Among You (7 page)

“
Die So Fluid,” I beamed. “You beast. This is my favorite song of theirs.”

Sally’s voice purred when she said, “I know.”

The opening drumbeat and guitar riff from
The World Is Too Big For One Lifetime
begged me to turn the volume past eleven. Instead, I closed my eyes and let the sound wash over me. As soon as Grog’s bass line and voice greeted us, I knew this night was going to be perfect.

Sally turned the wheel and pulled away from the house. We were on our way. My heart thrummed and thumped as if it would leap from my chest. When the chorus of the song hit, Sally and I both sang along.

I reached out and grabbed Sally’s hand.

“
I don’t know how I’d get through life without you, Sally. Saying you’re my best friend doesn’t do my feelings justice.”

Sally squeezed my hand, hard.

“
Don’t take this the wrong way, Scott, and don’t freak out…but…I love you.”

A mixture of ice and fire shot up my arm. Just before the words that couldn’t ever be taken out of play slipped from my lips, I saw the sign.

“
Tyler’s End, two miles,” I shouted. My proclamation deflated Sally. I could feel joy leak from her pores.

“
Sally, stop the car.”

“
What? Why? We’re almost there.”

“
Please, it’s important.”

She eased the car into a strip mall parking lot, put the car in park, and turned to face me. “What is it?”

I swallowed to force the lump of fear as far down as possible. I’d faced the most horrific of horrors on the screen, yet the simple interaction with a female had me sweating silver bullets.

“
Scott, are you okay?”

“
I am, Sally. Look…” Another swallow. “I love you too. I do…more than you could possibly know. But this – what we have – is too precious a thing for me to risk losing. Your friendship is the single most important thing in my life. The idea of doing something that could possibly ruin that is unfathomable. If I thought, for even a second, that we could allow what we have to evolve into something greater, without the risk of undoing a once in a lifetime friendship, I would jump into those waters with both feet. But that thought doesn’t exist. There’s no guarantee this would survive that. I don’t want
that
if it means I can’t have
this
.” I lifted our entwined hands to send my point home.

Cold tendrils of silence crept up my back and neck. Sally stared at me, her eyes welling up. I wasn’t sure if I could survive her crying…not without giving in.

And then she smiled.

“
Scott, you are, without a doubt, the one thing in my life I couldn’t lose. As much as I want to be everything to you, I…”

Sally hesitated to blink tears from her eyes. My heart sank into my shoes. “
I understand. The same thoughts have rattled around in my chest for such a long time, but my heart insisted we could make it work. I love you and will always love you. But more than that, I respect you and need your friendship. I would love to have you as my boyfriend, but not at the cost of this…or that.” Sally looked down to our joined hands.

She laughed; which in turn made me laugh. The end result was an epic hug I was certain I’d feel for days…maybe weeks.

When Sally pulled back from the embrace, she faced forward, put the car in drive, and said…

“
We have a haunted house to find.”

*

The second the car crossed into Tyler’s End, the world – my world – changed. What I thought was going to be a visit to a first-class haunted house, turned out to be a journey into a magical world that would fold my definition of life inside out.

“
Scott,” Sally whispered, “look at them…everywhere.”

“
The costumes, the makeup…”
I couldn’t find the words to describe what my eyes beheld. Walking about on the streets were horrific characters, all taken from the same page of the same book. As if time had no point or place in Tyler’s End, every person was dressed in a variation of the same theme – Victorian England. Waist coats, bustles, stockings, ruffles…every piece a precise turn of fashion with a twist of the macabre.

It wasn’t actually the clothing that brought about my bug-eyed awe. The makeup
was astonishing. Every character’s skin was a shade of grayish-green and looked cracked and aged by too much sun. Some had what looked like over-sized boils, threatening to pop, on their cheeks and lips. Some, mostly the males, had horns budding from the tops of their foreheads.

Sally pulled the car into a cordoned-off field for parking. “They all look so…real.”

“
And happy,” I added.

That was quite possibly the strangest thing of all – each and every one of the characters glowed with a joy that seemed to emanate from within. They talked, laughed…sang.

“
This is…Sally, I don’t know what to say.”

We got out of the car and spun on our heels to take it all in. There was so much. Even beyond the idea that the haunt of haunts awaited me, I couldn’t get over the fact that the entire city seemed to be transformed into a horror-themed delight.

“
It’s Monsterville,” Sally said.

“
What,” I asked.

Sally looked at me and smiled. “This place is like a town filled with monsters…Monsterville.”

“
God ye good eve’n,” said one of the towns folk as he passed by. The tails of his coat swept up into the wind as if to wave ‘hello’.

“
What did he just say,” Sally asked.

“
He said ‘Good evening’ in a Victorian England colloquialism. At least I think that’s what it was. Or maybe he thought one of us sneezed. I don’t really know for sure.”

“
It doesn’t matter, Scott; it’s all so stinking charming.”

Sally reached out her hand to me. “Come on, let’s go find the house.”

It wasn’t hard. It seemed every member of the town criers assembly was headed in the same, general direction. That kind of deduction could be handled by a chimp.

“
Scott,” Sally nearly squealed. She pointed ahead. “Look at it.”

It, the Gaultier House, was glorious beyond words. The building was a multi-story Victorian mansion that looked as if it had been plucked from some member of the English nobility and magically transported to the states. It was very out of place, but glorious in its oddity. Though it was certainly true to form in its architecture, there was a certain Tim Burton-esque element to the design. The mansion stood three stories high with turrets on each corner that pointed and curled like elf or witch shoes. The whole of the design stood as a reminder that those who dwelled within were a class that no longer existed. The solid rock walls mocked anything modern builders could construct.

