It was Halloween night, and two young teenaged couples, Jimmy and Kerry, and Shawn and Sarah, were meeting a large group of friends for a haunted house, then going on to attend a party. A group of local teenagers had gone into a local deserted Victorian mansion, and set it up as a haunted house for a night of spooky fun with their friends. The teenagers didn’t exactly have permission to use this property, so everything was kept a big secret right until the last minute, so that nothing would go wrong and they would not be found out.Only the six teens who had set the house up were aware of the location.
As the group heads out for the evening, Jimmy realizes they didn’t even know exactly where they were headed for the haunted house. He picked up his cell and called Fred, the main organizer of the haunted house. As Fred was giving him the directions over the phone, Jimmy’s cell phone connection became broken up and he could barely hear Fred. Jimmy grabs a pen and scrap of paper, and writes down 1313 Century Drive, just as the phone connection was lost.
As the group approaches the entrance of the driveway at 1313 Century Drive, they are all stunned when they see just how spooky this place is.
“Are you sure this is the right place?”, Kerry asks, feeling uneasy.”It’s so…spooky!”
“Imagine that!”, Jimmy laughs, “A haunted house being spooky. Who’d of thought!” Jimmy and Shawn chuckled, playfully teasing the girls, who were obviously frightened.”Don’t worry girls, we’ll protect you from the ghosts and goblins.”, Jimmy says as he laughs and high fives Shawn.
“Man, they really outdid themselves, eh? This place is enough to give me nightmares.”, Shawn added.
“Yeah, well you know Fred, always the over achiever! C’mon guys, let’s get up there, or are you chicken?”, Jimmy teases as he starts sprinting up the driveway. The rest of the group begins sprinting too, trying to keep up with Jimmy. All of a sudden, as Jimmy turns to look back at his friends as they attempt to catch up, a bat swoops right past Jimmy’s head, scaring him completely. “Oh geez!!!”, Jimmy shouts, as his friends all laugh.
“Ha! And you called us chicken? Scared of a little bat Jimmy?” , Shawn chides his friend.
“Hey man, if it almost landed on your face, you would be too. Let’s get inside, it’s cold out here.”, Jimmy says. The group makes their way up the rickety steps of the front porch. Suddenly, as Sarah approaches the step, the old boards give way under her weight and her foot goes through the floor.
Sarah shrieks, making Kerry shriek too. Jimmy and Shawn immediately turn to see what happened, and help Sarah to her feet. “You’d think maybe they would’ve chosen a house that wasn’t a death trap.”, Jimmy says. “Are you okay Sarah?”
“Um, yeah, just a little shaken up. My ankle hurts a little, but I’ll be fine.” ,Sarah says.
Jimmy knocks with the antique brass door knocker of the old mansion door. No one answers, and all appears quiet inside. Thinking this must be part of the haunted house, he gestures to the others that the door is unlocked, and that they should all go inside. As the group enter, the house is pitch black, total darkness. Helllooooooooooo, anybody home?” , Jimmy calls. Waiting for a response, they all hear something creaking from the staircase. Jimmy assumes this must be where the haunted attractions come into play, so he goes along with it. “Oh, I am just so scared!” , he teases and snickers to himself. Thankfully, the kids had brought flashlights with them.
“Wonder where the heck Fred and the others are?”, Shawn inquires, suddenly feeling a little uneasy about being the deserted, spooky, dark mansion. “I thought a lot of other people were supposed to be here.”
“Ah, he probably told us to come early, so it would be spookier. You know how he always likes to one up me in his pranks. Let’s go upstairs.” Jimmy motions for the others to follow as he heads up the old staircase.
All of a sudden, as they are almost to the top of the staircase, a white, transparent figure screams at the top of its lungs, racing right past the group on the stairs. All four of them scream out in shock. Finally, Jimmy composes himself enough to say “Great special effect, wonder how he pulled that one off?”
“I don’t know, but this isn’t fun, I’m scared, maybe we should leave. Something doesn’t feel right here.”, Kerry said.
“Sweetheart, c’mon, it’s Halloween, none of this is real, it’s Fred and his cronies up to their tricks. It’s all in fun.”, Jimmy tried to calm Kerry , who is visibly spooked by the house. Kerry reluctantly follows Jimmy onto the upstairs landing.
The kids look around the house, at the abandoned bedrooms with old furniture still in them. Jimmy spots an old mirror on the wall, and begins rubbing it with his sleeve, wiping off years of dust and cobwebs. Jimmy knows his mom has been in the market for an antique mirror, and he figures he could take this one back for her, that no one would notice. As he attempts to try to remove the mirror from the wall, behind him, in the refection, he witnesses the most horrific sight he’s ever seen. A man with a badly disfigured face, covered in blood appeared behind him, and in a gravely voice, shouted, “Get out!”
Jimmy, completely forgetting that this was supposed to be his friends haunted house, was completely overcome with a feeling of dread, and shouted to the rest of the group, “Let’s get out of here…NOW!” They all raced back down the steps and out the front door, taking care to avoid the hole in the rotting wood of the front porch as they left.
Winded and badly shaken up, the group pants as they try to catch their breath. Shawn was the first to speak. “Dude! What the heck was that??”
Jimmy, struggling to speak, says “I dunno…I’m sure Fred and his buddies are in there laughing their heads off at us. We’ll be the laughing stock of school now.”
No sooner were the words spoken than Jimmy’s cell phone rang. It was Fred’s number on caller I.D. “Oh great, it’s Fred, they’re probably inside laughing at us.” Jimmy reluctantly answers the call, deciding to beat Fred to the punch. “Yeah man, I know, you scared us.. great special effects, now you can stop laughing…”
“What are you talking about man?”, Fred replied from the other end of the line. “We’ve all been waiting for you, what’s holding you up?”
“What do you mean, we’ve been for about a half hour, where is everyone else?”, Jimmy said.
“Where are you?”, Fred inquired, seriously.
“At the haunted house!” Jimmy replied.
“No, I mean what address?” Fred asked, truly concerned.
“1313 Century Drive, just what you told me!”, Jimmy said, a little irritated at this point.
Fred said “No man, I told you 3030, not 1313, get out of there NOW! That’s the old Simpson mansion, you couldn’t pay me enough to go in there!”
“Why?”, Jimmy inquired, the realization of what they had just seen not being part of their friend’s haunted house not fully sinking in just yet.
“Haven’t you ever heard? About 100 years ago, old man Simpson went crazy and murdered his wife. They say that her ghost runs down the stairs shrieking, trying to run away from him. A few people even say that old man Simpson’s is still upstairs and some people have seen him, and he’s all bloody and messed up because he’d been burned in a fire at the factory where he worked. He thought his wife was cheating on him because he looked so horrific afterwards, but she wasn’t, but he freaked out and killed her anyway.” Silence on the other end of the line.”Jimmy…did you hear me?”
“Um…..yeah….hey man, I think we’ve had a change of plans, no more haunted houses for us tonight…right guys?”, Jimmy says as he confers with the others. They all nod their heads in agreement.
“Are you guys okay?” Fred inquires, concerned for his friends.
“Let’s just say I think we’ve had enough Halloween tonight to last us for a long, long time.” Jimmy said.
With one last look back at the house at 1313 Century Drive, the four friends drove away in silence. No one ever spoke of what they witnessed that Halloween night in the old Simpson mansion.