Chapter 2 – Proceed with Caution

The next several months go by in a flash. Classes, summer fun, work, and the new semester and fall approaches in the blink of an eye. One night, I'm alone in my apartment in the living room while Alice gets groceries. I've got a glass of red merlot, my laptop perched on my lap, and my feet perched on the coffee table which irritates the hell out of Alice.

"Why did I let Alice wrangle me into this?" I grumbled to myself, looking at old headlines and comments about Field of Screams.

Nightmares for weeks

One of the scariest

Scared the **** out of me!

Heart beating out of my chest

For the season, I am officially on the Sinister Hayride makeup crew. More specifically, the slaughterhouse scene. About half the actors there wear pig masks so that will make their makeup easy. The stragglers, two mad farmers and a teenage farmhand killed in an accident, will be the real test. Rose, one of the top makeup people, was impressed with my initial presentations gory of Halloween makeup. She was so impressed with me that she handpicked me to do her makeup. Tomorrow, Alice and I are going to Field of Screams to do a practice run and to hang out with Rose.

The Sinister Hayride looks terrifying from my online research and what Masen has told me. A real tractor is attached to a long wagon where the guests sit. In a twenty-minute ride, guests will encounter hillbillies, farmers, clowns, grave robbers, zombies, prisoners, creatures that don't even have names, and whatever lurks on the grounds waiting for their next victim. Those twenty minutes might as well be eternity. In all the attractions, the actors can touch guests. Obviously, there are limits to that, but the terror of every guest must be heard.

All the attractions have been erected for several weeks now, and seeing them from the outside in daylight is enough to get my adrenaline running. I am never going in those attractions. If Alice tries to drag me in, I'm going in kicking and screaming. Maybe I could douse myself in makeup to blend in and they wouldn't scare me.

This is one of the biggest attractions in the area. Having this as volunteer experience will be a great boost to my resume. It's not graphic design, but it does represent I can learn quickly and transfer my skills from computer to life.

I never liked Halloween growing up. Mike Newton wore a grim reaper costume when we were six and scared the shit out of me. That ruined it for me. I cried the rest of the night. I only tolerated it for the free candy, but I'm a bit old to go to strangers' houses now asking for candy.

I don't mind going to Halloween parties because more than anything, they're just excuses to dress like a slut or without a shirt on. Most people don't go all out in scary, making them safe.

But this place, it doesn't kid around. Alice was telling me about Edward, Masen's nephew, and how this is a religion to him. Apparently, she let it slip that I am not too keen on scary things, and he thought that made me a liability for his precious operation. Basically, he called me a pussy and insulted me.

If anything, it helps him. I can create some scary ass shit that I'd never want to encounter.

There are seven levels of terror in my book. This applies to life, not just haunted houses. The levels are not dependent on each other. Such as Level Three doesn't have to go through Level One and Two first, but that is generally the case. What usually happens is more than one level occurs simultaneously.

Level One: Screaming. This is likened to a friend jumping out to scare you or a surprise birthday party.

Level Two: Sight, smell, and sound. They're animals' greatest weapons in survival, but if stimulated correctly, cause the rest of the body to shut down and become helpless.

Level Three: Touching and/or restraining. Shouldn't that be in Level Two? No. Why? Touching and/or restraining can lead to a physical response that leads to a physical struggle.

Level Four: Tunnel vision. You become so focused on your target that you are no longer aware of your surroundings. Very dangerous. It's how one's partner can come in swinging an axe, decapitating you or you run into a street only to be pummeled by an eighteen wheeler.

Level Five: Cornering. Like an animal trapped in a corner, that animal is at the mercy of the attacker unless the animal attacks back.

Level Six: Horror Movie 101. At this point, you're either the stupid girl who breaks off from the group in the middle of the night and walks into the woods without a weapon or the dude with war paint, a bandana, a rifle, and a shirt with ripped sleeves showing of his biceps.

Level Seven: Fucking world is ending, fucking kill me now, I'm crying now and pissing myself because I'm never going to be the same.

