Teenage Terror

It was the Friday before Halloween, and my friends and I were trying to figure out what to do.  There were no parties to attend.  We were apparently too old for trick-or-treating.  What were a bunch of girls to do?

“How about the haunted house?” one friend piped in.

“How about you shut your stupid mouth?” I calmly replied.

It was too late.  The idea had landed and flowered in the brains of my friends.  I was terrified of haunted houses.  For a decade, I had avoided them.  I wouldn’t be so lucky tonight.

We drove through the increasing darkness to the house, my palms growing sweaty with each and every mile.  When the house came into view, my dread hit an all-time high.  The house was bathed in darkness with only a few lights to guide your way to the front entrance.  Infinite trees lined either side while a field overgrown with tall grass rounded out the back.  I stepped out of the car to hear the screams of other girls inside the house.

I almost bailed.  Instead, I lamely attempted to convince them to change their cruel and unusual plans.

“I think this is going to be scarier than you think.  How about ice cream instead?”

My friends grabbed my hands, laughing at my irrational fear of all things creepy, and therefore, rightfully feared.  While I had previously hoped they would guide me through the house with my eyes closed, I quickly began to wish that the tables would turn and that they would get a taste of my fear, ‘irrational’ as it was.

My wish was granted.

To my friend’s credit, the first few rooms we entered were mild in their terror.  We moved as a group, squealing as people in costume jumped out at us.  My friends would then fall into fits of laughter at the absurdity of it all while I grimly smiled in the back, forcing them forward to get it over with as soon as possible.  We moved into the final room, the exit sign beaming at me in congratulations for making it through the house of horror.

The final room was halved, a chain link fence separating us from complete darkness. A strobe light flashed, revealing only one object in the room: an electric chair.

My friends giggled as I backed up to the wall.  They moved closer to the fence, awaiting the next scare.  The lights began to flicker and a bloodied man was suddenly locked in the chair.

“Holy crap!  How did he get in there so fast!” my girlfriend exclaimed.

I pressed my back into the wall, praying I would melt into it and disappear from the house.

The lights continued to flicker as the electric chair roared to life.  The man’s body jerked, contorting himself into positions I didn’t think possible.  I screamed as my friend’s laughed in front of me.  The room abruptly went dark, a sole light appearing over a suddenly empty electric chair.

The room went deathly silent.  My friends moved closer to the fence as I cringed in the back.  Without warning, the bloodied man jumped onto the fence right in front of my friends, sending them hurtling back toward me.  The room erupted in their screams as they ran for the exit.  As the door slowly shut behind them, I could hear their screams as they ran toward the car.  I opened the door, smiling at the absurdity of it all, and followed their screams into the night.

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Awesomesauce awaits you at Yeah Write!

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Be My Guest?

Don’t forget that I will be taking a break from the wonderful blogosphere for the month of November as I am participating in NaNoWriMo!  During that time, I would love to have guest posts throughout the month from my favorite readers.  You can write about anything!  Just email me!