The floors creaked below Nick as he strolled through the darkened hallway. Though his night vision came in handy anywhere there was a lot of light nearby, he was able to get around just fine thanks to the few dim lightbulbs that flickered on and off as they dangled above him.
As he walked right along while checking left and right for any surprises, a scraping noise, louder than the floors, came in from up ahead, as if someone was slowly opening the squeakiest door ever.
Emerging from the shadows up ahead was the figure of a thin sheep, his face now visible under the glow of a light above him. The overalls the ovine was dressed in looked like he been somewhere quite muddy, and the grin he wore upon his muzzle was one that was certainly unfriendly.
"Hey, you," the sheep said, reaching a hoof outward and gesturing for him to come forward. "Yeah, come on over here." Looking behind him as the fox walked up, he called out, "Hey, Tim! We got ourselves a visitor."
Exiting the nearly lightless space he had been greeted in, Nick followed the lead of the unnamed sheep. After walking along and making some turns down the passageway before him, he was brought into a much larger room painted in the deepest shade of red. The first thing he saw was a bunch of chairs that were turned over and in disarray next to some tables, which were covered in grime like they hadn't been cleaned in awhile. Ceramic pots in the corners of the room had plants inside of them that were beyond saving, their leaves withered and not green at all. Nick turned his head to the right and saw a wooden desk where a raccoon in a discolored hat stood.
"We don't get too many folks comin' 'round here, do we?" the sheep chuckled as he casually stepped inside, resting his arm against one of the chairs that had been sitting there untouched.
The raccoon nodded from behind his desk and replied, "You got that right. Especially on account of what the last out-of-towners said when they stayed at our little inn."
The sheep returned his attention back to Nick. "Yeah, haven't you heard? The ghosts that haunt this buildin' are seen every night at this time. It's almost like this is their time to roam." A ruffling sound arose from the wall behind the fox, and he turned and pointed to the portrait directly behind where he stood. "You hear that? I think that's one of 'em now."
The vulpine turned around and gazed at the framed picture, an oil painting of a young weasel in a flowing dress, that was suddenly rapping against the wall like it had come alive.
"Uh-oh," the raccoon from across the room chimed in, sounding like he was frightened. "I think that's one of them wrathful ghosts!"
The painting stopped moving around and went perfectly still. Not even a second later, the picture unexpectedly was slid away, revealing that it was just a panel. An actual weasel in bright white face paint lunged from out of the hole left in the wall, screaming as she held out a paw in front of her.
"I have come for your souls!" she exclaimed.
Though this would've spooked anybody not anticipating something of the sort, Nick simply nodded his head and chuckled under his breathed, seemingly unenthused.
Totally saw that one coming, he thought. Not as scary as I was expecting that to be.
"I say you better got outta here while ya still can," the sheep suggested as he trotted to the opposite side of the room. "Those ghosts can't get you if ya go over there!"
Nick did as the guy said and walked along, leaving the room and entering a tighter space. The ovine followed him from behind before stopping at where there was some steel web fencing against where a portion of the wall to his left had been cut out. It was nothing but pure darkness that could be seen on the other side of it.
"Now that that's over, I think it's time you oughta meet someone else 'round here."
"Who?" Nick replied.
His guide behind him pointed and answered, "Right on the other side of that fence. Say hello to Josephine."
The fox looked closer and peeked through the holes of the fencing, not seeing anything at all. I don't-
"Bwah!" shouted a certain gray rabbit, dressed in a dark gown and pale face paint like the other mammal had on a moment ago, as she lunged toward the fence. She had her arms held up and her face scrunched up to create the scariest face she could make in the moment.
Nick found himself embarrassingly gasping and jumping at the trick. The doe held a paw over her mouth as she started to titter at the success of her scare.
"You should've seen your face just then, Slick," she chuckled.
The vulpine stepped over to the wall behind him with a paw on his chest. He then shrugged before looking back at Judy. "Yeah, that caught me a little off guard."
"Just a little?" Judy asked in reply. "I'm not so sure about that."
The sheep, meanwhile, broke the not-so-nice character he had been putting on and started to smile alongside her. "That was great," he said as he started to clap his hooves together. "That'll be sure to scare some folks that come through this part."
"Thanks." Judy playfully took a bow at the optimism. "They always said I was good actor from an early age," she laughed.
"So," Nick said as he changed the subject, "what did they have for me to be?"
"Oh, they got something fun for you," the ovine to his left responded. "You're gonna be one of the clowns."
"A clown?" he inquired. "Isn't that the most non-scary thing I could be?"
"You serious? Clowns are, like, the creepiest things on the planet. And with everybody going through a hall of mirrors and you suddenly popping out of nowhere." The sheep pretended to shudder as if he were scared just then. "I'm shivering just thinking of that image. We'll get you ready for that real soon."
"You know," Judy said as she remained where she stood, "it's a shame Jack couldn't get in on all of the fun too. Frights are what the holiday's all about."
"He seems more in his element just handling the ticket booth, Fluff," Nick replied. "He's more of the type that gets scared instead of scaring others."
"Oh well," the doe sighed. "At least everybody's coming together and running this festival for a good cause, raising money for mammals in need."
"Yep," chimed in the ovine. "We scare because we care."
"Hey, Aaron," a voice said from the other side of the dark hall, coming from a leopard dressed in a scientist's lab coat. Standing behind him was the raccoon and the weasel from earlier. "Just letting ya know that we got those lights all fixed up in the laboratory part."
The sheep named Aaron nodded and smiled back at him with excitement. "Awesome," he answered, "and I take it everybody's almost ready for the show to begin?"
"We sure are," remarked the weasel in ghostly face paint, her voice bubbly as opposed to the loud kind she put on when Nick was walking by previously.
"Last time I looked out," the leopard said, "the turnout to the festival's pretty good. Got a fair deal of mammals waiting outside for the haunted house to open."
"Well, in that case, things will be pretty much ready to roll," Aaron told everyone. Holding an arm stiffly out in front of him, he then added, "Okay, everybody. Paws in the middle. Er... Well, one hoof and mostly paws in the middle." He got a quick chuckle at his own joke even though no one else chuckled with him.
The mammals in the hall all stepped up closer to the sheep, placing their paws one on top of the other. Judy reached her own small paw through the hole in between the larger hole in the webbed fencing prop she stood behind and placed it on top of the stack.
"We ready to get some folks in the Halloween spirit?" Aaron asked the group.
"Yeah!" they all exclaimed in unison.
"Good! Because it's time for us to get our scares on!"
Cheers from the volunteers filled the once-noiseless space, and with that the show was on the road for the little Halloween attraction, ready to do what it did best for those that came to the Halloween Festival each and every year
Author's Note: Hey there, everyone! Well, I had been meaning to write a Halloween story since the start of October. However, I ended up being busy with a lot of things that came up, but I'm glad to finally be able to share a story in the spirit of the holiday.
This came to me after reading about this haunted house that not only prided itself with being the scariest in its location, but also raises money for people in need each year and has local volunteers be part of the haunt. I liked the idea of that and thought of writing this thing out after being inspired by it.
Not very spooky, I know, but hopefully I'll be able to share some of the other stories I had planned for this time, since those ones were on the spooky end.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this little story of mine. And as always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.
'Til next time! :)