Beca and Chloe go on a date to a haunted house.
Chloe walked into the Bellas kitchen after she got finished with her Friday afternoon classes to see her girlfriend giggling uncontrollably on the sofa. She was watching something on her laptop, and screams of terror could be heard coming from the speakers.
"Hey babe. What on EARTH are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm watching Ellen," was Beca's simple response, not looking away from the screen.
"What is Ellen doing? Killing people?"
"No," Beca said, finally pausing the video and shooting an annoyed look at Chloe for interrupting her. "She sent some of her staff members through a haunted house and filmed the whole thing."
"That actually sounds hilarious. Can I watch with you?" Chloe asked, sounding intrigued.
"Sure!" Beca scooted over a bit on the sofa and started the video from the beginning. The current one they were watching was when Ellen sent her Executive Producer Andy and his assistant Jacqueline to a haunted house. They were going through a Dracula maze, and losing their minds after every few feet. Soon after, Beca and Chloe got sucked into watching Andy go through various haunted houses with different people. Suddenly Chloe jumped up.
"We should go to one Becs!"
"What? Why?" Beca asked, slightly startled at the redhead's enthusiasm.
"Because it looks fun!"
"Chloe, you got scared last week because the wind blew a leaf on you, and you thought it was a ghost."
"That's not fair. It's Lily's fault for telling ghost stories at our last Bellas bonding night," Chloe defended herself empathetically.
"No, it's your fault for believing her," Beca corrected, with an amused grin.
"Oh whatever. Do you want to go or not?" Chloe restated, trying to get the topic off her minor freak-out.
"Sure," Beca replied. "I've never been to one, but I guess it could be fun."
"Yay!" Chloe said. "But you may have to hold my hand."
"Don't worry babe. It'll be fine," Beca said confidently, while trying to convince herself at the same time. Beca wasn't big on the idea of going to haunted houses and paying money to purposefully get the shit scared out of you, but she wasn't about to tell Chloe that. After all, she had a reputation to uphold.
"I'm so excited. This'll be great," Chloe gushed enthusiastically, grabbing Beca's laptop from her and opening a new window.
"Hey!" Beca shouted. "Be careful with my baby!" As a DJ, Beca's laptop meant everything to her, and since she had all her mixes saved on there, she was very protective of it. If anyone else besides Chloe had tried to touch her laptop or headphones, they'd be dead. Chloe felt very privileged to be the one exception to basically all Beca's rules. Chloe took one look at the boundaries and walls that the girl had in place and just knocked them all over.
"I thought I was your baby," Chloe pouted, making her blue eyes as big as she could.
"Shut up," Beca blushed, still as awkward as ever about feelings. "You know what I meant."
After a bit of research on Google, they finally settled on going to Netherworld, and going through Mr. Grendel's 3-D Fun House of Horrors.
"Beca! Listen to this!" Chloe said, reading a description from the website. Beca turned to look at the redhead, who was looking down at her laptop.
"Please Don't Feed the Clowns!" Chloe began dramatically. Beca smirked, but gestured for her silly girlfriend to continue reading.
"Come one, come all to Mr. Grendel's 3D Funhouse of Horrors! Put on your 3D Glasses and see crazy clowns, scary monsters and weird aliens! If you are lucky, go back stage at the attraction where Mr. Grendel butchers and eats his victims! Some will even get to travel to the strange world that Mr. Grendel and his pals come from and never return! Truly a fun adventure for the whole family!"
"Oh look! There's even a video clip of it!" Chloe added, as she clicked on a short YouTube clip featuring the exhibit, showing it to Beca. They watched it together and then Chloe read some more about it from the website.
