"We... truly doing this for real?" Benjamin muttered, stretching his neck to stare up at the looming structure before them.
Riley and the group stood before Nightwalker's House of Horrors, a structure that was completely different from the colorful land of Megaland. The building stood out like a pimple in an otherwise happy face.
It was weathered, and there was rusted metal anywhere you looked. The fog machines did a good job pumping out thick clouds that crawled along the ground.
Benjamin and even his sister gulped at the same time as they stared at the fog touching their ankles.
"Y…Yo. I think someone touching my feet." Bella whispered.
"Why, you scared?" Hannah teased, nudging Bella with her elbow.
"The hell I am!" Bella clicked her tongue, crossing her arms tight against her chest. She was clearly scared, however, as her eyes darted nervously at the towering structure.
Benjamin was also trying his best to hide his fear, but his fingers twitched at his sides, and he kept swallowing hard. "I ain't scared. Just... this don't look sanitary."
Pauline, surprisingly enough, seemed excited. Her eyes almost sparkled as she gazed at the ominous building. There was even a smile playing on her lips as she whispered,
"I've… always wanted to go here. There were also haunted houses back in the country, but not like this."
As for Riley, well, he was just standing there. He did, however, have to move to the side as a group of teenagers burst through the exit, screaming, crying, hyperventilating. One of them was even crawling out.
"Aw hell no," Benjamin whispered, "We ain't going there."
They did.
After no deliberation at all, the group entered Nightwalker's House of Horrors—and what awaited them inside was truly horrific. The cutting-edge technology they used didn't help at all.
Just from the entrance alone, the sound warped along with the hall around them. They could hear someone whispering behind them, and when they looked…the entrance was gone.
"We dead, Sis. We dead," Benjamin immediately hugged his sister's arm, "This is why we don't be mingling with white people stuff!"
"C-can you not!?" Bella stammered, "It…It ain't real!"
The group continued to tread on, and there was a moment there when both Bella and Benjamin just completely forgot trying to act tough and started screaming their lungs out.
Even Hannah, who had probably seen the attraction a hundred times, was screaming with a smile on her face.
The actors were insanely good at their jobs, too. Right now, the group was running from a woman with impossibly long limbs, crawling across the ceiling and chasing after them.
"What the fuck is that!? What the fuck!?" Bella was the fastest, and Benjamin was second…because he was currently being dragged by the neck by his sister.
"T…tell me when it's over," he whimpered with his eyes closed, "I ain't coming back here, Sis. I ain't."
Fortunately for them, the woman finally skittered away into a vent as soon as they reached a wide, empty corridor.
The twins were finally able to catch their breath, the two quickly falling to their butts as they pointed at Hannah.
"Ha! You… you scared!?" Bella bellowed.
"You guys should've seen your faces!" Hannah also pointed at them in response, barely able to contain her laughter, "I… I can't wait for the photos later."
And while the three were filling the vast corridor with their loud voices, Pauline just seemed incredibly intrigued about everything. She left the three to laugh at themselves, her eyes scanning the seemingly quiet and empty area.
Hannah, Bella, and Benjamin stared at her for a moment before following behind her.
The corridor was peaceful. Perhaps too peaceful—nothing but the sound of their footsteps and their shallow breathing.
This was, perhaps, worse than any of the jump scares they have already gone through before.
"Boo!"
And then, all of a sudden, Hannah lunged at Benjamin, and everyone folded.
Benjamin couldn't even scream and just dropped to the floor. Bella jumped back while cursing at Hannah, and even Pauline screamed, her hands flying to her mouth.
Hannah laughed at them again, pointing at their reactions.
"Oh…oh my god. Benjamin. You literally—"
But as soon as her laughter came, it stopped when she noticed something. Her eyes darted between the three faces in front of her, counting them, and once more until—
"Wait…where the fuck is Riley!?"
Riley, well. Riley was lost.
He was now walking through a forest of mirrors. Literally.
He was in a forest, and there were mirrors everywhere, creating an endless maze where his pale face was reflected in multiple directions.
Strange shadows also slithered between the mirrors—probably belonging to other guests, actors, or just merely effects.
"Oh?" Riley's nose brushed against the cool surface of a mirror, not realizing that he was walking to one.
