26. Waiver-Worthy Fun
26
Waiver-Worthy Fun
Screams and shrieks shot through the night air. Orange sky bled into purple as the sun set on our haunted house line.
Victor frowned at the waiver. “They’re not responsible for any injuries, death, or psychological damage. Even those inflicted by the cast members.”
“Sounds like quite an experience.” I chuckled and signed the paper. Half the waiver’s lingo was written as a joke, so I wasn’t too worried.
He tugged his fingers through his bangs. “My apologies. I thought this was more of a walk-through with a few jump scares and creatures. This seems a lot more interactive.”
Was my spider man worried?
“I’m happy to try it. But if you’re having second thoughts, we don’t have to do this. They have a corn maze and midway games,” I said, smothering my disappointment.
“No, I’m more concerned about any legitimate risk of harm or upset. I don’t want you to regret…taking a chance.” The sincerity in his declaration disarmed me for a second.
Did he mean taking a chance on him or the Halloween attraction? Because either way, I was all in.
I looped my arm through his and handed in my waiver. “I’ll be fine. You’re here to hold my hand, and I’ve got my big girl boots on today. Anyone comes at us with a chainsaw, it’s hi-ya for them,” I joked, kicking the air.
The grumpy ‘ghoul’ at our station gave me a dark glare.
I smoothed my skirt. “Not that I’d ever attack a cast member.”
“Good, because they fight back,” the ghoul snarled, rapping their cane on the table. Excellent commitment to character.
“Next victims up,” a ghoul at the entrance crowed. The line surged forward.
“I suppose it’s time.” Victor swirled his signature, then sighed. “You won’t hate me if this is unpleasant, right?”
“Not unless you throw me to the evil clowns as a sacrifice.” I grinned, swaying into his side.
He gave me a dead stare. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Besides,” he leaned closer, his voice rumbling low with promise, “I’d rather be the one to make you scream.”
Well, fuck me, then.
I giggled and dragged him into the crowd instead of a dark corner where he could devour me. “Am I supposed to consider this foreplay?”
“Maybe. Assuming we both make it out in one piece,” he said.
We put our belongings in a locker, then made our way into an industrial, dark room.
Inhaling deeply, he gripped my hand tight.
A ghoul cackled at us. “Prepare for your worst fears to come true.”
I nudged Victor and whispered, “Thankfully, I don’t think they can make me live with my sister again.”
He arched his brow. “I thought you liked her.”
“No, my older one, Jennifer. She’s scarier than—”
“Hey!” The ghoul pressed a button on the side of a cattle prod in his hand. Electricity sparked and sizzled around its core.
I bit my lip and widened my eyes, a moth drawn to that blue, flickering flame. Victor grounded me to his side by squeezing my hand and rubbing the inside of my palm with his thumb.
I was fine, though. They used real props here. That was nice.
The ghoul scowled. “Listen up, losers. You’re gonna go through here. No touching my friends. Or each other. You know what I mean.” He pointed the cattle prod at us.
What the hell? Did I have ‘scare slut’ stamped on my forehead?
I smirked and subtly flipped off the ghoul by pretending to wipe my hair out of my face. Victor bit the inside of his cheek.
The other couple in the room glanced at us, unimpressed. The guy in the couple bounced on his expensive white sneakers while we listened to the rest of the rundown.
Finally, the ghoul sent us to our doom.
The sneaker guy rubbed his girlfriend’s shoulders with an aggressiveness I thought was reserved for coaches in boxing movies. “Let’s do this. C’mon, baby.” He nudged her forward and rambled various hype phrases.
His girlfriend, in much more sensible if still designer jeans and shoes, closed her eyes, braced herself, and pushed the door open.
“Ah shit, here we go.” Sneaker guy ducked behind her as they slipped inside.
“He’s blowing it,” I muttered to Victor.
“For talking like that? I’d imagine he’s nervous,” he said.
“No, for not noticing she doesn’t want to go first.”
He furrowed his brow. “I suppose that is ungentlemanly. What if he doesn’t want to go first either?”
“Then they go in together.” I squeezed his hand.
He nodded and stared at the door. “At least he’ll be easy to find in the dark.”
We chuckled and waited for our turn in the staggered release.
The couple ahead of us shouted.
“Oh, hell no. This freaky shit ain’t it,” the guy cried.
“Theo, where are you–ahh!”
Once their screams faded, the ghoul ushered us through.
“How could the actual haunted house be better than this in-house entertainment?” I whispered to Victor, squeezing his hand as we walked into the first corridor.
“I guess we’ll find out.” His lip twitched.
As it turned out, it was actually pretty creepy.
Eerie music throbbed from hidden speakers as we strolled down dark, twisted corridors. Ghastly arms made of bone and flesh had punched through the walls, half of their fists closed around lit torches and candelabras to beckon us farther into the house. The jerky movements were almost mechanical, yet wild.
