Page 32 of Mustang Valley

My mom glances at Ashton and Logan. “Good thing you boys have a night off.”

Logan rubs his hands together. “Karma, baby. I nearly wet myself in that barn when I was ten. I’m taking no prisoners tonight.”

Monica puts a hand on her hip. “Don’t you go making people cry now.”

“Are we here to scare, or are we here to scare?” he asks.

Our moms share a glance, and both pull their lips into tight lines.

My mom puts a hand on Monica’s arm. “I can still call Sam and Colt instead. Just not sure…”

Monica cuts her off. “No, no, they wanted to bring Eve and her friend around. It’s fine.” She turns back to us. “Just behave. You’re big. You’re burly. You’re scary.”

Logan and Ashton, even in their mid-thirties, laugh like goons at the prospect of making people jump.

Monica and my mom set about organizing us volunteers into different zones in the barn. It’s amazing how far it’s come since being a boy myself walking in the dark through this exact space on Halloween. With the fluorescent lights blaring above, I see the zones created by everything from pallets to ride-on lawn mowers… anything to help keep people to a path that weaves around the wide-open space. Right now, it looks mostly like a mess.

But I know how this haunted house works. The scary part is that the building has no windows. When the lights go out, you have to feel your way around. Even without the likes of me and the others making creepy noises and jumping out, walking through a pitch-black barn could make the most confident person uneasy.

We position ourselves in our zones, and I have to say, being a scarer isn’t for the faint of heart either, but soon, my night vision adjusts just enough I can make out general shapes of people working their way through the path of doom one after another.

The makeshift pathways created aren’t wider than allowing one or two people to come through. I make a low groaning noise or a full-onboo, depending how the mood strikes me. And for an hour, I don’t think about what Molly is doing with Jolie and her sister. That is, until Iknowwhat she’s doing with them.

Someone opens the barn door, letting in a sliver of light from the outside and a conversation that, because the barn is still and silent, I hear crystal clear.

It’s Molly. “Let’s go through together.”

Another woman’s voice, must be her sister, because it isn’t Jolie who says, “No way. It will be so much scarier if we go on our own.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to avoid.” Molly laughs. It’s not her usual giggle. It’s nervous.

Jolie says, “I started coming through this place when I was ten, Mols. We’ll all go and wait by the exit at the end. Leave no woman behind lest they be taken by a cheap Pennywise costume.”

“Shit, Jo… you had to go and mention clowns?” Molly sounds nervous.

“I’m sure you can handle it,” Jolie reassures her.

“Who’s saying I can’t handle it? I just… fine, let’s just go. Jolie, because she’s done it before, then Lily then me.”

“Still afraid of the boogeyman?” Lily, her sister I guess, teases.

“Fine,yougo first,” Molly says.

And that’s when I presume all three of them step inside at once and close the door behind them.

It’s still as can be, apart from the occasional bump and a scream Lily lets out when Logan quickly flashes a light over his face. She makes her way farther, and I know Jolie has started, too, because she must have bashed something and lets out a big ol’shit. When the first woman reaches me, Lily, I wonder if she’s anything like her sister.

My dark, eerie moan fills the space between us.

Her feet jump a step back. “Fuck,” she mumbles nervously, clutching her heart and I have to admit, scaring people carries its own bizarre satisfaction.

Lily continues onward past me, feeling her way through the shadows.

It’s not easy getting out of my corner of the maze because it seems like the exit would carry on naturally forward, but you have to feel around a lot for a doorknob to open a door that’s just a frame and a door propped up between pallets. No escape is the scariest thing of all.

But Lily is pretty calm and figures it out. The door creaks open, and I make sure to close it quickly for the next victim.

A loud noise erupts ten feet away from me, something between a roar and aboo, and Jolie’s blood-curdling scream echoes in the barn. It’s curt but loud and it’s instantly followed by a nervous laugh.

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