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Oliver Henderson briskly walked through Olympia Park, tall, blossoming trees looming over him. He had Immediately come to the park as soon as he was done helping his aunt Beck with the dishes. Him and his friends had always done that after school, they’d head to the fountain in Olympia Park and wait for him, once he was done with whatever tasks he had to do that day, they’d just hang out or help each other with homework.
He finally spotted the large fountain in the distance, his three closest friends sitting on the edge. Skye immediately spotted him and began to wave. Oliver waved back as he started picking up speed to get there faster. He finally reached the fountain and quickly sat next to Skye.
“Hey there, guys!” Oliver said, basically as soon as he had sat down. The others quickly responded with some type of greeting.“I have an idea for tomorrow. Maybe we could go to a haunted house, there’s this one on the other side of town called ‘Howard’s Haunted House Of Spooks’. My aunt Beck said that she’s been there and that it’s real spooky!”
“Ooooo- sounds fun!” Skye said, looking up from the history book that she was studying.
“Umm…….I’m not so sure about that, couldn’t we like, just have a sleepover and watch-not horror related-movies?” Chris said, a nervous frown on his face. Chris didn't like haunted houses, or anything scary for that matter. Which was surprising. He was large, bulky and the quarterback of the football team, but even so, he’s scared of the smallest of insects and the littlest of jump scares.
“Oh come on Chris, lighten up! It’ll be fun, right Ollie?” Kyle said, brushing his red hair out of his face.
“Yeah! It’ll be awesome!” Skye piped up, now closing her history book and placing it back in her space-themed backpack.
“Yeah, although if you really don’t wanna go then-”
“No, no, it’s fine!” Chris blurted, interrupting Oliver mid-sentence. “I’ll be fine, besides, three of the four of us want to go, so I'm fine with it! I can suck it up for one night!” He continued.
“Yeah, besides, tomorrow isn’t just any day, it’s Halloween!” Skye chirped, her sky blue eyes gleaming with excitement.
Kyle yawned before pulling out his phone. “I should probably go, my sister has a softball game that my mom is forcing me to go to.” He said, standing up and grabbing his bag.
“Same, my dad has to go shopping and was planning on taking me with ‘em.” Chris said, also standing up and grabbing his bag.
“Guess I should too, then, gotta make sure my pesky little brother didn’t break my science fair project.” Skye said, doing the same as the boys.
“Welp, guess I have to go home now.” Oliver said, sighing as he did the same as his friends. They started walking to the entrance of the park, sticking together as long as they could. Eventually, they had to split up, Chris and Skye went left, towards South Edwards street, where they lived, while Oliver and Kyle went the opposite direction. They reached a large, two story yellow house with a large white fence on the outside.
“See ya tomorrow!” Kyle called as he bounded up the brick steps to his front door. “Don’t forget to meet us back at the park at our usual time!”
“You know I won’t forget! I’ve never forgotten!” Oliver called, a bit angry that Kyle would even say that when there was no reason to.
Kyle chuckled and grabbed the door handle, turning around one last time to wave goodbye to him. Oliver waved back and smiled before turning around to continue down the street.
Oliver started picking up his pace, he could see his tan-colored house in the distance, deep brown shutters wide open to let in the cool autumn breeze. He finally reached the door and grabbed for the handle. He opened the door and stepped inside, looking around for his aunt. He turned the corner to see his aunt standing in the kitchen, her dark hair tied up in a ponytail while she was cooking.
“Hey aunt Beck!” Oliver said, walking in and smiling. “What’re ya cooking?” He asked, coming up and resting an elbow on the counter next to her.
“Oh, just the usual. Fried chicken, carrots and corn on the cob, I know you’ll love it.” She said, turning for a moment to look at him and then turning back. “How are your friends? Mrs. Walker told me Skye was the only one to get an A+ on her science exam.”
“Yeah……science is hard, I don’t know how she’s so good at it!” Oliver responded. “The only science-related thing I'm at least average at is space, and even then I’m not great at it!”
