Wanted

Two hours later, they were on their way to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to Fear Forest. Somehow, Jimmy had heard about this place and he’d wanted to go immediately.

“Why not go to one in California?” Wiki asked Jimmy from the backseat.

They were currently on I-81 heading south towards Harrisonburg. On either side of them were huge fields, disappearing in the fading sunlight. They’d been on the road for what felt like forever, but the signs kept getting closer and closer. Jimmy took the exit, slowing down from the 70 miles per hour that the highway allowed.

“We’ve been to every haunted place within a hundred miles of Huntington, and I promise you, they’re all boring. I want to see what the East coast has to offer!”

Jimmy took the right beside the Sheetz gas station that Eliza pointed out and went through the next light. At the next light, they took another right, seeming to go through a residential neighborhood. A few seconds later, a major development area came into view, as well as the North 38 apartments. They kept going, finally seeing signs for “Fear Forest” planted along the road.

They pulled into a small gravel parking lot and found a space. Climbing out, Eliza shook with cold. She’d warmly dressed, but she froze at the sight of some of the guys not wearing big enough jackets.

The East coast was always colder this time of year, and especially in the Shenandoah Mountains. She remembered coming down with Katie one time to go onto the Blue Ridge Parkway; she’d never seen anything more beautiful, but at the same time, the weather was completely ridiculous.

They made their way to the “gate” and went through after telling the guard how many people were in their party and paying for their tickets. They waited for the large tractor pulling the wooden-walled almost cage-like carriage. They climbed in, facing each other on two of the four rows available.

Eliza put her feet up between Zacky and Katie on the hay bale, and laughed with excitement. Seconds later, a loud “thwack” was heard and everyone in the wagon hushed, listening. Suddenly, two figures started reaching down to touch people from the top of the wooden slats. Jimmy hollered, but they all laughed, knowing he wasn’t really scared.

When they reached their destination, Eliza was kind of disappointed at how cheap it looked. A giant skull archway was lit up in the center of nowhere, a fire pit to the left, a concession stand located behind that. To the right of the archway, there were two tents set up. One of them was information on the Fear Forest, and the other was an open coffin that you could get into to see what it was like. A line was forming into the mouth of the door below the skull. They immediately made their way to the line.

“Anyone want some hot chocolate?” Val asked, signaling to the concession stand.

“Hell yeah,” Eliza and Thomas said at the same time. They laughed at each other and missed the weird look Brian gave them.

All around them, different characters were coming up to scare unsuspecting people in line. The guy in the clown mask tried to come and scare Val while she was standing in line, but she just looked at him. Matt and Eliza were the only ones to laugh, as they had been watching her. The guy with the mask that was part troll and part Freddy Kreuger tried to scare Zacky and when he just laughed at the guy’s attempt, no one had bothered their group again.

Cold, Eliza moved to the fire pit, finding an open area. A few seconds later, Zacky walked up. Zacky stood rocking back and forth on his heels, feeling the heat from the fire.

“I know, you know,” he said as Eliza sipped her hot chocolate.

“Why does that not surprise me?” she asked.

“Actually, it should, considering the fact that Brian hasn’t told anyone. Matt, Johnny, and I know, but we’re keeping it from Jimmy, Katie, and Val.”

“You’re lying to your girlfriend?” Eliza asked, faking astonishment.

His blue-green eyes found hers in an annoyed gaze. She apologized and smiled.

“We just understand what you guys are going through. We don’t want you two to be apart. We know that the rest of them want you guys to take a break, but we think it’ll make things worse if you guys don’t talk.”

“How do you know, then?”

“Because I know Brian, and I know that every once in a while when he picks up his phone and smiles, it isn’t because of another girl. When he leaves the bar early, complaining that he’s ‘tired’, he’s not really tired. He’s not sick; he would rather be away from us and talking to you.”

Eliza was about to reply, but Thomas hollered from the line. She looked to see the line was moving, and they moved back to take their places with their friends. For the next ten minutes, they played rock paper scissors to see who would go first. Finally, Matt told them he would go, and the game ended just as they reached the entrance.

They all handed the woman their ticket and moved through the doors. The room was pitch-black, and it took Eliza a minute to realize they were in a hallway-type of maze. The walls were barely big enough for Eliza to stand regularly. She almost had to twist sideways to go through them, and she realized everyone wasn’t moving very fast.

“I can’t fucking walk in here!” Matt hollered from the front.

