So, What's Your Story--------- A Halloween Story

Everyone had stopped what they were doing. Xiaoyu like a graceful dancer on the ladder steps.

“What the hell do you mean ‘we’re locked in‘?” Steve stands for the first time, blue eyes narrowed.

“Like I said, ‘we’re locked in’.” Christie responds not looking up.

Xiaoyu speaks. “This has to be a mistake.” Her voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s not. Believe me.” Christie looks at her. “And the doors aren’t just locked. They’re chained.

“We can bust the glass from the doors.” Julia shakes her head hopefully, sandy brown hair falling in her eyes.

Jin shakes his head, brown eyes looking at her. “The glass is shatterproof. And besides, there’s steel bars across with just enough room for us to not be able to fit between them.”

“Not to mention the chains.” Asuka looks at Jin. “We don’t have anything to cut chains.”

“Damn those thieves. Who the hell wants to steal books anyway.” Steve shakes his blonde head in disgust and wonder.

Asuka puts her hand to her forehead. “It’s not just books to steal in here. There’s computers, duh.”

“Right! Forgot about those.” Steve continues to stand, not in the least bit embarrassed.

“What about if we bust the windows. Wait, those are shatterproof too, right?” Julia asks.

Christie shakes her head yes, long reddish brown hair swaying forward. “Figures.” Julia puts her head on her arms.

“Yeah, it does figure. With the money they get from us from late fees.” Steve says, looking at his hands.

“There has to be something we can do.” Xiaoyu says, standing next to the seated Julia.

“There is. We can use our cells.” Steve moves the bottom of his red t over and reaches in his jeans. “Unless ‘everyone’s’ cells don’t have a signal. I know mine doesn’t.” He stars at his cell.

Jin moves black hair from brown eyes. “I don’t have any bars.” He holds up his phone, confirming.

Hwoarang leans against a tall beige wooden bookcase. “There’s no sense in me even looking. Every time I come here, I never have any.” He shakes his head, eyes closed.

Julia looks up, her hazel eyes not shocked but angry. “Well, I don’t have service here either.” She puts her cell back inside her tan bag on the table.

“This is B. S. My cell isn’t working either.” Xiaoyu looks up with cell in hand.

“Damn the library and it’s insulated walls.” Steve hangs his head.

Asuka shakes her head at Steve. “You know it’s not helping us any, so you’re wasting your time putting the blame on.”

“Yeah, not to mention you’re wasting your air too.” Miharu speaks for the first time since they were locked in. “The windows are locked and shatterproof, so you can’t open them and without any fresh air circulating, we’ll be breathing in carbon dioxide when we do breathe.” Her dark brown eyes looking at no one.

There’s a pause where everyone’s quiet. Then Steve breaks the silence.

“O my gawd!” He runs his hand through his short blonde hair with eyes big. “Are you saying that besides starvation, we have to worry about suffocation?…. This can‘t get any worse. Either way we‘re gonna die.”

Then Miharu speaks again. “You know, I was just messing with you.” She raises a auburn eyebrow at Steve.

All is quiet save Steve’s soft breathing. He turns to Miharu, his blue eyes a contrast to his apple red face.

Julia looks between Miharu and Steve…. Then laughs. “Oooo, she got you Steve.” She leans her head back laughing. “You always try to get us.”

“I wasn’t trying to get Steve.” Miharu says with dark brown eyes on Steve. “In fact, I don’t even know if what I just told you is true.” She shrugs her shoulders with it’s blue t and little pink hoodie.

This time Asuka laughs with Julia. Steve doesn’t say anything, he just walks over to the same bookcase with Hwoarang and takes a seat on the green carpeted floor.

For the next 30 minutes they run throughout the library from corner to corner, but can’t find a crack or dent to try and escape. They finally stop with everyone tired with some seated on chairs and the carpet in silence. Then Asuka breaks it with an idea.

Asuka looks up with a sparkle in her brown eyes. “Hey, we should play a game or something.”

“What? This isn’t the time for games!” Steve looks as if she’s stupid.

