by Emiko H. Seiei <33
I remember a pretty, blonde girl in a blue wizard’s cloak. She looked to be older than me, and taller; a giant to my standards. “Get down on your hands and knees,” she ordered in a soft voice. I had felt the need to follow this girl’s command. Thus, I did as I was told. I got down on my hands and knees, and awaited further directions. “Now crawl,” She says. Into a dark confined space I went. I was now entrapped into a boxed area, nowhere to go but forward. People were crawling in after me; making the choice to turn back seems unlikely. I readied myself for what was about to happen. Gathering as much courage as I possibly could. I was about to find out just how much fear could make my heart pound…
I was celebrating the day of October 31st during this moment; partying with my little sister and two friends, who I’ve known practically since birth. It was late at night, and I remember hearing laughter all around me. We were at a place that teaches you cartwheels and balance beam tricks, Gym Cats Gymnasium I believe it to be named. I don’t remember much about what the place looked like, but I do remember our costumes. I had dressed up as the Asian Disney princess Mulan. My little sister, Yukina, looked adorable in her Whinny the Pooh costume. Salma, one of the friends I came with, was a witch like she had been for the past three years. Lansi, my other friend, was clothed as Alice in Wonderland.
After strolling around and munching on our candy, something had caught the eye of Salma.
“Holy cow!” Salma yelled in excitement, “They have one of those houses with scary decorations and fake chain saws.” All of us turned to look at what she was referring to.
“You’re talking about a haunted house, right?” asked Lansi, looking at Salma as if she was stupid.
“Yeah! That’s what it’s called. They have a haunted house here,” said Salma with a broad smile. The group stopped and started to laugh at Salma’s silliness.
Once our laughter had died down, Salma had her thinking face on. “Let’s all go inside the haunted house!” Salma had suggested. In the spur of the moment, we all agreed to her idea.
As we were walking over to the haunted house, we talked about what kind of things we’ve heard about haunted houses and about our own experiences in one. It was the first time for me and my little sister. The two of us had never experienced people jumping out at you during random times in a dark hallway, nor have we been chased by psychos with supposedly fake rubber chain saws that seem as real as the actual thing. No blood has gushed out at us from the ceiling. No body-less hands grabbing at your shoulders. None of that has happened to my sister or I. I don’t know about my sister, but I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t ready to be chased by a psycho with a chain saw; real or not. I wasn’t ready to scream my voice away. I just wasn’t ready.
“I’m not ready to go into such a scary place,” I thought, “But if I don’t, then I’ll be seen as a coward. My little sister would laugh at me. My friends would laugh at me. I have to go…but do I really have the courage?”
I looked over at Yukina. She didn’t seem like she was scared. She didn’t look like she even cared! I wasn’t sure if she just had a ton of courage or perhaps she is just too young to know fear. Salma and Lansi were giggling, and talking about something with each other; probably their past experiences at these kinds of things. All the laughter I had heard before from the people surrounding me had seemed to become mute to my ears. All I could hear was my own voice, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” I wanted to turn around and say, “See ya!” Obviously, that wasn’t an option for me though.
All of a sudden, a light bulb appeared in my mind! “I’ll just go through the door, and run as fast as I possibly can!” I thought, “Yes, this will work. Everything will go by super quickly.” However, as we finally arrived at the entrance of the haunted house, I see a row of boxes leading into a dark space behind some large black curtains.
“You’ll need to get down on your hands and knees,” explained a girl who looked to be in high school. I did as I was told. “Now crawl,” she commands.
“Oh snap! This won’t do! I can’t crawl very fast, so I can’t just zoom through everything. What am I going to do now?” I thought. There wasn’t any more time to come up with another plan. I was just going to have to put on a brave face, and crawl. I took a deep breath and began crawling into the confined area of the boxes. We crawled in two at a time. Salma and Lansi decided to partner up; while Yukina and I went in together. The space was tight, but we were both able to fit in at the same time. I remember crawling side by side, but it was difficult since her annoying shoulder kept bumping into mine. Crawling has never been a favorite activity of mine to begin with. The situation I was in only made me hate the action of crawling even more.
It was dark, and I had no idea where I was going. The boxes seemed to be arranged in a maze like formation with random turns here and there. I think I actually slammed my face into one of the boxes during a turn because of how dark it was. I start to hear the people in front of me groan. That frightened me. “What was going on?” I thought. Suddenly, a bunch of white light started flashing in my eyes. Flicker on. Flicker off. Flicker on.
“Is this a sign that I’m going to die soon?! Is this the light people talk about when they cross over?” I started to scare myself with these thoughts.
Turns out it was just a boy hired to flash a flash light around the place. I wasn’t going to die. That was good news, in my opinion. The light was super bright though, almost blinding. I could now understand why people where making those weird sounds. The box maze seemed long, but I was glad. The longer I could prolong the inevitable the better. However, eventually a flash of red light hit my face. As I inch closer to the end of the box maze, I could see a bunch of people lying on the floor pretending to be dead. They were waving their arms around and making sounds similar to that of pain and agony. The scene of them like that didn’t seem scary though. It looked kind of tacky, and cheap. I began to feel myself gain more courage. “Maybe this won’t be as scary as I thought it to be,” I tried convincing myself.
