AN: I wanted something for Halloween, and I thought of this. I thought Justin and Brian might have a little trauma left over after what happened to him so for Halloween things might not be the best. This is the second story I came up with for Halloween since Molly's Halloween was the first. I wrote way before I wrote It Wasn't Me or Halloween Payback. I guess if you squint it could be a sequel, but this came first so you can be a judge if you want it to be.
Summary: Michael guilts Justin into going to a haunted house which doesn't go so well.
Title: Haunted House Panic
Justin wasn't sure what had compelled him to come up with the idea that he could venture into the haunted house. Emmett and Michael had wanted to go, along with Lindsay and Melanie. Brian had a work thing he was stuck at, so he didn't even know about him being talked into going. The girls had gotten Debbie to babysit since it had been last minute. Michael had begged him to come with them. They'd said that nothing was real it was all pretend. The plan was for him to go in with Emmett and Michael or the girls. He figured if he could stick with one of them, he'd be fine. Emmett had told him multiple times he didn't have to come though. Michael had been the one guilt tripping him about if he was on the road to being mended, he could face the haunted house with them. He had scared the holy hell out of them the year before with his pranks so this would be nothing.
It was going okay a few jump scares here and there nothing too off the wall. That was how Michael put it. They could go through the not so scary side of the maze. Justin used to love stuff like that. Daphne and he used to scare Molly most of October when she'd been younger. Now she was the one trying to get them because she loved Halloween. She had gotten him good the night before when his mom had come by the loft with her. She had gone to the bathroom and when she hadn't come back out, he'd went looking for her. She'd jumped out at him screaming with a fake knife and a monster face.
He would never admit that he screamed as if he was dying and about fainted. He had slid down the wall sitting there looking at his sister trying not to have flashbacks. He still couldn't remember prom itself, but he'd remembered being hit and Brian trying to save him. His mom had been furious, but he'd told her he was fine. He wasn't going to let her punish Molly for what she loved, and he once had. He was trying to put his life back together. He still hadn't been able to watch any of his favorite horror movies yet. He'd tried one night with Daphne; she'd turned it off before he had to ask. Brian had come home thirty minutes after that, and he'd still been shaking. He'd been sitting on the bed with Daphne, and she'd been hugging him. Brian had been the one that made it better though. He had sat on the other side of him and pulled him into his lap. They'd sat there with Brian holding him and talking to him about his day. He'd felt safe and he'd finally stopped shaking. Brian was his anchor when things got bad these days.
So why on earth he thought he could make it through a haunted house the week before Halloween, no clue. He had survived the cackling witch with the horrible face. Witches didn't look like that in his opinion. There had been the vampire guy asking to suck his blood. He had laughed at Emmett's comment on you can suck if from something else if you like. The look on the guy's face had been clear even in the dark. Emmett had gotten him good which he'd loved. He had needed a laugh or two in all of the jump scares.
The giant rat man had scared Michael the most which he had laughed until his sides had hurt. He'd been promised a good pay back for laughing. Emmett had wrapped his arm around him saying he'd protect him from Michael. The man still swore revenge for what he'd done the year before in the shower. It wasn't his fault Michael couldn't handle a joke. The woman that had crawled out of nowhere grabbing Lindsay's leg was also epic. He had never seen the woman scream so loud and jump so high. The bats that had started flying down at them had Melanie running and swatting the air. He'd laughed at all of those and it hadn't felt scary.
It was when the wall had come down all at once blocking him from his friends that got to him. He had been looking at one of the spooky looking art pieces someone had painted for the room. He'd admired it and wanted to do something like it himself. He hadn't noticed that they had moved on and then when he went to catch up a wall had come down blocking the left turn, he'd seen Lindsay and Melanie taking. He hadn't panicked at first, but then he turned and the door he'd come through was gone. He had tried feeling along the wall to see if he could fine it, but there was no handle it seemed on that side of the door.
He had been forced to go to the right. The spiders dropping down didn't scare him. He had laughed knowing Brian would have ran screaming or jumped towards him. The werewolf man didn't panic him either, the way he had looked like a wolfman from a few the classic movies had made him smile. What got him was when he made another right turn. A banshee looking thing came busting from a place that didn't look like anything could. It was screaming and waving it's arms at him. There was blood on it like it had just had something to eat and he let out a scream. He backed away from it and collided with the wall behind him. It was a trap door like thing so when you stepped in certain spot it would swing open. He stumbled backwards into a room that was completely dark at first. There were no lights until he stepped onto another spot on the floor. It turned on the lights and the room was this eerie color with what he would have thought of as red paint before if he wasn't already freaking out. Instead, it looked like blood all over the wall and the room had this monster like voice laughing saying, 'I bet your brains are tasty.'
