Merry Halloween (Part 2) Unleashing My Own Terror

(This is Part 2!!!!  Which means that if you haven't read Part 1, you need to follow directions better.  I bet you are that type of person that ends up with 6 left over screws from building something because you don't do it in order!!!!   Sheesh, Part 1 first, THEN Part 2!!!!!)

(If you already read Part 1. . . . . . ENJOY!!!!!  If you haven't. . . . . . .I'VE GOT MY EYES ON YOU)

Here we are once again  in the middle of a blog about my favorite time of year. . . . Halloween!  You read about my first experience with a Haunted House, and you learned many things about what type of girl I was as a child in my first haunted house. You got a bird's eye view of just how brave I could be in the face of that horror. . . . but. . . . you also got to see where it all began for me as far as loving that feeling of pure terror.  What follows next, here in part 2, is when I got the chance to become one of the monsters and be on the other end of the scare.  Trust me when I say, "I had a blast!!!!" getting people to scream, drop, run, cry, and in a few instances, pee themselves, but more on that later.  Let's start this puke that I named, Unleashing My Own Terror.

Who would have thought that the very place that originally turned me into a quivering, crying, screaming, estrogen filled little girl, would one day invite me into its halls to take part of being one of the creatures that would destroy someone else's world.  I have to thank a friend of mine at the time, Dave Martin, for he was the one that originally got me into the Haunted Schoolhouse on the opposing end.  Dave had gotten a job there for one of the seasons and on the last day the house was going to be open that year, they found themselves short a monster and no one to fill his roll.  Well Dave called me quick and asked if I could rush over and be a monster for a night.  He didn't have to ask me twice and two hours later, I was sitting in an electric chair, hair spiked straight up, glow paint on my face, and surrounded by metal bars.  It was a great scene because I also wore these metal bands around my hands that, once I hit the metal bars, a visible spark would be emitted.  So all I would have to do is act like I'm being electrocuted on the chair then when the victim (customer) would walk by me, I would lunge out of the chair with a yell and hit the bars with my hands and create the spark.  It was a very visual effect and I was able to get good scares out of that scene.  I can remember that the night FLEW by that evening and I was sad when it was over because I also knew that that was the last night of the event, so no more electric chair for me.  It really was like a drug to me and I was addicted after just one night, but I also knew that the next year, I WAS GOING TO DO IT AGAIN!!!!

Fast forward one year later and I was hired on to work for the Schoolhouse's sister, The Haunted Laboratory.  They were right next to each other and the Laboratory was even a more impressive four stories tall.  More Scares, More Fright. Come on in the Laboratory Tonight!!!  I would be remiss, though, if I didn't point out that working in a haunted house is not always fun.  Your voice gets blown out, you get tired from the hours, and you have to deal with a lot of drunk, testosterone filled idiots that make it their job to be a pain in the butt to everyone.  You will get hit occasionally and you won't scare everyone, but when you do get that "golden" scare, it really does make up for most the crappy stuff you have to deal with.  You have to be a little off to enjoy it and anyone that knows me knows that I am a little off.  I will be writing on a few of my favorite stories from that year.  Some I'm proud of and some I'm not. 

The Mausoleum

The first scene I was hired for was called the Mausoleum Scene.  This was on the first floor of the building and the first scene, which made it the final floor for the victims, because like the Schoolhouse, you started at the top and worked your way down.  The good thing about this was that they were already good and scared by the time they got to me.  The scene was pretty simple, it was a graveyard with trees, an open casket with a body in it, tombstones and skeletons scattered about, and a large mausoleum with a iron gate on it.  The victims would enter the scene and immediately get scared by a guy wearing a skull mask hiding behind the wall.  They would then turn to their right and walk diagonally past the open casket and they would see the mausoleum on their right.  The path would then make them turn right and walk in front of the mausoleum in order to get out of the scene.  Now the mausoleum was approximately 12 ft back from the path and about 3 ft lower than the path, giving it a sunken in look. There was a ramp from the door of the mausoleum that lead up to the path, but the only problem was that this ramp went from flat to real steep immediately, so I always had to be careful when I came out of there fast not to trip.