"What you have just heard is an excerpt from the audio playing outside the clown themed haunted house that has just opened on the outskirts of town. It seems harmless enough until you dig deeply into the cold case files. After exhaustive research we have discovered that every few decades some sort of amusement ride or fun house style attraction pops up with the name "GRENDEL" somewhere in the title. They always are a bit different from each other with clowns and haunted house walkthroughs and rides some of the more common types, although they have shown up as mine rides, tunnels of love and once, a traveling barbeque truck. The unusual thing about these GRENDEL attractions is that everywhere they appear, there are numerous disappearances. It starts with the pets and the livestock, then it spreads to loners and out of towners no one will miss. Finally entire families will vanish, especially those with young children. When local law enforcement begins to suspect the GRENDEL attraction, they arrive only to find it gone without a trace in the dead of night.
We have come to strongly suspect that a dangerous malevolent entity of unknown origin is at the center of this mystery. It seems to have supernatural abilities of a high level, including projecting visual and auditory illusions to conceal its true form. Some think it even has dangerous dimensional warping skills although there is no clear evidence to confirm this. What we do believe strongly however is that a physical creature of immense age and power is associated with this phenomena. A creature that to put it bluntly, eats people. LOTS of people.
Whatever it is, the thing is aggressive, highly intelligent and seems to enjoy toying with its victims. It also has a bit of an ego – always using the same name was sure to draw our attention eventually.
The fact that it goes by GRENDEL a legendary flesh eating monster from the Beowulf legends is not to be taken lightly. Proceed with the utmost caution… Since we do not know exactly what we are dealing with, we are not sure how to eliminate this threat. Good Luck."
Chloe read the whole thing in her best scary voice and when she finished, she lightly scraped her nails against Beca's thigh. Beca shivered as she shoved Chloe's hand away and stood up.
"You're absolutely ridiculous."
"Yeah, but you love me so…"
"Not always sure why, but yes, I do," Beca said looking down and rolling her eyes at her girlfriend as she planted a sweet kiss on Chloe's forehead.
"Okay, so when are we doing this thing?" Beca asked.
"Well, they're open from 7 til midnight today and Saturday. Otherwise we may have to wait til next weekend to go. I'm free this evening, are you? We could get dinner at Stanley's and then go, if you aren't working at the station tonight."
Beca occasionally got to take over WBUJ on Friday evenings at, that allowed her to work on her mixes and simultaneously play her "sick beats" as Luke calls them. Beca was slightly wishing she did have to work tonight, but she wasn't about to lie.
"Nope, I'm all yours," Beca said, smiling at Chloe. "Wanna chill out for a bit and then go eat?"
"Yeah, sounds good. I want to get into something more comfortable though," Chloe added, and she went upstairs to change and grab her laptop.
For the next few hours the two girls watched some Halloween episodes from their favorite TV shows. They were just finishing up the "Meet 'n' Greet" episode of Parks and Recreation as the last of the Bellas came rolling in the front door.
"Okay Bellas!" Fat Amy hollered as she threw open the door, "What's the plan for tonight? I'm here, so the fun can begin!"
The Bellas started to state their plans for the evening, as Fat Amy curiously looked around at her housemates.
"Ash and I are going to the school play" Jessica said.
"I've got game night with my girlfriend," Cynthia Rose stated.
"You already know what my plans are," Stacie added suggestively, throwing a wink in Beca's direction, making the awkward DJ squirm.
Lily muttered something unintelligible and then disappeared from the room.
"Ah. Alright then. That's fine. I'll just call up Bumper," Amy said. "Oh wait. Have you got any plans Shawshank? That maybe include you not being here? If you know what I mean…"
Beca quickly replied, "Yeah, no, I'm going to a haunted house with Chlo." Beca wasn't a fan of the idea of going to haunted houses, but she was even less of a fan of being sexiled by Amy and Bumper.
"Okay. So is everyone also leaving for dinner? Because I'm hungry and what I want to eat right now I'm not sharing," Fat Amy not so subtly hinted. Immediately, everyone got the hint, and started making alternative dinner plans.
"B and I are going to Stanley's before our date, if anyone wants to join us," Chloe offered, before Beca could say anything about it.
