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Penelope was sitting in her car staring at her phone with a frown on her face.
Penny: Where are you?
He was twenty minutes late. It wasn’t like her boyfriend to be late. No, he was always ten minutes early to everything. Ten minutes early or don’t bother was what he always told her. She stared at the line in front of the haunted house that was forming and sighed.
Penny: Are you still coming?
She scrolled back through their messages and realized that the last time he had contacted her was yesterday evening when she had asked him about the time they were supposed to meet. He had confirmed the time and then did not respond to any of her other messages.
Her phone buzzed and she fumbled with it to open her messages.
Alfie: Yeah about that…
She frowned.
Alfie: I’m not coming.
What the hell.
Alfie: This isn’t working for me Penny.
Alfie: I think we should just cut our losses and move on.
Cut our losses! Move on! If fire could come out of her ears, she was sure it was happening right now.
Penny: What are you talking about?
Penny: Why didn’t you discuss this with me yesterday when you were at my house?
Penny: Why is this just coming up now?
Alfie: Yeah, see I wanted to avoid all these questions.
Alfie: I told you I didn’t want to form attachments.
Alfie: Sorry Penny. It was fun.
She threw her phone across the car. Sorry Penny. She screamed at the top of her lungs. God, she hated the nickname, Penny. Didn’t want to form attachments? How dare he just break up with her over text. She had been putting up with all his weird behavior for weeks because she didn’t want to be alone during the holidays and now, he was breaking up with her! Over TEXT!
She stared at the sea of couples standing in line at the haunted house. Assholes. She hated all the happiness. She screamed again, because she didn’t really hate all the happiness. They deserved to be happy. She wanted that too. She wanted it so badly she forced herself into a terrible relationship with someone she didn’t even like for months.
Well, she was going to be damned if she was going to let him ruin her Halloween.
She leaned across her seat and fished her phone off the floor and straightened her shirt, looking in her mirror to clean up her makeup that had smeared on her face. She took one last look and got out of her car, slamming her door shut behind her and walking with purpose toward the line to the haunted house.
She took her place at the back of the line, ignoring the stares of the couple in front of her. She didn’t care that she was here alone.
Ok she started to care the closer she got to the entrance of the looming house in front of her. The first scream that made it to her ears made her jump into the couple behind her. “Sorry.” She said sheepishly. “It can’t be that scary right.” She asked and the girl rolled her eyes at her.
“You aren’t going in there alone, are you?” The girl laughed.
“So, what if I am.” She responded defiantly.
“You’re funeral.” She giggled as she leaned into her boyfriend. “I heard this one is the scariest one in Mayfair. Did you read the article where that girl came out of it in shock last week.”
“Wh...what?”
“Stop teasing her Joyce.” Her boyfriend said with a frown. “That girl was only 12.”
“Wait. That was real?” Pen asked before they started making out and stopped responding to her questions. Maybe this wasn’t a great idea.
“Pen, is that you?” She jumped with a scream as someone touched her shoulder. “Jeez, sorry, it’s just me.” She turned to see Colin Bridgerton standing next to her, a sheepish smile on his face. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Colin!” Of course it would be Colin Bridgerton. Her best friend Eloise’s brother. Hottest guy in school. Captain of the football team. Why wouldn’t it be him? Could she not just die alone in peace?
“Are you here alone? Where’s Alfred?”
Ugh. She exhaled angrily. “Who knows. I hope he falls off a cliff.”
“Woah.” His eyes grew wide at her response.
“Sorry, he dumped me over text in the parking lot when I got here tonight.”
“Are you serious?” He asked, his voice dark and angry.
“As the heart attack I’m about to give myself going inside this fucking haunted house, yes.”
“Pen, I’m so sorry. That’s entirely shitty of him.” Colin had always been nice to her. She considered him a friend even though he definitely hung out with the cool kids at school and was two grades higher than her.
