Velociraptors, continued. Thank you to everyone who's reading!
Xander and Willow agreed to start off with a simple ride to get adjusted, so after five minutes in line, they climbed into an oversized teacup, and turned the silver wheel till they were spinning the rest of the fair into a blur, laughing loudly the whole time.
When they got off, Xander excused himself to go to the restroom and "Check his hair". He came back looking less pale and wiping his mouth with a paper towel. "So, you didn't want to go on the teacups again, did you?" he asked hopefully.
Willow hid a smile and suggested they try the Carousal instead. Xander scored the dragon and Willow climbed on a flowery horse next him. It was fun, but got old after the first dozen turns.
Afterwards, Xander insisted that if they could handle the Carousal, they could handle ...anything, so they headed for the Farris Wheel.
The metal seats were hot from sitting in the sun but they sat down and buckled in tight. "Okay, this is good," Xander said lightly.
The seat moved back and the ride director loaded on the next two kids. This step was repeated four times before the wheel began spinning and by that point, Willow and Xander were very near the top.
"This is good, this is great," Xander s knuckles went white on the rail.
Willow began shaking her head fast. "Oh no, no, no..." They reached the top and began falling towards the ground, yelling all the way.
"Okay, no, it's fine," Xander garbled while they sped up and approached the top again.
"It's not that high. There are higher things…. Airplanes for instance."
Willow screwed her eyes shut, still shaking her head. "Just tell me when it's over!"
They made the stomach churning trip more times than either of them cared to count, and then it stopped to allow the first bucket to empty. Unfortunately, it stopped with Willow and Xander at the very top.
Willow let out a little yelp. "Ah! Okay, this is not pleasant."
"I concur entirely, human beings weren't built to be this far off the ground, or else we would have been born with wings, or at least some kind of landing gear." They moved again and Willow clapped her hands to the rail. "Dah! Don t rock it!"
"We wouldn't last two minutes on a roller coaster."
"Roller coaster nothing," exclaimed Xander. "I'm never going a on an escalator after this!" They reached the end of their terrifying experience and Xander wobbled back onto the ground and gave Willow a hand down. "Hey, let s go again!"
"Don't joke." Willow staggered a few paces ahead. Silently, she wondered if her face was as pale as Xander's or paler. "You know ...the bumper cars stay on the... on the ground all a the time."
They agreed to try and wound up having so much fun, they came out and got in line for the next round. They both decided that this was the best ride for them, although Xander teased Willow constantly for apologizing every time she bumped someone.
As they were running back around for their fifth go, Amy and Jesse ran up, excited and out of breath.
"Hey, guys, everyone's going to the Haunted House, wanna come?"
"It's got like twelve rooms, biggest Haunted House tour in California! Everyone from our class who came is in line now."
"Well..." Xander looked at Willow who winced but shrugged.
"I guess, it's not like a ride or anything. Just walking, right?"
"Oh yeah, it s totally cheesy," Amy assured her. "But there's like fog machines and cobwebs and stuff, it should be a riot! Come on, please?"
The two best friends exchanged glances again and Willow sighed. "Okay, just for a little bit."
"Awesome!" Jesse took off in the lead and they all followed listening to Amy go on about the Railwracker and the Scream-Steam.
They had just arrived when the man at the entrance called out, Next group of fifteen! and half the Sunnydale High freshman class filed in beneath a sign reading Haunted Manner: Beware the Evil Within!
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The Park Security Station buzzed with activity as the six overworked, underpaid security guards rushed from monitor, to coffee pot, to phone, and back to monitor again.
"Check the bumper cars again."
"Hey, pull up the feed for the caf , would ya'?"
"Hank, get your own coffee!"
"Never mind, it was nothing."
"Hey, tell Johnston to get in here, he's fired again."
Thomas Sherman, chief Day Guard, leaned against the back of his chair, right palm over left fist. "Sheryl?" he called without looking up from the computer before him. "There's another group headed into the Haunted Mansion. All teens. Could you tell Johnston to cover it?"
"Max says he's fired again."
"Max aint in charge, is he?"
"Right, you got it, Chief."
But Sheryl never got her walkie-talkie to her mouth. Her shrill scream was the first alert to the five Vampires standing suddenly inside the station door. The one on the far right had already finished with her by the time Thomas had leapt to his feet and whipped out his gun.
"Hey, now," The center Vampire said in a oily voice. He raised a dark eyebrow over flashing yellow eyes. "No need to be unpleasant. Unless you weren't planning to call off all the security around your haunted house and hand yourselves over for desert." Thomas cocked the gun. "No? Well, then I guess unpleasantness is inevitable."
Within minutes, every camera in the park silently switched off as the Railwracker drowned out the sound of Thomas gun fire.
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It was six o'clock in the evening, the sun had barely begun to turn orange, but the moment Willow set foot inside the Haunted Mansion, the only lights were red, blue, and green and the air was hot and close. The sixteen-year-olds were instantly greeted by a blast of artificial fog and the sound of cackling. They were standing in the foyer on a moth-eaten rug, with a ghostly chandelier and Amy s promised cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.
Harmony Kendall and her bored-looking boyfriend stepped towards the unsteady staircase and a disembodied plastic hand shot out of the second step. Harmony squealed and laughed a little too loudly.
When Jonathan Levinson walked into the living room, a projector switched on and cast a poorly animated image of a sunken-eyed women, moaning about her tragic murder "In this very house!" .
