Broken #3 (The Broken Series - Book #3) (3 page)

“That's cool.”

“I didn't know you had some night
classes.”

He shrugged. “Well, it makes it
easier to train during the day this way.”

I just nodded, feeling awkward
around him.

“Can I give you a ride home
Natalie? It's really late.”

“Nope, I'm okay, but thank you. I
had a good time the other night, by the way.”

“Oh yeah, sure you did. Is that
why you disappeared the next morning?”

I laughed nervously. “Well I'm
not very good in those situations, but I still had fun.”

“Me too; I had fun too. Sorry I
haven't called or anything. I've been busy.”

I shrugged nonchalantly. He
didn't owe me anything, so there was no need to make a big deal out of it.

“Hey, if you're not doing
anything, some buddies and I are heading to that haunted house for a good
scare. Why don't you come with us?”

“Oh really?
Wow, no, you assume I enjoy
having the shit scared out of me, but I don't.”

He laughed. “It'll be fun. You're
not the only one who will get scared.” He winked at me, and I found it
charming.

“I'm tired, Jet. I just want to
go chill out.”

“No, that's a terrible idea. You
can sleep when you're dead. Come on, it will be fun. Trust me.”

“Oh, I definitely don't trust
you, Jet,” I whispered.

He chuckled. “Please? Don't make
me beg. I will get you home promptly after that, I promise.”

I paused, thinking about it. I
couldn't seem to shake this guy, no matter what I did. It wasn't like it was a
date; in fact, his buddies were going to be there, so what was the big deal if
I went? It's not like I was encouraging advances from Jet. We were just
friends, and I was no different than the buddies he was going with ... okay
maybe a little different.

I hoped Kyle wouldn't be there,
though. I got the idea that he didn't like me much. Considering he had been
around on more than one occasion when Jet and I had slept together and seen me
naked, I think we’d met our quota on how much time we should be around each
other.

“Okay, I guess it won't hurt. But
if I pee my pants, you are in big trouble.”

“Right back at you.”

I giggled as I followed him off
campus.

We walked to Jet's car on the
other side of the lot, where Kyle was already waiting. I groaned inwardly as I
had hoped I would not run in to him anytime in the near future. By the look on
his face, he didn't seem too impressed to see me.

“Hey, Jet, what's going on?”

“Natalie, here, decided to join
us at the haunted house.”

“
Ahh
, cool.
Hi,” he said to me.

“Hi, Kyle,
nice
seeing
you again.”

He nodded while he looked down at
his shoes.

“So are we meeting everyone else
there?”

Kyle looked up. “Yeah, they are
meeting us.”

I looked at Jet. “Am I the only
girl going, because I don't want to
intrude.
”

Jet laughed. “Don't be silly.
It's a haunted house; you aren't intruding. But to answer your question, no,
you aren't the only girl. I think one of the guys is bringing his girlfriend,
and there are a few girls from the gym going.
So no big deal,
right?”

I nodded, and we all piled into
the car, Kyle allowing me to have shotgun privileges. I sat in the seat and put
my purse at my feet. I started fiddling with the radio station until I was able
to find some tunes we all liked. It wasn't a very long drive, as the haunted
house was downtown, which was close to school.

When we arrived, Jet found
parking, but it was evident the area was very busy. We climbed out of the car
and saw his friends in a large group. There were some surprised looks on some
of his friends’ faces’ especially the girls’ when Jet walked up to them with me
in tow. Kyle circled us and went to talk to one of the gym girls.

“Hey guys, this is Natalie; she
decided to join us tonight.”

Everyone said hi to me, and Jet
introduced everyone by name so I would know who was who. There were so many of
them that I was sure I would lose all the names anyway.

We all headed to the ticket stand
and bought tickets for the scare house. Jet offered to pay for mine, and I
allowed him to. We then headed to the haunted house.

It was an imposing structure,
much larger than you would anticipate a mobile unit to be. Although it was
imposing from the outside, it looked smaller outside than it did on the inside.
The front of the structure was decorated in blacks, whites, and reds. The red
depicted blood and slaughter, and the drawings were that of madmen, skulls,
witches, and spiders. Although they were harmless drawings, the whole scene
completely
creeped
me out, but I guess that was the
purpose of it.

“Hey, beautiful, are you okay?”
he said it lightly, with humor in his tone.

I looked over at him and smiled.
“Don't start with me, Jet.”

He chuckled. “You don't need to
worry. I will protect you from all the ghouls and goblins.”

“Yeah, well I should probably be
more afraid of you than any ghoul or goblin.”

He winked at me.
“Maybe.”

I looked back at the scare house
as we waited for everyone to get tickets and meet us over there. The haunted
house didn't have the best history, which was probably why people found it so
creepy, and wanted to take the walk for
themselves
. I
didn't like the history; in fact, it was the reason why I didn't want to go in.
Twenty years ago when the haunted house first opened to scare unsuspecting
teens and adults, a twenty-year-old-girl had been raped and murdered inside the
house.

No one had heard her, because the
place had been filled with people running and screaming. It wasn't until the
haunted house closed for the night and they turned on the lights that they had
found her. She had been a young college student with a bright future, and she
was found covered in blood, having been stabbed repeatedly. The weapon was
never found, and forensics had showed that she had been raped right before she
was murdered. The killer had never been found, either, and that was the most
disturbing part of all. They had interviewed everyone who was there that night,
including staff, and they were not able to determine if it was someone who had
gone into the funhouse with her, or whether she had been murdered by a staff
member whose job it was to jump up and scare people.