“Stop working on your tits the next time you’re at the gym!” Johnny hollered from somewhere in the middle and everyone laughed.

“I don’t think my dick can fit through here,” Zacky said, making everyone laugh again.

After minutes of antagonizing pushing and shoving, they were finally free, and they were deep in the woods. Funny, it hadn’t seemed like they went that far, but maybe there were a lot of trees at the edge of the woods. Ahead of them, Eliza squinted to see what was coming. Tombstones lined the ground, and an evil laugh was heard all around them.

From every direction, clowns were descending upon them. Some had axes and some were covered in blood. Eliza felt a hand grab hers, and she looked beside her to see Wiki walking with her head down. She had a death grip on Eliza’s hand, and she squeezed back.

“Don’t act like you’re afraid and they’ll leave you alone,” she whispered to Wiki who nodded.

One of the clowns started dancing as they got closer, and Zacky imitated it, making the group laugh. The clowns backed off, and they continued on their walk.

The rest of the way through the maze was pretty uneventful. Jimmy rolled his eyes at the spider room, asked if he could join the psych house, and even Zacky rolled his eyes at the military room. So far, it wasn’t all that great.

Coming around a curve, someone jumped from behind a headstone, and everyone seemed to jump. Val and Katie even screamed, but Eliza just moved back a step, into someone. She turned, apologized to Brian, but was momentarily frozen as he smiled at her. She smiled back and turned to follow her friends, but in front of her was a guy with a chainsaw. She hadn’t heard anything, mostly because he hadn’t cut it on, but as soon as she faced him, he revved it up, earning an ear-splitting scream from her.

She backed into Brian, who put his arms on her shoulders to keep her from falling. When she looked up again, the guy had moved on to the group behind them. Eliza stared after him for a minute, and then ran to catch up with the group. She linked her arm through Katie’s, warming up her hand.

“Man, fuck this place,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I fucking hate chainsaws. I almost pissed my pants.”

“I think I did,” Eliza whispered, and they both laughed.

They kept walking, and Eliza wanted to take a look at Brian. Turning her head, she saw a person walking behind them, in between them and Johnny and Brian. She said something to Katie, and mentioned how cool it would be if he held their hand, so Katie reached out and grabbed the guy’s hand. He walked with them a good ways until he just disappeared into the woods.

“What the fuck,” Katie said, looking around.

The group had paused, because in front of them was this redneck Twinkie-sized silver trailer. The door was open, and there was a shotgun leaning against the door. They paused a minute, and when they realized they were behind, they ran to catch up. Just as they were a few steps away, the guy with the chainsaw came back, and this time he was coming right for Eliza and Katie. Being closest to him, Katie was his direct target.

It was almost like something out of a movie; at the same time he went down to swing the chainsaw around her feet, she jumped up a foot in the air, over the chainsaw. Of course, she knew there were no chains on it, but it still scared the shit out of her. In fact, it scared her so bad that her fist flew out and connected with the guy’s face. He staggered back a bit, his chainsaw cutting off.

“You wanna go, motherfucker?” she screamed, bucking up to him.

“Yeah, I want you to go,” he growled at her.

He pulled a string, starting the chainsaw back up, and Katie ran. She ran right through the small trailer and out the other door, waiting for the others to catch up.

“This place is the shit,” Jimmy whispered to Brian, as they headed for an abandoned school bus.

“Oh God,” Val said, groaning.

“What?” Johnny asked.

“I swear to God if the ‘Jeepers Creepers’ guy is here, I’m going to shit a brick.”

“At least you won’t shit a head,” Jimmy said, and Val rolled her eyes at him.

The all boarded the bus cautiously. There were people, or dummies, sitting in a few of the seats. They were all wearing nothing but black clothing, maybe capes, and plain white masks. Eliza tried to make herself as small as possible, hoping nothing would happen. She was almost at the end of the bus when Val screamed. Turning around, she saw a figure standing beside Val. Relieved, Eliza turned back around, to see a guy in front of her. She screamed again, and tried to back away. Unfortunately, she hit the side of the emergency door, and she twisted around, falling from the exit.

Thankfully, Matt was there to catch her as she fell off the walkway down to the ground.

“Holy fuck,” she breathed as she regained her balance.

“Holy crap, are you okay?” the guy that scared her asked, reaching after her.

“Yep, I’m peachy keen,” she grumbled and moved on.