“Everyone has something they have trouble with, you just have to keep trying.” Aunt Beck said, a warm smile on her face.
“Yeah…..guess you’re right…” he said. “I should go now, I was planning on going to the haunted house you told me about with my friends tomorrow.”
“Ooo- sounds like fun, I hope you four have a good time. It’ll be spooky, I know from experience. Your father almost had a heart attack whenever we went!”
“Well, I sure am excited! The others are too, other than Chris, but he agreed to go anyway.” Oliver said, laughing lightly before grabbing his backpack off the table where he had left it before he went to the park.
“I’ll call you when dinner’s ready!” Aunt Beck called as Oliver bounded up the stairs.
“Alright!” He called back as he reached the top, heading towards his room at the end of the hall. He opened his door and stepped in, shutting it behind him. He threw his bag on his bed and sat down beside it. Oliver heard his phone ding from the small pocket on his backpack. He sighed loudly before unzipping the pocket and pulling out his phone. He saw that he had a text, it was from Skye.
‘Hey, Ollie! What time are we planning on heading 2 the haunted house? ;>’
‘Umm, bout 6:30, could ya let the others know??’
‘Sure thing Ollie!’
Once he was done typing he yawned and turned his phone off. He grabbed his bag and sat it on the floor next to his bed and then placed his phone on the nightstand. “Time for sleep” He said aloud to himself before laying down and closing his eyes.
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The following day, Oliver was once again walking briskly through Olympia Park, picking up his speed once more. “Hey!” He called out to his friends once he was in earshot. He sat beside Skye and turned to see that Kyle wasn’t there yet. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked
“Not here yet, which is odd, he’s usually the first to get here!” Skye said, grabbing a hair tie and putting her blond hair into a ponytail.
It was odd. Even though Kyle was a pretty chill and overall, laid back guy, he was never late, he was first to everything, to the point where he’s almost given people heart attacks after coming up to them at an event that he was crazy early to.
“Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late, my sister needed me to help her with something.” Kyle said, jogging up to the fountain where the others were sitting.
“Took you long enough, dude!” Chris said, patting Kyle on the back once he had sat down.
“So, you guys excited for the haunted house?” Oliver asked, sitting forward to see past Skye.
“You bet!” Kyle called, once again brushing his long red hair away from his heterochromic eyes. Kyle’s eyes were two different colors, brown on the left, green on the right. It’s a pretty rare( and cool if you’d ask me) condition.
“S-so, do you know anything about the haunted house, like- if there’s a theme or something?” Chris said, very obviously nervous about being jumpscared and all that.
“Uhhh- no not really, my aunt didn’t really tell me much about it other than the name and that it was scary.” Oliver responded.
Chris only responded with a sigh, a nervous frown appearing quickly after. He obviously wasn’t excited about this at all.
The group sat there chatting for a long time after that, about school, drama, random shows and things like that. Eventually, Kyle pulled out his phone and yelped in surprise.
“What!?” Oliver asked, panicked by the sudden noise.
“It’s almost 6:30! We gotta go!” Kyle called, quickly scooping up his bag and putting his phone back into his pocket. The others quickly followed suit, grabbing anything they needed and began bounding through the park in haste. They went to get their costumes and then bolted to the haunted house.
_____________________________________________________________________
After about ten minutes, they finally reached the haunted house, gasping in breaths as they slumped onto a bench to rest for a moment. Maybe running most of the way there wasn’t the best idea…..
After everyone wasn’t gasping for breath, they got up from the bench and began heading for the entrance of the haunted house. They noticed that the line was relatively short- which made sense since it just opened. They quickly got in line before it could get any longer.
“Guess it’s good we got here so early!” Skye said cheerfully, her hands on her hips.
“Yeah, or else we’d have to wait the whole night!” Kyle called, looking around at the many lights and Halloween decorations surrounding them.