My hand reached out past the end of the box. My skin now exposed to the red light. I was about to crawl out of the box when “BOO!” A person had just popped out of nowhere from above the box! She was hanging upside down, and shaking the box. I screamed until my voice could scream for me no more. The shock had scared me. I was totally surprised. That was the last straw for me! I snapped. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was too scared. I knew I wasn’t ready. What was I thinking to even try?! I wasn’t thinking.
I grabbed my sister by the shoulder of her shirt, and ran – no wait, crawled – away as fast as I possibly could! I pushed! I squished! I shoved! Going back didn’t seem like a possible option, but I sure as heck found a way to make it doable while pulling my sister with me to boot!
“Let go of me! What are you doing!?” my sister screams at me as I drag her along with me through the people. I could feel her hands clawing away at my tight grip on her shirt.
“I’m saving your life!” I shouted behind me. I couldn’t believe she’d actually want to go through a scary path of blood that possibly included chains saws. Maybe she was more courageous than I thought!
“Wait! Come back! Where are you going?” shouts the girl who had caused me to lose what little courage I had. The girl started following me as I ran away. This had only caused my heart to race even faster, and made me want to crawl through these stupid boxes more than I already did.
All the people who I had pushed through had started screaming at the horrifying sight of the girl in clothes that made it look like she was bleeding all over. The guy with the annoying flash light started following me too. At the time, it was like a bunch of scary monsters were chasing me. It also didn’t help that my sister was resisting the process of me “saving” her life; nor did everyone sending me angry glares and sounds that express their annoyance towards me.
I was scared. I panicked. I was young. What can I say? I’m sorry?
To make matters worse, my dress had gotten stuck along the way. However, even though I was able to loosen it free, people kept accidently sitting on it. This had slowed me down.
“Darn it! Why didn’t I dress in something more convenient?” I yelled in my mind, “It’s almost as inconvenient as running in high heels!”
When I finally made it out of that stupid confinement of boxes, I could finally breathe again! All my troubles were gone. I could walk, move around, and stretch my arms. No longer were my body movements being restricted. If I needed to run away, I could actually run!
Once I got my sister and I a safe distance away from that frightening place, Yukina started hitting my arm rapidly.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid sister! Why did you do that to me?” She screamed, “Were you that scared? What’s wrong with you? I wasn’t scared! You didn’t have to pull me with you!”
All I could think of was “Ow. That hurts.” To be honest, at the time, I thought she was bluffing. She was scared. I knew she was scared. She had to be! How could she not be scared when I was? She’s younger than me. She’s just trying to act tough. I thought I did the right thing. I knew I did the right thing. I thought, “I saved my sister. Why is she hitting me?” Monsters were real to me back then. My sister was a loved one. It was a part of my principles to save loved ones from bad, scary things. I’m a hero, so why was she hitting me?
Salma and Lansi had come out a few minutes later. The two of them were laughing and seemed like they had a lot of fun. I was confused by this. My sister and I waiting for them near one of the balance beams located nearby.
“So how did you two like the haunted house?” asked Salma.
“We didn’t even get past the entrance,” my sister said with a scowl and crossed her arms across her chest. She seemed annoyed and angry, most likely at me.
“What?! You didn’t even make it past the entrance?!” Lansi asked incredulously.
I feel my cheeks start to get red. “This is what embarrassment feels like, huh?” I thought. I begin to look down at my shoes as if I was suddenly interested in them. Black and dainty like Mulan’s, I remember.
“Haha,” I try to laugh the embarrassment off, “W-well you see… you know that girl that pops out of nowhere?”
“Yea! She scared the heck out of me!” exclaimed Salma.
“Me too!” replied Lansi.
“She scared me so much that it caused me to go crawling all the way back!” I explained. I remember I started telling the whole story of what had happened; some of it true, other parts heavily exaggerated. I had felt the need to add in random inserts of jokes and exaggerated details to make it seem like me chickening out wasn’t such a big deal. I still wonder to this day if my friends had actually believed my tall tale or if they thought I was just a coward with a funny story at the time.
I would like to blame the cause of this event on peer pressure, or perhaps my pushover personality, or the phrase “young and stupid.” I think I can blame all three this time. In truth though, I was just a coward trying to convince people a lie. It doesn’t matter what had caused it. I had the chance to say, “No. I don’t think I’m ready to try out a haunted house yet.” I didn’t. I tried to force myself to go with my friends’ wishes. I tried to look cool in front of my little sister. At the end where I had the chance to explain the truth, I made a fib. I had to keep up my appearance. Why? I don’t have the slightest clue. I honestly don’t know why I had felt the need to impress people. I guess I was just too human.
So did ya like it? Was it too long? ^ ^;; lots of people said it was too long xD.
