Chapter Text
I didn’t really want to go to the haunted house.
Sure, I loved horror and the adrenaline rush of fearing your life was in danger, but haunted houses didn’t really do it for me. The one we went to was often cheesy and too dramatic to be considered even remotely scary, but the twins dragged me to the same one every year, and no, they wouldn’t let me out of it. Believe me, I've tried.
“Look Mittens!” Emira shouted to me, pointing to a tall man holding a fake chainsaw over her bright green hair. There was a bright grin plastered on her half-illuminated face, and the man just looked sort of confused at her reaction.
We were standing in line outside of the house, and I was wrapped in a sweater, feeling bored already. Emira, on the other hand, looked like she was having the time of her life. Whenever an actor tried to sneak up on or scare her, she would always pretend like she knew them, not acting scared in the slightest.
There wasn’t much I liked about being forced out with them, but there were a few perks. The twins, being more chaotic than any of the fake scary actors, always spent the entire time messing with them. They both would end up walking around the house and just making games out of everything, flirting and toying with all the actors who should be scaring them.
“Do you want a picture with the scary man?” I asked in a mocking voice, and Em nodded eagerly.
“Oh make sure to get my good side!” she turned in, leaning up against the chainsaw man as if they were taking photos before the prom. Fake blood dribbled from his lips onto the grass while he tried to maintain a neutral face, and Em was just grinning.
“Aww, you two look adorable!” I called, snapping photos unenthusiastically with my phone. “Hey you!” I yelled at the man, “Look like you're having a good time.”
The actor was really struggling to not break character, and I was lucky enough to capture the exact moment he burst into laughter with a photo.
“How do they look?” Emira asked, stepping away and giving the man one last smile. He smiled right back, then went back to terrorizing the other people in line.
“Pretty good.” I held out the phone, and she scrolled through the many photos I had taken. “I got one where he's laughing which was nice.”
For a while she just scrolled through and made small noises of approval. “I can use some of these.”
“Use them for what?”
She gave me a suspicious smile, and I rolled my eyes. “Just for my Instagram Mittens! Get your head out of the gutter!”
“My head wasn’t anywhere near the gutter!” I argued back, and she just flashed me another look.
“Ugh what did I miss?” Edric exclaimed, sliding up next to me with a bucket of caramel corn in his hands. He was shoveling it into his mouth like an animal, and I stepped back in disgust. “You two fighting?” a kernel fell from his lips and onto the grass and I shuddered.
“Gross. Where did you even get that?” I asked, peering down at the bucket. “They don't even sell food here.”
Edric shrugged, “Magic.”
“Sure.” I deadpanned. “Magic.”
The line shuffled forward a few feet, and I was grateful to move along. The sooner we got in, the sooner we got out, and the sooner I could get back to my algebra homework and warm bed.
“What are you exited for this year Mittens?” Em asked, handing me back my phone. “Any cute ghouls catch your eye yet?” she gave me a side eye, and I groaned.
“Will you stop with the Halloween jokes? It's literally still September!”
The twins’ favorite holiday was Halloween, and in our house, they started celebrating in August. For as long as I could remember, both of them had always gone all out. Em did the makeup for the two of them, and Ed did the costumes. Together they had the best getup out of everyone in town. The two of them had won the Halloween Fest Costume Competition for the past 5 years in a row, and I was sure that this year would be no different. Speaking of this year, their current plan was to go as undead butchers. I couldn’t begin to understand what those words even meant, or how they were going to go about doing that, but I knew it would involve a shit ton of blood and fake guts. They always went extra with the fake blood and guts. Our parents hated it.
“I think we both know that I will never stop with the Halloween jokes!” Em said, bopping my nose with her finger. “And every time you want me to stop, it only makes me want to say them more.”
I removed her finger from near my face and messed with my hair a bit. “Why do we have to do this every year? I mean like seriously, it's the same boring routine every time.” The sweater I was wearing wasn’t long enough and I adjusted it so that it was covering my hands, protecting them from the chilly night air.
Edric rolled his eyes at me. “Ames, we do it every year because it's a family tradition! Plus, it may be a little tacky, but messing with the actors is what makes it fun. You never fuck around with them anyway, that’s why you're bored.”
I scoffed, “Sure, messing with a tired high school actor dripping in fake blood is going to make this night worth me missing homework time. I just can't wait!”
“Oh shut up about your ‘precious homework time.’ You never give yourself a break! Just try to have fun with it, amity. What’s the worst that could happen!?” Em explained, shoving me rather forcefully with her shoulder. “Get some game. Flirt with someone—anything!”
Before I could explain why I was not going to flirt with some random kid and that when I spent time with them, ‘the worst’ tended to happen, a tall man dressed like Frankenstein walked in front of us and held his hands out for our tickets.
