Chapter 2 – Chap 2

My before work nap was peaceful, almost equivalent to a full night sleep. That was until towards the end when I had a nightmare about Kevin. His grueling body zombie crawling towards me, with no explanation why. The site alone made me wake up with a violent jerk. I ended up cracking my back in the process, which released some tension and helped me calm down. I checked my phone, seeing that I had some time before I had to get ready to leave.

I rubbed my eyes before getting up, grabbing the journal and opening up a notepad app on my phone. I carefully translated my journal entry from last night onto the app, then I added or edited a few things for grammar and storytelling purposes. I found a website where people post about things in the horror aspect. I created an account, and finally posted my first night of work events to the community. I honestly felt like it would just get hidden among some of the stories on there. I read a few posts before getting up and getting ready for work.

When I got to work, we had a quick staff meeting in the break room, discussing the situation at hand. Apparently, an article was posted on our town’s website for the newspaper about Kevin’s accident. Marley, Sean’s Dad and one of my bosses, told us his thoughts on it.

“Now this whole thing could either have a positive, or a negative effect on the business. So we may gain popularity. If we get people that are ghost hunters with cameras and everything, go ahead and let them in. We could get more people that way, maybe even people outside of the state!” He explained before dismissing everyone. I wasn’t sure how to feel about Kevin’s death having a positive aspect on things. The man just died last night, shouldn’t we all at least give him a little respect?

I went to leave the room before Marley put his hand on my shoulder. I turned to face him.

“Yes sir?” I asked softly, wondering what he wanted. He smiled at me.

“I’m counting on you to let the right kind of people in this place Shane. People with cameras or even full camera crews are allowed, but if you get a bad feeling about a specific group, do not let them in. We don’t need people spreading negative rumors about our haunted house.” He told me. I nodded, smiling. Suddenly I felt someone wrap an arm around loosely. I turned my head to see Sean, smiling at both me and Marley.

“Eh, don’t worry. Shane’s a real topper! We hired him as front gate guard for a reason right?” Sean said. I was confused, until I had to remind myself that Sean and his parents use Irish slang a lot. I think if I remember correctly, topper is a term for a good hard working person. Or something like that.

Marley nodded before leaving the room. I checked my phone. We had a half an hour before showtime. Kevin’s room was locked up, so we don’t have to worry about anyone else going in there. I left the room, making my way to the front where my post was. Sean was right behind me. I guess he wanted to walk with me and then go around the building to get to his post.

“Hmm.. I didn’t see Mark at the meeting..” Sean said to himself. Mark was another one of the security guards. His post was in the fairy tale section. Each section has a theme, based on different stories and other things. His job was to make sure that the actors didn’t walk into anything, since the lighting and their costumes limit their vision. I shrugged.

“He could either be in his post already, or running late.” I suggested to him as we continued to walk. “Not that big of a deal right?” I asked.

“Well it wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for the fact that things went to shit when Kevin wasn’t where he was supposed to be.” He explained. I sighed, nodding in agreement. Suddenly, something jumped out of one of the rooms in the hallway, screaming at us. I jumped and stepped back a bit. “Gah- What the fuck!?” I shouted at what looked to be a haunted deer head. Whoever was controlling it, started laughing, taking off the mask and pointing at me. The person turned out to be Naomi. She’s the actress for the human and animal taxidermy room.

“You looked like you were gonna fucking piss yourself!” She teased before continuing her laughter. It was then that I realized Sean was laughing too. No one here knows this, but I’ve never actually been in a haunted house, trail, or corn maze before. So because of my lack in experience for this specific Halloween activity, I would always be more jumpy than usual in the building. Even inside of Halloween stores, I always have an overwhelming feeling of terror. The constant fear of being attacked or jumped at. It’s worse now after seeing Kevin’s dead body. Which is probably why I find the break room to be so calming…

Sean walked up to Naomi.

“Okay Okay, I think one scare is enough for Shane tonight. After all, he was the one that found Kevin last night.” He explained to her. She looked at him, then looked back at me.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know!” She said walking up to me. I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Heh, it’s okay Naomi.” I said softly. Sean didn’t have to do that. I wasn’t gonna get all butthurt over a friendly scare. But I still appreciated it. “Don’t worry about it.” She went back to her room and before long, me and Sean were both where we needed to be, preparing for us to open again tonight.

