This is a Halloween contest entry. Read, enjoy, and of course vote!
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I had always enjoyed doing this, especially when I had a setup as sweet as this. I'd done a lot of haunted houses over the years, but this one had to be one of the best for Count Dracula to pick his victims.
Picture a long narrow hallway with a small trail of tracer type Christmas lights at the far end, leading you into a tunnel. As you walk down the gloomy corridor your attention is drawn to the tunnel ahead and the array of severed heads and hands hanging down in front of your face as you weave back and forth between them, trying not to touch the bloody disgusting things.
With all your attention focused forward, you don't even notice the dark form slip from its hiding place behind you and slowly walk up behind you, his cape spread, ready to engulf you and drag you away to become his next meal. You don't even realize the level of danger you're in until you feel his breath on your neck and his low growling words. "AHHHHH Fresh blood!" You turn, see the hallowed grayish face inches from yours, his fangs red with blood and his cape spread, ready to capture you and drag you away.
Yeah, and the best part is that the ones who hang back at the rear of the group are the most scared, letting the "braver" ones take the lead. Little do they know that they are by far my favorite prey!
This year it was at a middle school as a fund raiser for the fifth and sixth grade classes. My wife was busy someplace else in the haunted house, making sure that her school kids were doing their appointed tasks and that everything was going the way it should. My hiding place was secluded, a dark pause to catch your breath between the tunnel to the graveyard ahead of the dark maze that dumped into my corridor.
I pick my victims with care, usually going for the parents or the older kids. Many of the little kids were just too scared by the time they got to me that I didn't want to give them a heart attack. But the parents....ohhh yes, those soft exposed mothers necks. Sometimes the high school kids would come through and I'd go after one of the younger necks, looking for my fresh blood meal in the form of a truly young blood....
But then it's all make believe anyway. Although the way they screamed in that truly high pitched shriek and ran was always so fun to watch. And those were just the boyfriends! Yeah, I loved it when I scared the crap out of the big strong guys that were supposedly protecting their girlfriends. One guy earlier in the evening got so scared he dumped his girl to fend for herself, and crashed through the crowd ahead of him, practically diving into the tunnel. And then there was more than one young lady who had the piss scared out of her....literally. It has been a truly spectacular scare when they wet their pants! More than one young lady, and perhaps a mother or two had to change their panties after their little encounter with the Count.
But I still enjoy going after the mothers the most. They had that protective instinct, getting between me and their children, the face of pure terror glued on, yet not breaking to make that run. No they were the best because I could advance on them with them looking at me, lifting my cape and engulfing them into my dark realm, nearly reaching their neck with my fangs before letting them slide away from me, pushing their children toward the tunnel. They came to be scared, so why not do it right, ya know?
I'd been at it for almost three hours, a bit less than an hour to go as I slipped quietly back into my little cubby hole, a curtained off corner with walls on two sides, a folded lunch table for a third wall and a black curtain to hide me from my victims as they entered my corridor.
At about five feet deep and about three feet wide I had plenty of room to wait between groups. Someone had even provided me with a folding chair if I got tired. My fifty year old legs did tend to get tired, so the chair was nice, but I didn't get to use it often. I usually just stepped behind the curtain and watched through the tiny slit up the middle of the curtain to see what the next group looked like.
But something didn't feel right, something was out of place. I couldn't put my finger on it in the dark. Maybe it was my own imagination, I thought to myself as I peered out at the first people coming through the maze exit.
At first it was the cold hands that startled me, making me jump as they slid around my chest and waist, pulling me backwards into the darkness. My heart leapt to my throat and I was about to scream in surprise more than fear before the soft female voice whispered in my ear.
"So you like to scare women, count?" The quiet voice whispered. "Just how brave are you?"
"The count is fearless!" I said in my best Transylvanian accent, totally unsure who it was that was trying to put the scare on the count. Probably one of my victims that managed to sneak back in somehow.
"Really? Then let's see what the count does when he's the one having his life sucked from him." The voice whispered softly, followed by a set of soft lips pressing to the base of my neck.