I peered past the uneven wooden paneling and curling fingers. “Do you think any of these are real?”
The wall shook as someone pounded on the other side, clawing and screaming, “Let me out!”
I shrieked and scurried into Victor’s side.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, his voice warm and cackling like the nearby fire. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, that was a good one.” I laughed and hugged him. “Can’t believe they got me already.”
Surprise flashed across his face. He hugged me tight and placed a kiss to my temple. “You did great.”
My pulse skipped with glee. “Let’s keep going.” The haunted house was a scream.
We dodged swiping zombies and ghoulish fiends, my shrieks and laughter coloring our whispered commentary. But Victor hadn’t yelled once. He’d barely even flinched, though he did squeeze my hand or chuckle on occasion. Where was his big reaction?
I gestured for him to enter the freezer room, which only had space for us to go in one-by-one. “Let them scare you for once.”
“As you wish.” He bowed and blinked slowly.
I loved when he did that. His dry charm wove snakes through my rib cage, their tails and tongues rattling with adoration.
He surveyed the area, a strobing blue light giving me the perfect cutout of his silhouette. Dry ice or some kind of fog machine spilled out around him. He brokered a path and I followed, spinning my cross in abject fascination as goosebumps pricked my skin.
He was a hero straight out of a horror movie—cinematic caution and confidence. A final guy…or a final boyfriend. I clutched part of his vest to reassure him I had his back the same way he had mine.
Fake corpses swung from hooks, but they had nothing on my man. The creaking metal and hiss of freezing air punctuated the eerie music.
A chainsaw roared to life ahead of us. “Fresh meat,” a butcher bellowed, stepping in front of the light to block our path ahead.
Fuck, that was fabulous, even if I half-expected it.
Victor spread his arms and backed into me.
I yanked his vest to the right, toward another light and path. But when I turned, I realized we weren’t alone with the butcher. A wild ghoul’s frosty breath hit the side of my face. She grinned and twisted a rusty knife. “I call the legs.”
Without thinking, I batted a corpse at her for self-defense.
“Kat.” Victor grabbed me and booked it down another path.
“Look for the light,” I panted.
My heartbeat slammed against my ears as we scurried through the freezer, shoving meat aside in breathless exhilaration to find the exit. The roar of the chainsaw nipped at our heels.
“I love playing with my food,” a ghoul screeched above the din.
Those lines were so perfectly twisted. Victor and I laughed. His eyes were bright with humor and exercise. This was good for him. For both of us, really.
Even if he wasn’t scared, the experience was well worth the price of admission.
We burst into the next room, which was thankfully more mechs and webs than chase scenes. Fake webbed pods wiggled. Flies buzzed. The room glowed purple. We walked around hand-in-hand amid the intricate backdrops and skeletons. In a weird way, this was romantic. Quiet. A dark chasm opened up above us. I walked to the edge and smiled, knowing what would come next. Victor wrapped his arms around me from behind as we gazed into the abyss. He was warm, for once. Not sweaty. Just nice.
A huge fake spider limb dangled from the rafters, four red eyes glowing and pincers snapping. She loomed, curious and magnificent.
“Wow. She’s beautiful,” I whispered, caressing his fingers and forearm.
“She is.” He brushed my hair aside and kissed the back of my neck.
A shiver shot down my spine. I closed my eyes and leaned into him. This was perfect. Heaven, even if they marketed it as hell.
He saw it too, didn’t he? He felt it.
He kissed my ear, cheek, then lips. We couldn’t stay, but for a second, I was tempted to ignore the fact they had cameras in here and lay with him amid the webs.
“My Spider-Man,” I murmured, pulling him in for another over-the-shoulder kiss.
The slap of running shoes yanked my attention to the door in front of us. Did they send someone to stop our moment before it got heated? This was very PG.
Victor hugged me tight and twisted me to his side as one of the other visitors ran into our room.
The sneakers guy stopped and looked around. “Have you seen the girl I was with?”
“No.” I frowned. Was she hiding from him?
He wiped some fake web off his sneakers. “Ah, shit. I don’t want to go back into that freezer place.”
“You lost her,” Victor said flatly. The implication was clear: You left her.
With cannibals.
“I…I’ll find her. She probably just slipped out the exit ‘cause she was scared.” He offered us an awkward smile. “You’re almost at the end. Good luck,” he said, trotting off.
I shook my head at his back. Thankfully, my semi-boyfriend wasn’t such a dick. If I did see that girl, I’d walk her through the end. Nobody deserved to be left like that.
“And then there were two,” Victor rumbled. He held out his hand.
I threaded our fingers together and stepped into the darkness.
If we had to go through hell, I was happy to do it with him.