Justin kept backing up trying to find a way to get out of the room. He thought if he could maybe he would calm down. Instead, a man came from the wall grabbing him by the shoulder. He hadn't seen him. He didn't even know how he had blended in so well. That was Justin's last thought though because he passed out. The only thing that saved him from hitting his head was the guy in the costume grabbed him.
"I'm going to need a medic in the bloodbath room." The guy said into the walkie talkie he had hidden inside his costume. "Sorry, about that." He sighed carefully placing Justin on the bed. The paint was dried so it wouldn't hurt.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
"Brian is going to murder all four of us over this." Emmett said. "How the hell didn't we notice Justin wasn't behind us?" He asked. "YOU," he glared at Michael. "You were the one next to him in that room with the creepie painting. Didn't you notice he didn't' follow?"
"No, the sound system is so loud. He must not have heard me when I said we were moving on." Michael said. "We don't have to tell Brian this happened." He added.
"Brian will know because he knows everything, even when we don't tell him something he finds out." Emmett said. "This is your fault. You talked me into going and you practically guilt tripped Justin into this. You fucking said that if he really was healing, he'd come, you are an asshole." He groaned.
"I didn't guilt trip him." Michael complained. "Maybe Mel and Linds have located him or he's fine and already outside." Michael offered. "Come on, let's finish the maze and I'm sure he'll be waiting outside for us. He said he'd be fine, and it's been months. He's going to college and Brian's not holding his hand there." He complained rolling his eyes. "You have to stop treating him like a fucking porcelain doll now. He clearly isn't going to break again."
"If something happens to Justin, I will get you good, Michael. He almost died and you want to make a damn joke about it? Well, you can do this alone you asshole." Emmett said before he went in the opposite direction leaving Michael. He was not about to finish the maze. He needed to find Justin.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
Lindsay and Melanie didn't have better luck finding Justin. They managed to find an emergency exit after a few jump scares. However, when they looked around outside no one had seen Justin. They even asked the people working the exits if they had seen Justin. One person had said to check the medical tent when they explained he might have had a panic attack. The person had asked why they would bring someone that freaked out with bloody corpses to a haunted house maze. They had not answered that question.
"Do you think he's lost somewhere inside freaking out?" Lindsay asked worried. "This is Michael's fault." She sighed.
"We'll find him, but we are never listening to Michael again. I know damn well he talked Justin into this." Melanie said. "He said no at first, we were there. But NO, Michael starts going on and on about how he used to love this kind of stuff. He has to go; it'll make him feel better. I think Michael needs have someone hit him upside the head harder than Debbie does, see how he feels." She gripped.
"If we can't find him soon someone's going to have to call Brian." Lindsay sighed. "He's going to be pissed, but he has that weird sixth sense when it comes to Justin."
"Well for once, I'll be glad to help him skin Michael alive." Melanie said. "We might as well…" She started but trailed off when she saw Brian coming towards them. "Seems Brian already knows." She added nodding towards him.
"Hey, Bri." Lindsay said when he got to them trying not to let on how bad the situation could be.
"So which one of you do I need to string up and make the next haunted house attraction.?" Brian asked not even bothering with the pleasantries. "Really a fucking haunted house?"
"Michael." Lindsay and Melanie said at the same time. "Justin said no, but he talked him into it." Lindsay added.
"More like guilted him into it since Justin used to love this kind of stuff." Melanie supplied. "We've looked out here and did back tracking for the most part. Some places once you go in you can't go back though." She said.
"I swear I am never leaving Justin with the likes of you all again. You could have found something better to do. Or better yet, left Justin out of the plans. I told you all he'd had a bad week, but no you had to come here. Michael's not the only one at fault because he might have guilted Justin into this, but you also agreed." Brian growled out before he walked off going towards the haunted houses' entrance.
Someone using Justin's phone had called him because he'd made Justin keep piece of paper on him that had his number to call in case something happened. The last thing he had been expecting was a guy calling him saying he was with the spooktacular productions. Then he said that he had Justin with him because he'd passed out. He'd even apologized saying he didn't mean to cause Justin to pass out. He had grabbed him before he hit the floor though since he recognized him when he'd turned around. The fact that Justin didn't hit his head was the only thing that stopped Brian from killing anyone right now. When he got ahold of Michael, he wasn't sure if he'd be merciful though. He knew this was probably Michael's way of getting back at Justin for the year before. He should get the fuck over it by now though.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
Justin slowly opened his eyes trying to figure out if he'd been dreaming earlier or had been in the haunted house maze. After a moment he knew he hadn't been dreaming. He had in fact gone to the thing with Michael and them. He groaned because he should have stayed firm on his no. Michael had kept saying he loved Halloween, it wouldn't cause any harm to go. It had been a guilt trip and he'd fallen for it. Though, he had been trying to prove that he wasn't broken. Brian always told him he wasn't broken; he'd only been hurt. There was no time limit on how long it took him to heal. He could have episodes years down the road his therapist had said. Right now, he felt like shit because he'd passed out from being scared.
