“Let’s go see what they have,” she told him.
* * *
“THIS IS WRONG,” Tyler said as he got into the line for the haunted house with Suzie, Hannah and Sean. What was one more haunted house? he asked himself, irritated that he had let Sarah push him away. No matter if it was their idea or not, Davey had gotten them the tickets. He’d been patient enough to dial his phone over and over and over again.
And Tyler knew that Sarah was feeling alone—as if Davey was her responsibility, and she wasn’t about to burden anyone else.
Tyler loved her. He knew they were both lucky, both blessed. People referred to them as the “Barbie and Ken” of their school. He liked to think it wasn’t just that he played football and she was an amazing cheerleader—for any team the school put forth. He tried to be friendly, kind, sympathetic—and he worked hard in class.
Naturally, he and Sarah had been intimate—though not in a way that would give others a chance to tease them. They were discreet and very private; Sarah would never do anything to disappoint her parents. But in their minds, marriage was a given. Sometimes, in the middle of a class, Tyler would smile, imagine being with her in such an intimate way again, when they both laughed, when they grew breathless, when the world seemed to explode. She was an amazing lover and he hoped he reciprocated. Sex was fireworks, but life was loving everything about her—her great compassion for others, her integrity. He liked to think that he was similar in his behavior.
Leaving her on her own tonight hadn’t been considerate in any way.
“I’m going to go back and wait with Davey and Sarah,” he said flatly.
“Go back where?” Hannah asked him. “They’re already gone. And besides, Miss Stubborn Pride isn’t going to let you stay with her. I’m sure you already tried to and she sent you after us. She doesn’t want you to have a lousy time just because she has to.”
Tyler gritted his teeth and looked away. “She isn’t having a lousy time—and neither am I, Hannah. I love Davey. No one out there has a better heart.”
It was true, though, that Sarah and Davey had walked off somewhere.
He should have firmly ignored Sarah when she’d pushed him away. She was usually bright enough to be angry if someone didn’t understand that hanging out with Davey was like hanging out with any friend...
And Tyler was suddenly angry himself; they wouldn’t be here at all without Davey. Davey had won the tickets.
“Oh, come on, Tyler!” Hannah said. “It’s okay! The retard is her cousin, not yours.”
He wanted to slap Hannah—and he was stunned by the intensity of the feeling. In his whole life, he’d never hit a girl. And Hannah was a friend. She was usually...fine.
“Hannah, you know calling him that is not okay. Not cool. He’s just like you or me,” Tyler said.
“Maybe like you!” Sean said, laughing. “Not me. Hey, come on—this is supposed to be the coolest thing here, ghosts coming up out of the ground from all over. They say the creatures—animatronic or whatever—are the most amazing, and they put their best ‘scare’ actors in this one. Tyler, come on, we take Davey with us all the time. But this is our night. It’s our last Halloween together. If he doesn’t want to come in, screw it!”
“Not to mention that, as I already pointed out, we don’t even know where they are anymore,” Hannah said.
“Yep, well, I do have a cell phone,” Tyler said.
“Tyler, leave it,” Suzie said. She looked guilty, too, he thought. But maybe she was right. “We have VIP tickets—we get to move into the express lane up there. We’ll be out soon and then we’ll explore the food booths—Davey will like checking those out! And we’ll hug him and tell him that he was right—we should have stayed out. It was really scary, so now we’re all hungry!”
An actor in some kind of a zombie outfit came toward them, using a deep and hollow voice to ask for their tickets. They showed their passes and were moved up quickly in the line.
They entered the mudroom of the Cemetery Mansion. Bloody handprints were everywhere. They were met by a girl in a French maid outfit—with vampire teeth and blood dripping down her chin.
“Enter if you dare!” she said dramatically.
A terrified scream sounded from within. And then another. And another.
The place had to be amazingly good.
“Ah!” said the maid. “I say again, enter if you dare! Those who have come before you seem to be just...dying to get back out!”
She opened the door from the mudroom to the foyer and stepped back.
Tyler thought she looked concerned. As if...
As if people actually were dying to get out.
* * *
“CAN WE GO look at the booth over there?” Davey asked Sarah.
He gave her a smile that made her ashamed. She had been secretly bitter; she’d wanted to go with her friends. It wasn’t terrible that she should want to; she knew her feelings were natural. But she felt guilty, anyway. Davey wasn’t being mean, she knew. He wasn’t hurting her on purpose. He had his irrational fear set in his mind.
“Come on!” She caught his hand and led him to the toy stand. This one was stocked with prop weapons.
There were all kinds of great things: realistic plastic ray guns, gold-gleaming light-up lasers and much more. There were fantastic swords, like from some 1950s sci-fi movie, she thought. They were really cool—silver and gold, and emitting light through plastic blades that shimmered in a dozen colors.
They were cheap, too. Not like the licensed merchandise. It was called a Martian Gamma Sword.
Sarah smiled, watching Davey’s fascination.
