THE GREATEST FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF
Ben, Steve, Nate, Johnny, Ian and James always loved Halloween. From trick or treating to dressing up to playing pranks to vandalizing property. As they got older they stopped trick or treating and played more pranks and vandalized more property. They got so reckless with their pranks and sometimes didn't notice how scared the victims were especially the children all but Nate the only one of the group with any morals. On a warm, sunny, October afternoon they were walking to the Halloween store after school with the newly fallen leaves crunching under their feet. Once they arrived they quickly began browsing going into their own separate section of the store. Ben jumped as a spider came from the ceiling at him but after coming to his senses realized it was only a decoration. He hated them as well as rats and bats but out of all of them he hated spiders the most. He then grabbed a clown mask and snuck up on Ian who hated clowns and dolls. He shoved him to the ground only to hear the familiar sound of Ben's laughter as he hit the floor. "You were sooo scared"Ben laughed. Nate who was with Ben chimed in and said 'Well you were scared of that spider" Ian then grabbed a werewolf mask and snuck up on Steve who was scared of werewolves and vampires and any monster or horror character and was generally easy to get scared by horror movies and wasn't a big fan of them although he did watch them and didn't mind sometimes. Ian got James who was scared of witches as he was practically born slightly overweight and was always scared of witches ever since reading Hanzel and Gretel and thought they would cook him since he was nice and plump. James got Johnny with a zombie mask which was his fear. He also was afraid of ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and skeletons. Nate was the bravest next to Ben's older brother who was in college and had no fear.After having all their fun they left the store and found a poster outside advertising The Fear Experiece which was next door. It had a picture of a man in a green hat, purple coat and who had orange hair and white makeup and a cane with a jack o lantern at the top. It read The Fear Experience Where The Greatest Fear is Fear Itself. "Didn't he hear circus season is over"? Ben said "I think he's Willy Wonka" Nate said "No he's the Mad Hatter his outfit looks just like Johnny Depp did in the role"Steve said "You wanna go?" Johnny suggested. Nate threw the flyer in the garbage can as they started walking discussing the possibilty on the way home.This place is in a shopping center and by the mall no less is it going to be any good? Nate said "Let's try it we won't know otherwise" Steve said 'It's just weird with my brother not taking us and going in front of us he always was the bravest and was the best at scaring people since he was the oldest didn't you notice how weird it was without him in the store"? Ben said "Oh yeah like when he pranked us every Halloween as well as sleepovers and campouts but he still was the bravest" Nate said "Yeah but we'll be fine without him" James said They agreed and he said to be there that Friday. They made arrangments to be picked up with their parents and as soon as Friday night came they walked over to the haunted house. The parking lot was deserted. "Guys this doesn't seem right' Ian said. 'Don't be a baby" Ben said. "We're probably the first ones we did leave pretty early". Steve said. "Greetings" The Fear Master said as he greeted them. "My purpose is merely to scare people. I don't ask for money". The Fear Master said. He opened the door and shut it behind them. It was sooo dark they couldn't see each other. They fumbled through the darkness to find the door. Ben who was in front having being the one voted to do so and being the second bravest in the group opened the door. "Found it guys" he said. He then realized they weren't with him anymore and tried the knob. Stuck. He couldn't get it to move at all. Maybe this a maze and I'll see them at the later or at the end he thought. He proceeded down a dark hallway and saw something scurry across the floor. A RAT. It turned its head in the shadows. It had bright red eyes that glared at him. "Fuck I hope that was fake if this plce is infested I'm finding the first exit door and getting the heck out of here". He thought. He continued down and heard some sort of flapping. FLAP, FLAP, FLAP, FLAP. Then he heard another sound a shrieking of some sort. EEE, EEE. It was getting closer and closer. Then it went right past him with a WOOSH. A BAT. "Oh