Wow, here we are just passed the middle of another work week and few weeks away from Halloween. I keep thinking if I put batteries that have only been partially used, in a clock on the wall, would time slow down? We all know that is not a possibility - dang the bad luck.
So, I get home yesterday and my computer has decided that it wasn't to play - "Where's the Internet." So all you lucky people will be getting two delights today. This Friday will start one of Anne Arundel Counties timely tradition. The Halloween Happening Haunted House and Hay Ride. For years I had been the tour guide though the haunted house, which was my inspiration for that I wrote and is below. So I wanted to share this and to enough all who are in the area - please go to the Halloween Happening and support the hard working, dedicated group of kind hearted folks that are dying to put a scare in you.
So, I get home yesterday and my computer has decided that it wasn't to play - "Where's the Internet." So all you lucky people will be getting two delights today. This Friday will start one of Anne Arundel Counties timely tradition. The Halloween Happening Haunted House and Hay Ride. For years I had been the tour guide though the haunted house, which was my inspiration for that I wrote and is below. So I wanted to share this and to enough all who are in the area - please go to the Halloween Happening and support the hard working, dedicated group of kind hearted folks that are dying to put a scare in you.
***
This original story that I wrote for the Halloween Happening 2012.
It is dedicated to the
Queen Witch herself - Ms. Rosemary Dunn
and
The Volunteer Ghouls that make it happen.
It also appears in my book
"Twisted" - Creepy Tales from a Mother's Mind - available on Amazon.com
It also appears in my book
"Twisted" - Creepy Tales from a Mother's Mind - available on Amazon.com
Don't forget to play the music as you read. (you must open a second window and paste the link to have the music and the story open at the same time. Enjoy.)
In the quaint town of Crownsville, Maryland lived a boy no more than 10 years old. He had always had a love for Halloween and those crazy things that went bump in the night. He had heard about the Halloween Happening event on the Anne Arundel Fair Grounds, which was not too far from his home, and was insistent that he was old enough to go in the Haunted Barn and Hay Ride. He recalled hearing about people of all ages, as well as families with babies, all waiting in the long lines eager for their turn to see what all the fuss was about and to find out for themselves what lurked beyond the steel doors and down the hills into the darkness. Adam's family decided that this would be the year they would all go and the night that they chose - Halloween. His strategy was to go right after he had gone trick-or-treating with his friend. It was getting to the point that he was looking older that he really was because of his height, but that didn't stop Adam, especially when it came to free candy and he no longer had to wear braces.
His parents, especially his mother, were rather apprehensive about taking him to the Haunted Barn and Hay Ride, for they had heard that some of the actors in the event go a bit too far and carry chainsaws and chase after people - while others are dressed as hideous ghouls that are dripping with blood, and get in people’s faces. Like any mother, she feared it would cause him nightmares - still Adam wanted to go. Now it is said that the grounds are haunted and many of the actors of the event have even captured pictures of orbs in countless areas on the grounds, yet with camera chicanery these days - not may are believers that these pictures are unaltered - little do they know what really walks the grounds each night after dark as they wait to test their inner most fears.
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| Picture taken by: Stacey L. Bolin 10/08 |
The night sky hung a pale yellow moon as it cast its glow upon the opaque fog that was rolling in across the grounds. All that was missing was the thunderous sounds of a fire breathing dark horse with piercing red eyes in a full gallop that suddenly comes out of the woods with a headless rider upon its back holding the reins in one hand and a flaming pumpkin in in the other. Adam wanted so much for these thoughts in his mind to ring true. What grandeur it would bring to all those waiting for the ultimate scare.
When it was finally time for Adam and his family to enter the building, he took a deep breath and walked through the doorway. The first room was dark with occasional light of green and orange that had been strung along various Halloween furnishings decorated with pumpkins, skeletons and spiders. “This is a piece of cake” he thought to himself. As he turned he was met by Madam Widow, a tarantula taming Gothic queen that was the guide for the tour. She seemed harmless, but her eight legged partner in crime, whose name was count, made him a bit uneasy. When she went on to tell of what lay ahead, Adam began to feel a bit more apprehensive. It was something in the way she spoke and how she urged people of the importance of being safe and assured their safety if people did touch the ghouls or Count’s, other buddies. That even though they were in cages, they could still bite the curious fingers that are unintentionally fed to them.
He walked cautiously through each twist and turn of the tour jumping at every scare that loomed. His parents, how they laughed and screamed as ghouls-a-plenty growled, sneered, screamed and shook in all areas of the haunted barn. By the time Adam had reached the spider’s lair, he had had enough and wished this night to be over. What he presumed was going to be a low budget deal, turned out to be much more than he bargained for. If the ghouls had a contract that said scare the pants off of people and make them wet themselves or else - then they were doing precisely what was expected of them. As he stood at the doorway with his family and twelve other people in his group, he could see the shadows mingling outside in the trees that lined the paved road that lead down the hillside to the remainder of the tour.