Asuka ignores his outburst. “Listen, I was just thinking that since we’re obviously stuck in here for the next 11 hours, and that’s a mighty long time, we might as well make it fun. ‘Or we might lose our minds like some of us are showing signs of‘ She adds under her breath.”

Steve was about to interrupt when Hwoarang speaks. “Suky has a point there. Especially since we have enough to worry about having enough food to last us and all.”

“O my gosh!” Dark brown eyes go huge as Xiaoyu claps her hand over her mouth. “I forgot about food. How did I forget?”

“Maybe because you don’t eat enough as it is.” Hwoarang says matter-of-factly.

Xiaoyu narrows her eyes with hands on yellow skirt clad hips. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said.” Hwoarang doesn’t look up, straightening his purple t and cargos.

Jin looks at Xiaoyu. “Don’t get mad, Xiao, you know it’s true.” She starts to speak, but he interrupts. “He wasn’t being smart I’m sure.”

“He’d better not have been.” Xiaoyu stares at Hwoarang. Hwoarang says nothing and doesn’t look up.

“Okay,” Julia says, “Back to what Suky was saying.

“Thanks Jules. Okay we all need to sit on the carpet.” When no one makes a move, she becomes authoritive.

“I said get ya’ll asses on the floor!” Asuka’s hands on khaki clad hips.

Everyone jumps in fear or surprise, except Christie and Jin.

Asuka looks at everyone who are also looking at her. “Jin scooch closer to Julia so Xiao can sit next to you. Miharu sit next to her and Steve sit next to her…”

“I’m not sitting next to her!” Steve points to Miharu, and she looks up at him, not in the least surprised.

“I figured you’d say that, but I don’t care about your beef with Ru… Sit.” Asuka points to Steve and then the floor.

He does it begrudgingly, sitting cross-legged; Miharu sits the same.

“Yeah, now Christie sit next to Ru then Hwoarang sit next to Christie.” After everyone’s situated, Asuka shakes her head approvingly.

“Now what?” Steve asks not looking up.

“We’re gonna scoot closer together for starts.” Asuka demonstrates with her hands. “And Christie and Jin are gonna scoot a little a part so there’s room for me.”

Once everyone was seated, glances were exchanged from all. The thought going through their heads? Who’s going to tell the first story. Only one person dared to ask the question and it was Asuka, duh.

“Who’s telling the first story?” Asuka asks with hands in her crossed lap.

No one spoke up, but before Asuka could say something, Hwoarang did.

“I say me and Christie go first.” It was quiet then everyone agreed with Hwoarang except Christie.

“You just volunteered me. I’m not telling my story first. I never go first.” Christie shakes her head.

“I know you well enough to know you never go first in anything. What I meant is, we have a story to tell together.” He smiles at her.

Christie skeptically looks at him, then speaks. “And what might that be?”

His smile gets bigger. “Does ‘Haunted Factory’ ring a bell?”

“Yeah…” Christie trails off looking at Hwoarang.

“Yeah.” He nods and winks. “You think they’ll find this interesting?”

“I think so. But it’s kinda scary, but more-so unsettling.” Christie looks at her hands.

“Well, is that okay with ya’ll?” Hwoarang looks around their tight little circle.

There’s a chorus of ‘yeah’ and a ‘story time’ from Asuka.

“Okay.“ Christie takes a breath. “You ready Hwo?”

“Yeah.” He nods.

“Okay, it was last Halloween and me and Christie were at ‘HalloweenFest’ at 3 Flags (A/N- lol, I had to make something up) and…” And Steve interrupts.

“And what were you and Christie doing at HalloweenFest? Together?” All eyes are on Hwo.

“Well, we went with my bro and his girl.” Hwo hadn’t expected that question.

“And why were ya’ll with your brother and his girl? I mean there was one couple and one non-couple?” Xiaoyu asks with a smile.

“That’s right. You gonna help me Christie?” He looks to her.

“Nope, you got yourself into this.” She moves hair from her eyes.

“Okay, well I guess ya’ll might as well know.” Hwoarang rubs his neck.

“Know what?” Julia asks with a knowing smile.

“That me and Christie are going out. Happy now?” He asks them.

“That’s not something new. We already knew that.” Julia shakes her head.