great he thought a bat if that wasn't fake I'm finding the nearest emergency exit". He thought to himself. Then heard another sound. It sounded like a motor. A sort of humming sound. HMMMMM. It was much louder than the bat's wings and was getting closer. Then he saw it. COCKROACHES. He backed against the wall as they flew past him."That's it I'm getting freaked out" he thought . He felt the wall and looked for a big red EXIT sign. "There has to be one here somewhere". he thought. He felt something silky. It could only be one thing. COBWEBS. They felt so realistic. He bruushed through a few more as he continued down the hallway. The end of the hallway was the worst though. A GIANT SPIDER. "That looks to so realistic but it's still just an animatronic. What else could it be? Just calm down and look for the door to to another part of the house". he thought. He felt the wall for a door but couldn't find one. The spider shot webs at him with its fangs. He couldn't move. It started to crawl towards him. All he could do was wait then he felt himself falling through a trap door and landed in a snake pit. They slithered toward him and he backed up into a corner and they slithered onto his body then e everything went black. Steven opened a door and heard a voice imitating Bela Lugosi saying Good Evening he then heard a Tocata and Fogue in D minor playing and heard a werewolf howl. Then then heard a thumping of footsteps from behind him and thought it might be one of his friend's and turned to greet them only to come face to face with Frankenstein's Monster. "It's ok it's just an actor". he said to himself He ran and ran until his path was blocked by Dracula and The Wolfman. "They're just actors relax" then he felt the floor open and he fell into a boiler room. He heard an eerie and familar tune. The Elm Street theme. He got up and saw three girls playing jump rope singing an all to familiar tune. 1, 2, Freddy's coming for you, 3, 4, better lock your door, 5, 6, grab your crufix, 7, 8, better stay awake, 9, 10, never sleep again. THen heard the most frightening voice he'd ever hear. "Welcome to your worst nightmare come to life Steven" HAHAHAHAHA. Steven recognized that voice from his nightmares. He turned and saw him. A face he NEVER wanted to see. Freddy Krueger. "You're you're" Steven stuttered. "Aw don't cry everybody has to DIE sometime. Freddy laughed as Steven backed up and the floor gave in. He landed on an empty street. "Is the haunted house over already"? He asked himself. "No he realized I'm on a completely different street and the haunted hiuse and plaza are nowhere in sight. This must be just scenery" He thought. A girl in a tan shirt and wearing a skirt was running down the street screaming "HELP ME". He looked and saw a masked man in a blue jumpsuit chasing her. He recognized him anywhere. Michael Myers. "Nice setup he thought it looks just like where they filmed the original Halloween. That girl looks and sounds just like Jamie Lee Curtis". He ran and could hear the Halloween theme playing on unseen loudspeakers. Michael Myers got into a car and chased after him. He ran and ran until he fell off the street into the darkness below. He landed in a field. There was a house in the distance. "That must be the next place" he thought. He walked up to the door. It was open. He went in and all he could her was screaming. "Sound effects obviously he thought". He looked into the kitchen and saw the screaming wasn't sound effects. "Just an actress" he thought. He looked on at the gruesome scene. A girl was strapped to the table and a chainsaw was on the wall adjacent to her.. "GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW" she screamed. " a man entered the room. He had a mask and wore a bloody apron. Steven recognized him as well. Leatherface. Leatherface grabbd his chainsaw and chased Stephen who ran out the back door and fell into a black void where the ground should have been. He awoke in a woods. "How many times is this going to happen" he thought. He was getting tired from all the falling and running. He heard a familar sound. "Ki ki ki ki". Then he saw a girl skinny dipping in a lake. He then heard the sound of a male screaming. He got into the bushes and watched. "GET OUT OF HERE" the boy screamed to the girl. A hulking figure wearing a hockey mask holding a machete was wallking fast after the boy. This was the horror icon Steven was most afraid of. The one Ben's brother liked to dress up as to scare all of them at camp outs. Jason Voorhees. Then he watched as the actor playing Jason stabbed the other actor with the