“Boo, say something. I’m scared.”

Angelo clung to my side and I had to push him away so he wouldn’t cause us to fall over. I readjusted his grip on me so that he was hugging my arm instead of my side.

“I thought you didn’t want me to say a word,” I said.

“I changed my mind.”

The trek into the haunted house was dark but uneventful so far. There was some red mood lighting and some thunder sound effects in the distance but nothing really popped out to me yet so far.

“Oh my god, was that a snake?” Angelo squeaked.

I couldn’t see what he was referring to until he jerked back in fear. A long thin object was dangling from the ceiling and I could just barely make out what it was. There was something on the end of what seemed to be a rope and I tilted my head to the side.

“Oh, it’s just a shrunken head. It’s just really long hair, not a snake,” I said casually. Maybe that would ease his worries.

“A HEAD?” He shrieked.

It didn’t seem to ease his worries.

Angelo tried to book it as he ran forward but I yanked him back. Just as he fell backwards, the head swung towards him and I swore I felt his body go limp for a second. I managed to catch him in my arms and he breathed heavily into my neck as he held onto my arms for support.

“You can barely see in here,” I grunted and tried to lift him so he was standing straight. “Don’t try to go running off like that. If you end up losing me, you’ll seriously regret it.”

The was a moment of silence as Angelo stabilized himself on his feet and he cleared his throat. “That was a good line. You should add it to your book.”

“What? Legit?” I asked him.

“Yeah, my heart is pounding from it.”

“Are you sure you’re not just confusing it with the scare you just had?”

“I can’t say for sure.”

We continued to trek through the haunted house in silence. There hadn’t been any actors yet which made me question how they were running this event. They still had the typical stuff like a skeleton dressed in slime and fake guts being lit up by flickering lights and other cheap scares. It was so impressive how boring they made the haunted house but Angelo seemed to be having the time of his life with how scared he was. I wish I was as easily scared as him, I would be having more fun if I was.

That was when we saw it. The exit.

All anticipation and excitement I had up until now just disappeared as I walked towards the door with Angelo. We weren’t in the haunted house for very long and I swore we were in there for a few minutes at the very least. If it was longer than that, it was because Angelo needed time to find the courage to keep moving forward.

Angelo had a sigh of relief while I just was overall disappointed with the experience. It was still so strange to me that we didn’t see any haunted house actors at all.

When Angelo opened the door, it wasn’t to the hallway like I expected. It was just an empty room with white curtains and a lone figure stood there. I could only see the person’s back but there was a heavy sound of sobbing coming from the room.

“Hey, are you okay?” Angelo asked cautiously as he approached the person.

“Are you going to leave me here?” The voice was feminine and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

Unlike the rest of the haunted house so far, the room was overly lit and white. It hurt my eyes and my heartbeat only began to speed up.

Angelo for once wasn’t terrified and was focused on the person.

“Do we need to get campus security?” Angelo asked.

The sobbing stopped abruptly. The silence was near deafening and the figure’s head slowly turned.

“I’ve been alone for so long. My boyfriend said he wanted to take me on a date next to the well but I ended up falling into it,” she said. Her voice was rough and cracked at the end of her sentence. “He said he was going to get help but I was left here. I thought someone would come looking for me but I haven’t heard anyone come here until you came.”

Her eyes were pure red and red liquid rolled down her cheeks. Her teeth were pointed and elongated, only making me reel back in surprise. Her hair was clearly wet as it clung to her face and neck like a second skin.

Angelo froze. All the screaming and yells of fear weren’t present and he seemed to have fully shut down at the moment. As soon as I realized he wasn’t going to budge, I grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

“Will you help me or will you stay with me?” She screamed.

“Neither!” I yelled and dragged Angelo out of the room.

He stumbled but came to his senses as he followed my lead. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and the fear made my cheeks flush.

More actors jumped out and tried to dissuade us from leaving them. They all had wet-looking hair or blueish makeup as if they were all victims of similar fates to the girl.

When we finally reached the real exit, I threw the door open and Angelo and I escaped with our chests rising and falling heavily as we attempted to catch our breath. We were leaning against the wall across from the haunted house exit and I could see the line where we had entered from.

“Oh my god,” Angelo huffed. “That was so scary.”

“I thought it was going to be bad,” I said with a breathless laugh. “I didn’t expect it to ramp up by the end.”

“I think I can see what you like about horror,” Angelo said. He had his head resting on my shoulder at this point and I realized my hand was still tightly gripping his arm.

I gently let go and smiled. “Yeah?”

“You get a rush from it. Like rollercoasters.” Angelo moved his hand to mimic a rollercoaster’s movements and I laughed.

“Maybe we should go to an amusement park next time,” I suggested.

“We’ll see.” Angelo lifted his head from my shoulder and looked up at me. “Do you think you got enough research for your romance?”

I felt my face heat up from his sudden closeness and I cleared my throat. “Good enough, at least. I might have to add in a haunted house chapter since I can’t imagine other dates to write.”

“We’ll have to work on that,” he said.

I laughed nervously at his use of “we” but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah, I guess so.”