“What? How?” Now Hwoarang is interested.

“O come on.” Xiaoyu rolls her eyes. “Like when another guy asks her out, you get this strained look in your face like..” And Steve interrupts.

“Like you’re taking a shit!” And Steve falls over on Christie who shoves him.

Julia and Asuka laugh too, but stop when Xiao gives them and Steve a look. “Ignore Steve.” Xiao tells Hwo.

“I was gonna say a strained look in your face like you’re gonna pop a blood vessel…” She’s interrupted again by Steve.

“Same thing!” And he laughs again. Hwo makes and attempt to get up but is pulled back down by Asuka.

Xiao fixes Steve with a look. “Stop interrupting me.”

“You’re lucky you little pissant!” He narrows his eyes at Steve.

“Pisser is more like it.” Miharu says from next to Steve. Everyone is more than shocked by her, again. Steve stares at her but says nothing.

“I’m gonna continue. Okay? So everybody shut up.” Xiao looks around the circle. “And the way she looks at you for help, like what should she say to them.”

All around heads are nodding at the revealing of the not-so-secret info.

“Wow now that that’s over with, don’t interrupt while we’re telling our story.” He gestures to he and Christie.

“No more interruptions, Hwo.” Asuka shakes her head.

Christie looks around. “This is a true story. Remember that. When we‘re done, you‘ll probably remember hearing about this. But hearing is different from living it.”

“Okay, it was last Halloween and me and Christie were at ‘HalloweenFest’ at 3 Flags with Jae and Angela. It was supposed to be scary you know….” Hwoarang pauses.

Christie starts. “Yeah it was scary, but it got more scary as we went deeper inside. That's when we realized we were 'really' on our own…”

“Boy is it dark.” Angela looks around. “ I’m glad I suggested we wear the pretty orange glow in the dark fabric paint.” She flips her black shoulder length ponytail back from her black t.

Christie, Hwoarang and Jae look from their black matching t’s and black long sleeved under shirts, to Angela’s lightly tanned face and they know they made the right decision the first time, not telling her they’d rather not have their names glowing orange across their chest and back.

“I’m glad too, babe.” Jae hugs her.

“So ya’ll really like the shirts?” Her gray eyes are big.

“Of course, Angela, or we wouldn’t be wearing them.” Christie says with a smile.

“Great.” Angela puts her hands together then to her gray sweat pants. “You know, I just wish we could’ve worn matching orange pants like Christie. She was really in the Halloween spirit.”

She walks ahead of them with Christie next, then Hwoarang and Jae.

“Yeah Christie, you are in the Halloween spirit.” No one answers or comments to Hwoarang, and Angela’s too far ahead to hear. “Like we really wanted to wear our names on the front and backs of our shirts. What the hell? Now not only do we have to worry bout the guys in the haunted houses over hearing our names, but all they have to do is see our orange names glowing in their faces.”

Jae slaps Hwoarang in the back of his head. “Don’t be insinuating anything about my girl, Hwo.”

So we made our way to a line for a haunted building that was about a 30 minute wait without further scene. Then before long it was our turn to go inside.

“Okay everyone, remember to keep your hands on the shoulder of the person in front of you. Don’t let go, cuz you could get lost from your group and this area is like a maze with mass dead-ins; it could take a while before you find your missing group member.” Says the man at the entrance dressed like a doctor from the frontal lobe lobotomy times with fresh and dried fake caked blood on his face, neck and hair.

We listen and nod our heads in understanding. He puts us with 2 other people, a couple with matching platinum blonde hair.

As we head inside, the medieval doctor stops Christie. “Remember to not let go of the shoulder of the person in front of you, cuz we wouldn’t want anything bad to happen. Would we?” Christie stares at the doctor in uneasiness that turns to ‘a yeah right’ attitude.

Hwoarang’s POV

Angela leads the way, followed by Christie, then me, Jae, the girl and the guy bringing the rear. I had to give it to Angela, she didn’t remotely show fear of any kind. I have to say, I didn’t like what the doctor outside said to Christie. Something tells me that he wasn’t just acting his part of scaring us, rather he wasn’t kidding at all. I didn’t tell anyone, cuz they’d just say I was letting things seem real.

