Athena clutched onto Dick's hand tightly as they waited in line. Her cheeks were a rosy red and she could see her breath every time she breathed out. It was very cold for October.
She could hear high pitched screams and chainsaw sounds coming from the house her and Dick were waiting in line for.
"Nii-san… I'm not sure about this. People are screaming in there." Athena whispered, but Dick smiled at her.
"It's fine, Athena. It's a haunted house because you're supposed to be scared. They're just people who are going to scare you, but they won't hurt you."
"They won't hurt me?"
"Nope. Just scare you, but it's only for laughs." Athena was confused by the concept. Why would someone want to purposely be scared, but then laugh about it afterwards?
Dick and Athena finally were near the front and put into a group with two more people. They were two teenagers. One was a really skinny lanky boy with shaggy brown hair that bangs stopped at his eyebrows and the rest stopped about the middle of his neck. His skin was pale and for the cold weather he was only wearing a light sweatshirt. The other was a girl who had more meat on her bones, but was shorter than the boy. Her skin was darker, and her curly hair was hidden under a brown fuzzy hat with ear flaps.
She looked nervous while the boy seemed excited about the house.
"I haven't been in one of these things since I was about nine, and I was on the verge of tears." The girl informed, glaring at the boy.
"Don't worry. It will be awesome, and I'll just be by your side the entire time. Or maybe I might ever be in front of you." The boy smiled.
When the two noticed they would be with Dick and Athena, they started chatting with them.
"My name's Olivia." The girl with the hat smiled.
"Tanis." The other boy nodded with a grin.
"Is this your first time being in a haunted house?" Olivia inquired, looking at Athena. the girl nodded.
"Don't worry about it. It's just for fun and the actors can't hurt you." Tanis shrugged.
A woman with a white powdered face and dark make up walked out in an old maid outfit splattered with blood.
"Are you ready to enter our hotel?" she questioned.
"heck yeah." Tanis smiled.
"Yeah!" Dick exclaimed. Olivia and Athena were silent.
The woman led them to the door and Athena took in a deep breath.
It's going to be okay. Everything here is made up. I'll be okay. She told herself, and found herself slightly comforted.
The old house creaked, and the woman disappeared, letting them roam the house on their own.
Tanis and Olivia took the lead, or rather, Olivia took the lead after Tanis' happy and brave mood turned cowardly. However, Athena noticed as Olivia placed her hand on Tanis' back and pushed him forward with her, refusing to let him hide behind her.
The house continued to creak and then the group stepped into a pitch black hallway with a strobe light and rats hung from the ceiling.
So far, Athena wasn't too afraid, but Dick was getting jumpy, Olivia was looking nervous, and Tanis was mumbling,
"Oh god. Oh god. Oh god."
However, at the end of the hallway, someone slammed their body against a closed door. Athena jumped a bit, but Dick and Tanis let out high pitched simultaneous screams.
"I thought you said you wanted to be in front." Olivia grumbled as they moved forward, but Tanis shook his head.
"No I didn't."
Dick screamed as one of the actors snuck up behind him and breathed in his ear. Olivia let out a small squeak when an actor jumped out in front of her and Tanis.
However, they were all actors who wouldn't hurt them, so Athena saw no reason in being scared.
However, they then got to a room with a woman chained to a metal slab and a man stabbing her with blood squirting.
Athena couldn't look at it, and she felt scared. But she was shrieking or jumping. She buried her head into Dick's leg and clutched his hand tightly.
Olivia was leading the group now, with Tanis holding onto the back of her jacket tightly. However, the section with the people being :experimented on didn't seem to end, and limbs were strewn across the room along with blood, and nurses and doctors would burst out of shadowed corners. One of the actors questioned,
"Why don't you stay?"
"NO!" Athena shouted, tears streaking her face, and Dick realized that this wasn't good. He didn't think how the hospital/experiment section would affect the girl.
Dick lifted her up and let Athena burry her face into Dick's chest.
The actors noticed the crying girl so focused all their scaring on Olivia and Tanis.
When they exited the house, Olivia smiled at herself, proud, but then looked at Tanis and started laughing.
"You are such a baby! You were clutching onto my coat like it was going to be the only thing to save your life or something!" she laughed.
"Shut up." Tanis grumbled. They turned around to see Dick and Athena.
"Is she okay?" Olivia questioned with concern, looking at the girl.
"She'll be fun. Some of the stuff just unnerved her." Dick informed.
"Well, it was gory." Tanis shrugged.
"It was nice meeting you two, and I hope Athena feels better." Olivia smiled, then turned to Tanis.
"Come on, wimp. Let's get some popcorn."
Dick walked, holding Athena in his arms feeling guilty.
"I'm sorry for that, Athena. It was supposed to be fun. It wasn't supposed to scare you like that." Dick explained.
"It's okay." Athena whispered. Dick ruffled her hair and smiled at her.
"Alright, let's carve some pumpkins, alright?" he let the girl down and she held his hand.
"Why carve pumpkins?" Athena inquired.
"Because it's fun!" Dick laughed. Athena wasn't sure where she stood on Halloween, but once she was carving pumpkins with Dick, she supposed that the holiday wasn't all bad.