Outrageous Thoughts of Babble
by Peter Knight
Haunted House
We stood at the bottom of the staircase like two scared kittens. Toward front of us was the mouth of the haunted house. All we could do was to peer at the aged decrepit wax statue of the world's tallest man hidden in the darkness. He stood tall and mysterious. His face buried beyond the darkness of the ceiling. Light tapered off beyond him where the walkway led. Pitch black.Just minutes earlier, both Liz and I were laughing about how scary this would be. We journeyed toward the ticket booth behind this other couple, purchased our tickets, and decided to enter the dark labyrinth. Moments upon the first door shutting behind us, we noticed we were at the top of a staircase. The walls were lined with an old mural of circus freaks of days gone by, chipping away and quickly fading. It was obvious that maintenance to this attraction was not one of high priority. We stepped down each step one at a time. Our eyes adapted to the incandescent lighting, which seemed to grow dimmer as we progressed downward. The couple, which was once ahead of us, was no where in sight.
It was amazing how upon entering this so-called, "Haunted House," that all the terror of our fearful childhood memories of ghosts and monsters could be recalled instantly in a reminiscent fashion. Artful as this may seem, I was not prepared for boogie men today.
Maybe yesterday, but not today.
There we stood - at the mouth of the entrance to eternal darkness. Both Liz and I took half steps in and out of the doorway, as though something or someone were to come out and grab us and drag us into what would be our worse nightmare. Five minutes passed and it was obvious that we were not going to make any sudden decisions. I looked to Liz. She looked to me. We both started heading back up the steps. At the top we peeked through the entrance door and noticed a few more people entering. Excitedly relieved, we shut the door, being careful not to be noticed by them, ran back down the stairs, and waited for the extra company to wade in.
One minute had passed. I looked at the wax statue again. He had not moved. Two minutes passed. The wax statue still did not move, not even slightly. I looked to Liz. She looked to me. Three minutes passed. Nothing. We were willing to wait one more minute. The entrance door swung open. Both Liz and I looked up to see who our haunted house saviors would be. They took the form of two little boys; one approximately ten and the other about six years of age. For some reason, in our frightened condition, they seemed, oh, so much more emotionally stable. They came down the stairs a little bewildered wondering if we were part of the attraction. We reassured them we were not and greeted them nicely.
Of course, we invited them to lead.
The ten-year-old entered after some hesitation, "I can't see anything. Is it okay?"
"Oh yeah, it's okay," both Liz and I stated, "Sure, sure.. see? It's fine. Just follow the path." We tried hurrying them along.
"But it's dark."
"Oh don't worry, we'll be right behind you. Just go."
The ten-year-old finally entered. The younger boy looked up to Liz for some support.
Liz placed her hand on his shoulder, "Go ahead. Go on. Follow him." Liz entered after the six-year-old boy and kept her hands on his shoulders.
I followed Liz
…just to back up the group. Really. The group needed a *strong* back person. I have watched too many horror movies and knew that the person in the back always got it first. And of course, I could not let that happen to either Liz, or one of the boys. We passed the aged decrepit wax statue. He never did dip down and attempt to grab us. I looked at him a few paces after entering and he did not even budge an inch to chase after us. At that point the path made a turn. Into the darkness we journeyed. There was nothing to guide us except for the imitation backlit trees that lined the walls, mimicking a cold autumn night. If one were to look closely, we could see skeletons with protruding eyeballs gazing out at us. Okay. Nothing too bad.
The path took a sudden quick jog to the right. As we turned, a large fan started synchronized with a loud female scream playing over a speaker. At that moment, the ten-year-old jumped and the little boy froze motionless. Liz startlingly clenched up her grip on the little boy's shoulders, hunched over him, and screamed full-force into his ear. Upon hearing Liz scream, the older boy in the front jumped and screamed full-force. The little boy Liz was clenching onto then screamed. I jumped, turned around, and fully expected to see someone or something coming to get me. All this within zero point three seconds.
The boys spotted an emergency exit five feet away. "Are you guys staying?" the older boy asked as he propped open the door.
We all walked out into the daylight two seconds later.