And that's where 45 minutes later, most the Bellas could be found squeezing themselves into a booth made for 4 people. They were chattering away while munching on their food and loving every minute of it. That was the nice thing about the Bellas, even though they all lived together, they genuinely liked each other and enjoyed hanging out, both as a squad, and in various combinations of small groups.
Once it neared 7, the girls all split off. Jessica and Ashley went to the local production of A Little Night Music, and Cynthia Rose went to her girlfriends to play some non-gambling games. Stacie headed back to the house to get ready for the frat party she was invited to, and Beca and Chloe got ready to go to the haunted house.
"OhmygodBecaLook!" Chloe said, as she gripped the tiny brunette's arm. They had arrived at Netherworld, and were immediately surrounded by clowns. "It's like Pennywise had a family reunion!"
"Mhm," Beca said, looking around apprehensively at all the fun house creatures surrounding them. "Let's just get in line." Beca was not looking forward to going in at all, but it was better than just being surrounded by people dressed up in creepy looking attire and just roaming and moaning about. While they waited, Chloe was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. Beca grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight, kissing their joined hands.
"Don't worry Chlo, I got you," Beca reassured her, as the two slowly worked their way to the front.
"Thanks Becs. I know I'll be fine with you!" she said, pecking Beca on the cheek.
Finally, the girls got to the front. They received their 3-D glasses and were instructed on what they could and could not do. The biggest rules were not to touch the actors and to keep moving. Once they entered the haunted house, Beca quickly lost her confidence and immediately wanted to break every single rule. In Beca's world, rules were more like guidelines, and if it was a stupid rule, Beca would either bend it to fit her needs or just pretend like it didn't exist all together.
The actors were not allowed to make any physical contact with them, but Beca's fight or flight instincts were mostly to fight. Beca had to control every single urge she had, not to sock them like she did to the Tonehangers after one of the Acapella competitions during her freshman year at Barden. Instead, she just loudly cursed her way through room after room, while Chloe occasionally buried her head in Beca's shoulder, making muffled noises and jerky movements.
Beca lead them through the house quickly, just wanting to get it over with as fast as she could, while still not looking like a giant baby. It started off tame, with the Very Scary Tales and the Red Membrane Chasm. But the further in to the house they got, the harder it got for Beca to continue moving on.
"What the hell, you fucker?" She screamed, as they entered the Gore Zone and she saw someone getting by a carnivorous clown. As they went through the terror tilt and got spun around in a tube with lights, all she could do was pray she didn't fall and get attacked by the random things flying around in the air above them. They had just gone by the monsters and the alien invasion, and she was already ready to leave through one of the emergency exits. At that point, Beca had just flat out refused to move any further. That's when Chloe had to take control. She knew that once Beca didn't want to do something anymore, it was pretty much impossible to make her change her mind. Chloe pulled Beca into a corner by the door and grabbed her face.
"Do we need to leave?"
"What? No. I just need a break," Beca said, trying to play it cool. "I'm fine, really."
"Uh huh, sure," Chloe teased lightly, "You look like you're about to have an aneurysm."
"Whatever," Beca spat, "Let's just go."
After about a minute of no movement whatsoever on the brunette's part, Chloe lightly poked Beca. Beca about jumped a foot in the air and shrieked loudly. When she recovered, Beca crossed her arms and glared at Chloe, who simply said, "You need to actually move if we're going to go anywhere." Beca still didn't make any attempt to advance forwards, and Chloe had had enough. She turned in front of Beca and said, "Ok, I'll help you, but you gotta work with me. C'mon babe." Beca looked at Chloe reproachfully, but nodded her head, and on they went. Slowly.
When they passed the ripped in half guy and the flying jesters, Beca got even worse, while Chloe tried her best to pull her along. By the time they made their way out of the glow maze, Beca had been screaming so much, that her throat hurt and all she could do was whimper pathetically.
