Page 25 of Things Get Dark
House of the Damned
By Katherine Isaac
Chapter One
The waning crescent moonshone against the darkness of the sky, illuminating the trees surrounding Treglyn Manor in an eerie glow. I locked my car and tucked the key into the zip-up pocket I’d sewn into my cheap costume skirt, and a chill ran through me. Goosebumps raised the tiny hairs along my arms, and I pulled my great-great-grandmother’s velvet cloak tighter around my shoulders. Hopefully she wouldn’t curse me from the afterlife for using it as an accessory to a store-bought witch costume that barely covered my arse, but at least it was out of the attic. I was the snuggliest slutty Sanderson sister.
Electric lanterns, designed to look like flickering flames, lined the path from the car park to the visitor centre at the edge of the manor grounds. The estate was huge, with over ninety acres of gardens surrounding the seventeenth-century mansion, though originally, the land spanned in the tens of thousands. Pieces of the land had been sold off over the centuries until the local council preserved the remaining area as a historical site. Ideal for school outings, historical recreations, film sets, and mostimportantly, one of the best Halloween festivals in the country: The Treglyn Manor Night of Horrors. After all, there’d been more than a few mysterious deaths on the ground over the past four-hundred years, starting with the original owner, William Treglyn. Lovers of the supernatural were just as obsessed with this place as historians.
The best part about the Treglyn Manor Night of Horrors was that it was a strictly adults-only event. It made the tickets pricey as hell and quick to sell out—this was the first year I’d been quick enough to snag a pair—but it was worth it to have more macabre attractions and not have to worry about running into a crying child.
Ornately gilded gates were propped open, welcoming guests to the ticket booth inside. A bass line thumped from the festival grounds beyond, while distant screams and laughter mingled in an excited harmony I couldn’t wait to join.
A familiar figure next to the gates waved me over, and I beelined to my date for the night. Over the past few weeks, I’d made a pact with my sister, Lena, to try app dating a bit more seriously, in an attempt to get our cancer-ridden grandmother off our backs about being husbandless cat ladies. Lena’d had mixed matches that ultimately hadn’t made it past the first date, but somehow, I’d found Andy. We’d bonded over the anxieties of filling out a dating profile and had a few classic, slow-burn dates: coffee, action-comedy film and drinks, then we graduated to dinner just two nights ago.
Unfortunately, dinner hadn’t gone great. Between uninspiring conversations and an unnecessary complaint to the manager, I honestly hadn’t intended to see him again. But when Lena had been forced to work tonight, destroying our Halloween plans, I’d given Andy another chance. Maybe it was fate that Lena couldn’t join me, and an activity was what we needed to strike a spark.
Mutual online terror had brought us together, so maybe we just needed potentially life-ending fears of the supernatural for us to seal the deal.
Yep, that was the goal tonight. If anything could get me to like a man, despite overwhelming levels of boredom, it was sex. With that, Andy could last up to a year in my life. Long enough for Nana to kick it, happy in the knowledge that at least one of her granddaughters wasn’t going to die alone. As the last of our family, it was the least we could do for her. And it would be easy to get in the mood at a Halloween festival. I’d always gotten a little turned on by horror movies ever sinceScream. Damn Matthew Lillard.
“Hey there, Hazel. I almost didn’t recognise you dressed in that.” Andy looked me up and down, forcing a smile as he took in the costume. “I didn’t think you were serious about costumes.”
I eyed him curiously. Not off to a great start. “Why wouldn’t I have been serious? I mean, it’s Halloween.”
Despite making it to a fourth date, Andy had become more of a buzzkill every time I saw him. He’d really fooled me into thinking he was fun and “always up for adventures”, like he’d put on his profile. But I guess he’d just suppressed his beige-personality for our first two dates. He’d started letting it out after the cinema date last week, and now he was finally comfortable enough to be his bland self. The human equivalent of boiled chicken and rice. At least he was comfortable around me. That was sort of a compliment. Maybe halfway to sex. Nana would be proud.
The ticket clerk was a petite zombie girl in an Alice dress, with perfect blond ringlets and a raspy voice like she’d smoked forty a day for the past decade. She scanned the QR code on my phone and fastened our red fabric wristbands. They had the words ‘Treglyn Horrors’ sewn across them in a shiny, black thread. I was definitely scrapbooking that later.
“Okay, here are your wristbands,” she rasped, her maniacal grin enhanced by her makeup. “You’re booked on the last tour of the manor at ten thirty. We ask everyone to please arrive five minutes before the start time, so there’s no delay. Just follow the gravestones if you get lost. Have fun!”
We thanked her, then headed down the path towards the festival. The music became louder with every step, and my hands shook with barely contained excitement.
“Ah, wait! Stop a second!” Andy pulled me over to a lantern, frowning down at me. “Okay, stay calm. There’s a spider on your shoulder. Just stay still.”
He tugged the sleeve of his jumper down over his hand and leaned in slowly, never taking his eyes off my shoulder. But before he could flick it away, I pulled my cloak across my chest a little and gently cupped a hand around the spider. It was big, at least by UK standards, but I waited for it to move. Nice and easy.
I’d never been scared of traditionally spooky animals. The major animal phobias, like snakes and spiders, never really made sense to me. They were different-looking, no denying that, but they were just creatures. I wouldn’t mess around with anything venomous, but in the UK? Chances were good that I’d be fine.
Andy gasped, shuffling away as the spider confidently stepped onto my fingers and stayed still. Almost like it was happy to sit there.
“There you are,” I cooed, placing my hand next to a tree and waiting for my new friend to move. “Off you go. I’ve already got a cat waiting for me back home.”
After a few heartbeats, the spider climbed up the bark, and I quickly lost sight of it in the darkness. Turning back to Andy, I smiled. “All sorted.”
He shook his head, something between disgust and amazement lacing his features. “This is already such a weird night.”
I could barely contain my glee as I bounced on my heels. “I know. Isn’t it perfect?”
We headed into the festival covering the largest of the manor’s gardens. Smoke machines quietly released a low fog, obscuring the ground and adding to the spooky atmosphere. We entered the crowd, and the scent of popcorn and fresh doughnuts filled the air. Various striped tents, game booths, and rides covered the land, each decorated with hanging lights that shone through the fog, as well as a selection of jack-o’-lanterns, rubber bats, orange and black balloons, and cotton spiderwebs. Large fake headstones with painted cracks and moss dotted the gaps between booths, listing directions to the bigger attractions.
We followed a headstone towards the rear garden’s haunted hedge maze, only stopping to make a note of where the bar was and which snacks to get afterwards. I felt I was going to need the sugar rush of a toffee apple before the manor tour later.
The screams became louder as we approached the hedge maze, interspersed with animal roars and… were those chainsaws? A screaming cheerleader dived out of the maze, tripping on the grass and scrambling to her feet. She didn’t look behind her as she continued to run, and then I saw what was chasing her: a beefy man in a bloodied hockey mask. Classic. He waved a prop chainsaw around wildly, and I noticed it didn’t have a real blade attached. However, the noise sounded terrifyingly realistic, especially in the dark.
“This is so cool!” I practically bounced on the spot. “Are you ready to go in?”
“Yeah, let’s go for it.”