But despite all of that, every time she was at his house hanging with Eloise, he always made time for her. He would hang out with them and looked out for her when they were at school.
“It’s ok, he was a jerk anyway.” She shrugged.
“Oh, thank God, I didn’t want to be an asshole and tell you I really hated him.” She blinked.
“You did?”
“With every ounce of my heart. He was not right for you, Pen.”
Her mouth was agape. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shrugged. “You seemed happy. I didn’t want to take that away from you.”
She bit her lip. “I just wanted a boyfriend I guess.” She looked back up and realized it was almost her turn to go in the house.
“Are you really going in there by yourself?” He chuckled but then looked at her with concern.
“Uh yeah.” She said with a sigh. “I’m not letting him ruin my night.”
“You want me to go in with you?”
“Oh…I don’t want to take you away from your friends.” She looked back to see where a group of his football friends were standing. She could see a couple cheerleaders waiting anxiously as well.
“They’ve got enough people with them; I think they’ll survive.” He turned and ran back to his friends and watched as he talked to the group, she watched the reaction of the girls as they pouted the moment he dropped the news, and strutted back toward her. She thought maybe she was dreaming, because things like this only happened in the movies or in her dreams, right?
“Ok all settled.” He said with a smile as he bumped her with his shoulder, and they handed their ticket to the man at the front of the house.
The door opened and she walked through it, her heart pounding in anticipation. “Have you been through this before?” She asked as they were enveloped in darkness.
“Never, you?”
“No. And I’m starting to regret my decision tonight.” She laughed nervously.
He laughed behind her and then she felt him at her back. “I guess we follow the lights.” He said softly, pointing toward the other side of the room and touching her shoulder lightly. She shivered.
She started to walk in the direction of the other door and the floor creaked beneath her shoes. She heard a low growl. “What the hell was that?” She shrieked, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Suddenly something popped up behind the desk to her right and a man was standing there staring at them.
She shrieked and ran forward toward the door. As soon as she reached it, she went through the open-door frame into the hallway. Colin was behind her. “You’re not afraid?” She said through uneven breaths.
“I’m terrified.” He chuckled. “I’m just better at hiding it.”
She took a tentative step down the hallway, sensing that there was a curve at the end of it. “I don’t like that I can’t see around the bend.” She felt him at her side as he pushed beside her and reached down to take her hand.
“We’ll go together.” Her eyes closed for a second at the feel of his hand in hers. It was warm and her entire body went into shock. She recovered as he started to walk forward, and her feet moved automatically to follow him.
The moment they turned the corner a man was standing there with a chain saw and Colin screamed and turned toward her, pushing her down the hall. She pulled them both to the end of the hallway as they ran from the new intruder. Once he was no longer following them, they paused. “Oh my God.” She whispered.
“That wasn’t very well done of me, now was it.” He laughed.
“Colin, that was seriously terrifying.”
“What if we break that window and go out that way.” He started to examine the window in the room.
“Are you serious?” She laughed.
“What? I’m trying new things.” He shrugged.
“Yes, Illegal things.” She said with a snort.
“Fine, then we need to continue on through this house of horrors, Pen.” He reached down on instinct and grabbed her hand again, pulling her through the dark room.
There was a low rumbling sound that started the moment they got to the middle of the room. “Oh, that’s not good, Colin.” They both came to a complete stop.
“What the devil is that sound?”
The floor started to vibrate, and she felt Colin’s free arm wrap around her waist, pulling her against his chest. Suddenly she was almost rooting for the house if it meant she got to remain wrapped in Colin’s arms. But then she saw movement at the back of the room. “What is that?”
He peered into the darkness. “I think we need to get out of this room.” Before she could think further, she was being pulled toward the next room with Jason and Freddy Kruger chasing behind her in the dark, knives at the ready sparkling in the few light that glistened in the dark.
“I hate this house.” She screamed the moment they entered the next room.
