AN: Happy Halloween everyone!
Rachel was going to have to give whoever gave Mr. Schue the idea that it would be fun to go to the creepiest haunted house a strong talking to. Rachel loved Halloween, but hated haunted houses ever since her traumatic experience with them that involved a creepy clown stalking her through the house, constantly asking her if she wanted to play. Granted, she was only six at the time, one would hope that she wouldn't be scared as soon as she was able to realize that the zombies and psychotic clowns were not real and were instead mediocre actors whose joy in life came from scaring little kids. Rachel was confident in her skill to not scream as twisted individuals tried their hardest to scare her.
As the rickety school bus drew ever closer to the glee club's final destination, fear began to ebb away at Rachel's confidence. It's not as if the club was going to any ordinary haunted house, no, they were going to the Haunted Prison Experience, a site that has been the location of a multitude of horror films. For the most part nobody mentioned Rachel's obvious uncomfort till the bus came to a particularly long stop at a red light.
"Getting scared already Man-Hands? Aren't you supposed to be our fearless leader, gallantly charging into anything related to Glee?" As Quinn said this she earned nothing more than a glare from Mr. Schue till, Rachel found the best way to combat Quinn's -sadly true- statement.
"Sadly Quinn, I fail to see how going to a haunted house is a good team building exercise for a Glee club. Plus, the only thing that scares me are singers who are sharp and people who have little to no acting talent. I'm already conquering my first fear as I am conversing with you." As Rachel's last sentence makes it way through the bus, everyone but the now red faced Quinn.
"Ohhh. Berry burned you Q!" Could be heard all the way across the bus as Quinn glares a Santana with such ferocity that any sane person would shrink back, but all Santana did was send her an unimpressed look back. The bus ride after that went back to the glee club talking about how much fun it'll be at the haunted house. Rachel -the only person on the bus who is not jumping with joy about the fact that they are literally paying people to yell and scream at them to attempt to scare them- sat back twiddling her thumbs in anticipation for the haunted house and for the teasing she would surely get if she refused to go into the haunted house. Rachel's moment of apprehension was short lived, as the bus has already began to pull into parking lot.
Rachel took shaky steps off the bus and cast a look at Mr. Schue. It was his fault that she was in this tense situation, if it wasn't for him, she would be enjoying her monthly musical marathon with her daddy. As the group drew closer to the main event, Rachel became paler and paler to the point that Santana decided to make a snide remark saying she could pass as the ghost of a girl who died due to her chronic annoyingness. Eventually the club reached the intimidating gray stone building where a lady was wearing stereotypical fortuneteller clothes.
"Welcome my unfortunate guests. Today you will be put through hell. Our state of the art technology combined with our volunteer actors will make sure you will get the full experience. Due to a safety clause I am forced to pair the person who is most afraid with a person who shows no fear. I'm going to pass out a test that I need you to answer honestly and after everyone is finished I'll allow you to go inside." Rachel let outs sigh a relief, at least she didn't have to go through it alone. Hopefully she would be paired with Puck, who for some reason has been much nicer ever since the end of sophomore least he wouldn't make fun of her too much.
When everyone finishes the questionnaire the mysterious lady briefly looks at them and looks back at the students with a slightly unnerving twinkle in her eyes that wasn't there before.
"The pairings are as follows: Brittany and Artie, Puck and Quinn, Kurt and Sam, Mike and Finn, Santana and Rachel and lastly Tina and Mercedes." Santana face palmed, she wanted to enjoy the haunted house and now she was stuck with the tiny girl who at this point almost look as if she is going to start hyperventilating. Other than Rachel and Santana everyone else seemed content with their partners. "Now please follow me, each group will enter at a different point of the prison and the goal is to make it out first. Or at least alive." This does nothing to soothe the shorter girl's nerves as she is forcibly dragged to their designated entrance.