She worked three days a week after school at the local theater and could easily afford the toy sci-fi sword. She paid while Davey was still playing with it.
“Okay, good to go,” she told him.
He looked at her, surprised.
“I bought it, Davey. It’s yours.”
His eyes widened. He gave her his beautiful smile again. Then he frowned, appearing very thoughtful.
“Now we can go,” he said.
“Pardon?”
“We have to go,” he insisted. “I can save them now—Tyler and Suzie. I can save them.”
Sarah couldn’t have been more stunned. She smiled. Maybe they could catch up—and if not, well, she’d still be able to say she’d experienced the most terrifying haunted house in the city—the state, maybe even the country!
“Come on!” she said. “Sure, I mean, it will be great if we can save them. So great.”
“I have to go first. I have the Martian Gamma Sword.”
“Okay, I’m right behind you!” Sarah promised. She hurried after him.
“They don’t like this kind of light, you know.”
“Who doesn’t like it?”
“Those who are evil!” he said seriously.
He had his sword ready and held in front of him—he was prepared, he was on guard!
Sarah smiled, keeping behind him. She hoped he didn’t bat an actor over the head with the damned thing.
* * *
TYLER DIDN’T KNOW when it changed.
The haunted house was incredible, of course. He knew the decorations and fabrications, motion-activated creatures and the costumes for the live actors had been created by some of the finest designers in the movie world.
The foyer had the necessary spiderwebs dangling from the chandelier and hanging about. As they were ushered in—the door shut behind them by the French maid—a butler appeared. He was skinny, tiny and a hunchback. Igor? He spoke with a deep voice that was absolutely chilling.
Tyler had to remind himself he was six-three and two hundred and twenty pounds of muscle. But just the guy’s voice was creepy as hell.
“Cemetery Mansion!” the butler boomed out. “The living are always ever so careles
s of the dead! Housing is needed...and cemeteries are ignored. And so it was when the Stuart family came to Crow Corners. They saw the gravestones...they even knew the chapel housed the dead and that a crypt led far beneath the ground. And still! They tossed aside the gravestones, and they built their mansion. Little did they know they would pay for their total disregard. Oh, Lord, they would pay! They would be allowed to stay—forever! Forever and ever...with those who resided here already!”
Suddenly, from thin air, haunts and ghouls seemed to arise and sweep through the room. Suzie let out a squeal. Even Hannah shrieked.
Good old Sean let out a startled scream and then began to laugh at himself.
It was done with projectors, Tyler realized.
“To your left, ladies and gentlemen, to your left! The music room, and then the dining room!”
They were urged to move on. The music room hosted a piano and rich Victorian furniture. There was also a child sitting on the sofa, holding a teddy bear. She turned to look at them with soulless eyes—and then she disappeared. A figure was hunched over the piano. Suzie tried to walk by it; the piano player suddenly stood, reaching out for her.
She screamed. The thing was a motion-activated figure, one who would have done any haunted mansion proud. It was a tall butler—blond and grim-looking, with a striking face made up so that the cheeks were entirely hollow. It spoke with a mechanical voice. “Come closer, come closer... I can love you into eternity!”
It was nothing but a prop, an automaton. But it was real as all hell.
Suzie ran on into the next room.
The dining room...
At the head of the table was a very tall man—an actor portraying the long-dead head of the household; a man in a Victorian-era suit, wearing tons of makeup that had been applied very effectively. He was sharpening a knife.
There were dummies or mannequins or maybe animatronics slumped around the table. At least their bodies were slumped there. Their heads were on it. Blood streamed from their necks and down their costumes.
“One of them is going to hop up, I know,” Hannah murmured.
She bravely stepped closer to the table. No one moved.
Tyler noticed there was a girl about their age at the end of the table. She was wearing one of this year’s passes to Haunted Hysteria around the stump of her neck.
Good touch, he thought.
The bodies around the table did not move. The master of the house watched them with bloodshot eyes. He sharpened his knife.
A girl suddenly burst into the dining room from the music room. “Run! Get out—get to the exit! He’s in the house somewhere!” she screamed.
“Yes, he is. He’s right here,” the master of the house said. He reached for her and dragged her to him. She screamed again, trying to wrench herself free. He smiled.
He took one of the knives he had been sharpening.
And he slit her throat.
* * *
SARAH DIDN’T KNOW what had gotten into Davey; he was usually the most polite person in the world. He’d been taught the importance of please and thank you.
But he was almost pushing.
And he knew their radio station tickets gave them VIP status.
Light sword held before him, he made his way to one of the actors herding the line. “VIP, please!” he told her.
“Uh, sure. Watch out for that thing!” She started to lead them up the line, toward the house. As she did so, there was a scream, and one of the actors came bursting out the front door.
She was dressed as a French maid—a vampire or zombie French maid, Sarah thought.
She stumbled out of the entry and onto the porch, grabbing for one of the columns. Blood was dripping down her arms and over her shirt—she appeared to have a number of stab wounds.