The first group of customers was a group of teenagers. All of them were crudely dressed up as different versions of the doctor. More specifically, Kevin’s version. His picture was in our ad posters for the establishment that we put around town. The news probably used it when they told Kevin’s story. I was a bit upset, and tempted to turn them away. But I couldn’t deny them over something like this. It’d be different if they were dressed up as someone more offensive.

They showed me their passes, and I let them in.

“I can’t believe they have security guards for this place!” one of the kids exclaimed as they headed inside. “Guess they hired them after what happened to that Kevin guy.” I sighed, their comment slightly annoying me. But I ignored it. For the majority of the night, we had our normal crowd. Kids, Teens, and young adults dressed in casual clothing. Some excited, some terrified.

But around midnight, a group of young adults wearing hoodies with a glow in the dark logo of a video camera with a bloody knife stabbed through it. Underneath said ‘Murder Modders’ I assumed that they were either a ghost hunting tv show or a YouTube channel. The name.. Needed some work that’s for sure. I wasn’t gonna tell them that of course, I was still playing my nice employee card.

“Hey there!” Said one of the guys with a small friendly wave and smile. I watched him look towards my name tag. “Shane huh? Listen my dude, we paid for our passes. You don’t have a problem with us filming our experience in there for our channel right?” He asked me. I shrugged and nodded.

“Don’t see why not. Show me your passes and I’ll let you in.” I responded as I readied myself to open the gate. They all showed me their passes and one of the guys with a camera pointed it towards me.

“Mr. Security dude Shane, have you experienced anything supernatural here other than the Kevin incident?” He asked me with a voice that made him sound like a stereotypical California surfer man. I shook my head.

“Not really. But there are multiple people in costumes, multiple rooms with a variety of different props and decorations. So maybe some stuff has happened and no ones noticed because everyone has assumed it’s part of the show.” I explained with a soft smirk. I didn’t wanna give these guys a reason to take their passes back and ask for a refund. The camera guy gave me a thumbs up before going inside with the rest of his murder modder buddies.

About a half an hour later, I got a call from my pager. Just a shorter way of saying walkie-talkie.

“Ermm- Hey Shane?” Mark asked as he called in through it. I picked it up, ready to answer.

“Yeah, what’s up Mark?”

“Brock isn’t in here. He left for a smoke break and hasn’t come back since. Can you look for him while I cover your post?” I sighed, hoping like hell this wasn’t gonna be a repeat of last night’s events. But I’ll only be looking for him on the first floor or basement area, so I shouldn’t be finding Brock on the bottom of the shaft.

After checking the outdoor designated smoke areas, the break room, and the red riding hood room, I started heading downstairs and into the basement.

“Brock?” I called out as I turned the lights on and walked around the room. “Come on buddy, I gotta get back to work, and so do you. We don’t get paid to play hide and seek.” I walked to the center point of the room, looking around. Suddenly, I heard a loud crash, a sound of metal hitting against another object. Then the lights went out. Panic began surging through my body as I searched for my flashlight. When I found it and flicked it on, I saw Brock in front of me. He was wearing his werewolf costume. I sighed, relieved.

“Oh thank God, it’s just you fucking with me.” I said before he pushed me down. As I fell, I let go of the flashlight. Both me and the object hit the ground, the light at a bad angel to where I could barely see anything. Brock stomped towards me, holding something I’ve never seen before. It looked like a metal tooth brush, but with a circle at the end, slowly spinning with blood covered pins on it.

Before I could even process what was going on, the wolf man kneeled next to me, rolling the metal object against my hand. I screamed and agony, feeling the pins stab into and out of my skin within a matter of seconds. I couldn’t believe how much pain the small tool could cause.

“Marshall’s!!” He shouted in a gravely muffled voice before pulling out another metal tool out of his pocket, rolling both of them on my hands at the same time. I yelled and kicked him in the knee, causing him to fall back. I shakily grabbed my pager, pushing the call all button. I wasn’t trying to find someone specific, but I needed help! I knew that if Brock kept using those damn things on me I wasn’t gonna be able to get out of the basement.

