Page 59 of Haunt the Mall

“Hey!” The ghoul pressed a button on the side of a cattle prod in his hand. Electricity sparked and sizzled around its core.

I bit my lip and widened my eyes, a moth drawn to that blue, flickering flame. Victor grounded me to his side by squeezing my hand and rubbing the inside of my palm with his thumb.

I was fine, though. They used real props here. That was nice.

The ghoul scowled. “Listen up, losers. You’re gonna go through here. No touching my friends. Or each other. You know what I mean.” He pointed the cattle prod at us.

What the hell? Did I have ‘scare slut’ stamped on my forehead?

I smirked and subtly flipped off the ghoul by pretending to wipe my hair out of my face. Victor bit the inside of his cheek.

The other couple in the room glanced at us, unimpressed. The guy in the couple bounced on his expensive white sneakers while we listened to the rest of the rundown.

Finally, the ghoul sent us to our doom.

The sneaker guy rubbed his girlfriend’s shoulders with an aggressiveness I thought was reserved for coaches in boxing movies. “Let’s do this. C’mon, baby.” He nudged her forward and rambled various hype phrases.

His girlfriend, in much more sensible if still designer jeans and shoes, closed her eyes, braced herself, and pushed the door open.

“Ah shit, here we go.” Sneaker guy ducked behind her as they slipped inside.

“He’s blowing it,” I muttered to Victor.

“For talking like that? I’d imagine he’s nervous,” he said.

“No, for not noticing she doesn’t want to go first.”

He furrowed his brow. “I suppose that is ungentlemanly. What if he doesn’t want to go first either?”

“Then they go in together.” I squeezed his hand.

He nodded and stared at the door. “At least he’ll be easy to find in the dark.”

We chuckled and waited for our turn in the staggered release.

The couple ahead of us shouted.

“Oh, hell no. This freaky shit ain’t it,” the guy cried.

“Theo, where are you–ahh!”

Once their screams faded, the ghoul ushered us through.

“How could the actual haunted house be better than this in-house entertainment?” I whispered to Victor, squeezing his hand as we walked into the first corridor.

“I guess we’ll find out.” His lip twitched.

As it turned out, it was actually pretty creepy.

Eerie music throbbed from hidden speakers as we strolled down dark, twisted corridors. Ghastly arms made of bone and flesh had punched through the walls, half of their fists closed around lit torches and candelabras to beckon us farther into the house. The jerky movements were almost mechanical, yet wild.

I peered past the uneven wooden paneling and curling fingers. “Do you think any of these are real?”

The wall shook as someone pounded on the other side, clawing and screaming, “Let me out!”

I shrieked and scurried into Victor’s side.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, his voice warm and cackling like the nearby fire. “Are you all right?”

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