"Listen Berry, I need you to channel your inner actress side and act as if your arenot some pathetic scared little girl. I like haunted houses and wish to enjoy this so, I need you to put your big girl skirt on and let go of my arm, this stuff isn't real so, chill." In her own way Santana was trying to calm the smaller girl so, Rachel hesitantly pried her hand off of the warm Latina's arm. She was an actress, all she had to do was act as if she wasn't completely and utterly scared out of her mind. That mentality worked for about 2 minutes.
The first room they entered had low lighting and the word die was written on all four walls multiple times. Needless to say Rachel would've ran far far away from this place if it wasn't for the fact the co capitan of the Cheerios was investigating the room with such curiosity and excitement that almost made her appear cute... Almost. Rachel attempted to shuffle her way to Santana in fear that the girl would leave her in this place as a cruel joke, she would expect Santana to pull something like that. Just as she was halfway through the tiny room a figure lunged at her from the corner. She flinched and waited to be scared or tortured but nothing ever came. Opening one eye slowly she noticed that the previously investigating girl was standing in front of blocking her from the creature that lunged at her. The taller girl said nothing as she dragged Rachel to the next area.
"Thanks Santana." Could be heard echoing through the barren hallway as the taller girl released her grip.
"Whatever Tiny, if that thing actually lunged at you and you faint or some other shit it would be my head on a platter." The hallway grew quiet after her confession and they fell into a relatively calming rhythm. Without any warning a panel in the wall opened and out came a psychotic looking girl with a threatening smile. Before any of the girls could react Rachel gets forcibly yanked into the open panel along with the creepy girl. The panel closes as Rachel lets out a blood curdling scream. Santana for her part begins to bang on the walls, she may not like the girl all the time, but she knew how afraid Rachel was and she couldn't just abandon her, the girl would have a major panic attack.
Santana was right, she was having a major panic attack. Currently she was tied to a wooden chair in a room that had all sorts of blades on display. As the girl approached her, it became harder to breathe and her vision began to get fuzzy. Rachel knew that if she didn't calm down quickly she would surely pass out. She got a closer look at the girl who kidnapped her and makes the realization that she is dressed as a harlequin, immediately flasbacks of the creepy clown from her childhood resurfaced in her mind. Her eyes begin to water as she tried her hardest to pry her eyes away from the insane girl.
"You wanna see my knife collection? They are really cool and fun to play with except, everyone I play with seems to die." The young harlequin says, as Rachel openly sobs and tries to squirm her way away from the girl, silently praying for somebody, anybody to come through the door and save her from this situation. Her prayers are answered as the panel she got dragged through opens once again and an exhausted looking Santana steps through into the room.
"Let her go now if you want to keep your precious little job. She obviously is scared out of her mind so, just knock it off!" When the girl simply snickers and moves closer to Rachel, Santana intercepts her and pushes her backwards till there is an ample amount of space between the psychotic harlequin and Rachel. "Clean the wax out of your ears bitch! If you so much as take one step closer to her than I wil personally make sure that this is the last job you'll ever receive! Got that?!" The harlequin simply laughs and walks out of the room, leaving the two emotional girls alone in the creepy knife room.
Silently Santana unties the still sobbing girl and sits down with her her, cuddling her to stop her loud crying. Rachel tearfully looks up through her lashes and moves slowly up so her face is now level with Santana and stares into the shockingly concerned eyes of the Cheerio.
"My knight in a red Cheerios' jacket." Is all Rachel says as he moves her head so her lips softly connect with the shell shocked cheerleader's cheek. A delicate blush paints the Latina's cheeks as the smaller girl slumps against her shoulder. Deciding that she had nothing to lose, Santana lowered her lips, intending to kiss Rachel's cheek, but Rachel had other plans and turned her head so their lips collided in a soft chaste peck. When the girls pulled back Rachel had a bright smile on even though, her eyes were still puffy from crying and Santana's blush got a shade darker. For a while they just sat together, assured that their other glee mates would never see them, for the haunted house was huge and quite difficult to navigate.
Unknown to the two girls was the fact that Quinn and Puck were watching their interaction thought the open panel in the wall. After snapping a few photos of the unusual couple, Quinn turned to Puck and said, "Operation Pezberry is complete."