Chris had his arms over his chest with a nervous expression on his face, his eyes were darting around as if looking for a person dressed up in a costume ready to attack.
“You alright, dude?” Oliver whispered to him while Skye and Kyle chatted about something.
“Oh! Ummm…yeah! I’m fine! No need to worry about me!” Chris said, nervously laughing.
“Ya sure?” Oliver asked again, tilting his head.
“Ya, I’m fine!” Chris insisted, trying his best to not act nervous and jittery. But, unfortunately for him, it wasn’t working too well.
“Alright, but if you get scared and want to stop, let me know, k?” Oliver asked, concern in his deep green eyes.
Chris continued to look around nervously for a second before smiling, “K” he said, nodding to his friend.
For Halloween, the four of them decided to wear matching costumes, well, they were supposed to. Instead, since Skye couldn’t find the right costume, so they just decided to wear their own costumes. Oliver was a panda, Kyle was dressed as Kyle from South Park, Chris was Ghostface (which surprised everyone) and Skye was Darth Vador, which made sense since her namesake is from Star Wars.
Eventually, they were close to the front of the line, they could see the entrance! “Hello there!” a tall man dressed in a vampire costume said. Their name tag read ‘Adam’ and he was waving at them extravagantly. “Are you ready for a spooooky night?” He said, bounding towards them in an extravagant way.
“Ya!” Kyle called, bouncing a bit. “We are extremely excited!”
“ya ... .ha..ha ... .excited” Chris said, smiling nervously as he continued to look around.
“Step inside, for the spoooookiest night of your lives! Now, go on in and have a spoooooookyyyy time!” he called, sharp fangs visible as he spoke.
“Come on, let’s go!” Skye said, bounding towards the entrance excitedly.
“Wait up!” Oliver yelled after her, almost face planting before being caught by Kyle.
The others bounded forward after Skye, into the dark entrance of Howard’s Haunted House Of Spooks.
“There you are, keep up next time!” Skye said jokingly as the three boys ran in after her.
“We’ll try!” Oliver said, laughing before taking a look around the area. “Wow, they sure did take time decorating this place!”
“Y-ya, sure did…..ha..ha” Chris said, he was still looking around, obviously trying his best to not look frantic as he did so.
“You alright, Chris?” Kyle asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Of course! W-why wouldn’t I be?” Chris stuttered out, continuing to shake slightly.
“Do you wanna leave?” Oliver asked, looking at his jittery friend with concern.
“N-no, I’ll be fine, like I said yesterday, I’ll suck it up for tonight!” Chris responded.
“Alright, but seriously, if you want to leave, then tell us!” Skye said.
“Alright, can we start now, the sooner we start, the sooner we can leave!” Chris said, gesturing to the hall in front of them.
“Alright! Let’s go!” Kyle called, beginning to trot through the hall, with the others following close behind. The hall was lit up by dim orange lights, giving it an eerie reddish-orange glow. Even though Oliver loved anything horror related, he had to admit it was a bit creepy. The place was covered with decorations. Spider webs with fake spiders, little streamers and other Halloween themed decorations.
Oliver’s train of thought was interrupted by a loud noise. It was a cackling laugh, kind of like a witch’s. Chris yelped and almost fell backwards until he caught himself. Kyle and Skye jumped but didn’t make more than a squeak. Oliver almost yelped too, but caught himself and held it in.
“Where did that even come from? I don’t see a speaker anywhere!” Skye said, looking around at every part of the hall they could see in the dim light.
“Not sure, maybe it’s hidden somewhere up ahead?” Kyle said, putting a hand on his chin.
“L-let’s just go, we gotta move quick” Chris said, eyes still darting around.
They continued walking, never seeing a trace of a speaker or anything that could’ve made the noise. They sure are good at hiding stuff. ‘I’m surprised there hasn’t been a single jumpscare, usually places like this are littered with them.’ Oliver thought. As if they could read his mind, a tall guy with a mask and fake machete jumped out from a corner before darting off into the darkness. All four of them yelped loudly and stumbled backwards.