"Hmm. Mirror," he whispered to himself, taking a step back to look at his reflection.
But he quickly noticed that something wasn't right. As he tilted his head, the reflection did not follow him at all. Even when he closed one of his eyes, both of the reflection's eyes stayed open.
"This was not here before," Riley muttered before he turned to leave. But as he took his third step, he felt a prickle on the back of his neck.
"Hmm?" He glanced back over his shoulder, only to see his reflection still facing him, standing still…watching.
And very slowly, the reflection's lips curled—a smile that reached from ear to ear crawled on its face.
Riley blinked a couple of times before shrugging and just continuing deeper into the maze. Soon, the mirrors grew taller, the trees were gone, and the path was narrower.
And all of a sudden, the temperature dropped noticeably. And then—
"Grah!" A figure lunged from beside him, her tattered clothes and mangled face almost swinging at Riley.
Riley, however, only stopped walking and looked at the actor. "I am lost, Ugly Ghoul."
"Uh…" The growling of the ghoul was replaced with a confused hum. Her completely white eyes turned around to show their color as she stared at Riley.
Before she could say anything, however, another actor approached—this one dressed as a scarecrow.
"Hey, Riley." The scarecrow revealed his hand through the straw blocking it, "You and your sister are here again?"
"Hello, Mr. Mike," Riley nodded politely, "Yes, but I seemed to have gotten lost."
"Again…?" Mike sighed. He looked at his colleague for a moment before reaching for the hidden radio clipped to his belt. "We've got a separate guest in section D. It's the big boss's son again. He—"
And before Mike could finish his words, a staff member appeared around the corner. Mike immediately cut the transmission short as soon as he saw the hat with the logo of Megaland on it.
"Good timing, I was radioing backend. Can you escort Riley here?" Mike asked, "Then stay with him until his sister comes to get him outside."
The staff member looked at Riley with a smile on his face, "Of course, follow me."
"Goodbye, Mr. Mike," Riley said before following his new guide through the winding corridors, until they entered a secret door that led to a bright hallway that was no longer part of the attraction.
The staff glanced at him from time to time, and when the lights started flickering, he could no longer seem to handle the silence and started asking Riley some questions.
"You seem to know people here. You come 'round here a lot?" He asked while keeping a steady pace, his accent incredibly thick.
"My sister and I go once every two months, Male Staff," and Riley did not seem to mind.
"Oh yeah? You into the roller coasters?"
"I do. They are very comfortable, Male Staff."
"Huh. What about Megawoman, then? You a fan?"
"I have only met her once personally, so I can not give you a valid opinion."
"Right. You here with your sister again? Your old folks with ya?"
"No. We are here with her new friends, Male Staff."
"No grown-ups, huh? That's pretty gutsy of you two. You lot live nearby?"
"No."
"Whereabouts you from then? You must be close if you're here nearly every month?"
"I am not supposed to tell where I live to strangers, Male Staff."
"Aw c'mon, I'm not a stranger. I work 'ere, in the happiest place on Earth. You got any powers? You any good with 'em?"
"I do have powers, Male Staff. But may I ask where we are now?"
Riley noticed that they had entered a storage room, with the lights slightly dimmed. The prop boxes, costume racks, and a single mannequin that looked incredibly realistic lined the walls, but there was no one else there.
"I have never been to this part of Nightwalker's House of Horrors, Male Staff," Riley tilted his head, studying the unfamiliar surroundings. "Is this a new part of Nightwalker's House of Horrors? I suppose that is why I got lost."
The staff member said nothing. He lowered his hat further, casting deeper shadows across his face. But slowly, a smile spread across his lips.
And after a long moment, he turned around and removed his hat completely.
"I'm no stranger, mate. I'm Ryan," the staff suddenly introduced himself, his eyes that were looking at Riley from head to toe glinting in the low light, "But me mates call me the Butt Endah…
…Fancy a little hide and wank before we head back to your sis?"
[Butt Ender | Villain Rank: E |Powers: Invisibility and low-tier superstrength. Can turn invisible, but only while holding his breath. A disgraced former superhero, exposed for his involvement in multiple scandals, including his role in a high-profile prostitution ring involving minors. Originally sentenced to life in prison, he later pleaded insanity and was transferred to a mental asylum.]