“We’ve got to come here every fucking year,” Zacky said to Jimmy as they made their way to the end of the maze.

Jimmy nodded his head, excitedly.



Eliza groaned and rolled over.

Opening her eyes, she recognized her room at Katie’s house and she sighed. Her phone chirped again, and she groped her bed trying to find it. Raising it in front of her face, she saw that Jimmy had sent her a picture and was obviously awake and fully ready for his party tonight. He was already in what Eliza was hoping wasn’t his costume. Apparently he’d found Annisa’s tutu and he’d gotten someone to take a picture of it. He was wearing his boxers, the tutu, a brightly colored afro wig, and nothing else. Eliza died laughing, bringing Katie, Thomas, and Wiki to her room. She showed them the picture and they, too, laughed.

She looked at her clock and realized it wasn’t even noon yet. She groaned and rolled over, slightly falling out of the bed. Wiki had disappeared, and returned minutes later, wearing her own tutu over her jeans. They laughed and Katie took Eliza’s iPod to put it on the dock.

They’d gotten back to California insanely early this morning and she was exhausted, really, but excited at the same time. It was her birthday, and Jimmy was throwing a Halloween themed party tonight. Actually, they were having one for the next four nights, but Eliza wasn’t complaining. She and her band had put in so many hours at the studio that not only was their album completely ready, but they were even working on new songs. They definitely needed some time off, and even though she was going to be tortured by being around Brian, she was ready for the break.

She pulled on a sweatshirt and zipped it up, looking at her friends who were obviously ready to leave. They were getting lunch before coming back to get ready for the party. Not having much to do during the day was such a comfort to Eliza, and she slipped on her shoes, excitedly.

Wiki kept her tutu on, earning a few looks from people, but she didn’t care. While they ate, the restaurant had the television showing some music video. Eliza leaned back in her chair and sipped her Coke.

“You know what I wanna do?” she asked out loud.

“What’s that?” Katie asked around a mouthful of burger.

“I want to, just once, go to a party or club or some shit and fucking…hear some song, and like all my friends just come up in the middle of the dance floor and bust out this routine that everyone’s in sync with. Like, to me, that would be life-making, and I would be completely done with life if that happened.”

“Let’s do it,” Annisa said, slamming her fist down on the table. “Pick a fucking song and I will dance like there’s no tomorrow.”

They all laughed and Thomas started telling Annisa about his killer moves. They were really excited about a dance routine.

“Why didn’t Zacky come with us on our excursion?” Wiki asked Katie.

“He and the rest of the fucking guys have been stuck on their video games. I swear, last night I told him I’d be a fucking librarian for Halloween and he could do whatever he wanted to me and he didn’t even fucking look at me. Video games are sucking the life out of them.”

“Ooh, what were they playing?” Wiki asked, her eyes lighting up.

They all laughed again. Not too long after, they finished their food and headed out of the restaurant. Wiki kept jumping all along the sidewalk back to the car as if she were playing hopscotch.

“What the fuck are you doing, spazoid?” Annisa asked.

“When I jump like this,” Wiki said, jumping again. “It makes my tutu fly up and then down. It’s awesome.”

“God, you’re such a kid,” Annisa said, rolling her eyes.

“Did you know the more playful a person is, the more liked they are?” Wiki shot back.

They knew that wasn’t science, but it was still funny to them. They traveled in a giggling flock back to their car.

“So, what do you want for your birthday?” Annisa asked from the backseat.

Eliza looked in the mirror of her sun visor at her and smiled. “To fucking get laid.”

They all laughed, and Katie and Val shared a look in the rearview mirror. Eliza saw it, and her laughter faded away. The gang in the back started singing along to the song on the radio, and Eliza just sat in the front, not saying anything.

She knew her friends wanted her to be happy, but honestly, the only thing she wanted was for things to work out between her and Brian. She’d agreed to speak to him again on the terms of being friends, because Eliza realized people can’t have a relationship with someone unless they know each other on more than just a relationship level. Of course, she and Brian were friends before, obviously, but that had been so long ago and so many things had happened since then, that she knew they needed to get back to that state if they were ever going to have a good relationship again.

Slowly but surely, they were, too. Brian was talking to her about his everyday feelings, and she was telling him where she wanted to take the band. He helped her out so much with different riffs and solos for her songs, and in return she was helping him with his sense of fashion.

Now, seeing Val’s face beside her, she knew it was going to be a tough road to convince her friends that talking to him was a good thing.