Argue with my levels all you want, but that's my hierarchy.

During this season, I have to achieve Level One, Two, Four, and Seven. The rest is up to the actors to do.

Rose gave me a nice little brochure of amazing work done the last few seasons. There is theming and certain expectations of how makeup will be done, but the mission is to make the most terrifying appearances. Masen, Carlisle – Masen's brother – and a few of the other higher ups made it clear they want our interpretation of horror and gore to shine through to show us as people too. They don't want everyone to look exactly the same. They want unpredictable to give the scares of a lifetime.

Seeing all the work done in past years has been giving me ideas and twists on some of the work. I already know how I'm tackling the slaughterhouse actors. I want to impress Rose. Not only to make her the scariest bride ever, but to prove to that Edward that I can exceed his expectations. She told me he's her brother-in-law so he's bound to see her at some point. Whether he knows that I'm in charge of her makeup or not is unknown.

I have eight weekends of ideas to prove myself. Two in September, all of October, and two in November. In addition to the days leading up to Halloween.

On the last page of the brochure, there is a guy that is clearly some sort of spin off of the Joker, but not exactly clown like. White foundation with his neck sliced open, blood oozing out. One eye is shut out, draining more blood all over his face. The other eye is a bright green, a sharp contrast to all the blood. His hair's slicked back, giving me a mob feel. The most tormenting thing is the red lipstick in the trademark clown look that is smiling back at its victims.

I place the brochure on the coffee table and leave the couch, needing a breather from all of it.

*Field of Screams*

As Alice and I exit her car, my feet sink down into the wet grass. Looking around the grassy parking lot, I see several spots with deep puddles. The squish squash of our feet and chilling air surrounding us is the least of anyone's worries when they come here.

There's the ticket booth and then the main entrance off to the side. Usually, volunteers park in the volunteer lot, but since the season hasn't started yet, you're free to park wherever. Alice wants to pass by the entrance to see the progress on making everything scarier on the outside and to see the coveted signs.

Flanking both sides of the entrance are warnings. They're a marketing scheme, but very real. They're on posts with simple black backgrounds and fancy white text. The text's font reminds me of an old British decree, but it is easy to read.

Caution!

Do not enter if you can't handle terror.

Don't bring your kids.

Don't bring your grandparents.

And most importantly, don't come alone.

You will cry.

You will jump.

And most importantly, you will scream.

This is your final warning!

Off in the distance, I can see the entrances for all the attractions.

The Asylum of Anarchy. The Den of Misfits. The Farmer's Wasteland. And what started it all, the Sinister Hayride.

Very soon there will be thousands of people flocking the top Halloween attraction in the area. Even walking from one attraction to another, there are actors, each with their own bag of tricks. Rumor has its there's always a demented grandma running amuck. Yeah, I don't feel like punching grandma in the face for scaring me so I'll steer clear.

In the humongous barn where all costume, makeup, and assignments are we find Rose. Rose is a blonde bombshell in her late twenties and a few inches taller than me so basically a looming giant over Alice. She started her journey at Field of Screams like Alice and me. She volunteered to do makeup and caught the eye of Emmett, Carlisle's other son. They dated, got married, and here she is, head of makeup volunteers and also an actor. Outside of this, she has a salon.

I do my thing with Rose while Alice frolics and socializes. It's alright by me because she distracts me otherwise. Rose is a supposed to be a psychotic matriarch who wears a torn, bloody wedding dress. She and Emmett are tag teaming it up in the Den this year.

Now, the Den has a disturbing story. Rumor has it, Mr. and Mrs. Moore moved into the Den in the 1800s. They were one of the wealthiest families in the area. They had seven children. That is until one was in a gruesome tractor accident, leaving them with six children. The Moore family was never the same. The Moores became deranged, influencing their naïve children to assist them in their endeavors. They were perfection on the outside until they lured you into their home. Nobody to this day knows what occurs in that house because outsiders never escape. If you do escape, you're too traumatized to remember what the Moores did to you. The only fact outsiders know for sure is that Mr. and Mrs. Moore are sometimes seen through the windows in bloody, ripped wedding attire, seemingly wanting to rewind time while feasting on the flesh of the helpless victims.

