You Can't Live Like This... (The Rules of Survival Fanfiction)

Frightfest

Can I be honest? I loved hanging out with you and Callie and Matthew. Especially when we'd go to parades, the beach, out to dinner, everything we did was the most fun I'd ever had. My favorite was Frightfest. The one night in Summer where fear can be struck into the hearts of kids and adults alike. I'd been wanting to go there since I was seven, and finally Murdoch allowed me to go. I was twelve by this time. Matthew was thirteen, Callie was eleven, and you were four. So of course, Callie stayed with you in Murdoch's truck watching videos on his tablet while Matthew, Murdoch, Nikki and I all went into Frightfest. And I'll be honest again, Emmy, if you were older, you would've loved Frightfest!

The creepy mazes, the costumes, the face painting, the whole nine yards you would've enjoyed. But, because you were a bit too young to go in, and Callie didn't exactly like the idea of going in, you say out. I still have videos and pictures that Murdoch took of Matthew and I... Maybe I'll give them to you one day. Or take you to a Frightfest myself. But onto the one we went to back then.

Nikki was totally unfazed by all of this. She was pretending, I could tell. Pretending to be scared. The way she's Yelp and grab Murdoch's arm, and the glares she gave the employees dressed as monsters when they'd try to come near them. And Emmy, dearest, Murdoch didn't mind at all. I mean, who would? The woman is pretending to hold onto you because she's scared, you're not just going to shove her off. Anyway, I dragged Matthew to everything. I took him through a maze where you had to run away from a killer (we got caught and the killer pretended to kill us, but brought us around a secret shortcut to get out of the maze as a basic "game over"), I took him to a haunted house (he was most scared of that so far into the night, almost legit punched one of the employees they caught him off guard so badly), everything you could imagine.

I dragged him to the Haunted Forest, basically a path in the woods where there were small things like a tiny area where a doctor was about to saw a woman in half as she screamed in agony. Come to think of it, maybe you wouldn't like it. Moving on, though, what I didn't know was that Matthew was getting a bit scared by everything... Except for the chainsaw part. Emmy, I never go into haunted forests anymore, mainly because I didn't know the chainsaw area would be so scary. But as more employees ran around in tattered clothes and torn animal masks revving those quite literally real chainsaws, I froze. I just stared at the one barreling towards me, shaking. I couldn't move. I wanted to, but couldn't. Bless Matthew for pulling me away with him when the time came. "Lynny, come on!" He said sternly, but I could tell he was concerned why I didn't move. Once we started walking again, I actually became paranoid. Paranoid of everyone and everything. I saw a fake hand on the ground just laying out of the grass to make it look like someone stashed a dead body in there and jumped, hugging Matthew's arm.

He told me he just blinked and let me. I remember hearing him squeak out a noise before we started walking again, out of the woods. Murdoch and Nikki waited at the end. When we both came out, Nikki's brows raised, and she looked over at Murdoch. He just smiled and shook his head. "All Frightfested out yet, Lynnette?" Nikki played along, coming over and unlatching me from Matt before giving me a hug. "Oh sweetheart, did the monsters scare you? It's okay." She giggled and tapped a finger to my nose, going back to Murdoch. I blink, looking over at Matthew's tense stature. "There's one more place I want to check out, actually..."
Murdoch's head swiveled back. "What?"
There was a pause. Then I said, "Can we go to the escape room? It can be just Matthew and I."
Murdoch raised an eyebrow, more concerned than disappointed or confused. "Remember the last time you did one of those?"
"I wanna try again."
"It doesn't matter, you might have a panic attack again."
"Murdo--ahem, Dad, please let me do it!"

His head hung, but he chuckled nervously and said, "Alright. Nikki and I will be waiting by the exit for you two, if you're going, Matthew?" I then realized I just dragged Matthew under the bus with me. He looked concerned as well, staring at me. He nods, still staring. "Yeah... I'll go with Lynnette." My heart jumped, and I started excitedly pulling him along to the Escape Room. To put a long story short, though I did have a couple small attacks, Matthew put my head on straight and helped me through it all. Surprisingly, he knew very well how to get out of enclosed rooms or how to barricade a doorway. I was a bit stumped on how, that is, until I found out about your mother. Anyways, we made it out, and apparently in the quickest time yet. We got little medals for it, and after Murdoch bought all of us ice creams (which you messily got on his back seats, thankfully they're leather and that he made me clean it), we went our separate ways.

I don't remember the rest of the night, but I do remember when I snuck out one night to sit by the causeway. It was sort of like trespassing, but not exactly juvy-worthy. I sighed, twirling a strand of my fluffy black hair. I thought a lot that night. I tried making theories about why Matthew was so good at the Escape Room. Of course, I did it because I wanted to learn how to do it too. Nowadays, now that I know why, I instantly regretted thinking I wanted to know how. Eventually I stood, picking up a little seashell with the perfect hole in the top, smiling a bit. I slipped it on my house keys before walking back to Murdoch's house to sleep.