As Beca and Chloe neared the exit, Beca moved in front of Chloe once more and actually started to sprint to the end, totally ignoring everything in her surroundings and inadvertently leaving her girlfriend behind to fend for herself. Beca burst through the end of the haunted house and leaned against the guard rail, trying to catch her breath. She scolded herself for still not taking cardio seriously, even after all her warnings to do so. Beca went to turn to Chloe and complain, when she realized that Chloe was still in the haunted house.
"Oh shit!" Beca exclaimed, and started to walk back towards the exit. As she made her way back, she caught sight of her girlfriend, calmly exiting the building, looking around for Beca. When Chloe spotted her, her face lit up, and she began walking over to a certain frazzled looking DJ.
"Well, hello there!" Chloe said happily, giving Beca a hug. "I wondered if you made it out alive," she teased.
"Yeah, I did. Sorry about ditching you, by the way," Beca sheepishly added.
"Oh you're fine. I actually liked getting to see everything," Chloe grinned, "It was fun."
"What? You hid your head in my shoulder for the first like, half of the house!" Beca said indignantly.
"I was trying not to laugh at your reaction," Chloe replied, "You're pretty cute when you're trying to be brave."
"Seriously?" Beca exclaimed. "You enjoyed this?"
"Yeah, my brother and I love this kind of stuff," Chloe responded, laughing. "When we were younger I wanted to do everything with him. One year, when I was about 11 or 12, he and a few of his buddies were going to a haunted house and I wanted to go with him. He let me, only because he thought I would hate it and leave him alone. But I ended up loving it. He started letting me come with him every year after that."
"Well I hated it and I'm never going again," Beca retorted stubbornly.
"Yes you will," Chloe said, "Because I go every year, and as long as we're together, we'll be going."
"I'm breaking up with you right now then," Beca muttered, although she wasn't serious.
"You don't mean that, and you know it. Besides, I'm sure you will want to do things that I'll hate too."
"That's not a thing, Beale. You love everything."
"Ok true, but still. If you really don't like something, you need to tell me," Chloe said softly. "You don't always have to be the brave one. I know you don't like admitting that stuff, but its me. I will love you regardless."
"Ok," Beca said, "I'll work on it. BUT in my defense, I didn't know I wouldn't like it."
"Fair point. Should we go do something you like now, to make up for it?" Chloe offered.
"I like pretty much everything I do with you. Except this. Obviously."
"So, I guess we're going to the coffee shop to listen to some people at open mic night?"
"You know me so well."
Chloe gave Beca a smile and they turned to walk back to their car.
A few days later, Chloe got an email from Netherworld, with an access code to view photos from their night at the House of Horrors. As she clicked on the button, she began to smile. There on her screen was a picture focused on her tiny, badass girlfriend screaming her head off and looking like she was about to karate chop an animatronic alien. She looked closer and she saw herself, smiling and holding on to Beca's shoulder. The next photo was of one where you could barely make out a second figure cowering behind Chloe. The only thing that alerted the viewer there was even another person, was the tightly clenched hand connected with Chloe's. As Chloe looked through the rest of the shots, she realized how lucky she was, to have scored a girlfriend as awesome as Beca. Beca hated the haunted house, but went through it, because Chloe wanted to. The last one was her favorite though. It was Beca glaring at an actor and flipping them off while Chloe was laughing and looking fondly at Beca.
Chloe saved the photos to her phone, and sent them to Beca as well. A few minutes later, Chloe's phone chimed with a response from Beca. Chloe was expecting something rude or snarky, about the photos, but what she read instead made her laugh. It simply said:
"You're lucky you're that pretty."
A/N: This is just a short thing I came up with since Halloween is so close. Again, I apologize for the odd timings of updates, but as one of my favorite YouTubers (Grace Helbig) says, "The only thing I'm consistent at is being inconsistent. Other than that, I don't know." I'll try and be more on top of things, but I'm not promising anything.