It was at the back doorway that Madam Widow released her guests outside into the night wishing them good luck and to beware of the danger that lay and wait on their final part of their journey. As they made their way down to the Hay Wagon portion of their scary journey he could feel the presence of unknown eyes upon him and his group that rendered him unable to rationalize that this was all just make believe. What he thought would never happen – did. Fear had wrapped him in a cold sharp cocoon that affect both his body and his mind – Adam no longer felt safe – All he wanted was to go home.
He tried to make small talk with one of the boarding assistance as they waited for the Tractor driver and his hay wagon to arrive.
“Was that a real tarantula that the tour guide was holding?”
The assistant began to laugh and replied, “No son that was my wife, and trust me when I say that the length of a broom handle is still too close for her when it comes to nature’s eight legged creatures.”
The group laughed at the assistant’s comment and began to feel a bit more at ease. As for Adam, joke or no joke, he was done and wanted to just go home. He kept his eyes closed for most of the ride, which heightened his fears even more when the sounds of something rustling in the bushes got louder, followed by the sounds of a running chainsaw striking the wagon and everyone screaming that was on it. He felt like he had been on this horrific wanna-be blood feast for hours, but there was nothing bloody about the event - it was all in his mind. Before long, it was over and he found himself and his family, and everyone else disembarking the wagon in the parking lot where their journey began.
The ride home was long and quiet. The heat was just right, causing Adam to drift briefly on and off into a twilight sleep. He couldn’t wait to hit those sheets and call it a night and as soon as he got home, he did just that.
The night wind found its way through an open window into Adams room, causing the curtains to dance as a feather light couple. The air was cold and crisp, just right for sleeping. It didn’t take long, before he was sound to sleep. As the hours ticked on, a soft voice of a small child began to call out in the doorway of his bedroom.
“Adam. Adam. Can you hear me Adam?” said the voice.
His body jolted and his eyes moved sporadically underneath his closed lids. His breathing became labored.
“Adam – come to me.”
His dreams displayed horrific images that he could not awaken from. A small girl stood in a paint peeling hallway in a hospital gown with her hand to her side. Her hair was long and brown and her eyes were dark. She spoke but her lips never moved. As he walked closer toward her, he saw doctors dismembering their patients, and a chef that cooked people parts into her food that had probably been donated to her by a chainsaw cutting mad man in the woods that was pulverizing his victims to death. His mind was spinning out of control as a blood dripping morgue monster and a pack of sinister clowns and an evil magician did their best to put the final scare into what sanity he had left. He could feel the ice cold concrete sting his feet as he walked barefoot in the corridor where the little girl stood.
“Who are you?” He asked. His voice echoed and carried along the dank walls.
“My name is Lilly, I am a patient here. I’m so cold and so alone. Will you stay with me?” she replied in the most innocent voice.
“How old are you Lilly?”
“I’m only nine. I’m so cold and so alone. Will you stay with me?”
She moved closer to Adam, and continued to speak with him, but her legs never moved and her face remained motionless. When Adam was right in front of her, she lifted her right arm that had an intravenous line in it, and touched Adam. He looked down and saw blood flowing out of the cut line and pooling up on the floor. He tried to scream for help, but the words would not form. He continued to struggle to scream for help, then as suddenly and as quickly as he fell asleep, he woke sitting straight up in the quiet of his room. Sweat rolled off his face and his heart was racing. Clearly he had just had a nightmare, but ruled it due to the events he had experienced over the Halloween evening. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine that these nightmares would find him over and over again in his dreams, but he vowed that he would never speak of the nightmares that plagued him, but was certain of one thing – next Halloween he would go back and conquer his fears to end his nightmares for good. When he returned the following year he was shocked to learn that this year’s event had a new theme.
Madam Widow, in all her gothic grace, was only accompanied by a single, color changing, rose and went on to share that the only Haunted house they the patrons would see this year was the display behind them. That instead they were going to be part of an experiment. This year they would be a living part of a nightmare.
“A nightmare, Could she be talking about me? I never told anyone about my nightmares.” Adam said under his breath in a panicked voice.
Madam Widow recognized Adam and simply whispered into his ear, “Lilly told me all about your nightmares, dear child, so we decided to share your nightmares this year at the Halloween Happening. We call this new tour – “Adam’s Nightmare.” Then she laughed an evil sinister laugh. Everything he had seen in his dream had all become a reality leaving him paralyzed with fear for another year.
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| Madam Widow in the Spider's Lair - With the lights on. |
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