We made our way down a short hallway that let out into a big ass room. The lights were flickering on and off every second that you only got a quick glimpse of what was around you. The music was in the sound of a fearful heartbeat, loud as a plane takeoff. But in between the heartbeat a scream could be heard, never in any order so you couldn’t be sure it’s origins whether from soundtrack or person.

Just those 3 factors made you want to turn around and leave through the entrance, but you couldn’t because the door is shut . But I have this feeling it’s not just shut, but locked too so you can’t escape the inevitable; we’re not gonna make it out. Right now my group would say that my mind’s just imagining things, but I tell you I’m not.

We pass a few feet from the entrance, and still no action. I’m not in a hurry for it, either. Then about a foot away to our left, we 6 see a man or something that more so resembles big foot who’s dancing with his back to us. We’re so distracted that we don’t see a man coming up to us with the top of his head removed. All you can see is his brain; his eyes narrowed, and frowning, hollering ‘I told you no! I told you no!’ over and over again. He passes us heading towards the entrance as if he never even noticed us. I grip Christie’s shoulders involuntarily causing her to wince.

The 6 of us pass further on down where we come to an area of narrow proportions. As soon as I see the chain-link fence, more fear seeps in. Angela makes a turn and we’re at the entrance of the narrow way. I jump when I hear a voice that’s so close to my right ear that it feels like it’s whispering. I’m almost too scared to turn… but I do and I almost instantly regret doing so. It’s a man wearing orange overalls with no eyes. Cocking his black haired head ever-so-slightly back and forth; staring at me through the chain-link fence. Without hesitating, he lunges at the fence, trying to reach his arms through, to grab me.

I holler, jumping away when I see ‘him’ again, the man with the missing top of his head, but this time he’s not passing us; he stares directly at us. Christie screams, letting out all the fear she had inside. ‘He’ pulls his left hand from behind himself very fast, causing even Angela to jump. ‘He’ zero’s in on me, and swings the biggest meat cleaver I’ve ever seen… at my head. I duck and just in time; the meat cleaver hits the fence where the eyeless man is with a loud rattling sound.

I try to stand and see that Christie and Angela ran off… somewhere. The words of the doctor pop into my head ‘Remember to not let go of the shoulder of the person in front of you, cuz we wouldn’t want anything bad to happen. Would we?’

‘He’ swings the meat cleaver again, this time with me falling backwards into Jae. Jae doesn’t speak, just tries to stand me up. I fall back again when ‘he’ swings again. I holler and run. In my fear, I leave Jae behind in the same fashion Christie and Angela left us.

I have no idea where I’m going. My heart is beating so hard and fast. I can’t breathe. I turn corner after corner, not running into Angela or Christie. I hear a scream, then another, then two overlapping each other. O gawd, I feel like crying. I’m surprised I haven’t. I turn another corner and run into a dead-end. I hear someone or something come up behind me. I’m so scared I don’t turn around. When they don’t touch me, I turn and see Christie. I’m so relieved that I don’t move, neither does she. Then she runs forward, grabs me and pulls me with her back out the way we came, leaving the dead-end behind. I hear another scream and another, but we run into a couple other people after a few turnings of corners. We notice that none of them are screaming. We run through more narrow chain-link fenced hallways. Backing out of a few dead-ends along the way. After a few turns we run into the eyeless man from the fence again.

He speaks for the first time. “Girl, Girl, Girl, Girl” and then louder “Girl! Girl! Girl! Girl!” He points to Christie. We back up from him.

Then the doctor steps from behind the plastic used to hang up meat in meat packing plants. “She’ll do just fine.” He licks his lips.

Christie’s POV

“No.” It comes out weak, above a whisper. I grab Hwoarang’s hand and run through another narrow fenced hallway. I can’t hear anything, not even footsteps if the eyeless man and doctor if they were following us. I can only hear the loud heartbeat soundtrack. Halfway down the narrow way, I hear a scream. I’d heard it so many times before that I’d thought it was part of the soundtrack. But this is a living nightmare. Those screams are real, I know that now.

