls, that sort of thing. He even told me of the different teams involved, that being the Tech-Group, the Security, and of course, the Monsters. All of which go through these hidden rooms to keep the flow of the haunt going.
I didn't know what to say during those moments, so I kept on listening, occasionally nodding or shaking my head to show that I was still paying attention.
He soon asked me for my name, and I was hesitant at first. But after thinking about what he told me, about the monsters being fake and nothing inside that haunt was there to actually…I eventually told him.
He looked to me, a warm smile on his face that showed that he was happy for my trust in him, and said "Nice to meet you Eddie"
A loud slam of another door away from us made its way to my ears. My eyes drifted to where it was, and saw another door at the far end being opened by a short lady with long messy hair wearing a torn and ragged dress. I would've been scared of this banshee woman…if not for the incredibly sassy look on her face.
She took notice of us soon enough, and immediately she started sending a barrage of questions and sarcastic remarks at the guy with the bear mask, telling him that they'd been looking for a lost kid for half an hour. Her squeaky voice rising higher and higher as the situation was explained whenever she gave the man time to speak. It was super awkward…
Eventually though, they were done talking, and the Banshee woman had agreed to take me outside. I wasn't sure about it at first, but like the man with the bear mask, the tone of her voice suddenly shifted to a more calm and friendly one. She told me that it was okay, that they weren't gonna try and scare me anymore, which eventually persuaded me to coming with her.
Before we left though…I asked the man I was talking to if he was coming or not. He said no, the same look of distraught slowly coming back to him as he vaguely told us that he had some things to sort out first.
"Oh, you on inventory check?" the Banshee asked him, and he simply nodded. She may have believed him…but something in the back of my mind made me think otherwise.
"And…here's kinda where things started for me" I stated, giving them all a smile that was less sinister than what I had been doing. "We went through the same door this Banshee woman came through, and lemme tell ya, I did not think that there could be that many people in such a tiny house, not to mention inside those hidden rooms…but honestly, I didn't mind"
We made our way through the different rooms, and I had the chance to see things inside the haunt in a lighter perspective. Not only were the people inside these rooms looked a lot less like monsters and more like actors, but like the Banshee woman had said, they weren't there to scare me anymore.
"Everything I thought about that haunted house, heck! About horror stuff in general, it all changed for me at that one moment! The same people that made me scream now had friendly faces too, high-fiving me as we passed by. Some of the tech-guys even gave me candy that time. I remember it tasting like crap though, hehe. Guessin' that was more of a trick than treat" I explained.
Though the man I met earlier had already told me about the haunt not being real, it was only when I was escorted outside by another monster that made me see what he meant. Everyone in the haunt, past all the creepy makeup, robotics, and…masks…they were still people. People whom I oddly adored being around, despite not knowing any of them. They were all so kind and nice that…in the short time I was in those hidden rooms, I couldn't help but smile and laugh all the way through.
"Eventually, we made it outside. My folks were BEYOND worried! My ma and pa gave me a monstrous hug while the Banshee told them about what the lumberjack guy had explained to her earlier. Mom dropped bent down to my level and asked me if I was scared…but of course, I said no! I wasn't scared at all! The very opposite! In fact, I actually wanted to give the house another go! Sure, I knew I'd still get scared, but knowing just how friendly everyone was, it made the idea more fun than frightening!" I explained gleefully to all of them.
I could see a mix of smiles and unsure looks. I knew this part wasn't much of a favorite to a lot of folks, but I could see that the crowd in front of me still tried their best to listen.
"After that, we all went to see our uncle and say our goodbyes. He went on a long speech about how he was so happy to see us all having a great time, that his haunt was now approved by his own flesh and blood…I didn't think he knew I was missing earlier either, hehe. I guess he was just preoccupied with a lot of stuff at the time. But yeah, after that, we all went home. We dropped off my cousins at my uncle's place first, and then we drove back to our house. And…that was it. The day after that, I started to persistently ask my parents if they convince uncle Patrick to give us free tickets again for every opening night at every year. But yeah…that was the entirety of our first visit in Murton Murder's House of Horror…"
For a good long moment, there was nobody talking, just a few murmurs and thoughtful nods from them.
"Huh, so that's how you turned into…that" Jared, a classmate of mine in History, had said. Not sure if I should be offended by that, but I gave him a nod anyway.
"Yup, one hell of a start, huh?"
"Could've ended a whole lot worse" Janice commented, and everyone giggled.
"Hang on," Emily interrupted. "I don't know if I just missed something but…I gotta ask, who did the scream belong to?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, everyone got quiet again, as if the question had caught them off-guard. I was surprised nobody asked me that sooner…
I could see it in their faces, Emily especially. They knew I wasn't done yet.
"I did find out," I finally said. "And honestly, I wish I hadn't"
"Not too long ago in fact, about six whole years in the past" I started again. "The whole revelation started when I just had my twelfth birthday. Uncle Pat came by, really late too"
It was around dinner time, and he decided to eat with us. My dad and uncle had already started with their usual shenanigans. My mother asked how he was doing with the carnival. It wasn't going to open for another three months, but he still attended to his haunt once or twice a week on his off-days; he had to work different jobs after every season.
"I…I don't exactly remember why we decided to talk about his first night as the showman and manager of the haunt. But we did…and immediately, I stepped into the conversation"
Enthusiasm practically radiated off of me when I had the chance to speak. Being able to tell papa Murton Murder himself how much he'd changed my life was something I could not pass up. "I was pretty obnoxious, but if my uncle found me annoying, I didn't see. And oddly enough, he looked super happy when I told him how awesome his haunt was, even if he did hear most of his family say it to him practically every time he asked" it was like he was infected by my own giddiness, turning into a zombie that continued to feed on the growing joy of the current topic of our conversation.
"We started talking about the time I got separated" I said aloud. "My mom was the one who started it, and uncle Pat looked really embarrassed when she started to recall in vivid detail of how he didn't even come inside to look for me"
"I told my uncle about the scream…and things got all weird again. I started telling him how cool it was to have that incredibly traumatizing addition to the haunt for people who tried to go back. I don't know how my mind went to that idea, sounded like the most logical explanation I had thought of at the moment. But I digress…"
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