“Jeeze, I’m usually good at guessing when a jumpscare was coming, but I didn’t expect that one!” Skye said, getting back up onto her feet and dusting herself off.
“Ya, they sure are good, both at jumpscares and ambiance.” Kyle said, also dusting himself off.
Oliver groaned and grabbed his head. He was unlucky enough to fall and hit his head on the wall. He readjusted his glasses and stood up.
“You alright, Ollie, seems like ya hit your head pretty hard.” Kyle said, coming over to see if he was alright.
“I’m fine, no blood or anything.” he said, gesturing to Kyle to stay where he was. “Let’s keep going.”
And so, they kept going. As they went, a few more creepy sounds played over the hidden speaker system and they ran into a few more jumpscares, but nothing too bad.
“Ok, how long is this stupid thing? We’ve been here for, like…..an hour!” Kyle yelled, pausing for a moment to check his phone for the time.
“Ya, my aunt never said it was this long….” Oliver said, looking over Kyle’s shoulder to see the time.
“Well, we better keep going!” Skye chirped, beginning to bound forward again, before stopping abruptly.
“What is it?” Chris asked nervously.
“I-I- It’s……” Skye stuttered, before moving out of the way to let them see.
“What? It’s just fake blood? It’s a haunted house, remember?” Kyle said.
“B-but it smells silvery, I know what fake blood smells like. It doesn’t smell silvery!” Skye hissed angrily.
“Maybe they made it smell like that, to make it more real.” Oliver said, putting his hand on his neck. Skye rarely ever got angry, especially with one of her friends.
That’s when they heard a sound from behind them, a loud, buzzing sound. A man with a chainsaw and Micheal Myers mask was charging towards them, chainsaw wielded up like he was about to strike.
“RUN!!!” Skye screamed, bolting the opposite way. The boys were frozen for a moment before beginning to run the opposite way as well. They ran for as long as they could, eventually the buzzing sound stopped and they could take a break to rest.
“We have….to…keep…going..” Skye wheezed, hands on her knees and panting loudly. Kyle collapsed to the ground, wheezing and panting.
“W-who was that?” Kyle rasped. “Why would he…..chase us? And why did he have…..a…chainsaw?” he continued, still out of breath.
“I don’t know but……we have to keep running, it’s probably just an actor anyway.” Oliver said, trying his best to reassure his friends.
“I don’t think that was an actor, he was getting pretty close and didn’t slow down, that chainsaw also looked pretty real, there’s no way it’s fake…” Skye said, standing up straight.
“Let’s just keep going! I don’t want to find out if it’s an actor or not! I wanna leave!” Chris said. He didn’t wait for them to respond, he just started speed walking. The others quickly followed after him.
They continued bounding through the halls as quickly as they could, but then they came to a dead end.
“A dead end? But how?” Skye yelped, almost running straight into it before coming to a skidding stop.
That’s when they heard a familiar buzzing sound. “W-what do we do? There’s no place to hide!” Kyle yelled, eyes darting around for an exit.
“Over there!” Oliver yelled, pointing towards a sewer grate. Oliver ran towards it and pulled it off, gesturing for the others to hurry.He didn’t care how odd it was for the sewer grate to be there, they just needed to get away. Skye was the first to climb down, then Kyle, then Chris and finally Oliver. He closed the grate behind him as quietly as possible.
“What do we do now?” Kyle whispered, brushing his hair out of his face again.
“I don’t know, but we have to be as quiet as possible.” Skye whispered.
“We should keep walking, maybe we could find another way out” Oliver whispered, beginning to walk forward. The others hesitantly followed him. They walked and walked for what felt like hours, their feet burned and their legs ached.
“My feet are on firrrrrrrrrreee” Kyle whined, kicking a rock into the dark sewer water.
“Would you shut up? What if that creep followed us down here?” Skye hissed, punching Kyle on the arm.