I shivered at the thought. How
terrible to have been raped and to be
screaming,
and
no one comes to your aid. It was the perfect place to murder someone, because
you couldn't tell one scream from another. Surprisingly, the haunted house
didn't close down after that as was expected; it just grew in popularity. There
were rumors and
legends going around that the killer probably
still worked there and was
in search of his next victim.
Whether the killer had been a staff member or not; that person had
gotten away with it and was still out there in the world, possibly killing
more.

Since the murder, the rules had
changed so that no one was to go into the house alone, and all staff members
had to wear a Go Pro camera, so whatever they did was recorded in the main
office. The owners were determined not to have another murder happen in their
place.

All Jet's friends met in front of
the house, and we went to the ticket guy, who started letting us in two by two
as he took our tickets. Jet clasped my hand in his as it was our turn to go
into the house. He squeezed my hand gently as we walked into the darkness.

The house was set up so that it
was pitch black in hallways, and whenever you came to an opening you could see
different rooms and objects―sometimes even people through lamplight.
Staff workers would often jump out and grab you, or you could turn a corner and
see one just be standing there silently watching you, like the little girl in
The Ring. You never knew what was going to happen, because it always changed.
Every time you entered the haunted house, it was different.

We could hear screams coming from
up ahead, and I wondered what we were about to walk into. I couldn't see a
thing as we navigated a hallway. My heart pounded through my chest and I
clasped Jet's hand even tighter. He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed
it softly.

As we shambled down the hallway,
looking for a way out, I felt something brush against my feet, and I screamed.

“What?!”
Jet yelled.

“Something touched my foot.
There's someone in this hallway.” I was trembling with the idea that someone
could be beside me, and I had no idea what.

“No, it's too tight in here. You
probably just felt a breeze on your leg.”

“I did not just feel a breeze,” I
hissed at him.

Just then, my ankle was grabbed
by a cold hand. I screamed again, let go of Jet's hand, and ran down the
hallway. I needed to get out of there, though I was sure new horrors would find
me right around the corner.

“Natalie, wait! Don't run off.”

I could hear him running after
me. I slowed as I came to an opening that was filled with jail cells. Jet came
up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Holy crap, girl, you are
scaring me worse than this place. Don't run off like that.”

I turned to face him. “Let's just
get through this before I murder you.”

“Alright, fair enough.”

We slowly walked passed the
cells, unsure of what might pop out at us. Just as we were about to leave the
area, something came running at us from inside the cells. What could only have
been described as an insane person, grabbed the bars in front of us, and
screamed while shaking them. It wasn't even a scream; it was more of a wail,
and I screamed and covered my ears. I tried to take another look at the person,
as it was hard to believe that it really wasn't just some crazy person. That
staff member definitely deserved a raise, because I couldn't believe the
behavior was all just an act. We hurried out of the room, only to find
ourselves in another dark hallway. We were about through it, when I heard a
door slam behind us. I turned to look, but all I could see was darkness ahead
of us. There was light, so we quickly moved toward it. All of a sudden, we
heard footsteps hurrying behind us.

“Jet!”
I shrieked. He took my hand and he ran down the hallway
toward the light, with me in tow. It sounded liked the footsteps were growing
closer―that the person was gaining on us. My heart felt like it was going
to burst through my chest, I was so terrified. I held Jet's hand so hard,
hoping he wouldn't let it go for anything. The steps were close now―too
close, in fact. I was sure that the person had to be right behind me. I sensed
that the person had his hand out, reaching toward me, just a fingertip away
from grasping my body or hair, and pulling me to him.

“Jet, get me the hell out of
here.”

We reached the light and we spun
around, but nothing came out of the darkness. The footsteps were gone and even
though we waited to see what had been behind us, nothing came out.

“Holy shit, that was intense,”
Jet said.

“Do you think it was real? Was
someone actually behind us, or was it a recording?”

He shrugged. “You tell me.”

“I don't know, it may be
paranoia, but I could have sworn it was so close that I could hear it
breathing.”

Jet laughed nervously. “Geez,
listen to us. We really are losing it in here.”

There were screams ahead of us
that startled me. Some were bloodcurdling screams, and they made me wonder. I
could definitely see how easy it would be to ignore the screams of a girl being
raped and murdered when everyone around me was screaming. Not to mention having
to deal with your own fear, which was hard to control, and the last thing I
wanted to do was go toward another person's screams. Instinct told me that
whatever was out there making them scream should be avoided at all costs.

The light led us into a
graveyard, which was scattered with open graves and coffins. Jet clasped my
hand once again, and led me around the graves. A moan erupted from one of the
graves we were passing. When we peered inside, I couldn't see much, just a
shadow of a coffin down below. All we could hear was scratching, as if there
was someone inside the coffin who couldn't get out. Then we heard the
whispering, “Help me, please, help me. Don't leave me here.” It was coming from
the closed coffin, followed by those sickening scratching sounds. We started
walking away from the coffin, when I turned to look behind me to see an
axe-wielding madman coming at us. I screamed so loud I thought I might lose my
voice. Jet turned to see what I was looking at, and when he saw the man he
yelled, “Oh shit.”

He pulled me out of the room and
away from the man, who was swinging the axe behind us. As we left the room, the
girls’ whispers turned to full out screams, “Help me!!
Hellllp
me!” as the sound of axe hitting wood was heard.