Nightmare Island (A Partial Draft)

Chapter 7

Lexie and the rest of their group got to know the other posse. The oldest and tallest among them, his name was Aidan Kingston. Apparently, he and the storyteller were siblings. Her name was Annalise. The other girl was her best friend, Crystal McCain. And the other young man was Logan Danvers. While they didn't know much more about the case of Emily's supposed murder, or about the park closing so abruptly, they said that they were here in the park to do some ghost hunting.

"Is this Emily the only one you're looking into, or are there others?" Kyla asked Annalise before Lexie could formulated what she was going to say... side effect of being an introvert with a bossy best friend, and a group of other friends who were a little more assertive than her.

"Well, Emily is the big-ticket, but there are others." Crystal told them.

Admittedly, that surprised Lexie. She hadn't realized that there were other people who died here.

Upon seeing her confused expression, Logan said that parts of the theme park were built over some kind of graveyard...

"Like an Indian burial ground? Or something else?" Lexie asked.

Annalise chuckled... "Well, not really. I mean, it has something to do with Indians, but only vaguely." She tossed her hair behind her as they walked past the carousel. They came to an empty, grass-covered lot. The only thing on the parcel of land was a single tee-pee.

"See, there used to be- in the early days of this park- a train ride which not only encompassed the current loop around the park- but there was a stop over by the camp grounds, and the resort, coming through the back... And some of the spots you would see if you rode the train were life-size dioramas- animatronic figures which I've heard were low-key racist... but I guess they just didn't see it that way back then." She shrugged.

"But when they closed the old resort, and the cabins to build new ones in the nineties, it was decided that they would take out everything that had anything to do with the old cabins, so this animatronic thing had to go. Plus... everything was all weathered and ill-maintained. And again, the racist thing..." Crystal added.

"I'm convinced that they only kept this tee-pee there because it was something people liked to see..." Logan shrugged.

"But when you said it was a mass-grave, what did you mean?" Lexie asked.

Annalise got a devilish grin. "Well, they buried the Indians... Literally dug out the old track for the train, and buried the animatronics in the dead of night in between seasons."

"Well, they're not real people, they're figures approximating humans. And if they're not actually human, how can they be ghosts?" Ren asked in an extremely skeptical tone.

It was clear to Lexie that he wasn't sure how seriously to take them... he thought they might just be spinning a yarn. Of course, it was their right to do so, and even if they were telling tall tales, Ren wouldn't mind... he just liked to know if it was a joke, or if they were being serious.

"Well, normally, you're correct... but have you ever seen Child's Play or Toy Story?" Aidan asked with a smirk.

When Ren nodded, Aidan continued. "They're haunted, bro. Completely haunted. If you see any mannequins or some shit like that, it's all haunted. "

"Oh, come on... really?" Ren scoffed.

"Believe me, many people wish what I'm saying is a joke... but it isn't. Now, don't ask why it's haunted, or how exactly it came to be haunted... but it's fricking haunted."