I stake a glance behind Hwoarang and see the eyeless man behind us, about a foot, not in a hurry at all. Then I know why, they know we’re not gonna make it out of here.

We go through a few more fenced hallways till we come to another clearing, as big as a room. One thing I know is that I’m not going out without a fight.

We run and run, ducking between hanging plastic here and there. Finally, we run into the platinum blondes. None of us talk, but we stay together; we know there’s strength in numbers. After running and ducking we come across two people we were worried about. Angela and Jae. They’d slowed down for a guy to catch up with them. Hwoarang tried hollering, but they didn’t hear. Then I tried, and they did. We didn’t have time to hug, just kept on running with the hope we’d find our way out.

We turn another corner and jump over a girls body. I can’t tell if it’s a real body or a prop.

I see a white light up ahead and say so. We run for it. Angela, Jae, the guy and the girl and her guy made it through the door to freedom and safety… we didn’t. In front of us was ‘him’, behind us was the eyeless man and the doctor.

I turn behind me and see the doctor. In front the eyeless man was licking his lips while looking at me. ‘He’ had his meat cleaver ready as if waiting for the orders from the doctor.

Hwoarang’s POV

If this was under better circumstances and I hadn’t have been ready to piss my pants, I’d have laughed.

I used all my weight to run forward, knocking the eyeless man to the ground. I pull Christie with me; the eyeless man tries to grab her ankle. She kicks out and connects with his side. He doesn’t cry out.

‘He’ throws his meat cleaver at us; it falls short. I hear the sound of it hitting the ground. We run. I look over my shoulder and see the doctor. Running with his legs splaying out from his body, carrying a hatchet I hadn’t see before.

Oddly enough, we also hear him. “No! Come back! Come back! Please! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!”

We never stop running, even after we’re a yard away, and safer with our group.

A man who’s shift at the ‘Haunted Factory’ was over when we were first going inside, stops the 6 of us.

“You do know that that was a fake body?” He lifts an eyebrow. We look between each other, then back to him. “Our whole scripts are to try and scare you the best we can. But ya’ll got it the worst. If you’d have went in with 2 people, you wouldn’t have gotten scared like that.” He drops his cigarette, stomps on it and walks away.

“He’s right you know. We didn’t get scared by them as much as ya’ll did.” The platinum blonde girl says.

“Yeah.” Her boyfriend agrees.

Nevertheless, we still stay together. We turn around and see the girl that was the body on the floor of the ‘Haunted Factory’ close to the door. She has all the blood on her and smiles at us as she walks by.

We look at each other and laugh. It wasn’t real. Nothing but part of their scripts. Boy did we look foolish.

We make our way to the entrance, not bothering to stay the rest of the time. The couple walks with us, even though we didn’t come together. I guess fear can bring people together. We make it to the entrance the same time as police rush by. We stop.

“What happened?” Jae asks a female officer.

“2 people were killed at the attraction ‘Haunted Building’. 2 girls.” He rushes by with the CSI and the Coroner in tow.

Jae looks at us, we look at him. So those screams weren’t fake. It wasn’t just an attraction.

We make our way, silently to the parking lot where we leave in separate cars after a brief last look at each other; survivors of a nightmare.

Christie looks around the circle. “We never even knew that couples name.”

Everyone was quiet, more shocked than knowledge of being locked in.

“I remember hearing that on the news, but they never told exactly what happened.” Xiaoyu says from beside Jin.

“Didn’t they close that park down?” Julia asks with hazel eyes shocked.

“Yeah. They said they weren’t ever going to open it up again. In fact, they caught the people in charge of the attraction, the park and workers of both. They did find out who did it.” Hwoarang says looking at Christie.

“I heard they used parts of those girls to eat. The police found out those 3 men did that in other parks across the country.” Xiaoyu looks at her hands and wrings them together.

“They did. Over 60 girls were killed throughout the country by them. They said that they killed girls only because the meat was more soft and tender.” Christie shudders in remembrance of the nightmare. Hwoarang rubs her shoulder.

“Let’s get off of that, shall we?” Christie glances around the circle.

Hwoarang nods at her, then fixes his brown eyes on the others. “Who’s next?”