"Jay?" she called, "Where are you Jay?" She walks through the gore splattered rooms, smiling at the scenes.
"In here." he yells and she follows his voice.
Stepping into the doctor's office she sees Jay, up to his waist in the table trying to position the lower body. "What are you doing?" she laughs. "I'm just trying to get this damn thing to lay right for tomorrow night." he says fumbling with the latex legs, "Come give me a hand."
She walks over to the end of the table to help and bursts into giggles. "What's so damn funny?" he asks. Wiping the tears from her eyes she points at the flipped up skirt on the prop. "I didn't know you'd look so good in pink panties." she says bursting into another stream of laughter. Always the clown he lifts the skirt in a mock flash and says, "Oh yes, no more boxers for me silk and lace all the way" Sheila stands there laughing helplessly as he begins to rub the latex legs and says, "I've got such smooth legs too, I just had them waxed. Come stroke my silky skin." She's holding her sides laughing even harder at him, trying to speak, "Stop." is all she can get out between laughs. He puts his hands on the fake hips and in a motherly voice says, "Are you quite finished fooling around yet?"
She stumbles over to him and swats at him though her laughter, but he catches her arm. He pulls her across the table, gives her a quick kiss and lets her go. "Ok, enough being goofy, let's get this done." he says smiling at her. She wipes the tears from her eyes again and tries to suppress her giggles as she moves back to the end of the table. While they position the prop she asks, "So how soon are we going to do the walk through?"
He glances up at her, "I thought we'd do it tomorrow before we open."
"Tomorrow? But that's Halloween, we can't fix things on our busiest night!"
"Sheila, things have worked just fine all week."
"Yeah, but that was the tame, all ages, not so scary stuff. This is the NC-17 type of scare. We've got all these new props and we've gotta make sure they work right." she says.
"It's almost midnight now. The guys want to go have some fun. I mean they're gonna be here all night tomorrow, we can't keep them here tonight too."
"Look, its for charity and they said they'd do it."
"Yeah, charity, an they're doing this for free. So I'm not going to be a dick an keep them here any later tonight."
She throws the prop down, "Whatever! You do what the hell you want Jay!" she snarls and storms off.
He just stands there watching her go, shaking his head and thinking. 'She's got a heart of gold, but sometimes she can be such a bitch!' He's known Sheila for several years, they're good friends and they usually get along. She's been working hard on this haunted house, he knows she's just wanting this to be perfect. He shrugs and goes back to work on the set up, figuring he'll straighten things out with her tomorrow.
Sheila slams the door to the make-shift office and flops down on the ragged couch. She crosses her arms in a huff, tapping her foot. "Damn him." she mumbles. Deep down she knows he's right, which only irritates her more. Jay has been her friend for eight years now and this is only a minor fight. She shares almost everything with him and they're friends with benefits, or 'fuck buddies' as Jay would put it. Although they would never make it as a real couple, this is a comfortable relationship for them both. She gets up, walks over to get the file folders off the shelf and sighs, "I may as well go over the revenue until its time to go." Sitting at the desk she begins to tally up their income and tries to let her temper subside.
A knock on the door makes her jump nervously and she looks over at the clock... 12:30am. "Well happy Halloween." she groans. Another knock on the door and she walks over to open it. The door swings open to a gray-faced creature with horns and a sardonic smile. She catches the scream in her throat realizing that Jay has put on his new costume. "Very fuckin funny Jay." she sneers. The creature doesn't say a word, simply gestures down the hallway toward the entrance to the haunted house. She looks at him, "Oh Jay, did you change your mind about the walk thru? You're the best! Thank you!" she says smiling and he just bows slightly. "Glad to see you got rid of that silly red devil face too." she laughs.
They walk through the door of the haunted house, the lights are dimmed, and a light fog swirls around their feet. He leads her through the first few scenes, all of which are working perfectly. As they turn a corner two other creatures jump out at her and she shrieks. "Dammit Jay!" she hisses then starts giggling, "I didn't know you had helper demons." She can barely make out these guys, but it looks like they are dressed similar to Jay. She begins following him again, but turns to whisper to the new guys and they've disappeared. She looks around wondering where they went when she realizes they must be doing double duty for the next scene.
He flicks on a small flashlight, its red bulb gleaming a thin crimson trail for her as he leads her into a pitch black room. She knows that she'll be left in the dark while a short recording is played then the lights will come up suddenly with the 'creatures' jumping up in her face to scare her. She stands where he leads her waiting for the sound when she feels something cold brush against her thigh. She jumps a little and makes a mental note to tell the guys to be more careful with the groups tomorrow. The recording keys up and a spotlight flashes on, but instead of being a good ten feet away from her it's centered on her exactly.
"Damn," she curses, "I knew we needed a walk thru. Jay, see what I mean, the spotlight is supposed to be over there." Even though he couldn't see her if he wanted to she points over toward the stage and she bumps into something leathery. "What the fuck?" she yelps jerking her hand back. "Jay?" she calls getting a little bit scared now. 'Maybe he was more angry than I thought?' she thinks, 'Yeah, that's it, he's trying to scare me now.' "Jay! Come on, you know you can't scare me with this stuff. Halloween is my holiday, I know all the tricks." she says crossing her arms and looking around the small circle of light.
Dark figures dart just into the edge of the light and she peers closer trying to make out if they're people or props. The black lights begin coming up slowly, filling the room with its shadowy glow. Sheila turns to head back out of the path and almost runs into the gray-faced creature. She glares up at him then turns on her heel to go the other direction but freezes in place. Looking around the dim light she sees five other figures of various creatures flexing their claws and watching her intently. Now she's really getting scared, that nervous-sick feeling snakes up through her belly and she trembles. She steps back and bumps into the solid body of the creature she thought was Jay.
'It has to be Jay, these things aren't real.' her mind rationalizes.
The creatures surge forward grabbing at her, their sharp claws tearing her t-shirt and scratching her skin. A scream finally breaks out of her throat as she swings and kicks at these beasts, trying to fight them off. The gray-faced one grabs her about the waist and picks her up off the ground effortlessly. The others rush in, quickly catching her swinging limbs, tying her wrists together as well as her ankles. She twists and struggles as they carry her toward another scene, screaming loudly until one of them shoves something in her mouth.
She chokes on the taste from the gag, trying to dislodge it with her lips and tongue, but to no avail. There's a clatter to her right and she snaps her head around to locate the source. She sees the latex half body and various instruments laying on the floor where one creature swept them off the exam table. Then she is being carried towards it and before she can even react she is dropped hard on the metal table.
The air is forced from her lungs, leaving her gasping to catch her breath. Her wrists are untied while she desperately sucks in breaths and though she resists she is no match for them. The rough rope they bind her wrists with digs into her skin as her arms are pulled up over her head and secured. She fights as they untie her ankles, landing kicks when she can, barely holding back her tears. They force her legs down and she can feel the ropes tightening on her ankles as she whimpers softly behind the gag.