Distraction

It wasn't Jacob's idea to go to the local amusement park's annual haunted palooza. Rather it was Olive's, for as small as she is, she's quite the daredevil and craves that sweet adrenaline rush that haunted houses apparently give her. Jake? Not so much. He isn't really afraid of anything; sure a quick jumpscare will get him, but he won't be terrified. Olive finds it quite annoying, especially when she and her girlfriend, Emma, are clinging on for dear life while he waltzes through the attraction like an utter douchebag. Needless to say, it's been awhile since the two girls invited Jake to go somewhere scary with them.

But October is so full of wonderful things to do, and that's how Jake ended up third wheeling with two scaredy cats in an amusement park at twelve in the morning. He will admit they've done a good job converting this place into a spooky world, with the entire park shrouded in fog and actors dressed up like "monsters", or whatever they're trying to sell it as.

Honestly, Jacob just wanted to ride some rollercoasters, but those wait times were upwards of two hours and Olive and Emma want to do all of the haunted houses.

"Fine, Jake. You can at least choose which one we do first." Emma says, handing Jacob the map.

Jake grins and gives a thumbs up at the blonde girl before looking down at the map in his hand. Psycho Circus, Dark Harvest, Defex, and Zombie High School. What choices! Except he finds zombies quite boring, the whole Killer Clown thing is going on right now so he needs none of that in his life, and he has no idea what Defex means.

"Dark Harvest, I guess?" Jake says, holding the map in front of his friends and pointing to where the attraction is, almost on the other side of the park.

"You've gotta be kidding me, that's so far away!" Olive pouts.

"You told me to pick, I chose the one that sounded the coolest!" Jake retorts.

"Well lead the way then, Mr. Cool Police." Emma says, looping her arm through Olive's.

Jacob sighs and turns the map to face how they are standing and points toward some fog.

"That way!"

Twelve minutes, two jumpscares later the three friends are standing in line for Dark Harvest. It's a farm themed attraction, and the line is encased by corn husks. It leads up to a barn, and every few minutes, a loud boom! echoes from somewhere behind the barn.

When Jake, Olive, and Emma reach the front of the line, he swallows some anticipation down his throat. They've just been waiting for so long, and sure Jake's not afraid of anything, he's just been thinking about what it will be like since the beginning and he has no idea what to expect.

"Alright....enjoy." The line manager smiles, gesturing them to go into the barn.

Emma's paler than Jake's ever seen her (which is saying something) and Olive's fists are clenched. They enter the barn, only to be met with a loud thwack! of wood hitting wood. The barn halls are like a maze, and a farmer with white eyes walks up to them and stares blankly into Olive's eyes as she walks by.

The barn opens into a corn field. More husks, just like the ones in the waiting line, enclose the maze and stand taller than Jake can reach jumping. The next "scene" has a guy in overalls leaning on a tractor.

Holy shit, he's hot. He's got some scary black makeup running from his eyes and a straw hat is covering most of his hair, but God, his face shape is enough to make Jake's heart leap in his throat.

"Howdy, y'all," the hot guy says as they near closer to him, in kind of a bad southern accent, "Did you come all the way out here for the moonshine?"

Jake almost laughs, considering he's nineteen, "Yeah, I'm legally allowed to drink."

The hot farmer cracks what looks like an actual genuine smile, which lowkey melts Jake's heart. Which prepares it to be frozen in shock, for just in that moment some of the husks step out from the wall right in front of where Jake is standing, startling him more than anything he's seen all night. Emma shrieks and holds on tighter to Olive.