Jac's House Of Horrors

    Bad things are not really supposed to happen on Halloween, but I never did have the best of luck.

     It was October 30th, the annual Halloween party and haunted house my friends and I throw every year was on its way to being the best party that Summerville had ever seen. The venue, a Victorian schoolhouse, was the second place we had ever hosted the event, seeing as our last party grounds were demolished back in May. The decorations were all set up and the school was covered in spooktastic décor. Every inch of the white siding and trim was covered in cotton cob webs and rubber spiders. Flimsy plastic gravestones and silicone zombie entrails littered the front lawn. Inside, secret traps were hidden in closets,ironing cabinets and under loose floorboards, rigged to send a bloody cadaver or a seething vampire at any unsuspecting guest.  The woods behind the house were creepy enough as is,so with a little help from our chemistry teacher, we simply created some fog from dry ice and water and the spooky mansion was complete.

   We expected the guests to start to arrive at around 9:30 pm, so my fellow party planners, Jacqueline and Noelle, and I had two hours to add the final dash of spice to our hopefully petrifying plan. The idea was, in order to go along with all the cadavers and Zombies, us three would also dress up and scare the innocent party goers. Adorning myself with a cape, fangs and fake blood, I would lead the guests through our house of horrors while Noelle and Jacqueline dressed up and prepared to scare the wits out of my group of tourists. The idea was Noelle’s.

    “Okay guys so while I’m touring our guests,what are you two going to be doing? Just so I’m aware.” I asked an hour and a half before the event started.

     “You mean just so you don’t get scared?” Jacqueline sneered. She never was the happiest camper in our group.

    “Why must you always be so difficult Jac? It makes sense.” Noelle defended.

     Noelle and Jac were always bickering, so I often found myself playing the role of Switzerland in the wars of Noelleland and Jactown.

     I’ve known Jacqueline since grade three, and only having met Noelle last year,  Jac always felt a little intimidated. She was the only one though; Noelle was the sweet, smart blond girl that always had her hair in a ponytail and only ever wore a T-shirt and jeans. Everyone got along with her while Jac was always the introverted, slightly crazy artistic kind of girl. It’s not that she wasn’t popular; she had cropped jet-black hair and giant green eyes that any guy at school would kill to gaze into, even though she never showed any interest. I never could really figure Jac out.

  “Anyways,” I finally interrupted, (You know, being Switzerland and all.) “What are you guys going to do, any ideas?”

    They thought for a moment, and then Noelle spoke.”What if Jacqueline was attached to a harness and we made it look like she was hanged, then she could jump up and scare everyone!”

   We both stared at her in shocked silence; neither of us would have ever have known practical minded Noelle would come up with such a brilliant idea.

  “Oh. My. Gosh. Yes!!!” I stared dumbfounded as Jac grabbed Noelle by the shoulders and started bouncing up and down.

   “You. Are. Brilliant!” she squealed, “And you could be a scary farmer and come at them with a pitch fork!”

   “Yay ! Yay ! Yay !” Noelle replied and started bouncing along with Jac. I guess the Jac and Noelle war finally raised the white flags.

   “Okay you two, we have a lot of work to do now, let’s get to it!” I smiled.

     By the time we were ready, everything was perfect. I had purchased the safety harness and decked myself out in my vampire costume, fangs and all. Noelle managed to find a plaid shirt and overalls and a lunatic mask her brother used for his costume two years ago. She made herself a set up about eight meters away from the staircase where Jac was set up. The area was covered with straw, fakeblood and hay bales. I was sure the landlord would love that. Jac, once harnessed was hanging from the old spiral staircase with blood dripping from her mouth and a noose around her neck.