“Everyone! This is Shane! I’m in the basement and need help! Brock’s lost it and he’s attacking me!” I was able to get through before Brock slapped it out of my hand and punched me so hard I almost blacked out as I fell back onto a hospital gurney. When I tried to get up, I realized that the mad wolf man had me strapped in.

“Marshall’s! Kill Meg! Revenge!” he yelled before crawling on top of me and aiming the tool towards my eyes. I slammed them shut.

“Brock don’t do this! Come on man it’s me! Shane!” I begged as I waited for me to become blind or even worse. Suddenly, I felt Brock’s wait lifted from me. I shot my eyes open and saw that Sean had knocked Brock onto the ground. I breathed heavily. I wanted to thank Sean, but I couldn’t get the words out. He ran up to me and checked on me.

“Shit! Shane your bleeding! I should’ve punched fucko in the damn gob.” He said as I watched him look at my hand wounds. It was only then that I realized just how badly I was bleeding. The bottom half on my hand as well as my fingers were covered in it. I could feel the loss of blood affecting me, as my eyes lulled to the floor. Like how they normally do then I’m drunk. Sean seemed to notice.

“Shane, look at me, stay with me mate.” He begged. I slowly looked at him and into his eyes. I giggled a bit.

“Heh, you have really pretty eyes…” I mumbled. The lights must have gone back on because despite my somewhat blurred vision, I could see better. Sean let out a nervous chuckle, blushing softly.

“Nah jackass, you’re just saying that because of the blood loss.” He said before looking behind him. Brock was standing now. Except this time, he was standing and his mask was off. It didn’t even look like Brock. Instead of the red hair and chin strip for facial hair, he now had black hair and scruffy stubble. He also had a rusty scalpel in his hand.

“Marshall’s be damned. Gregory dead. Meg avenged!!” he shouted before stabbing himself in the heart with the scalpel. He collapsed onto the floor.

“Jesus Christ.. Fucking hell..” Sean mumbled. I felt myself fall off the gurney before blacking out.

I woke up hours later in a brightly lit hospital bed. My brain felt fuzzy and I felt absmall sting on both my hands as well as my face. Eventually, Sean came in and explained what happened. I was in need of medical attention. Apparently, the tool that Brock used ended up giving me big cuts on both of my hands and his punch had also bruised my cheek. Sean had brought me here, knowing I wasn’t okay.

As for Brock, the person in the wolf costume wasn’t him. His body was disguised as a prop in the zombie room, and the person that attacked me was Zack Domino. Apparently, Zack and Brock’s family had a history and at one point during the mental hospital era of the building, Brock’s great Grandfather, was a doctor that liked to torture his patients with medical tools. His name was Gregory Marshall. Zack’s great Grandfather, named Felix Domino, was in a long term relationship with the so called love of his life, Megan Jersey. Megan became one of Gregory’s patients for a while and eventually died because of him.

Zack had walked into the haunted house at one point tonight, and Sean thinks that maybe because both of them were in the building, Felix’s ghost or spirit or whatever possessed Zack and killed Brock as an act of revenge and continued his rampage until he felt himself losing control of Zack’s body. It was a good theory and would make the most sense since according to the police, Zack and Brock, had never met prior to this.

I just shrugged, still a bit loopy from the blood loss.

“Fukin’ ghost’s” I said, smiling softly as I referenced what Sean said last night. He rolled his eyes before he handed me my journal.

“This fell out of your bag when Zack attacked you. I didn’t read it I promise. But you can write about how pretty my eyes are while I get the paperwork figured out to get you out of here.” He teased with a wink before heading out of the room. I blushed. Did.. I really say that? Damn blood loss.. I picked up the journal, and began writing about tonight. I figured if I wrote now, it would make it easier for me to type up and post later.

I checked my phone, seeing that once again the police didn’t shut down the place. It didn’t make sense to me. A murder and possessed suicide happened and we aren’t even closing for a day? I was left to assume that it may be because of the history of the building.