Halloween was always fun for me. I liked getting dressed up and seeing what kind of interesting costumes other people had. I can remember some interesting ones, including one particular mummy when I was a kid. I went on a date with her and she had a little trouble with the rain on the way home. That probably shaped my appreciation for costumes a lot. Now I celebrate by assisting as Dracula in a haunted house. It's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun. This year it was more fun than usual.
The haunted house is inside a large warehouse building. There are hidden corridors for the workers to get around and to allow emergency access to all parts. The section I am in follows a tight maze with all kinds of rubber hands sticking out and strings for spider webs. The last thing before they come out is a small "star room" which has the ceiling of the two foot wide walled path illuminated as if you were outside. While mundane, it was an addition I had put in a few years back. It successfully ruins the night vision that the guests have built up as they worked through the dark maze. Now when they come out of the maze into my area, they are greeted with a large dark room. The only thing they can see is several sets of muted Christmas lights that are "traveling" toward the entry to the next section, the tunnel.
The tunnel is just over two feet on a side and about ten feet long. The floor slopes up and the ceiling and walls down to the entry so that you end up walking crouched at first and then finally on hands and knees to enter the tunnel. Half way through the tunnel you are shocked into reality by a live monster trying to grab you from within his grave. Of course you are crawling across a clear Plexiglas window, but that doesn't stop many from bouncing off the padded roof.
While the guests are stacked up waiting to get into the tunnel I am free to select my victim and strike. I have learned that the more frightened ones hang to the back of the groups, which pass through every four or five minutes. I hear the lightning of at the midpoint of the maze, letting me know the next group is coming. I slip back onto my waiting room, a pleasant chamber with a red light and a chair, so I can rest without losing my night vision. I take a sip of water and listen for my victims. Thumping and bumping and giggling tells me they are coming out. I wait for them to come by and then step out behind them. The last in line is a slim girl with a waist length brown ponytail, gripping a guy's arm like a vice. She would be a good target, but I can tell the way the guy is trying to look around he is as scared as she is, waiting for the next fright to hit them. She had on a short denim skirt and a white turtleneck, which made them easy to see, even in the darkness. I spread my cape and stepped close behind, breathing hotly on their necks. I let my cape touch their shoulders before I utter my favorite line.
"Ahhhh fresh young necks to suck!" I hiss.
This is usually when things come unglued. I have had women literally wet themselves, and in one case, the mom took off, bulling her way into the tunnel, leaving her two kids screaming behind her. Today I scared the guy so bad that he nearly jumped off the ground a foot before throwing his arms out and tossing his girl aside as if she were a rag doll. She bounced off one wall and rebounded into me. I did my best to catch her and the two of us ended up in a pile on the concrete floor while the brave guy took off, forcing himself past the rest of his group and into the tunnel. I could hear him come out the other end and from the sound of it, try to sprint down the hall on the other side.
Following like lemurs, the rest of the group took off as fast as it could after him, not wanting to be caught by whatever scared the hell out of him. I was left holding a woozy young lady sprawled on top of me. I did my best to get up and help her up as well.
"Are you ok?" I asked her when she put her face up.
"I think so." She answered as she tried to stand up, feeling around her in the darkness. "What happened?"
"Your friend decided to hit the eject button." I replied as I tried to steady her.
"That asshole!" she snapped.
"Come on. Let me help you over to a chair." I said as I picked her up and carried her back to my cubbyhole. She didn't feel like she weighed more than a hundred pounds or so, which was no problem for me, having trained as a volunteer firefighter to carry well over two hundred pounds.
"Oh a knight in shining armor!" She giggled as I set her in the chair.
"Not exactly." I replied.
"How come you can see and I can't?" she asked quizzically
"Um. I spend all night in here and get used to it. I was the cause of your friends' flight."
"OH! You're Dracula?"
"Yes maam." I replied as I knelt next to the chair fumbled under it for the penlight I kept handy in case of an emergency. "This is going to be bright." I said as I cupped my fingers over the lens to let just a sliver of light out. I swept it over her eyes to check and make sure both sides were responding. "Do you have a headache or hurt anyplace?"
"Just my pride!" she said with a laugh
"Doesn't look like anything serious. Do you want me to get the medics anyway?"
"No... Just let me sit here a minute and I think I'll be ok."
"Ok. You just sit tight while I call things in."
"Oh no, please... I'll be fine and I don't want that dick to know what happened to me just yet."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. I'll be ok in a minute." She said looking a bit better already in the dim red light I have set up in my ready room.
We could both hear the next group coming through the maze.
"Aren't you supposed to scare someone?" she asked
"Yes, but I'll stay here till you feel a bit better."
"No. I insist. Go ahead. I want to hear them scream!"
