Nadine Book 5

45. Horror

"You 3 took a 2-hour nap. Do you feel better?"

Tye stretches. "Yea."

Dipak stands up. "Try to pace yourselves a little more, maybe you'll be able to stay awake for dinner."

The 3 of us stretch and listen to Dipak complain. Then I get up and go pee. I come out of the bathroom, and they're gone. I check the arm thing. 2 went 1 way, 2 went the other way. No one waited on me. I pout. Then I realize this is perfect. I can go see the horror sector.

I cross the path and there are some shuttles right here. I jump in the first 1 I see. "Horror sector please."

We take off and land after a 3-minute ride. "$42."

I tap the band. "Why is it dark outside?"

"It's always dark in this sector. Helps add to the fear. You have fun."

"Thank you."

I hop out. It even smells like blood and goo here. I peek in the window of a shop. There's a black teddy bear. It's beat up. One of its eyes is a sewed on big red button. 1 of its arms is sewed back on with thick thread. It's missing a leg. It's dirty and bloody. I have to have it. I pay $84 for it.

I ponder around holding it by its arm. A man jumps out from beside the building and has a really loud thing in his hands. I scream so loudly. He smiles. "It's a show. Don't get too scared."

He sneaks over beside someone. He makes it sound loud again and they scream. Then he chases someone else. I understand now. It's about scaring people and making them scream.

Another man runs right up beside me. So close, I can feel his breath on my head. "Do you need your face painted?" My eyes go so big. His whole face looks like a mouth with a million teeth. I can barely see his eyes. It's so neat. "I have a whole book of looks I can paint on you if you want to check it out."

I follow him. He stands behind a desk and shows me a book. Some are expensive. But I want to be scary. I check my band and still have over $2,000 left.

I pick a dead girl. She even has a worm coming out of her eye.

"I can pull your hair down and mess it up. Then I can paint your face, throat, and neck. I can paint your collar bone. Then your arms. I can put a big bloody hole in your arm. I can even mess up your clothes if you want. Put some fake blood and goo on them. A hole going into your stomach. Would you like that? It could come out to about $500."

"YES." No is not an option.

"I'll get some help. We'll get this done fast." He comes back with 3 girls.

"I am so excited about doing this. Usually, people don't let us go all out on them. They want a flower on their face or something."

Another nods. "We are going to make you so scary."

They guide me to a seat.

45 minutes later, I stand in front of mirrors. If I didn't know it was me, I would scare myself. I'm a dead body with some of my skeleton showing through my flesh. There is fake blood on my little dress. They made it believable. "You are amazing." I scratch my head and some brains fall onto my arm. "It's so real. I could scare myself."

"Let me ring you out. $500." I tap the screen, and it asks me if I want to leave a tip.

I click the 20%. They were amazing, and it's the highest percent I can pick. He blinks at his box a couple of times and then grabs my bear. "Don't forget this. Why did you come here anyway? You are so much younger than we're used to."

"I always wanted to see a haunted house and I don't have much time left. I didn't want to miss my chance."

"Just so you know, you'll be scarier than anything you find in those houses now. But you have fun."

"Thank you for everything sir."

"My pleasure."

I go through a haunted house and it's so fun. The people keep jumping out to scare me, but then I scare them instead. Then we laugh. I have so much fun with it. I end up going through a few more.

Then I find a spot and it's so foggy. I can't see. I can hear people screaming and those loud machines. But the fog is so thick. I can't see but 5 feet in front of me in spots.

I see someone and I walk up behind him. "Can you help me?"

He turns around so fast and screams. Then he falls on his ass and crab walks away from me as fast as he can. Back into the fog he goes.

Someone laughs. It's that man with the loud thing. "I think he thought you worked here. Are you lost?"

I nod. "I asked for help."

"You should hold up the bear and say 'Will you come play with me?' That will scare the hell out of them."

"Why is it so foggy? I can't see."

"You're in the fog zone." He points down. "See the yellow specks on the ground? Follow that, and you will get out of the fog zone. But come and try to scare a few people with me. You are a natural. Ask for help, like you did. Or ask them to come and play with you."

I scare a few people. They scream and run more into the fog so fast.

Then my bracelet beeps. It's only a 3-minute ride. I still have a half hour before I have to be there. I scare a few more and nearly die laughing.

"Are you alright?"

"I made her pee her pants." I crack up laughing again.

"Yea, that's always funny. There are a couple of guys in here asking for someone. Is it you?"

I tap the bracelet. It's 10 minutes until dinner. "Yea probably."

"Want to scare them?"

"Yes, Yes, Yes."

"I'll get their attention with the chainsaw. You sneak up behind the one you want to scare and ask him to come and play with you."

"Ok."

He guides me around a couple tables. "Sneak up behind them from here. I'll get their attention on me. They'll never even see you."

I do what he says, and I come up right behind my Dipak and future Marcus. They are focused on the chainsaw man in front of them.

I get so close to them, I am pretty much between them and they don't see me. "Will you come play with me?"

They jump and turn towards me. "f*****g SHIT."

"I want someone to play with."

Dipak puts his eyebrows up. He knows it's me. I go after Marcus. "Do you want to play?" I reach out and almost touch his neck.

He trips over something and almost falls over. "No. I'm searching for someone." He puts his hand in his hair. "f**k, I haven't been jump scared that hard in a while. You are sneaky."

The man with the chainsaw laughs. Then I do too. I can't help it.

Dipak wraps his arms around me from behind. "Woman. I can't even believe you're here. I didn't think you could make it in."

The chainsaw guy comes over. "She has scared so many people. Made 1 girl pee her pants. Another fell over and crawled away as fast as he could. She is a natural in here."

"I love this. I went through 4 or 5 haunted houses. I went shopping and got my bear. I got painted."

"Is that why you're late for dinner?"

"I still had time, it's only a 3-minute ride. I guess I lost track of time. I am thirsty though."

"I'll show you the quickest route to the shuttle." The chainsaw guy walks with us. "You have to remember to get drinks here. It is hot. You'll end up sick."

I run after him. I come across a man looking around. I walk up to his side. "Will you play with me?"

"AAAHHHHH!" He jumps and falls on his ass. Then he gets up and runs away.

We crack up laughing.

Dipak smiles. "That one really did scream like a girl."

The man takes us right to a shuttle. "There you go. Enjoy your dinner."

"Thank you for everything."

"My pleasure."

The boys thank him and climb in.

"I thought you were with the boys. I saw a dot over in the horror sector and figured it was him." Dipak points at future Marcus. "He said he was gonna go. When he showed up outside the restaurant, I nearly fell over."

"You left me at the movie theater, so I made a run for it. Figured I could at least do a haunted house before anyone caught me."

"We would have taken you, sweetheart."

I put my eyebrows up. "You said I would pee and cry. No one wanted to take me. It's ok, I still got to see it. I even got to scare you guys."

"That you did. That was 1 hell of a jump scare for me. I had no idea you were beside me. By the looks of it, you got a lot of people though."

I sit between my Marcus and Dipak for dinner. Everyone stares at me.

Future Marcus smirks. "As it turns out, I'm not the only 1 who loves horror."

I drink a lot of water and eat some cheese pizza. Then I fall asleep leaning on Marcus.

I hear Dipak say, "Anyone who falls asleep at dinner goes back to the ship."

Marcus moves me to his lap, so I straddle him. I'm too far asleep to try and wake up. I snuggle into his chest. He's so warm. I reach for his hair, but it's not there.

I whine and he rubs my back. "You're ok."