26. Ember
EMBER
“Ready?” Devon asks.
My heart is nearly in my throat. It’s the opening of the Children’s Haunted House.
Spooky music plays in the background like an untethered lullaby.
Candles flicker in the foyer. Devon installed dimmer lights last minute, and the house looks fantastic.
It looks every bit the creepy manor I wanted it to be when I purchased it.
The ballroom, too, is absolutely vibing with the child-friendly horror factor.
The haunted house itself is shrouded in black.
Inside, there’s a doll room, a ghost room, a vampire room, and a children friendly cemetery.
It’s more Disney than Universal, if you know what I mean, and I honestly couldn’t be prouder of ourselves.
All the work we put into this has certainly paid off. Yesterday, we let our friends walk through, and they had a blast. It was the pick-me-up I needed to be confident to launch today.
“You’re going to kill it,” Bea announces. She took the evening off from the café so she could man one of the booths we have set up in the ballroom. She’s on apple fishing, but we also have gourd decorating and pin the eyes on the ghost.
“I would’ve loved something like this when we were kids,” Trav says, mimicking the first thing he told me when he stepped out of the haunted house last night with the mayor.
“You guys are too nice. I feel like I’m going to puke, but I’m ready.”
Devon squeezes my hand. Tonight, he’s stepped out of his work clothes and into a nice pair of jeans and a black shirt he surprised the rest of us with that reads, “Sleepy Hollow Manor, STAFF” under an outline of the manor itself.
We’re all sporting them tonight, and I have to admit it’s a nice touch.
I check my watch, sucking in a little breath as the clock officially hits six p.m. “Let’s do it.
” I move toward the door myself, but then reach back out for Devon.
He has just as much at stake in this as I do.
We both worked tirelessly, sometimes late into the night this past week when it became evident we weren’t going to get it all done in time.
He takes one handle, and I take the other, and we whisk the doors open just as a family starts up the steps. A mom, dad, a child about four dressed as a pumpkin, and a toddler dressed as a bee stare up at us. I squeal. “Don’t you guys look perfect? Welcome to Sleepy Hollow Manor!”
They hand us pre-purchased tickets, and I close my eyes, briefly taking a moment to thank my lucky stars that pre-sales were so good.
It was a little slow at first, causing me to panic, but then sales picked up across the board for all participants, most of them coming within the last few days, and I am just so incredibly grateful that I’ll have money to put back into the manor, but most importantly, have money to live off of.
With the winter months coming, I’m sure it won’t be cheap to heat this entire place, and these sales lessen the burden.
We decided to sell the tickets in waves of thirty minutes.
Once it’s their time to go into the haunted house, they can enter the ballroom and stay in there for as long as they want.
Until then, they can wait in the foyer. I moved some of the old furniture into this room, giving people places to sit.
There’s also the porch, or waiting outside.
We’ve been blessed here in Harvest Falls to have a mild October so far.
While I man the foyer, the others take their positions in the ballroom.
Devon is in charge of the haunted house, making sure the children who have tickets at the specific times can go inside, while everyone else mans the booths around the room and a couple of others who volunteered to assist in the area as floaters.
Most of them parents. We promised them free tickets for their entire family if they volunteered and had more takers than I imagined.
That’s Harvest Falls for you, though. People are willing to step up and help.
Of course, Rose and Mark are also here, as well as I’ll be volunteering for their haunted houses when it’s their turn.
It really takes a village sometimes, and luckily, Harvest Falls really accepts that adage and runs with it.
Soon, the foyer starts to fill. I turn up the spooky music just a little in the foyer, as well as the speakers in the windows facing outside.
The house is lit up with green lights, upping the scary factor.
Yard signs dot the landscape, letting everyone know what’s going on.
We didn’t want to turn down any free publicity.
Plus, there are signs all over town. The mayor is quite impressed with the ticket sales, and she’s already talking about making it bigger next year.
Devon takes the first round of participants in. I stand by the door, listening to the child-like gasps that stream from their mouths as they enter the room. Mood lighting, more green but with purple as well, and some fake candles do a lot of the legwork.
They run in their costumes to the front of the haunted house.
