Horror House

Alice slipped her hand into his as they walked toward the house.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.  I hate horror houses, even these cheesy ones.”

“Come on, Alice!  They’re fun.”  Scott gave her his biggest grin, the one that could make her do anything he asked.

“Oh, alright.  Just don’t let go of my hand.  I’m already terrified!”

He kissed her deeply and yanked her toward the house.

“Don’t you think it’s kind of odd that nobody else is here?  I mean, there were cars parked but I haven’t seen anyone the whole time we’ve been walking.”

“You’re just paranoid, Alice.  They’re all in the house.  Listen.  You can hear their screams.  Come on!  Let’s go.”

He raced ahead of her and jumped up the stairs of the old house.  She gave him her best eye roll and followed him.

“You owe me for this, Scott.”

“Whatever you want, my dear.”

A man dressed in a cheap Phantom of the Opera costume greeted them at the door.

“Enter if you dare,” he bellowed with a grim smile.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all if that’s the best they can do, Alice thought to herself.

They stepped into the foyer of the house.  Strobe lights and fake spiderwebs decorated the room.

“See?  This isn’t so bad.  We’ve definitely been to scarier houses than this!”

His attempt at comfort was sweet but it fell on deaf ears.  It didn’t take much to scare Alice and she was already terrified just being in the spooky old house.

“Let’s just get this over with, okay?”

They opened the door to their left and entered a room with more strobe lights.  Closed coffins lined the walls.  She knew what would happen next but couldn’t help the terrified feeling creeping up her spine.

They waited.  Nothing happened.

“Well, that’s strange.  Usually the damn things would pop open and scare the shit out of us by now!”  While Scott moved toward the last coffin in the row, something moved in the shadows to Alice’s left.  She turned, expecting to see others venturing into the room but nothing was there.

“Scott?  Let’s keep going okay.  I’m pretty freaked out.”

No answer.

She turned back to the coffin but Scott was suddenly gone.

“Scott?!  Where the hell did you go?  This isn’t funny!”

She waited for him to pop out and scare her.

“Scott!  Screw this.  I’ll be in the car whenever you decide to grow up.”

She turned back toward the door, happy to finally be leaving the stupid house.  She turned the knob and pulled but the door didn’t budge.  She pulled harder to no avail.

“Dammit!”  She looked toward the other side of the room, realizing she’d have to go through the damn house by herself.

“Oh, you will pay dearly for this.”

She opened the door to the next room, horrified to be confronted by bodies littering the floor.

“Gross!  Scott?  Are you in here?  I’m ready to go.”

She looked at the bodies on the floor.  They looked pretty damn realistic.  She began to carefully tip-toe around them to the door on the other side of the room, praying for an exit.  She heard a moan and looked around, hoping Scott would finally decide it was time to stop this stupid charade.

She was five feet from the door when a hand suddenly grabbed her ankle, pulling her down onto the bodies.  Alice screamed in horror, turning toward whatever had brought her down.  A bloodied mess that used to be Scott stared back at her.

“Run,” he moaned.

“Oh shit!”  She turned to run to the door but she couldn’t move.  The bodies were all holding her down.  She turned her head around to see a man walking toward her, a huge knife in his hand.  He knelt down on top of her, pulling her head back as he placed the cool steel blade to her neck.  Tears poured down her face as he whispered in her ear, “Welcome to your new home.”

The last thing she felt was the warmth of her own blood cascading down her neck.

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Come get spooky at the Speakeasy

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