My role was to stand inside there and shake the bars screaming to be let out and then right when the people made that right turn in front of me, I would bust out of there and run right up to the path to scare the crap out of them.  It really was a great scene and I got a ton of people to either run straight out of the scene, or collapse on the floor right there until I had mercy and let them leave.  That was when it worked WELL, but I found out rather quickly, things could also go bad in that scene.

About two hours into the first night, I was in place and there was a couple that was coming through our scene.  The first guy did his job and scared them and they continued on the path towards me.  I grabbed the bars and started banging them hard screaming, "LET ME OUT!  LET ME OUT!".  I got their attention and the girl was now nervous as she clutched a little tighter to her boyfriend . . . .I knew I had them!!!!   Well they made that final right turn to go in front of me and I made my move!!!!  I slammed the gate open and bursted out of the mausoleum to seal their fate.   WELLLLLLLLL!!!!!!   Remember me saying that the ramp for me to use went from flat to steep immediately??? 

I flew out of their like a bat out of Hell, they both saw me, and the girl got that huge eye syndrome where you know it's going to be followed by a huge scream, BUT. . . . the second, I hit that ramp. . . . I tripped.  So instead of the couple getting to see their death lunging at them from the bottom of the crypt, they ended up seeing a large un-dead creature burst through the gate, proceed to pinwheel his arms as he tried to remain upright then falling on the ramp about 4 ft. from them going into a roll that dumped him somehow on his back looking straight up at them.  I can still see their looks of pity as they looked down at my very UN-scary performance.  It's a good thing I had a mask on or they would have seen just how red a human face could get from embarrassment.  I know that you are always supposed to "stay in character" when you are doing something like this, so all I could do was offer my scariest voice and say, "Well that's a first!!!"  They continued to look down at my until I grabbed the last of my zombie ego and slithered back down the ramp to my crypt hoping they would be gone by the time I turned back around.  Thank God they were, but I'm pretty sure they remembered MY scene that night and told their friends not to miss the "clumsy zombie" on the third floor.  *Sigh*

Count Spitcula

On the last night of the season, they needed someone to play Dracula up on the top floor.  I liked variety so I volunteered for the role.  It turned out to be quite the production because I didn't wear a mask in that scene.  They actually did the whole make-up thing to my face, they gave me a widows peak, white face, and blood dripping down from the corners of my mouth, and instead of wearing the normal black robe, I got to wear the iconic tuxedo that Dracula wore even down to having a large cape.  It was AWESOME!!!!  When it came down to the fangs, I figured that these bad boys would be so cool.   Certainly they were going to give me professional fangs that would look so real and scare the victims to death  . . . RIGHT????   WRONG!!!!!  They handed me a pair of those cheap plastic fangs that you can get for a quarter from a vending machine. (see above picture)  CRAP!!!!

If you have ever worn a pair of these, you should remember that as you wear them, your spit builds up.  So I was standing in my scene waiting for the house to open and I kept having my mouth fill up with spit as I waited.  I decided that I would take the fangs out and flick them against the wall to get the spit out of them.  Well after awhile, I happened to look behind me and noticed that the wall now looked like one of those cool water effect walls.  YUCK!!!!! 

The shout came that announced that we were now open.  I put my fangs in and waited behind the wall looking forward to my first scare of the evening.  I was the third scene in the house, so I had a little bit of a wait before I saw my first victim.  This scene was an attic scene where the path came into the scene and left the scene in a V pattern.  I would stand behind the wall when they entered my scene and then jump out and scare them sending them running out the other side.  I got myself pumped for my first scare as Dracula, and when the moment came, I jumped into action.  I came around that wall and let out my growl.  Thanks to the time that I had those stupid fangs in, my mouth was FULL of spit.  When I let out my growl, this HUGE wad of spit came flying out of my mouth and headed right towards the man in front of me.

Have you ever seen something in slow motion?   That is what happened to me.  I saw this wad of spit about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide slowly turn end over end as it flew out of my mouth.  I couldn't take my eyes off of it!!!!  Thank goodness the man got scared, because he looked away from me out of fear, but all I could see was this Transylvania Throat Lugee head towards him in slow motion.  It managed about 4 or 5 rotations before it landed right in the center of his shirt.  I expected him to actually feel the impact and snap back from his fear, so I knew I had to do something quickly.  I just went psycho crazy on his wife behind him so she would shove him out of that scene as quickly as possible due to fear.  I'm glad she was scared, because two seconds later, they were gone.  Whew!!!!   Count Spitula lived to see another day and that man had Vampire Spit all over his shirt.   I went back to the wall fling after that and just was very careful NOT to lean on the wall.