Devon, ever the showman, gives a little speech.
Just spooky enough to get their hearts racing but also being mindful that they’re still little.
We don’t want them to come through the haunted house in tears.
We want them to come through eager to go to the different booths.
We even left an area to have a dance party with glowsticks and glow wands.
A woman I haven’t had the chance to talk to before gives me a thumbs up. “This is fantastic,” she coos. “What a great idea to give the kids a safe space to do fun Halloween things.”
When the last of the kids goes through, Devon walks toward me. He gives me a hug, settling his mouth by my ear. “Everyone loves it.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I think we only had ten so far.”
“Stop being modest and take the compliment. The place looks beautiful, the kids love it, the parents are thankful they have entertainment to take the kids to. I predict that the pre-sales will be one thing, but once word gets around, we’re going to get a lot of sales at the door.”
I bite my lip. I love that we’ve started talking as a “we” now. It’s not my project, it’s ours. With all the work he did, he deserves to take credit. We brainstormed together. Worked together. Honestly, if it was just me putting this on, it wouldn’t have come out as well as it did.
A knock sounds on the door, and we break apart so I can scurry to let the next wave of kids in. Devon waits with his hand on the ballroom door, getting ready to shut it so the kids won’t just make a beeline for the place, but it isn’t a family who stands on the other side of the door. It’s Nichols.
It’s not his appearance that sends a sliver of fear through me, it’s what he stands for. He’s been the bearer of bad news, but I’m determined to put on a smiling front. I look for a wife and maybe a kid, but no one accompanies him.
“Miss O’Malley.”
Behind me, the ballroom door shuts, but moments later, I feel Devon’s presence off my left shoulder.
“Mr. Nichols.”
“I regret to inform you that the Office of Code Enforcement has decided to shut down your haunted house.”
I gasp, confusion and anger slicing through me. “Shut it down?”
“We’ve determined that this kind of event could shed a bad light on Sleepy Hollow Manor as a historical landmark. In Harvest Falls, we treat our historic properties with respect.” He looks around the room with distaste.
Next to me, I can feel the anger wafting off Devon. “You’re using words like ‘we’ and ‘the Office of Code Enforcement,’ but we all know it’s you, Nichols. Why wait until the Haunted House is open to tell us to shut down? The signs have been out for weeks.”
“You haven’t even seen it,” I interject. “How do you know it’s in bad taste?”
Despite our two objections, Nichols charges on. “Code Enforcement reserves the right to judge based on what is best for the landmark and for Harvest Falls.”
“But you are Code Enforcement!” Devon says with an obnoxious laugh. “Just say you don’t like the Children’s Haunted House.”
“We do what’s best for the landmark.”
I rub my head, not even believing this is happening. “I think when you buy a house, you should determine what you can do with it,” I snap.
“Not with historical landmarks. Per the code I previously gave you—.”
“Per the code you previously gave her,” Devon chimes in. “…you were more interested in the remodeling of the place. Nothing was said of determining what she can and cannot do with Sleepy Hollow Manor.”
“It’s just sort of tacky to make money from historic landmarks, don’t you think?” Nichols asks.
I’m not one for violence, but I feel like slapping the guy. To reduce what Devon and I have done here as tacky, I could throttle him. “So, the White House is tacky? Battle of Gettysburg tours are tacky?”
“I don’t believe they add ghosts to the mix.”
Families start coming in, and my heart just breaks. “We’ve pre-sold tickets,” I whisper harshly.
“I guess you better fish out your wallet for refunds.”
“This is absolutely ridiculous.”
Nichols looks like he’s just about had it with us. He drops his head to the side. “Need I remind you that I can and will enforce fines. I may be mistaken but I was pretty sure you told me you couldn’t pay the last fines, so do you really want to add more to your account?”
“What is it that you need her to do?” Devon asks. “What can she do to keep it going?”
“Nothing tonight. I want the Haunted House shut down, turn the spooky lights off, and then you can write up a proposal that the Office of Code Enforcement will consider.”
“You are Code Enforcement!” Devon reminds him. He’s definitely not going to allow Nichols to hide behind the “office” just because it sounds like he’s not making these decisions himself.