“Don’t!” she shouted. “Don’t... He’s a killer!”
Applause broke out in the line. But then someone else burst out of the house—a ghoul dressed in an Edwardian jacket.
He crashed down, a pool of blood forming right on the porch.
More applause broke out.
“No, no, that’s not supposed to happen,” the zombie leading Sarah up the line murmured.
Davey burst by her; he was headed to the house, his light saber before him.
“Davey!” Sarah shrieked. Something was wrong; something was truly wrong. They needed to stay out, needed to find out if this was an excellent piece of play-acting or...
Or what?
Imaginary creatures came to life and started killing people? Actors went crazy en masse and started knifing the populace? Whatever was going on, it seemed insane!
The sensation that crawled over Sarah then was nothing short of absolute terror—but Davey was ahead of her.
With his Martian Gamma Sword.
He was charging toward the house.
Davey! She had to follow him, stop him and get him away—no matter what!
* * *
TYLER COULD HEAR nothing but diabolical laughter.
And screaming—terrified shrieks!
Suzie hopped on a chair and grabbed a serving platter for defense.
The master of the house turned toward them, dropping the body of the girl whose throat he had slit. It fell with a flat thud.
Sean squeaked out a sound that was nearly a scream.
Hannah grabbed Sean, thrusting him between her and the big man with the massive knife.
“Back up, back up, back up!” Tyler said.
Hannah did so. Sean turned to flee.
The master of the house went for Sean. He picked him up by the neck.
“No! Stop, stop it!” Tyler shouted.
This couldn’t be happening.
“This isn’t funny. It isn’t right!”
The character didn’t seem to hear Tyler. And Tyler had no choice. He leaped forward, shoving Hannah away, and tried to wrest Sean from the killer. He grabbed Sean’s arm and pulled.
“No!” Suzie shrieked.
Tyler looked up.
The master of the house was approaching her with the massive knife, dragging Sean along with him. Then he turned. He came swinging toward Tyler, still dragging Sean. Tyler held on to his friend and jerked hard; Sean came free and they staggered back—Hannah, Sean and himself—until they crashed into the table.
Hannah began shrieking in earnest. As she did so, Tyler became aware of the tinny scent of blood.
Real blood.
And he looked around the table and he knew.
They were people. Real people. And they were dead.
Really dead.
“No!” Suzie shrieked.
She slammed her serving platter at the master of the house.
He just laughed.
And raised his carving knife.
* * *
DAVEY RACED ACROSS the porch, pushing aside the bleeding maid and hopping over the body of the man in the Edwardian dress.
Sarah had no choice but to follow.
He burst through into a mudroom. There were bloody handprints all over it.
Some were fake—stage blood.
Some were real—human blood.
She could tell by the smell that some of the blood was real.
Davey rushed through to the foyer, his Martian Gamma Sword leading the way. But there was no one there. He threw open another door.
“Davey, stop! Please, Davey, something is going wrong. Something is...”
They were in a music room; it was empty—other than for a bloody body stretched across a floral sofa.
“Davey!” Sarah shrieked. “No, no, please...”
She started to whirl around. There were holograms everywhere. A child in black with a headless doll appeared. And then a hanged man, the noose still around his neck. All kinds of ghouls and creatures and ev
il beings began to appear in the room and then disappear.
“Davey, please, we’ve got to get out. Davey!”
She gripped his arm as the terrifying images swirled around them.
“Not real,” Davey said. “Sarah, they’re not real.”
He was moving on—and she heard screams again. Terrified screams...
He went through a black hazy curtain and they were in the dining room.
And there were Tyler, Hannah...Sean and Suzie... It appeared that they were all being attacked by...a creature, by someone or something. They had fallen back and were struggling to rise from the dining table, where there were...
Oh, God, corpses, real corpses. Dead people, all around the table. Suzie and Hannah were yelling and screaming, and Tyler was reaching out, but the carving knife was coming down and it was going to sink into Tyler’s chest at any minute!
She heard a terrible scream—high-pitched and full of fear and horror. And she realized it was coming from her...
And she had drawn the attention of the...
Man. It was a real man.
An actor gone insane? What the hell?
No, no, no, no. It was impossible. It was Halloween. It had to be a prank, an elaborate show...
The man was real.
Absolutely real.
He was tall and big and had long scraggly white hair and he might have played a maniacal killer in a slasher movie.
Except this wasn’t a movie.
And he was coming at her.
He opened his mouth and smiled, and she saw his fangs. Long fangs that seemed to drip with something red...stage blood...
Real blood.
She screamed again.
It sounded as if it was coming from someone else, but it was not. It was coming from her.
Tyler struggled up from the table. He slipped.
He was slipping in blood.
“No, no, no!” Sarah screamed.
And then Davey stepped up. He thrust her back with his arm and stepped before her, his cheap little plastic sword at the ready.
“Leave her!” Davey shouted, his voice filled with command.
The man laughed...