1000 Paper Cranes

Chapter 19 - 958

We got out of the car and stepped into a chilling breeze. There were not many cars in the parking lot, which I supposed boded well for wait times. Walking down a jack-o-lantern lined path, we bought our tickets from a rather lackluster grim reaper.

"Have a haunting time," he yawned, passing me the tickets through the window. "May all your nightmares come true."

"That ray of sunshine was actually the Apathetic Harvester," I whispered to Robin. "The Grim Reaper's unassuming younger brother."

Robin threw her head back and laughed a genuine belly laugh.

"Have a haunting time," Jon whispered sinisterly into my ear.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Nina asked, joining up with us inside the gate. Somebody really needed to check the warning labels on those perm fumes.

"Where to first?" Jon asked, looking around at the low-budget horrors around us.

To our left stood a crooked scarecrow with a less-than-menacing face. Its eyes flickered red every time somebody passed and after every third person, it would cackle menacingly. Except that the batteries needed replacing, so the laugh quickly faded to a gurgle.

Dilapidated bats hung from trees along the path. Their wings were threadbare with age and they looked more musty than they did spooky. It was a comical introduction to Fear Festival.

"I think we should start with the fun house." Robin pointed to the two-story building to our right.

A not-so-horrifying gatekeeper ushered us inside a dimly lit room lined with mirrored walls. Fake candles flickered in endless reflections and smoke-machine fog rolled over the floor. As we inched through the mirrored room, it gradually grew darker. Soon, we were in total darkness, save for the flickering of the fake candles.

Except for our footsteps and breathing, no sounds could be heard. As we pressed forward through the darkness, a constant grinding and creaking drifted toward us. Robin's hand found mine and she held tight, obviously getting scared.

Just as I found the end of the mirrors, a large figure cloaked in black lunged at me.

I don't know who shrieked louder—her or me—but I dragged Robin behind me taking off at a run. I stopped shortly after, my heart pounding. I was breathing hard, not from exhaustion but from terror. How had that caught me so off-guard?

Jon and Nina caught up to us, Jon laughing hard at my reaction. Admittedly, it had been funny.

Once we had collected ourselves, we climbed the stairs toward the grinding and creaking. Ahead of us hung an old wooden bridge. On the other side was one of those tunnels that spins and makes it difficult to walk through.

I crossed the bridge first, nervous and thinking how absurd it was to be nervous; this place had to pass all kinds of inspections. Right?

Robin crossed next, followed by Nina. Jon slowly made his way across, sweat beading on his forehead.

"You okay, baby?" Nina called with genuine concern. She had probably never seen Jon vulnerable. Few people had seen anything but the invulnerable Jon.

"Yeah. I'm coming," He called back, strained.

"Is he okay?" Robin asked, her fingers still laced in mine.

"Yeah," I smiled, having forgotten. "Jon's just afraid of heights. Seeing the floor down there is really freaking him out."

It seemed like a lifetime passed, but tiptoe by tiptoe, Jon finally made it across. This time, he was the one who had to catch his breath. But I didn't laugh.