It is mid October, my favourite time of year. The leaves have all fallen off the trees leaving that wonderful spookiness look in the fog that alway descends over our city as the air cools. Most people by now have decorated their houses for Halloween and nobody judges my gothic makeup and outfits. I was on my way to meet my boyfriend and his friends at the biggest haunted house in the city. It was famous for being one of the scariest events, even making the top five scariest things to do in the whole country three years running.
I pulled into the parking lot, scanning for Tim's truck. I couldn't see it but figured I simply beat him here. I pulled my phone out and saw a text from him, "Sry Babe, got called out on job. Owen and Craig are still going if U still want to go? Luv U!"
"Damn it!" I muttered under my breath as I text back, "OK, love U 2 & miss U!"
Typical Tim, I knew he couldn't help being on call but he could at least phone me. I considered going back home, yet I really wanted to check out the haunted house. I love being scared, so in the end the haunted house won and I hopped out of my car and made my way to the ticket stand. Owen and Craig were standing off to the side of the line up and waved me over, Owen gave me a quick one armed hug as he jokingly said, "Sorry your dipshit boyfriend couldn't come, you can hold my hand if you get scared!"
I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow, "Most likely you and Craig will be holding hands comforting each other."
I turned my attention to Craig who was looking at Owen with a strange glint in his eye. I shivered from the slight breeze and rubbed my hands together before asking, "So do we have the tickets already or should we get in line?"
Craig slowly tore his eyes away from Owen and almost seemed shocked to see me staring at him, he grinned though and his demeanour went back to normal as he shook his head and answered, "I helped set it up this year, so I get free admission."
I raised an eyebrow, "I didn't realize you were part of this, won't you get bored if you know whats coming?"
Craig licked his lips and laughed, "Nah, it looks different with the lights off. Plus I enjoy watching the reactions as people scream. You wouldn't happen to be a screamer, would you Tara?"
I caught the double innuendo in there and decided it was best to not keep this track of conversation going with my boyfriends two best friends and swiftly changed the subject, "It's freezing out here, lets head in shall we?"
I followed a step behind the pair as we bypassed the line of people and headed for the door, a zombie shuffled up to us and nodded to Craig, he held open the curtain and turned towards me, in a gravely voice he said, "Ladies first!"
As I walked through the curtain I heard him add, "Looks good enough to eat!"
I entered a pitch black hallway covered in smokey fog, suddenly a light flashed fast enough to show a big figure in front of me, I stepped back right into Owen who laughed, "Don't tell me you're scared already!"
We followed the hallway as people jumped out and either grabbed our arms or made menacing gestures with far too realistic weapons, I ended up between Craig and Owen as a defence. The guys would startle when things popped out but rather than scream they would laugh. I turned around at one point when I heard a loud bang and realized Craig wasn't with us anymore and I grabbed Owens arm. He turned and looked at me laughing as he said, "Relax Tara!"
His eyes narrowed when he realized we were alone, and his voice dropped "Where did Craig go?"
I shook my head and tried to keep my voice steady, "I don't know... he was here one moment and gone the next."
Owen glanced around quickly and grabbed my hand, "Come on, he's probably just going to sneak ahead and try to scare us, he designed the place so he has to know the short cuts."