"Hey, I'm sorry I scared you. I recognized who you were too late." The guy said which caused Justin to jump. "Sorry, I did it again. I'm Jason. I called the number in your pocket that said call in case of emergency." Jason added.
"It's a haunted house and I'm the one that was crazy enough to be guilted into coming here." Justin sighed. "Pride before the fall they say. Though, thank you for not letting me hit the floor." He said remembering that he hadn't felt anything before he'd been lights out. "Though if you want to see a bloodbath wait til Brian finds out Michael said I'd be fine here. Now that is something that will end in blood shed, I'm sure." He said almost laughing.
"It's no problem. They actually train us how to catch people in case this happens." Jason said. "Yeah, I already got an earful from your boyfriend. I don't think I want to be this Michael guy when he finds him." He smiled. "Though, you're lucky. He's protective that's for sure, you got a good one. I gave him directions on how to get to us."
"Yeah, I guess I do." Justin said with a slight smile thinking about the good days.
He didn't say that somedays it was hard to tell, but he was trying to read Brian like he used to. He still felt like he was missing a piece of himself that he would never get back. Memories that he may never remember that he wanted so badly. He wished all the time he could go back and change things. Maybe if he hadn't gone to prom and made his own instead. Maybe he'd left with Brian instead of wanting to go back. Though he hadn't wanted to leave Daphne. Then again, he had because he'd almost died.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
It took about fifteen minutes for Brian to find his way through the maze inside the haunted house. He was glad that he hadn't needed to go up the stairs. The place was two floors and the basement. Jason had informed him they were on the first floor. If he kept straight instead of venturing to the left or right until the third intersection and then took two rights he'd be there. He had failed to mention that there would be a slew of creepy things jumping out at him. He'd about took one guy down. He had screamed and about shit his pants when the spiders had fallen on him. The one was as big as he was, and the fake webs had felt real. The spiders had felt real too and then that stupid rat man. Plus, the woman that had crawled on the floor chasing him acting like she was going to take a bite out of him. He hated haunted houses this year.
He used to be the king of scares until Justin took his title. They had planned the year before to make this one an epic one. Life happened and changed that though, he wouldn't complain about it though. The only thing that mattered to him was Justin. He still remembered when he'd gotten to the loft the other night and Justin had been on edge. He'd ended up staying up half the night holding Justin promising him he'd protect him. It was also why he wanted to murder Michael for getting Justin to come here.
He had said more than once for him not to even think about inviting Justin. Michael had been going on about it all week. He'd said if he said it in front of Justin, he would show him exactly what it felt like to have to stand all the time because he'd hold him while his mom beat his ass. Even Debbie had told Michael not to do it. Right now he had to make sure he was okay and see for himself that he didn't hurt his head. Then, he would get revenge for this betrayal.
"Finally." Brian said as he opened the door to where Justin was at.
When he did, he froze in place because the walls were covered in what looked like blood splatter. It sent him back to the night of prom and seeing Justin lying on the ground. The guy had said it was bloodbath central, but he hadn't thought of it when he'd been saying it. He felt something touch his arm after a moment and almost jerked back until he realized that Justin was standing in front of him.
"I got you." Justin said wrapping his arms around Brian and pushing him backwards out of the room. "It's only paint." He added.
Brian was taller than he was, but he still pulled him down as best as he could to block him from seeing the room. He'd processed it while he'd been waiting for Brian. Talking to Jason hadn't made the room seem as bad. He knew it was paint, but he'd panicked when he'd first seen it. He couldn't even imagine what Brian must have thought when he'd opened the door. He'd seen him walk in and freeze. Jason had been moving towards Brian, but he'd gotten up beating him there. He got him out of the room holding onto the man he loved. Brian had come there to get him after he'd panicked, now he was the one protecting Brian from the horror that was the room.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
Brian could feel Justin's arms around him, and he didn't let go. When he saw the room, he could only think about seeing Justin lying there almost dying. The idea of him going into the room as well. He felt horrified, but he wasn't sure what Justin might have thought. Plus, Justin had been freaking out only to have Jason touch him. He was sure he would have knocked the guy out or passed out as well.
"If you two want to get out of here without going all the way through I can let you out one of the exits here." Jason said.
"Yes." Brian said not bothering to look up. He only wanted to get out of what he considered to be a hellhole. "Thanks for helping him." He added breathing in Justin's scent.
Jason went over putting in the code for the door before guiding the pair to the door. "Here you go. It was no problem. It is something I had hoped someone one would do for me. Next time someone tells you to overcome your fears by facing them, tell them to stuff it. Don't let go of each other, you have winners in each other." He said.