machete. "It has to be plastic. He didn't really kill him. They are just actors." He thought. A nothrer actress dressed as Mrs. Voorhees came out of the water and pulled the girl intto the water. "Wait a minute Steven thought if these are actors how would they know I'm hhiding here watching them"?, "This is getting freaky. Actors or not I have to stop the maniac in the Jason costume before he kills someone else". Steven got up out of his hiding spot and tried to sneak away. SNAP. A twig broke under his feet. Jason turned toward the fleeing Stephen. Like with the Halloween theme, the Friday The 13th theme on an unknown loud speaker. played as Jason chased him. Steven went into a shed and pulled out an axe. He then hid behind a tree and waited for Jason to approach. When he did he jumped out and swung the axe at Jason decapitating him. The ground opened up and Steven fell through again. He was now in a swampy area. A sign read Black Lagoon. He didn't have time to rest this time. A bubbling in the water caught his eye. A green fish-man emerged. He recognized him immediately. The Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon. It pulled into the blackness of the swamp. Then everything went black. Ian opened a door to a carnival themed atmosphere and a voice imitating Chucky asking WANNA PLAY? it laughed and carnival music set to 'Be a Clown/Make Em Laugh began. Ian ignored it and moved on and opened a door to a fun house like scenario. The IT theme began to play as clowns appeared and started chasing him. He ran away from them into a darker part of the funhouse. He faced all kinds of obstacles in there including skeletons, bats, and spiders that came down from the ceiling, ghosts that came from a projector, and cooky mirrors. After going sllover the funhouse in rooms that went in circles and hallways went nowhere he finally walked through a door into a dark corridor. He heard a familiar unwanted voice behind him "Beep, Beep Ian". He turned around and saw that he was facing Pennywise. He ran as fast as he could down a hallway that seemed to take forever to reach the end o as it would stretch and stretch and strech. He went down a slide and found himself in a toy room filled with DOLLS. TIME TO PLAY one said as they all began moving towards him led by Chucky while the theme from Child's Play 2. Johnny opened his door and heard a voice imitating the Crypt Keeper say Good evening boils and ghouls. He then saw what he didn't want to see A GRAVEYARD. It was filled zombies coming towards him. Ghosts were floating around. Skeletons and goblins were dancing. Busts were signing. The skeletons were playing a song called "The Skeleton Dance" set to the tune of "Dem Bones. Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones" on fiddles. The signing busts sang"Grim Grinning Ghosts". Johnny tried to sneak through the "animatronics" "actors" and "special effects" in the graveyard to get to the rest of the haunted house but a hand grabbed him from underneath the ground and pulled him in while Johnny tried to dig his hands into the ground in an attempt to struggle while screaming in terror but the effort failed. James opened the door to a dark forest and could hear a voice impersonating Paul Frees from Disney's Haunted Mansion ride say "Welcome Foolish Mortal" He then followed a trail of bread crumbs that led right up to a gingerbread house. This seemed familiar to James but he couldn't put his finger on it. The door opened and a sweet old lady invited him in. Once in her face changed to a dark green color and she had long black hair and a black pointy hat. James was scared stiff and couldn't move as she boiled the cauldron. Once he was in though he went through the other end in blackness. Nate opened the door to Ben's older brother standing there. Surprised to see him he began to greet him but Ben's older brother just began to laugh before fading away into darkness . He then saw images of Halloween's past where Ben's brother tormented them mercilessly. He heard the Fear Master laugh and laugh and laugh. The Fear Master then appeared only instead of his past appearance he now had red skin, horns hooves, a pitchfork, and a tail, "I hope you had fun, oh did I say you I mean me. You see I only wanted you here to make all you pay as Halloween is my holiday after all and I needed to have some fun". "One problem I'm not scared" Nate replied. "Oh really" The Fear Master glanced in his eyes and saw it and showed him the exit door. "Very well you'll find your friends outside". Sure enough his friends met him outside pale as ghosts then they all went home.