It was nearly Halloween when Taemin decided to drag his boyfriend and a group of their friends to the local haunted house attraction.

The reviews were fantastic and Taemin was dying for a chance to really get scared stupid. Or at least he hoped that he’d get minimally frightened.

His all time favourite one had been in Japan. While  he had still laughed his way through most of it, the house had reduced his friend Kibum to tears.

A thing even more hilarious than the bad acting and obvious ‘EXIT’ signs.

When the group of five arrived at the location, they were interested to see that there wasn’t a huge line.

“Maybe its lame.” Minho said, disappointed. He’d really hoped that just one time he could see Taemin scared.

“Or maybe its so terrifying that no one is brave enough to enter.” Jonghyun said, grinning at the horrified expression on Kibum’s face.

“Stop scaring Kibum.” Jinki said, swatting Jonghyun, “You’re not the one who has to go home with him at the end of the night.”

Jonghyun laughed at Kibum’s disgruntled face.

Taemin bounced as he walked towards the decrepit building. “Come on!” He whined when he noticed his friends all lagging behind him.

Walking up to the door, they handed a bored looking man with shaggy hair their money.

A shiver went down Taemin’s spine as he walked in.

“Spooky.” He teased Kibum who had tucked himself in close to Jinki. Holding Minho’s hand, he led the group on.

Dry ice and dim lighting set the mood for a spooky atmosphere. People in costumes danced by in the shadows, one minute there, the next gone.

Light glinted off of the supposed weapons in their hands, their evil laughs bouncing off the walls around them.

Actors in costume moved closer and back away again, coming out of the shadows to prove that anyone could be hiding anywhere.

‘Dead’ bodies lay on the floor, piles getting larger the further in they walked.

The metallic smell of copper and fake blood was thick and the sticky puddles they tried to avoid clung to their shoes.

People screamed in the distance, warnings for them to run, to escape with their lives while they still could.

Kibum whined and wanted to leave.

“Don’t be such a wuss.” Jonghyun said, helping Jinki tug the younger along. “Its just a stupid haunted house thing, not real.”

“Don’t care, don’t like it.” Kibum muttered.

Minho had to agree, even though he didn’t find it all that scary, there was just something making him uncomfortable. “Maybe he’s right.” His voice dropped below a whisper in Taemin’s ear. “Something just doesn’t feel right.”

Taemin sighed drawing to a halt. His heart was beating fast, it was the best haunted house he’d been in and it didn’t even seem like anything was happening.

He turned to look at Kibum.

His friend was shaking, tears flowed down his face and his sniffles were clear, loud over the sound track playing in the background.

“Fine.” He sighed, “Minho and I can always come back another night.”

Minho looked very much like he didn’t want to come back another night, but he agreed anyways. Anything to get them out of that place before Kibum had a complete meltdown.

“But we’re probably half way through.” Kibum said, suddenly feeling like he was letting his friends down.

“Its fine.” Taemin said, moving closer to Kibum so he could see his smile. “Honestly it wouldn’t be fun if you’re too scared. We’ll go back the way we came, since we already know what to expect.”

The way back seemed twice as long as they moved slowly to the entrance. Taemin was disappointed, but his friend was more important.

“No refunds.” The man at the entrance said when they finally reached the beginning.

“That’s fine.” Jinki said, “We just want to leave.”

Looking at them with a bored, unamused expression, the man let them pass.

“Is it really scary?” A young woman asked as she clutched her boyfriend, waiting for their turn to enter.

“Terrifying.” Kibum said, still clinging to his two older friends.

“Whatever.” The girl’s boyfriend said, unconvinced as he pulled her into the attraction.

Taemin pouted, disappointed at his misfortune of finally finding a scary house and having to leave before he finished it. He was soon pacified by the promise of booze, pizza and horror flicks.

He scraped fake blood off his shoes with every step.

The next morning, the youngest woke to a pounding headache on the hardness of Jinki and Kibum’s apartment floor.

Everyone had decided to crash there at the end of the night, too much booze inhibiting them to walk home.

On the television screen played a news report. Kibum sat on the couch watching it with wide eyes.

Taemin moaned, clutching his head as he sat up. “What’s wrong?” He asked his friend, scooting himself over to lean against the couch.

“Look.” Kibum pointed at the screen.

The news reporter was live on location at the very same haunted house they had been only hours before.

“And in local news, a local haunted house attraction was found to be the home of a gruesome mass murder.” Body bags lined the ground and what appeared to be the entire Seoul police force was gathered on the grounds.

The two boys stared in silence as a girl, covered in a blanket saturated in what appeared to be blood, appeared from the building.

“She went in when we left.” Jinki’s voice came from the doorway.  His face was pale as he watched her stagger out, clutching what appeared to be a large male hand in her two smaller ones. A police officer had to pry it away and she was dragged away screaming.

“It appears that what started out as innocent Halloween fun went horribly wrong as nearly a dozen escaped criminally insane inmates infiltrated the attraction. By the state of things, the criminals had been in control of the building for at least three days.”

“Three days!” Kibum hissed, “that means…” his voice trailed off.

“We almost died.” Jonghyun said, his face a sickly green tinge that wasn’t due to his hangover.

A thought jumped into Minho’s mind and he was on his feet in a shot and back almost as quick.

Holding onto two random shoes, he showed off his findings.

Both soles were covered in blood.

“Everyone is the same.” Minho deadpanned, “All covered.”

Taemin felt bile rising in his throat.

The piles of bodies they thought were fake, had all been real.

The last thought Taemin had before his eyes rolled back and he fainted was, that haunted house really was the scariest he’d even been too, making it very fitting to also be the last one he ever went to.

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For the wonderful RaichuLove who suggested the haunted house really be full of crazy people....

Yeah, this is really going to help me sleep at night... I really should be writing these in the day....

Oh well, Halloween is tomorrow (for some of us at least) which really should bring this to an end... although I still have a couple of stories I'd like to do, so I may extend it a bit past Halloween ....

What do you guys think?

Should I make tomorrow the last day or should I finish out my ideas?

Comments are always well loved!

Loves Kat