“Your invitations?” he said in an unrecognizable accent. His words slurred together slightly, and I appreciated the touch. Most years the fake monsters were really bad with their accents. It must be premium spooky season.
Em shoved forward, depositing three orange and black tickets in his hand with a giant smile on her face. “Here.”
The man looked between her and the tickets slowly. “You may enter.” He finally said, stepping away and revealing the ripped up black sheet that worked as the door to the makeshift haunted house.
Fake fog poured out the curtain, and I could hear the faint screams of little kids inside. There was creepy music playing from some untraceable point, and I sighed deeply. Just like every year.
“After you.” Em said, pushing me right inside of the darkness.
I stumbled forward and caught myself on something. When I looked up, I saw it was a fake skeleton, and I groaned, dusting myself of and regaining my balance.
“Nice one.” Ed snickered, and I ignored him, crossing my arms over my chest. This was just great already.
I could hear the twins excited twittering behind me, but I was trying to focus on the surroundings instead. I absolutely hated jump scares, especially if someone managed to get close enough to me to touch me. That was the worst.
We turned a corner and suddenly the world lit up. Projections of ghosts filled the air, fake laughter reverberated throughout the room ominously. I jumped back slightly into the twins, and both of them laughed at me.
“OOooohh!” A person dressed as a ghost (plus lots of fake blood for some reason) jumped out of the shadows in front of us, blocking our path. “You’ve entered the graveyard of ghosts! I will harvest your flesh suits!” the person screamed, and the twins burst into laughter.
I took a step back to watch it go down. The twins were still laughing, and the ghost actor looked a little hurt. Their whole monologue was messed up, and I could tell they weren’t used to people reacting with laughter.
“Meat…suits!” Em screeched, slapping Edric’s back forcefully. He coughed and wiped a tear from his eye.
The ghost was looking downright offended now, and I couldn’t help but smile a little bit at their obvious confusion. They looked over at me for a moment and I just shrugged.
“I—I will possess you and—”
“K bae.” Em said, standing up and getting right up in their face. “Do it.”
Edric kneeled over, and I finally gave into laughing.
“I don't think they’re gonna do it!” I said, more to Edric than anyone, and he laughed even harder.
“Um, can you guys like pretend to be afraid for a moment?” the actor asked, breaking character. “This is embarrassing.”
The three of us exchanged very solemn nods. “Ahhhh.” We all ‘shouted’ at the actor. They ended up looking even more tired than before, and stepped out of our path.
“You can move on.”
The twins grinned and rushed forward into the next room. I followed, a little slower, accidentally bumping into Edric when I didn’t see he had stopped.
The rest of the haunted house went similarly. It became a game of how long it would take to make the actor break character, and by the last few rooms I was starting to enjoy myself. Even though I would much rather be back home, hanging with the twins did have some benefits.
We were approaching the second to last room when Emira pulled me aside.
“Mittens I have an idea.”
I stopped walking and Ed did too, all three of us freezing right at the entrance of the next room. “What?” I asked, tugging my arm from where her hands were wrapped around it.
“Well,” she had a maniacal look in her eye that I didn’t quite trust, “I was just looking in and the girl in there looks to be your age…”
I blinked a few times, trying to figure out why this would ever matter. “And?”
“And,” she started, cocking her head to the side. “I dare you to flirt with her.”
I gave her a tired look. “Yeah, no.”
Em groaned, tugging on my arm again. “Amityyy! You have to! I've done it, Ed’s done it, now it's your turn! Plus, she looks really cute.”
I pulled my arm away again. “I seriously regret telling you I'm a lesbian.”
She batted her eyelashes innocently. “You love me.”
“Yeah whatever.” I replied, shaking my head.
“So, will you do it?” she looked eager and I wanted to roll my eyes into the back of my skull.
“If you two don't tease me about it afterwards, fine.”
She pumped her arm in the air and gave Ed a high five. “Epic!”
“But I’m not very good anyway, so don't expect anything.”
They both nodded and I sighed, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach to the best of my ability. I didn’t really flirt with people per se, but rather charm them with my stuttering and teasing. Scratch that, I didn’t flirt.
It's not like there weren’t girls I wanted to flirt with. There were! But it was just hard to flirt when you knew you would have to see that person again one day. Maybe if I just sucked it up and pretended I was some major sweet talker, then I could pull it off. It's not like it would matter anyway.
Right? Right???
I took one last steadying breath, shaking off my nerves, and plunged through the door.
……………………..
The room was silent, save for the haunted music that had been blasted through the entire house, and I could hear the blood rushing in my ears.