After spying the Gaultier House, I finally managed to see without my usual filters. Every element of the town seemed to work its way into the fabric of Halloween. The houses and buildings all seemed, on the surface, to be normal; but when you looked closer, you spotted fragments of strangeness littering the design. One three story house looked perfectly standard from one angle. The second you shifted your view, you spotted the slant and pitch of the walls – just enough to obscure normalcy.

There wasn’t a straight line in sight. Every edge of every structure seemed to include some tick and trick in its shape and design.

I was in heaven.

Sally gave my shoulder a slap. “I think I see the ticket booth.”

She took off running. I couldn’t help myself but to fall into perfect lock-step with Sally. I wasn’t taking any chance in losing her here. It was Halloween night – a lot of crazy would happen within the next twelve hours. It always did.

We arrived at the ticket booth and dropped our cold, hard cash in front of the vendor who smiled and said, “Two tickets to the most unholy and frightening site you will ever witness. Please, make sure to pick up a brochure that explains everything you will need to know, before entering the double door entryway.”

Both Sally and I had our faces buried in the pamphlets, so we hardly noticed the two, be-costumed girls rush past us.

“
Are we the only people here not dressed up in period costumes,” asked Sally. “I feel so out of place.”

She was right. We were in an overwhelming minority. In the midst of the velvet and lace, we stood in denim, fake leather, and yoga plain-ness. I wasn’t sure why every eyeball wasn’t trained on us to ask if we failed to receive the memo about dressing the part.

“
OMG,” proclaimed Sally. “There it is.”

My eyes followed her point and beheld what had to be the most wondrous spectacle I’d ever seen in my short lifetime. Seeing the house from even the slightest distance was one thing. Up close and personal brought everything into perspective. The house was tremendous in size and design. A perfect replica of a period long since forgotten. And yet…this wasn’t a rebuild of a collapsed mansion from days gone by – this was very real, very complete, and very…

“
Amazing,” squealed Sally. “Scott, you must be peeing your pants. Scott? Earth to Scott.”

I hadn’t heard her. I was too lost from taking in everything from every direction.

“
I’m sorry, Sally. I just…”

“
I know. Take your time; drink it all in.”

I felt like I was a little kid again, stepping foot on Disneyland soil for the first time. My world, always so small, had officially grown to magnificent proportions. Someone had reached their taloned fingers into my dreams and ripped the fantastical out, only to make it real in Tyler’s End.

“
I’m afraid to go in,” I said.

“
What? I call shenanigans on that, Mr. Maskey. I’ve never known you to be afraid of anything…well, except maybe Cody Sloan.”

“
No. Oh, no. I’m not afraid in the usual sense of the word. My fear is that it either cannot possibly live up to the promises it is currently making or that it’ll be over all too soon. I want to walk into that house and be transported to something completely removed from our existence and for it to last a lifetime.”

Sally stared into my eyes, a twinkle raced around her irises.

“
Scotty Maskey, you are the most romantic human being on the planet. Either that,” Sally gave my cheek a gentle slap, “or you’re just crazy.”

“
Tickets please,” begged an extremely tall, bone-skinny man in a burgundy velvet tuxedo and top hat. “You two lovebirds are the first to enter this night’s parade of fear. Welcome.”

We handed the man our tickets and walked on by. I felt heat rise in my cheeks. Sally looked at me, her face flushing fire red and her smile slanted and wide.

We let the ‘lovebirds’ comment go unmentioned.

“
That man’s hat had to be three feet tall,” whispered Sally. “How does he keep it on his head?”

I leaned into Sally. “Maybe his forehead fills it up.”

Sally squealed. “Now that’s just creepy.”

As we stepped up to the main entrance, the door opened with a loud complaint. The creaking hinges were an overture and a promise for delights yet to come. Sally and I stepped over the threshold and were immediately transported back in time, along with a small group of wide-eyed spectators. The door closed behind us to seal the modern world from reaching our senses.

Sally grabbed my hand. “Breathe, Scott.”

I hadn’t even realized I was holding my breath. When my lungs finally sucked in, I felt a flood of tension wash away.

My pulse raced faster, faster, and yet still faster.

The antechamber was lit only by candle light. The flicker and dance of the flames cast eerie shadows over the walls and ceiling. A chilled wind washed through the room and extinguished the candles. A soft cry cut through the darkness.

“
Help me.”

The voice surrounded the room and, at the same time, seemed to have its roots within my chest. It begged for a mercy I had no way of knowing how to give.

“
Please,” the voice whispered again, “save me.”

I wanted to call out, cry to the disembodied voice ‘How?’ Before I could find the words, a single candle flickered to life at the end of the room. Behind the candle was a face – grayish-green in color, yet soft and feminine. The eyes were a golden yellow, the lips lush, the hair a spiky mess of black.

“
We have walked among you for centuries. Our lives have existed, in a parallel unison, until the Clock of Ages struck its final, sullen song. At the last chime of humanity, we were made monstrous and wicked; our flesh boiled in bile, our eyes turned sour with loss. Since that moment, we ‘Kind have made bargains with evil nobility in hopes of returning our lives to the parallel existence with yours. It seems, however, evil runs far deeper than desire. And so, we have devised a simple plan – wage war against mankind, so that we may strip the planet of greed and hatred. As you walk through the Gaultier Mansion, know that you glimpse a world your eyes and soul may well not be ready to behold. You may find yourself diving deep into the waters of madness. Should you give into that pull, your soul and your heart are ours to have and to hold…into and beyond death.”