"Thanks, Jason. I'll remember that." Justin said before they left, and the door closed behind them. "We're outside now." He added but he hadn't let go of Brian. "Are you okay?"
"No, but I will be. What about you?" Brian asked pulling back far enough to look at Justin. "Are you sure you didn't get hurt?"
"No, I didn't get hurt." Justin replied. "He said he called for medical treatment, but his radio must have been down. I stumbled into the room when I got freaked out by a fucking banshee." Justin said. "Can we get out of here. I'll call Emmett let him know you got me." He offered.
"Lindsay and Melanie already saw me. So, they can find the other two hellions that brought you here to tell them. We're leaving and when we get back to the loft we're going to shower then get on the couch. Watch one of your favorite non-scary movies." Brian stated.
"You'd even watch the yellow submarine again?" Justin asked giving Brian a shy smile.
"I'd watch the power puff girls if you wanted to right now." Brian replied.
Justin's smile grew brighter before Brian led him back towards where the parking lot was. "Thanks for coming to save me, again. You always seem to come to my rescue."
It was one of the many things he loved about Brian. He'd been saving him since that first night they met. He could have ended up with someone that killed him. Instead, he found a wonderful man that needed him too. They needed each other and he'd take Jason's advice and keep on loving Brian.
"I will always come for you, Justin." Brian said back his arm tightening around Justin pulling him closer as they walked. He had to know he was there, safe beside him.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
"There you are." Emmett said seeing Justin and Brian both. He'd been making another round getting ready to ask one of the guards to make an announcement, if need be, to find Justin. "Thank god you're okay. I'm so sorry, baby." He said wrapping Justin in a hug not caring that Brian was still holding onto him too.
"I'm okay now, Em." Justin said hugging his friend back, the best he could. "I guess I wasn't ready for the haunted house." He sighed.
"We should have laid down the law with Michael instead of coming here. Or made him go alone." Emmett said. "The thought of you passed out somewhere alone freaked me out. I don't even know where the other three are."
Jutsin didn't mention right then that he had passed out. He was sure that Emmett would only freak out more. Sometimes it was best to wait on telling all. He thought he was going to have to pry Emmett off of him, but Brian did it instead and he was a little glad because he was starting to feel like he was being choked. He loved the man, but he could forget his own strength at time he thought.
"Yeah, about that, where the hell is Michael at?" Brian asked removing Emmett's arms from Justin. He wanted to hear Michael's excuse for coming here when he told him no more than once. "I had told him not to even think about it all week. Yet, I leave him alone for a few hours and you all bring Justin here?"
"He's somewhere inside. He said he was going to finish the maze." Emmett said. "I left to look for Justin." There was no way he would finish the haunted house not knowing if Justin was okay.
It was at that moment that Lindsay and Melanie walked up with Michael. They didn't know that Emmett had said anything about Michael finishing the maze instead of looking for Justin. Brian felt like he was going to boil over. He let go of Justin going over to Michael was standing and punched him before he could even say a word. There were gasps and a shout from Michael. Brian didn't care though because the asshole had not given a shit about Justin or what he'd told him.
"Brian?" Michael said holding his nose looking up in shock.
"You fucking finished the damn maze instead of looking for Justin? You're already a piece of shit for bringing him here. Don't even bother trying to make an excuse either." Brian said before he took Justin's hand. "Anyone of you say a word and I'll have his mom lay you out since I don't believe in hitting women." He added in a voice that none of them had heard before.
"Oh my god, you fucking finished? What the hell is wrong with you?" Melanie and Lindsay said at the same time looking down at Michael.
"Don't you dare act innocent; you are grown as women and you have a child, my son. You wouldn't dare bring Gus to this if he'd been hurt like Justin had. No, you would fucking guard him, or at least I'd hope you'd have the fucking instincts to do that. I better not even hear a damn word from either of you. All three of you are on my shit list." Brian shouted at them before looking towards Emmett who was once again hugging Justin. The man clearly felt sorry for being a part of it. He'd barely let go of Justin, so he didn't yell at him too. "We're leaving." He added removing Justin from Emmett's hold on him again.
Justin didn't object to Brian leading him away. He was laughing almost when he got to the Jeep. "Sorry, it was funny to see the look on his face. Though if I could punch, I would have hit him good. I didn't want to risk damaging my hand though." Justin explained a huge smile on his face. A smile because Brian had once again showed that he would protect him.
"Come on, I want to get you home and check your body over more thoroughly." Brian said. He did take a moment to hug Justin needing to breath in his scent again. He then reached behind them opening Justin's door.
"Thank you." Justin said before he got in.
"You're welcome." Brian replied before shutting the Jeep door.
~THE END~
EN: I hope that you have enjoyed this. I added a little more to it in the editing process. Happy Halloween Eve. I got more stories coming. I got inspired this month.