Do you like Haunted Houses?

 

Do you enjoy haunted houses or trails? I'm not opposed to them but I had an experience a few years back that still haunts me...

My friends and I visited a haunted house a few hours away from my hometown. There were a variety of activities and one of them included a haunted bus trail. To be perfectly honest, it was my all-time favorite haunted trail ever! Riders climb aboard a retired school bus that has the roof cut off. For fifteen minutes the driver, dressed in costume, takes the bus through a trail in the woods while staff dressed in a variety of costumes try to scare the p%$# out of you. I'm sure for some that's not an exaggeration. The real fun...the bus is traveling at a high rate of speed (at least in the middle of the woods it felt fast). And at the very end the bus is playing chicken with a semi that is on fire...yes, that's what I said...it was on fire. Just when you think you're going to hit head on, the semi verges and goes beside the bus.  The night we went it was pouring rain. We were soaked which added to the theme.

I diverge a bit...

That isn't the experience that has haunted me.

We didn't think anything as we entered into a haunted house--a rickety old place that reminded me of the animated movie The Monster House. At first it felt geared more for kids, but boy was I wrong. We were laughing and having a great time and then we were led through a door and into a dark room, yet, as we continued on the space became smaller and narrower (which wasn't easy for the men in the group who are over six foot). I'm afraid of small spaces. Always have been, at least since I was four and was locked into a shed by a neighbor bully. That's another story. It became so small that we had to get down on our hands and knees and push through the heavy walls...

Okay. I'd had enough. I wanted out. I told my friend who was behind me to "Get the hell out of my way!" I practically tore through that tiny tunnel and ripped through the door followed by my friends who were equally as scared, and paranoid. Along came a masked staff member who rudely told us there was no way back. Sooooo...we had to venture forward. You can probably guess how much I'm panicking at this point. I'm sweating, and feeling like I'm at a cross between crying and vomiting. 

Bravely, with the support of my friends, we all pile back into the room and decide the best thing was to rush as fast as humanely possible. For me, easier because of my size. For the men, not so easy. However, I think we all moved quicker than we ever had before.

We made it out alive. And then the call came...

Then...the scariest aspect...I got a call that my oldest daughter was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She was at a Halloween party walking through a haunted trail with a group of friends when a monster jumped out and scared the girls. They turned and booked it and in the process my daughter was knocked down and trampled on. A foot went into the center of her back, knocking the wind out of her and dislocating her shoulder. Realizing what had happened, the girls went back to help. During the process of trying to pick my daughter up, they knocked her shoulder back into place, but her breathing was still labored and she was in pain. 

And that's why an ambulance was called...

For anyone who has been in a similar circumstance understands there's nothing more frightening then receiving a vague call that your daughter can't breathe and is being rushed to the hospital...and being two hours away. We piled into the car and drove as fast as we could. Scared because we had no clue what was going on with my daughter and freezing because we were soaked. Finally, we made it to the hospital, looking like we're wearing costumes ourselves, to find that she was okay. 

Do you have a scary story to tell?