"Oooo!" Alice claps from behind me, probably jumping up and down too like a little kid. "Rose, you're such a beautiful bride!"

Rose rolls her eyes as I finish up her makeup. "You realize Mrs. Moore suffers from delusion and is a crazy bitch, right? Don't let Edward hear you say 'beautiful' or else he may keel over."

I step back from Rose just seconds from finishing her makeup. "Does this Edward even exist? You guys have mentioned him so many times over the months, and I've yet to meet him? Are you sure Emmett doesn't suffer from delusion and made up a brother?"

Edward Cullen. He's like a god. Everyone says his name. He's the heir to all this and a horror junkie. Yes, I get it already, and I remember clearly he's not a fan of me volunteering here. If Rose's makeup isn't enough to prove the fuckwhit wrong about my skills despite my distaste for scary, I don't know what will.

"Edward's definitely real. I've got into my fair amount of fights with him about a range of topics. Every year, a week or so before opening night we have a family dinner. It's tradition. The boys always talk shop. Usually it ends up Masen laughing so loud I'm afraid of Esme's good china breaking, Liz either gets drunk off her ass or stands on the sidelines acting like the innocent child when she's anything but, and Emmett ambushing Edward to truly begin the scaring season. Then we do all that again at the end of the season with a big recap and celebration."

"Where's the picture proof?" I question.

She rolls her eyes again, annoyed. She grabs her phone off the table and shows me a picture of her with Edward at a baseball game. He's clearly annoyed with her. She's blocking most of his body, but his face is gorgeous. Then I remember he's insulted my work.

"Don't let that look deter you, Bella," Alice chimes in. "He had that same look last year after us four went through the attractions. I clung to him the whole time, and he wasn't so thrilled about having me scream in his ear all night. He's actually a cool guy. Attractive too. Not my type, but…" she hints, jabbing my side with her elbow.

"Pfft, as if," I brush off, returning to finishing Rose's makeup. "Perfect."

This is only one variation of my ideas for her makeup, but it's terrifying nonetheless. Rose felt like being in full character today so she put on the fake wedding dress beforehand. It's covered in fake blood, unknown stains, and tears throughout. She even has a torn up veil. If she appeared in the middle of the street and someone saw her from the back, she'd look like a bride having a terrible day, but turning around, scare the shit out of you.

"Babe!" a voice booms out. Rose groans as he approaches us. "There's my terrifying bridezilla!"

She smacks him in the head. "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to helping with finishing touches inside the attractions?"

"Lunchtime!" he proudly states, patting his stomach. "Love the work here, Bells! I'll have to make sure my makeup artist does a great job too. We've been decomposing since the 1800s after all."

"Thanks, Emmett." It's nice to know one male appreciates my work.

Emmett tries to sneak some kisses out of Rose, but she refuses to ruin my hard work. She insists that the four of us take a little trip to the Den. Rose knows that place like the back of her hand, but wants to try it out in her makeup and costume.

We take the short walk over to the Den. The three of them begin to go through the main entrance, but Alice realizes I've stopped far away from the entrance. They try to coax me in, but I refuse. Emmett starts coming towards me, but Rose grabs his arm before he has the chance to throw me over his shoulder.

The three of them go inside, leaving me alone outside the fence and by the watchtower.

It's broad daylight with people milling about setting things up, but a chill runs down my spine.

Isn't this the beginning of a horror film? Naïve girl all alone and a guy in a hockey mask and chainsaw comes and takes me hostage to eat my guts? I move closer to the watchtower, clinging to it and willing my fantasy ridden brain to shut up.

Posted: September 12, 2020

So, some of you've been to FoS before? That's awesome! It officially opened for the season yesterday so if any of you dare to enter the premises, please share what that's like during a pandemic. Of course, I've delineated from reality a little, but those who have been there before, will see the touches of reality. Edward comes into play next chapter.