Let me start off by saying that my mother is an absolute horror fanatic…well, more like horror obsessed. Horror movies, horror shorts and Halloween are her favorite things in the world. I’m sure she never thought we’d have an experience like one.
So in 2013, we went to an outside Haunted Attraction on Halloween Day as we did every year, along with my older sister and my younger twin brothers. It was something our family loved to do that eventually became a tradition. I laughed at how my best friend thought it was so silly to pay people to scare you.
When we arrived, I remembered being very cold even though I had a coat on because it was close to winter time. We went to many of the haunted attractions there which we enjoyed very much until we got to the last one which was being navigated by this tall man dressed up as a woman. I remember his pink dress that went down to his knees, and the long blonde wig he wore while he stood at the entrance letting people in the forest area. I just remember him having a crazy look in his eyes, a wide smile and a hyper personality but then again, they were all actors there and in costume so I just brushed it off.
It was finally our turn to enter but the man in the blonde wig only allowed me and my three siblings through the gate while he held my mom back and taunted her. She laughed, as did I because it was obviously apart of the experience…or that’s what we thought at the time. My sister decided to leave my mother behind because she had an attitude about something else already and the twins followed her, leaving as well. I could have went too but as I looked back at my mom trying to get through but that creepy man still holding her back, it didn’t feel right…even if it was all fake.
My mother was finally let go and we begin walking through the haunted attraction. It was a little scarier for me because I was so use to walking around with a group even if it was with strangers…but this time, it was just me and my mom. There were a few jump scares that we found entertaining but as I laughed after being scared from one, I saw a tall figure following behind us and when I turned around completely, I noticed it was the same man from the gate. I had seen him previously let people in before us and his one and only job is to let people in but instead here he was…lingering closely behind us. I turned to my mom:
“Mom, he’s following us.”
“Who?”
“The tall man dressed as a woman.”
She turns around and sees him too and looks at me with confusing eyes:
“What the hell?”
We continue to walk until he ran up and got in front of us, scaring us horribly as he acted super crazy by laughing and prancing around us. We laughed a bit to take away the awkwardness we felt because he seemed to be really in character but I don’t think my mom thought anything was out of the ordinary at this point because again, their job was to scare us…but things took a turn when he said:
“Hey guys…look what we have over here.” We were confused until at least four or five more creepy dressed up actors came out of the woods surrounding us.
“Destiny, come on!” My mom shouted and laughed a bit trying to grab my hand so we could run ahead of them.
I asked my mom to please stop saying my name because I was starting to feel very disturbed by the overacting by the so called actors. Before we could go anywhere, the man in the blonde wig looked at me with a huge smile on his face after my mother had said my name.
“Destiny. What a beautiful name. Her name is Destiny!” That’s when he and his actor friends started to circle me and my mother while they held hands and skipped around us.
As they chanted over and over again:
“Destiny! Destiny! Destiny!” I covered my ears as the sound got overwhelming and my stomach begin to churn in discomfort. That was the moment when my mom started to feel as if something wasn’t right too. She pushed through the unsettling actors and grabbed my hand as we ran ahead.
I understood being committed to their job but it was just getting too creepy at this point. They wouldn’t stop following us and they wouldn’t stop taunting us. It was like we were just chess pieces in a game to them…like they never wanted to let us go.
Finally, we ran into the last part of the haunted attraction with woods on each side of us but we were just happy that we could see the exit sign and the parking lot so close yet so far…..but we were so terrified to move because part of getting to the exit was getting passed to huge men who were at least 6ft5 each wearing pig masks and holding chainsaws. Chainsaws were always my least favorite part of haunted attractions…
We turned back and saw the pack that followed us through out the entire thing smiling and laughing before turning around and leaving us alone with the two men in front of us. We looked back at the men and they stood so still that they almost seemed like mannequins…but we knew they weren’t.
We held each other so tightly as we moved very slowly in between them and as soon as we got passed their bodies, their chainsaws turned on as we expected them too and we ran as fast as we could. We’re usually slow runners but that night, we were running out of true fear.
When we arrived at the car, we both let out a breath of relief. My older sister who still had an attitude was frustrated at the car waiting along with the twins:
“What took so long?” She said annoyed.
My mom and I gave each other a look before she said:
“We’ll explain in the car.”
On the ride home, I couldn’t stop thinking about how those people basically ruined the Halloween experience by going a little too far and I hated that they knew my name even more.
I don’t know if they were truly crazy or just really good at their job…but I do know, that we are never going back there ever again.
Our ages at the time:
My mom was 38.
My sister was 18.
My brothers were 11.
I was 14.
Author: Destiny C.