I hadn’t been super anxious until I stepped inside the space, but now that I found myself suddenly alone with no plan, my heart had decided to start racing, and I could feel a nervous sweat begin to prickle at my forehead.
I looked up to the girl. She was trying to stare me down from where she sat behind her cauldron, stirring the green tinted dry ice with a comically large spoon. She wore a pointed witch hat, robes, and big dramatic makeup. Her hair, or at least the visible bits, was tinted an awful white color, but I could see through the whole get up. If she wasn’t dressed like a cartoon-esque witch, she would have been pretty cute. She was pretty cute, all things considering, and my heart leapt to my throat.
This was a bad idea.
The girl cleared her throat and began her tangent. “Come close if you dare mortal! Though I will warn you that all who have entered before you have been cursed, or worse, eaten!”
“Kinky.” I interrupted, flashing her a smirk.
God, I hope the blush on my cheeks wasn’t showing—that she couldn’t see right through my little act.
Her demeanor immediately shifted. She blinked rapidly a few times, trying to find her character again. “It isn’t—it's not.” She tried, but I wasn’t going to let her get a word in.
“It could be if that’s what you were into.” Was that a douche-y thing to say? Was I being horrible? What if she was straight!
Her brows furrowed and she dropped her spoon into the cauldron. “I—What is going on?”
“I don't know what you're talking about.” I replied, stepping a little bit closer, innocent smile plastered on my face.
Her cheeks were red, and she sputtered for words. “Are—Are you flirting with me?”
I looked directly into her eyes and bit my bottom lip slightly, “Do you want me to be?”
The girl looked like she was calculating my words, nose scrunched up into a cute little thinking face.
After what seemed like forever of my heart racing in my chest, (what was up with that anyway) she replied, “I can't tell if you're joking with me so that I break character because people do that.”
I suddenly felt really bad. What was I doing messing with someone like this? The twins were the ones who liked pulling heartstrings, and I couldn’t do something that mean to a girl as sweet as this one. It didn’t help that making her blush was also making me feel some sort of way, and I almost wanted to run out of the room without ever having to talk to her again.
“I mean I was,” her face fell slightly, “But if you want me to be flirting with you, then I mean, I could be flirting with you.”
I was making no sense.
“You're pretty!” she blurted, her eyes going wide at the omission. “I mean, wait, I think I'm getting flustered.”
“I think it's cute when you get flustered.” I replied, the words coming easily. Maybe I was getting better at this flirting thing, or maybe it was just better when the girl I was flirting with was kind of flirting back.
“Oh really?” she rose an eyebrow, and I felt a blush creep back into my face.
“Y—yes.” I said, suddenly stuttering.
“Look who’s getting flustered now.” Now she was the one smirking. There was no way this girl was straight.
“Don't turn this on me.” I shot at her.
“What, you're cute when you're flustered.” She replied in a slightly mocking tone, and I rolled my eyes.
“Well—” I began to say, but before I could form a sentence, the twins burst through the curtain and into the room.
The girl immediately collected herself, turning back to her caldron and fishing the spoon out from where it had fallen in. She was no longer looking at me—in fact, her eyes landed everywhere in the room that was not my face.
“Made a friend?” Edric mocked, and I elbowed him in the side sharply. He stumbled back slightly and gave me the eye. “Literally Amity?!”
I shrugged, “You're a little bitch.”
He stuck his tongue out at me, “Little bitch.” His tone mocking.
Em rolled her eyes at the two of us. “I’m hungry. Lets get out of here.”
My eyes went right to the girl who had momentarily stopped acting. I noticed that she was mouthing something. Amity. She was mouthing my name. Why was I getting butterflies?
“I could go for some food.” Ed said, moving towards the exit of the room. “Ames?”
My head turned back to him quickly, as if to try to cover up my staring. “I’m right behind you.”
They both exited, but I didn’t move, still stuck in the middle of the room. My heart was pounding with the adrenaline rush, and I wasn’t totally sure that my blush had fully gone down yet.
I felt an urge to look back at the girl. I wanted to say something to her, but I didn’t know what. What do you even say in situations like this? Who even gets into situations like this?
I decided to risk it anyway, stopping to face her one last time.
She had been staring after me, and blushed slightly when she saw I had seen her. My stomach did a little loop, and I suddenly lost all train of thought.
“Um, happy Halloween.” I said quickly.
The girl blinked. “Happy Halloween.”
God, I was such an idiot. I could have said anything but that. I could have told her my number, or asked for her name, or even given it one last shot, but I was too much of a pussy.
Giving her one last smile, I turned back towards the door and walked through.
At least I wont ever have to deal with that mess again, I thought as I exited the room.
I didn’t know how wrong I would be.