Excerpt: Fright Fest at Red River City

Burl had prepared for Halloween all week. Jinx and other friends had helped out. Decorations, sound effects, and food had been gathered and laid out; it was a work that took most of their spare time. Burl always invited his friends to help out, and as usual they were eager. Jinx was especially good at decorating; her special talent was the colorings and special effects, specifically blood spatter. Jinx also helped pick out the background tracks that ran throughout the house.
Burl’s real talent lay in planning and design, so beyond Jinx with some special effects, Randy provided electrical expertise. Randy brought in the outlets, extra wiring, and ran up the strobe lights. He also set up the arcing and sparking effects in most rooms. Rounding out the list of helpers was Sugar. They called her Sugar anyway. Her real name was Suggah; hard to spell and hard to remember it wasn’t pronounced. Sugar was responsible for the main portion of decorating along side Burl and the others when they could help. It was her that made the vision come full circle with Burl.
Halloween that night was no exception to how hard they worked. The house had more of everything, rooms, sound effects, and fake blood. Lighting was in and a master control panel rigged up deep inside the house. Burl enjoyed sitting in the middle watching the whole house. They’d even rigged up video cameras; they’d post the best scares up on YouTube.
Burl was up in the control booth as the first string of kids entered the house. Jinx was out front providing a good lead in and preparing the kids to be scared. She’d tell them stories about what was inside; it set the stage better for scaring. Suggah was hidden inside, behind a false wall, ready to pop out, surprising people. Randy, finished testing the last of the lighting and made his way towards the back. He got to play the evil man with the saw. No one really knew the name of the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre but his image easy to replicate. For safety he’d removed the chain from an old gas saw. It still revved up and made enough noise to startle though most hard nosed kids or adults.
The evening proceeded well until about half way through or about 7 PM. Treena and her friend, Tsu, entered the gate of the haunted house. Burl could tell the Jinx had barely been aware of them. To him through the camera she appeared lost in thought. Treena and Tsu went past Jinx and into the house. The yard stuff didn’t seem to slow them down or make them jump. Burl made a quick not to himself to beef that up next year.
Burl switched camera views as the kids came through the front door. As soon as they stepped through, he triggered the mechanism to shut the door. It didn’t latch it but did push it enough to close it. That got Treena to jump and turn around. Of course there was nothing to see. Bright flashes came from all around the teens, causing them to stumble around startled before moving to the next section of the house.
Walking slowly they appeared on the view from the next room. Light came in from the next room but not quiet enough to see good detail. Burl could see that the two were still together and were ready to move into the next room. Darkness was behind them from the last room, and now creaking sounds came from that room as well. That was enough to spur the teens on towards the lighted room.
Burl turned his head to watch them come into the next room. He noticed the exit door was shut. Wondering if the door had slipped shut because of the last group, he was about to enjoy another good scare with a host of things mounted on the wall that would move and have lights flashed on them. There was a knock then at the control room door.
“Sugar, is that you?”
Nothing.
“Figures.” Likely Sugar or Randy was wanting to check on him. Burl made another note to get two-way radios for next year as well.
Giving up watching the teens turn around in the dead in room, bathed in flashes and taunted by a mallet and other objects swinging around on the wall. His only worry is that they’d get bored before he could get the door open. Burl opened the door to peer out, not wanting any light to be give away the false wall area where the door was.
As he turned the handle, the door came crashing inwards. Burl was thrown back into the stool and tripped, falling into the mess of small monitors and wires. Someone pushed into the small space, pushing the stool back further, Bur’s leg jamming up to the side. Burl’s couldn’t make out who it was as he fell back but he was instantly angry. He immediately thought how easily this could mess up the house.