Glee: Back to the Top (the third book in the Glee series)

Chapter 25: The Haunted House

"What is this?" Harmony said as she and Amity stepped into a room that was empty, aside from rows of boxes on the walls.

"Some sort of storage room?" Amity answered, stepping inside to find the door to the next room. The fun house was made to be interactive, so they had to search the room to get to the next. After going through hallways with dozens of jump scares, this is what they had to do to get out of there.

"Let's just find the exit then," Harmony sighed, looking around with her. "This place is like a maze so if we get lucky, we'll choose the path that leads us directly out. Jeez, this place is weird... What's supposed to be scary anyway?"

"I don't know but—" Amity shrieked when she pulled open a drawer and saw a body inside. As Harmony laughed jeeringly and she calmed down, she said, "Ok, not a storage room... More like... a crypt? Creepy. This body looks so lifelike."

"We have to hand it to Bree," Harmony sighed. "She really did a great job making this place—"

Amity was beginning to walk away from the open casket when the body shot up and reached for her. She and Harmony began to scream, looking around as more boxes pulled out on their own and bodies emerged.

"Holy smokes!" Harmony screamed. "Where's the exit?" She looked around as Amity watched the zombies follow after them. "Here!" she exclaimed after pulling a single drawer that turned out to be a door. She walked through it, followed by Amity, and closed it, ready to follow the tunnel to their next destination.

***

"There are ten main rooms we have to surpass," Ryder said as he led Julie past the initial hallway maze, faced with three different options of rooms to enter. "The first time I came in here I started off in the crypt, which was bad because it only has one pathway and forces you to go through like seven of the rooms."

"Ok, cool," said Julie, deciding not to go through that one. 

"The second time," said Ryder, "I took the room with all the swirls on the wall. It makes you dizzy and then..."

"And then what?" Julie said, waiting. 

"And then clowns come at you," he said softly, waiting to see her eyes widen with terror.

"Oh no..." she mumbled.

"Yeah," he said. "I know you don't like clowns."

"Which is exactly why John dressed as one and Bree had a room built dedicated to why they're so awful," Julie sighed. "Ok. Can we avoid them if we go through that door?"

Ryder shrugged. "I've only done this twice," he reminded her. "I've never tried the third option so who knows what's coming up there."

Julie nodded. "Then that's the one we take," she told him. "Come on."

She led him towards the third door and took a deep breath before opening it. They were taken into a dimly lit bedroom, which looked completely tidy and untouched. 

"I don't get it..." he mumbled. "This one's new for me..."

"Let's look around for an exit then," she said, noting that there weren't any other doors in the room aside from the one they'd entered from. He gulped, not wanting to stick around for too long but also not wanting to look like a whimp as he followed her lead and searched the place. 

When they found nothing but typically bedroom items, Julie flopped herself down on the bed. Ryder took a seat next to her, exhausted. "The other rooms cut to the chase pretty easily," he said. "This makes me kind of nervous."

"I'm sure it'll be—" Julie began, stopping only to scream when something grabbed her ankle. She shot up and ran from the bed. Ryder did the same, seeing roughed up arms crawling out from under the bed. As he tried to reach Julie on the other side of the room, however, he nearly slipped over a carpet and moved it aside.