“What if we lay down and pretend to be dead?” He stated the moment the stopped moving.
“Colin, that’s not funny.”
“Oh, that’s good, because I was being dead serious, Pen.” He said with no hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Colin, do you really want to lay down in this house with whatever is currently waiting to attack us in this room?” He stood still, contemplating her question and then turned toward the door.
“No, I do not. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Before they could move, they heard metal clanging against itself. “Now what the fuck is going on?” He groaned.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I want to know.” She buried her face against his chest, and he held her firmly in his arms. There was a moan that was starting to get louder. “Colin…I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Why did we pay money for this?” He complained.
Clunk…Clunk…Clunk…
The sound was getting louder and nearer to them with each slam to the ground. “Ah fuck. Zombies, Pen. It’s fucking zombies.”
“No.” She cried, and Colin jumped into action, grabbing her hand, and pulling her firmly through the room as Zombies reached out trying to grab them while they dodged through them until they reached the last door and Colin practically slammed his body through it until it opened, and they were met with the cool breeze of the Mayfair night.
“We made it Pen!” He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her into a hug, lifting her off the ground as her feet left the grass below them. She could get lost here, lost in Colin Bridgerton.
“Hey, over here for your picture.” A girl dressed like a zombie called them toward her and Colin sat her back on her feet and dragged her in the girl’s direction.
“Come on, Pen, we need to document our survival.” He smiled, pulling her next to him in front of the backdrop. She stared up at him in a daze, his hand still holding onto hers. She expected him to drop her hand when the photo was taken but instead, he pulled her against his side and wrapped his arm around her, smiling at the camera for the photo.
As soon as they were done posing, his hand slid into hers again as they walked over to get hot chocolate and wait for the prints.
“So that was literally the most terrifying thing ever and I have no idea why I wanted to do that.” He chuckled. “But I’m glad I had you with me.” She nodded absentmindedly and he smiled. “I think you are still in shock, Pen. You, ok?”
“Uh, yeah. I don’t think I would have gotten through there without you, Colin. Thank you.”
“Bridgerton, Colin…” The woman called for their photos and Colin ran over to collect them, walking back to hand her a copy. “These are great, Pen.”
She smiled at the picture, she would treasure it forever, a photo of her and Colin, his arm wrapped around her with a tagline of We all need zom-bodie to love! on the bottom of the photo.
There was a commotion at the back of the house and Colin’s friends all piled out of the house laughing. She watched as they saw him sitting with her and made their way toward them. “Hey Bridgerton. How did you do? It was stupid right?”
Colin glanced at her, and she caught his stare and looked away. “I don’t know, there were parts of that thing that had me a bit terrified.”
“Whatever, dude. We’re blowing this off, are you coming?”
He was looking at her again, she could feel it because her ears were burning red. “Nah, I’m uh, I’m gonna make sure Pen gets home.” She looked up and stared at him.
“Ok, catch ya later.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” She said softly.
“I know.” He smiled. “But I kinda thought we were having fun.” He bumped her knee with his.
She bit her lip. “Maybe it was just the adrenalin from all the stress.”
“Was I stressed? I don’t know, I had a really pretty girl to protect me the whole time and I think that was distracting.”
She slapped playfully on his chest. “Colin Bridgerton, are you flirting with me?”
“Is it working?”
She giggled. “Maybe.”
He leaned over and brushed his lips lightly against hers. It was soft and sweet for a moment and then it was gone. He stood up and offered her his hand. “Come on, Pen. What do you say we go do something?”
“You mean besides face certain death at the hands of zombies?” He laughed and she knew her heart was gone. She stared at his hand and then placed her palm in his. “Alright, as long as you promise me one thing.”
“Anything!”
“Promise me we will never do that again.” She pointed at the haunted house.
He tugged her against him and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning down to place a kiss on her nose. “As long as I can find other ways to get you in my arms, we will never go into a haunted house again.”