Nothing to Fear

My whole body is shaking like a baby rattle as I open the large wooden doors to the haunted house. I do not like scary things; in fact, I despise them. I am only here because of a dare. I really don’t want to do this, but I need to prove to my friends, and myself, that I can survive the ten minutes that it will take me to walk through this Halloween madhouse.

As soon as I open the doors, I hear a blood curdling scream that makes me freeze like a deer in headlights. “You can do this, you can do this,” I mutter under my breath over and over again. I slowly walk forward, bracing myself for whatever is about to happen next. Nothing. Another step. Nothing. One more step. Crash! A gigantic, mutilated scarecrow pops out at me. I gasp in horror, stumbling away from that disgusting thing.

I turn to run back but something inside of me tells me that I need to go through this silly, five-dollar haunted house. If I walk back out there and my friends see I didn’t finish, they will never let me hear the end of it. So, I walk and walk and even though I’m seeing zombies with their torn flesh and bleeding eyes, it starts to get less scary and more ridiculous. But maybe that is because my worst fear is nowhere to be found.

Vampires. Disgusting, pale faces, dusty, rotting coffins, killer sunlight, all of it. I have been terrified by them ever since my best friend Daniel made me watch a horror movie in 6th grade. But the worst part of all, are the fangs. The hideous, overgrown teeth that bite into people’s necks to suck their blood. As I walk these dark halls, it haunts me just thinking about them. I am so relieved that there haven’t been any in sight and I know I must be near the exit.

I turn the corner and the only thing there is a door. A black, menacing door. It seems to be the only way out of this terrifying place, so I take a deep breath and carefully turn the knob. As I enter the room, I cringe, expecting eight different monsters to pop out at me. Silence. It’s the most unnerving silence I have ever felt, and there, in the middle of this dark, quiet room, is a single gravestone with a coffin next to it.

The room doesn’t seem finished and I wonder if I made a wrong turn somewhere. I start to turn back toward the door and I hear a low and slow creak. I stop dead in my tracks and cautiously look over my shoulder and see a huge, pale hand shoot out of the coffin! It grabs my collar and I try to resist, but it’s so strong. This isn’t supposed to happen. Something isn’t right. Does this haunted house actually have a real monster lurking inside? I try to scream for help, but nothing comes out. A million thoughts and emotions are running through my head as my body is dragged into the open mouth of the vampire’s eternal resting place.

It takes me a moment to realize I am falling, falling down a bottomless hole. I finally hit the ground with a loud thump and feel the thrashing of bat wings against my face. A shadow of a man stands before me. I can’t make out his figure for a couple seconds. Then, I see him. He is tall and slim and his greying skin looks like it is made of the same rock of this dark lair. My blood turns cold as I slowly back away from the evil creature. “Stand still,” he says in a raspy tone. I look to my left and see another figure, silent and lifeless. “I said stand still or it will be much harder for you, boy.”

I obey the vampire’s commands because there is nowhere to run. So, I stand there, I can barely hold in my fear, I can’t breathe, my brain is mush. “I am not going to hurt you. I just need you to help me, come closer boy, it is okay.” I can’t seem to stop myself from moving toward him. I feel like I am under a trace. “Please, I need your help very much. Please, my boy, come closer.” I take a step closer, then another, until I am face to face with my biggest fear. He stares into my eyes with a devilish grin. “Thank you, your cooperation is appreciated,” he says, right before clenching his jaws around my neck.

I scream so loud, I wake myself up. I sit up in my bed, gasping for breath. It takes me a long while to process what had just occurred. I decide I will never go to sleep again. The phone rings; it is Daniel, “so, Sam, do you still think you have the guts to go to that haunted house today?”