To the right of the staircase was a room with huge TV screen, playing a scene from Ghostbusters.
After the hand in the steps, most people decided to start on the first level. Willow followed Xander uneasily towards the kitchen .
"Is this an appropriate source of amusement for kids our age?" Willow started babbling. "I mean, we are the future of America, the beacon of hope for the next generation, and here we are, walking around a theme park in search of self-pleasure and cheap thril - Aah!"
A giant black, polyester spider dropped from the ceiling on a cable and brushed the top of Willow's head. She leapt backwards, stepping on Xander s foot and knocking her elbow against the wall. "Spider!"
Two of Harmony s friends laughed derisively at her. "What's a' matter, Willow?" called Sandra. "You know, if it was a little bigger, you could make it into a hat. Could only improve the outfit."
Xander took her arm and led her towards the dining room. "You know, I, too, am beginning to lose faith in my peers."
"Why would anyone want to make a living off of monsters? I wouldn t even wanna read about stuff like that."
"Aw, you could read a book about anything as long as it s in one of the seven common languages or Gaelic."
Willow donned a shy smile. "Actually my Gaelic is a little rusty."
They hesitated inside the dining room. Fog machines poured out smoke which smelled chemically of blackberries.
"Hey, look!" Xander pointed at a portrait above the dining room table. It pictured an old man holding up a bloodied ax like a trophy. "That guy looks just like my Uncle Quinn. Now you'd really like him. He can shuck corn with his feet."
Willow laughed nervously. "I know you Uncle Quinn, I met him last year at your family reunion."
"Right, that makes sense. Here! Have a seat." He moved to pull out a chair and discovered it was bolted to the floor. "You know, people who screw chairs down really make chivalry impossible." He made a ridiculous display of trying to stuff himself into the ten inch space between the chair back and table.
Willow grinned, feeling a little more relaxed.
But just as she ventured a step forward and another plastic hand jumped from the floor and snapped at her foot. She yelped and stumbled against one of the chairs which began to vibrate and a deep throated laugh erupted from a ceiling speaker, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
"Xander..."
Someone set off something in the living room and red lights flashed through the doorway. Xander came and stood beside her. She was shaking. "Xander, could we maybe go now?" Willow's cheeks burned. She felt like a total chicken.
But Xander didn't even smile. He glanced at Sandra-and-crew who were cackling again and yelling something unintelligible to Willow. "Yeah, let's go ride the bumper cars again before they close."
"Okay," Willow's faint smile returned. "That'd be fun."
They made their way toward the glowing EXIT sign at the end of the living room, ignoring Harmony and her boyfriend kissing on the dusty couch.
Xander pushed on the crash-bar with both hands, but as he did, it swung back from the outside. In the fading light of the outdoors, Willow scarcely made out a silhouette standing inches from Xander.
"Oops, sorry," said the figure. His arm flew up and he backhanded Xander across the face, sending him flying into the side of the couch. No exits this way.
"Xander!" Willow screamed and raced to him.
The rest of the teenagers froze inside the living room. A few took one look at Xander and silently bolted for the entrance.
"Right then!" Shouted the man. "Everyone, please remain calm and stay exactly where you are."
A deeper voice behind the group of teens added, "Easier to kill you that way."
Sudden panic erupted from the center outward, and everyone was running in a different direction at once.
Jonathan careened around the arm chair and tripped over Sandra, who was sitting on the floor, wailing. Harmony and Dian Parker ran into each other and fell on top of Harmony s boyfriend.
Willow was on the floor next to Xander. She caught a glimpse of Amy dashing around the corner and Mara Black fleeing back through the dining room, but just then, like the flip of a switch, the entire Mansion was plunged into complete darkness. Even the glowing red eyes and fake candles went out.
Someone barreled into Willow and her chin hit the floor painfully. The noise was deafening. Over the screams and running feet, Willow heard Xander come to and mutter, "He hit me... wha-the heck?"
"Xander," She rolled over and ducked as someone jumped over her head. "Quick, get up!" The noise was beginning to move back towards the foyer. Willow put a trembling hand on Xander's shoulder to get his attention. "Is there another exit somewhere?"
"I don't know," said Xander, becoming alert. "I saw a door near the fireplace earlier." While he spoke, he got carefully to his feet. He crouched several feet forward and started feeling along the wall, trying to find the knob. "Hang on..." He unclipped the penlight from his belt and switched it on white.
From the little glow, Willow saw the living room was now empty. She could hear people running around near the entrance. Mara Black was screaming. "We have to help them, Xander. We can t just -"
"Found it!" Xander pulled on the doorknob. The door swung back and a green-haired, grinning clown, as big as Willow, shot out hands first.
The two of them let out a long, loud "AAAAAHH!!!"
When Willow stopped, Xander kept going and punched the clown in the middle.
The clown, however, was already pulling back into a cupboard just inside the dark little room. Its cupboard shut automatically.
"Maybe we should try the exit again," said Willow, panting.
"Okay. Yeah." Xander ran to the heavy door and pushed the bar. Nothing happened. He tried again and, getting still nothing, he slammed his whole weight against it. "It's locked. They must ve locked it behind them."
"Who are they? Why -" Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm from behind and she was jerked back. She started to yell, but a hand clapped over her mouth and the hand on her arm clawed in harder.
TBC