screaming season

the house of souls

I've always loved haunted house attractions,the more realistic the better,but I tend to stay away from the really extreme ones. as long as the actors can't actually touch me the attractions are a lot of fun, I've been to a lot of them but after a while they all started to feel the same to me. When my friend told me about a new haunted attraction he had been to that was supposedly the scariest one he had ever been to I was a bit skeptical, he hadn't been to as many as I had and he scared a lot easier than me. "Im telling you dude this haunt is absolutely insane, it's not extreme in the way you hate but it's like nothing I've been to before, you'll love it" I put my phone between my shoulder and ear as I grabbed a box of Halloween decorations down from the shelf. "I don't know dude,last year we went to the stupidest haunt ever and you still got scared" "never mind that haunt, this one is so much better it's like a waking nightmare, you won't regret it I know you eat that shit up" "hmm.. what's it called again?" " The House of souls,it's kind of a stupid name I know but it's way better than the name makes it sound." I sighed. "Okay.. send me the address" the call ended and a few seconds later I got a text with an address. I went downstairs and threw on my jacket, my friends words of praise had intrigued me and I was always looking for a good way to celebrate the spooky season. I got in my car and drove a long ways out to the address my friend had sent me, it was out of the way of the town, the good ones were always in the middle of nowhere. I got to the address and pulled up to the house, it looked old and abandoned, like no one had been there for years. I shrugged and began to walk towards the house,maybe they made it look that way on purpose. I knocked on the door and a man opened the door slowly and ushered me in. The man was tall and skinny with dark skin and he was wearing a red suit resembling a ringmaster uniform, he looked like he had burn scars all over his face and his eyes were bright blue. "The makeup effects are incredible" I thought. "Is this the house of souls?" I asked the man. The house had no sign in front and there were no decorations in front of the house except for the broken down appearance of the house. The man nodded slowly and I walked inside. The man brought me to a second door in the house. The words "enter here" were written in black marker and I pushed the door open. I stepped into the room and suddenly it was like an entirely different place. The room was dimly lit and it resembled a children's room, the walls weren't as broken down, and the windows weren't as dirty as the ones from the outside of the house. I saw a door at the other end of the room so I made my way towards it, when I got close to the closet the door flew open and something scuttled across the floor and under the bed. The door at the end of the room opened and a little boy sleepily walked to the bed and got under the covers, as he reached under the bed to find his stuffie the thing under the bed grabbed his hand and he let out this ear shattering scream and tried to break free but the monster dragged him out of bed and when he went under the bed the screaming stopped. "Good first room,great acting by the kid, I wonder where they found him" i thought to myself as i walked past it. The hallway that led to the next room was darker, and as I moved through it I heard whispers and I began to wonder how they did that,how they made it seem like the whispers were right next to me. I didn't have much time to think about it as I put my hand on the doorknob to the next room. The next room was a kitchen a mom and daughter were talking and laughing as they cooked dinner. Suddenly a door flew open and a man with a pistol ran into the kitchen, he started yelling at the mom and daughter but with the screams from them his words got lost. He shot a warning shot into the air and the mom and daughter stopped screaming. The man grabbed the daughter by the hand and she tried to say resist but he was too strong,the mom ran after them trying to pull her daughter away but the man shot her in the forehead and she dropped to the ground. The man viscously smiled and tore the daughter away as she cried at the sight of her mother lying helpless. I looked at the woman's seemingly lifeless body,it was so realistic, the makeup and effects were incredible here,I would have to remember to spread the word about this place, places like this often went under the radar. I smiled as I pulled open the door eagerly awaiting whatever was on the other side of it. The new room was framed as a small apartment, it looked like no one had been home for a while. At first I didn't know what was so scary about the place but then I noticed the closet door was slightly ajar,maybe they wanted me to open it. I slowly opened the closet door and found a rotten decaying body of a woman hanging by a rope, it looked like they had hung themselves there but no one had noticed it yet, like no one had cared enough to look for them, the body looked way too real,I almost believed it was but then I remembered where I was and smiled as I began to turn away, but as soon as my back was turned I heard a crackling noise and turned to see the woman had pushed her head up to the correct position and was staring directly at me. She had this smile on her face that was a little too wide and as I stared at her she lifted the noose from off her neck and started to walk towards me "stay with us, you'll be so happy here" the woman's voice was raspy and quiet. I started to back off as the woman was invading my personal space but she grabbed my hand. I screamed and she dropped it. Her hand was cold and her grip had been tight, it didn't feel like a human touch. I had enough of the house so I rushed towards the door. Thankfully there was an exit door in the next hallway, I went through it and it led to the room I started in, the man with the scars smiled and pulled the front door open pointing to my car waiting for me near the house. I ran out and pulled the door to the car open, I was worried my car wouldn't start but it started with no trouble and I looked back to the house as I began to drive away, the man with the scars waved at me as I drove off and I stole a glance at the window upstairs and saw the woman from the last room smiling as she watched me drive away. That night I got another call from my friend. "Hey man I'm sorry,I sent you the wrong address, do you want me to resend it?" "What do you mean? I went through the haunt earlier, it was at the place you said" "dude, theres nothing there, thats the middle of nowhere, I don't know where you went but it wasn't the house of souls" I heard a tapping on my window and I went to check on it as I told my friend what I had gone through. I pulled back the curtain and screamed as I dropped my phone, outside the window was the woman from the haunted house, she smiled that same creepy grin as she scratched at my window waiting for me to let her in.