Welcome to Gaia! ::

Taking a deep breath, Esfir watched as the sky darkened and the sun set. There were still streaks of warm orange-pink cutting through the growing blue-ish black. A quick check of her watch made the teenager nod in satisfaction. It was time. Setting off at a brisk walk, Esfir couldn’t help the excited little giggle that escaped her lips. Finally. Finally, she was old enough to hit up the Haunted House that sprung up every year for Halloween. And it had taken every little wheedling trick she knew to coax her mother into granting permission this year. Not that the kid friendly houses were bad or anything. But, at fourteen, she considered herself too old for them. She was watching actual horror movies now, though with parental caveats, she could totally handle a Haunted House.

It wasn’t as if the one she was going to had a history of torturing its guests like that one out in the midwest, after all. She’d be fine.

As she neared the house, she paused to admire the view. Big, scary looking house, fairly dilapidated looking, a couple of blue tinged spotlights sending beams of lights into the air. Someone had even set up a funnel cake and cider booth a little ways from the house. Glowing jack o’lanterns lined the foggy path leading to the house and a hidden stereo played spooky music overlaid with dramatic screams. Grinning, she hugged herself a little before jogging the rest of the way to the admissions booth. Oh, this was gonna be so damn good!

“One, please,” she blurted out, sliding money through the little grate. The woman dispensing tickets smiled and slid a ticket back her way. Taking it, Esifr practically ran for the line to enter the house. It was, she thought, a very good thing that she’d made sure to arrive as early as she could because there were already a fair number of people milling.

This was, she repeated to herself as the line began to move, going to be so good!

To say the sudden scream hadn’t startled her would be a lie. Esfir had expected theatrics; the girl who’d screamed had certainly provided that when she’d appeared and thrown herself towards the waiting line. But the scream… Perhaps her instincts tended closer to the senshi side of things than she might have liked, because that scream had sounded almost too real. Real enough to make her hand twitch towards the pockets in her pants, ready to retrieve her henshin pen and power up to protect the civilians. But it was only one scream, however convincing, and Esfir was able to control herself and enjoy the show. Though she hadn’t expected the girl to aim herself straight at where Esfir stood. Eyes widening and smile faltering ever so slightly, she hesitated, unsure of what she should do. If she did anything at all.

The time spent thinking was brief, her decision rapid. ******** it, she was going to play along and have some fun. As far as she knew, the only actual Rules were that the actors couldn’t touch the guests and vice versa. No one ever said anything about talking. Reaching out her own hand, she winked at the girl before adopting a shocked [removed](that was almost entirely ruined by the definite sparkle in her eyes). “Oh my god,” she gasped. “What did they do to you? Where are the others?!?” She watched one person already kneeling by the girl, seeming to offer help, though doubtless they’d do something spooky shortly. Glancing around, Esfir thought that she could pick out who was part of the show based on how they were reacting. And fortunately, the line was starting to move just fast enough that it wouldn’t look horribly fake to see her reaching towards the girl as she was herded towards the entrance. Unable to keep from chuckling a little bit, Esfir couldn’t help herself, “Be brave! I’ll save you!”

Was she spoiling some dudebro edgelord’s immersion? Possibly. But was she having fun? Absolutely! She did hope that she’d see the girl again inside so that she could figure out her storyline. Maybe she was supposed to be an escaped mental patient? Oh! Or some creepy scientist’s experiment! The streak of blood across her forehead could lend itself to either. Well, whichever it was, Esfir made a mental note of the girl’s appearance on the chance that she’d spot her inside.

Glancing back as she headed inside, Esfir nodded in satisfaction as the girl was dragged away calling out warnings. She was really good at this. And the furrows in the dirt were a nice touch. But she couldn’t watch anymore once she went through the door. Inside, everything looked incredible, cobwebs, broken lights, ruined furniture where the scenes called for it. Laughing, she wandered through, heart jumping whenever someone or something would jump out at her. It was, she thought, kind of nice to be scared in a way that was fun and not a sign of an actual apocalypse. Still, she found herself blurting out little screams when faced with monsters that resembled youma a little too closely. Those were the times she had to pause, hand over her thudding heart and take a deep breath to remind herself that these were just people in very good costumes.

The Ring-esque room was one of the better ones and Esfir screamed and laughed in equal measure. Hell, all of the rooms were good. And, in spite of her justifiable jumpiness when it came to the less human monsters, she found that her favorites were the scenes involving monstrous creatures.

The Murder Clowns could go right to hell, though.

I’m going to have to wrangle some friends and try this again, she thought. Doing the Haunted House solo was fun, but she did notice how the little friend groups seemed to be having the best time of everyone. And she wouldn’t mind coming again. Allowing her mind to wander, just a little, she reacted to the remaining scares, decided that Zombies could join the Murder Clowns in hell and threw some rather inventive curses after a group of boys that had nearly stampeded over her in their efforts to escape. Idiots! She found a quiet little corner to pause in. No harm done beyond the jostling. She could live with that. It was time to keep moving.

By the time she got close to the end, her throat felt raw from screaming and her ribs hurt from laughing because she’d been screaming. But she could smell the tiniest hint of funnel cake from outside and realized that she felt ravenous. Maybe fear was good for the appetite? Nearing the exit door, she jumped again as one last worker in a mask lunged at her from the darkness, grabbing at her. Dodging them, she nipped through the door and stood for a moment blinking. The lights outside weren’t bright, but they were more plentiful than what had been in the house. Walking, she suddenly heard a revving sound just behind her and turned to look, eyes going wide. A masked figure wielding a chainsaw was moving fast, coming right for her. And while most of her knew that this was harmless, the chainsaw looked very real and her lizard brain was very insistent that she move and get the hell away.

She might have screamed a little, because after all, a chainsaw wielding maniac was chasing her. She certainly ran as hard as she could. But the part of her brain that knew this was all silly fun encouraged the happy little laugh that escaped her. And when she reached the edge of the property, she skid over the dirt and gravel just a little bit, laughing harder now as adrenaline and the knowledge that she’d survived flooded her system. “Oh my god,” she gasped out. “That was ******** awesome!” Then, in a louder voice, aimed at the House and people working within, “That was awesome! You guys are amazing!”
Her heart was pounding in her chest almost painfully, but she was happy. Even if she was also scared out of her mind. Or well. Mostly out of her mind. Stumbling a little in the loose gravel, she took a second to scan the area and then headed directly for the funnel cake booth.

Best. Night. Ever.