Terror Towers
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Nia asked. “Remember what happened when we did that corn maze?”
”I memmember.” Myles mumbled. He took another bite of his candy apple. “It’ll be fine. There’re glow in the dark arrows all throughout the tower. We won’t get lost.”
”Nyeh. I guess you already bought the tickets.”
”Yup. Non-refundable.” Myles tossed his trash away. “So are you ready?”
Nia adjusted her witch’s hat. “Let’s go.”
The couple got in line for the attraction. The one perk to the horrifying mansion was freedom from the rapidly dropping temperature. Who said it didn’t get cold in the desert? Nia would have asked for Myles’ coat, but it would have ruined their costumes. It took about ten minutes to get to the front of the line. Myles handed the man their tickets, then they were waved inside.
The first room in the tower was a parlor covered in spiderwebs. Giant plastic arachnids dangled from the ceiling. Myles ducked beneath them as they walked, but Nia didn’t have to.
”Spiders. Spoooooky, huh?” Myles said.
”Not really. Don’t you have spiders on Earth?”
”Yeah, pretty much everywhere. Ever hear of Australia?”
”Everyone’s heard of Australia.” Nia replied.
”I tried living there. Didn’t care for the wildlife.”
They found the door and started up the stairs. The hallway was splattered with red paint and dead bugs, but at least it was better lit than the second floor. The only light in the space came from the neon markers on the ground and those were relatively obscured by the fog machine.
Nia gripped Myles’ arm tighter. “They don’t jump out at people in here, do they?”
“Don’t think so.” Myles said, running into the furniture.
“Uck! It’s sticky.” Nia wiped her hand on the side of the table. “Is it part of the thing or did some kid leave a candy bar here?”
“The world may never know.”
They found the exit and made their way through another crime scene hallway. The third room was set up like a morgue. There were metal tables and a body shape under bloody cloth. The overhead light flickered and swayed.
”Ugh, that thing’s making me dizzy.” Nia said.
“The only way to make it stop is to find the next door.”
“Auuuugggh!” The body on the table started trashing.
“Aaah! Stop it!” Nia squealed.
Myles lifted the sheet off the corpse. “Hello.”
“Raaah!” The boy replied.
Myles dropped the sheet and the actor stopped moving. “How many more rooms?” Nia asked.
“Two more.”
”Okay, I can do this.”
They made their way through another hallway and the cannibal dinner scene where they caught up with three more tower travelers. The five of them entered the last room together. The room was actually the rooftop. Up here, the wind was ten times worse.
“Brrr. Okay, now how do we get down?” Nia asked.
“BOO!” A masked man jumped out from behind the sign.
”Aaah!” The woman in front of them screamed hysterically. She seemed easily excitable.
“The only way to escape the killer is to take the plunge!” The man announced.
”The what?”
“We gotta jump of the roof.” Myles explained.
”Did you know about this?” Nia asked.
”What did you think the slide behind the building was for?”
”I didn’t know there was a slide!”
”Oops.”
The woman in front of them starting crying. “I’m afraid of heights, Jimmy. You know I don’t like heights.”
Nia and Myles looked at each other. “After you.” She said. Myles sat down on the inflatable slide, then pushed off. Nia watched him slide to the little landing pad below. She sat down on the edge. The woman was screaming and waving her hands around. Nia took a deep breath. Given the choice between dealing with these strangers and leaping off a building the decision was obvious. She pushed off and let herself descend rapidly. The wind took her hat and tossed it into the night. She wasn’t getting that back.
Myles was waiting for her at the bottom. “How was it?”
”Cold.”
Myles laughed. “Okay. We’ve done enough of what I wanna do. What do you want to do?”
”I want to go home and watch a movie with my husband.”
”That can be arranged.” Myles smiled.