Now those two stories were just a couple of the funny things that happened to me while working in the house.  There are a ton of stories I could tell you of some of the scares I had, the people piles I created, and the kids I made cry, that is what made it so much fun, but I'm going to give you a break and just tell you my all time favorite scare.  This is always one of my "go to" stories if I want to get a laugh and I hope that me putting it in writing does it justice.  I will feel the pride and joy for it for the rest of my days because it was truly a magical moment.

The Ultimate Scare or  Wee Wee Wee. All the way Home



Let me set the scene for you.  I feel, this was the best scene in all the house because you were almost guaranteed a scare each and every time you attempted it because of the way the scene worked.  The costume was simple, just a cheesy mask and a black robe, but that didn't have anything to do with the scares effectiveness.

All you did was stand inside this little cage.  This part of the maze was pitch black, now when I say pitch black, I mean that you really couldn't see your hand in front of your face as you went through this area.  The path came from the right of the cage, turned right in front of the cage, then turned away from the cage, then turned right, then left and so on, and so on. 

(Now that is dedication to actually draw it)



 Now inside the cage, there was a light switch.  Once you sensed the victim was in front of the cage, you flicked the light on and let out a loud scream.  Being it was so dark, they would just about jump every time.  Men, Women, Boys, and Girls, it didn't matter, you would get ALL of them.  That's what made it such a great scene.  Then the fateful night came and I earned my badge of honor!!!

I was standing in my cage just waiting for the next group of victims to come by and I heard them coming.  I could hear a girl coming first followed by a guy, another girl, and another guy.  I got in position and waited for them to come in front of the cage.  The first girl came around the corner and I heard her saying, "What way do we go?".  There was a glowing mask embedded in the wall catty corner from me that would distract them and let me know where they were based on being able to see their shadows.  I could hear her come in front of me and I got ready to throw the switch, but right before I did, I sensed something.  I sensed that instead of turning away from the cage, she turned and started walking TOWARDS my cage.  To say excitement coursed through my veins would be an understatement.  I leaned forward and put my face/mask right against the bars of the cage and waited. . . .waited. . . . waited. . . .until I could almost feel her breath.  At the last possible second, I flicked the switch!!!!

My senses hadn't betrayed me because she was about 4 inches from my face when I let out my scream.  The first thing that happened was her eyes shot open so that she now resembled Kermit the Frog.  Here mouth flew open next followed by the most pathetic scream that I had ever heard.  It was like her body was shutting down and blowing up all at the same time.  I heard her take a huge breath and then let out with, "OH MY GOSH!!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!!. 

Her body then decided to go into "Flight" mode and she turned and ran.  The only problem in that plan was that she was now blinded by the light I flicked on AND she was in shock so she didn't realize the path turned to the right immediately.  So this is what I heard:

"OH MY GOSH!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!!  OH MY" *BAM* (as she hit the wall)

I figured that she was either knocked back into reality or unconscious but she was in full freak out mode and continued to run.  So I heard this"

"OH MY GOSH!!!!" *BAM*  "OH MY GOSH!!!!" *BAM*  "OH MY GOSH!!!!" *BAM* 
as she proceeded to hit each and every wall on her way out of there.  It got quieter and quieter as she ran so at least she was heading in the right direction, but I think I cringed each and every time I heard that *BAM*.  . . . .  well cringed and laughed that is.

Now my manager happened to be in the back hall at the moment I scared her, so he took off to follow her to see how far she ran being that there was only one more scene, Frankenstein, left before the exit.  He came back about 10 minutes later laughing.  He told me that she never did stop running and Frankenstein didn't have a chance to scare her because she ran right through his scene.  He then told me that he watched her as she ran out the exit and when she turned around to look back for her friends, her crotch was SOAKED!!!!   He was laughing so hard and I was so happy to get the "GOLDEN SCARE" notch on my belt that evening even at the expense of turning a girl into a pug.  Hehehehehehehehe

Like I said, there are plenty more stories that I could tell, but I will just leave it at that.  Writing about it makes me miss it even more now.    Oh the good Ol' Days!!!!

SMILE!!!