“Ow!” Kyle yelped before looking behind them worriedly. “Ummm….I doubt he’d follow us down here……right?”
“You never know! Now shut it!” Skye said, glaring at Kyle.
“Uhhh….guys…where’s Chris…?” Oliver said, looking around to try and spot him.
Kyle and Skye immediately stopped the argument that was about to start and looked around as well.
“W-where is he…?” Kyle said, panic settling in. “Where could he have gone without any of us noticing?”
“I…..I don’t know……he has to be here somewhere….” Oliver muttered, looking around wide-eyed.
That’s when they heard that awful, awful, buzzing sound again from back behind them. They all had the exact same thought then, run. So, they did, they bolted through the sewer as fast as their feet could take them. But the buzzing was still getting louder, no matter how fast they ran, it got louder. Tears were streaming down Oliver’s face, his legs ached but he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t.
“Over there!” Skye suddenly yelled, pointing towards a ladder leading to a grate at the end of the sewer.
“Come on!” Oliver shouted, managing to somehow run faster. They ran the rest of the way to the grate, Skye climbed up first and opened it. Kyle climbed up next and then Oliver. Once he got up the ladder, Skye threw the grate back onto it and collapsed onto it, holding it shut while gasping for air.
“T-that was……way…..to close…” Kyle rasped, already on the floor. “We….almost…..ended up……..” But he stopped and just layed there, but they all knew what he ment.
That’s when they started looking at their surroundings. They were in the haunted house again…..that eerie reddish-orange glow all around them. “How are we still in the haunted house, we were walking for a long time, we should be outside by now!” Oliver said.
Kyle sat up and pulled out his phone to check the time once more. “Guys……it’s 8:30, we’ve been here for about two hours…….”
“What? How has it been this long?” Skye said, wide eyed.
“I don’t know, but we need to find Chris and get out of this awful place!” Oliver said.
“And how are we supposed to do that? We don’t even know where he actually disappeared!” Kyle yelled
“Both of you shut it!” Skye yelled, glaring at the both of them. “We need to go. This psycho is stronger than us and I can’t hold this stupid grate closed forever, let’s go!” Skye got up and began jogging down the hall once more, not even turning around to see if they were following her. But, ofcourse, they were following her. They rounded a corner and Skye skidded to an abrupt stop. Kyle and Oliver almost ran straight into her.
“What? Why’d ya stop, Skye?” Oliver said, attempting to look around her. Skye was shaking. She didn’t answer them verbally, instead, she stepped out of their way and pointed. Blood. Crimson everywhere. But this time, none of them believed it was fake. It smelled far too real to be fake, especially in their situation.
“There’s no way…..it…..” Kyle breathed, his different colored eyes widened in shock and terror.
“What happened…..did that psycho do something to the other people who came in here?” Skye whispered, hardly loud enough to hear.
“I don’t know….” Oliver responded, eyes wide and body trembling. Oliver took a deep breath. “Let’s go……we have to find Chris….now.” He began walking, the others hesitantly following. They kept going……and going…..and…going. It felt like they’ve been walking forever. It’s impossible for this place to be this big, there’s just no way. But then, they finally, finally, found the exit. They ran through and collapsed onto the ground, making a few of the people watching gasp
“Guys!” a familiar voice said. The voice of Chris. “I’ve been so worried, I thought something happened to you!”
“Chris!” Kyle hollered, leaping up and tackle-hugging Chris. Skye and Oliver quickly joined in. They were just glad everyone was okay. Chris explained what happened.
Apparently, he got lost and couldn’t find them, he eventually found another grate and went through it. He ended up back at the entrance and explained everything to Adam. Thankfully, he believed him without a second thought.
The others then explained what had happened afterwards, getting chased, the blood and the walking forever. The cops were called and they were sent home. Unfortunately, the Micheal Myers mask wearing and chainsaw wielding psycho never got caught. But the good thing was, they all made it out of that unscathed.
The End