Meet My Dedication, Inspiration

We took our time traveling home; stopping at many different landmarks on the cross country trek.

Halloween is coming up and both the boys will be home... what's the plan? Good enough and I can talk Craig into coming out to HB for a couple days ;) Jenn texted me when we were finally in downtown Huntington.

"Jenn wants to know what our plans are for Halloween, any ideas?"

He shifted in his seat, clearly pondering about what he knew was my favorite holiday. "What do you usually do?"

I chuckled, "Well, I usually get bloody and gory and scare the shit out of kids in a haunted house."

"Haunted house, huh? Here, post on twitter and send out a text and see if anyone I know is running a haunt." He held out his phone to me.

I typed a short tweet and a lengthier text and sent it out to a few contacts. A few minutes later, the phone buzzed and a text from Tal Cooperman was up.

Avenged boys are running a haunted house this year somewhere near Zacky V's place. Interested???

My stomach did a flip. "Tal said the guys from Avenged Sevenfold are running a haunt."

"No shit, really? Ask him to hook us up!"

Can you hook us up?? Me and Aus are interested :)

Not a problem. Also hi Jess :)

Hi back Tal... thank you so much!!

Once we were back home, we decided against unpacking immediately and lounged on the couch. Austin's phone started ringing about an hour after we got back. He didn't recognize the number (I could tell by his scrunched up forehead).

"Hello?...Oh hey man, what's up?!" He sat up on the couch. "Yeah, definitely. My girl usually works in them, so I think she'd be a good match." He laughed. "Really? That's awesome. Oh yeah, we can totally come by later on. You guys just setting shit up? Alright, cool. Text me your address." He laughed again. "Later, dude."

Austin POV

I waited for her to ask what the fuck that was all about. But she didn't; she was too consumed in Regular Show. "How long would it take you to get ready?"

"Maybe 20 minutes. Why?"

"Well, that was Zacky V. I guess Tal gave him my number. And he said that we could come by to see the haunted house in a couple hours. So I was thinking..." I grabbed her and pulled her onto my chest. "We could go and get some dinner then go over to his house." I kissed the top of her head.

"Oh really, now? What did you have in mind for dinner, Mr. Carlile?"

"Hmmmm...I could go for a nice, juicy burger."

"You read my mind." She smiled at me then started attacking me with kisses.

Her affection was something I really really liked about her. It was random, yet consistent. She hopped off the couch and did the thing she had learned she really loved to do at my house... Sliding down the hallway on her socks.

I laughed, shaking my head and followed her down to our bedroom. "Hey, give me one of those CRSL shirts. If Tal is there, it'll make him smile."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely." She grinned.

I rummage through the box by the bed and threw her one of the heather gray shirts. She was shimmying into her skinny jeans a few seconds later.

Downtown was busier than it had been in a while. We ended up at 25 Degrees; she seemed to like this place the last time we went. And unlike usually, she didn't order a mixed drink.

"No drink?"

She shrugged, "I'd rather not be any form of inebriated when I see them. Plus, I haven't been feeling so hot here lately. Laying off booze makes me feel better."

"Don't tell Danny that when you see him." I laughed.

"Oh god, I have never been as drunk as that night we went out with him." She shook her head. "I was a hot mess."

"Hot, yes. Mess, not so much."

"Didn't I basically try to fuck you at our table?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, that is a mess, Austin." She laughed.

It was my turn to shrug. "There was no penetration. I handled it."

"Yeah, you handled it alright. Alan said that you didn't even close the bathroom stall door."

"Well, I was drunk too...."

"And somewhere on Danny Worsnop's phone, there is a picture of us banging in a club bathroom stall."

"At least I haven't put it on Instagram." I knew that voice and that accent. He was behind me.

Jess lit up and smiled. "Danny! What the hell are you doing in Huntington?"

"Visiting a friend. Never thought I'd run into you fucks though."

"Glad you did. How's it goin' man?" I stood up to give him a hug.

"Well, thank you. What are you guys up to? Besides getting deliciously overpriced burgers."

"We're going over to Zack Baker's house after we eat to check out their haunted house." She said.

The waiter brought our food over. "Do you want something? I don't mind you joining us."

"Yeah, that'd be nice." He grabbed a menu from my side of the table and ordered. He shared fries with Jess until he order was done. We talked tour and albums while we ate.

Once we were done, I paid the check while Danny and Jess waited outside by the car.

Jess POV

"Just give me a text or call when the haunted house opens, I'll stop by and go through it." Danny smiled. He handed my phone back after he programmed his number into it.

I nodded. "I will. Thank you for joining us tonight. It's always good conversation when I get to see you." I hugged him.

"Not a problem, love. You two take care and keep being adorable together." He kissed my cheek and walked off, waving goodbye.

The door to the restaurant opened behind me and Austin was by my side. "Did he just kiss you?"

I poked my cheek. "Yeah, on the cheek."

"Okay, good. I'd hate to have to beat up Danny Worsnop."

"Oh, Austin." I laughed and kissed him. "You're silly."

Lightening the situation was all I knew to do. I know he'd been cheated on several times in the past. But I wasn't like that. I was faithful to a disgusting fault sometimes. We got into the car and I punched Zack's address into the GPS.

"This could actually be a kind of crazy thing... if they get enough band dudes to run this thing, I know tons of kids would line the blocks to come."

"That's actually a really good idea. Maybe you should mention that to them."

Zacky's house was magnificent. It was all decorated for Halloween. We got out of the car and walked hand in hand to the door. After we rang the doorbell, Synyster Gates answered.

I felt waves of intense emotions I hadn't felt in so long.

"Oh my god, Jess!" He flung himself onto me, hugging me tighter than Alan's hugs. "I haven't talked to you in so fucking long. I missed you."

I could feel happy tears welling up in my eyes. "I missed you too, Brian. It has been way too long."

"Okay, I feel like I missed something incredibly important here." Austin laughed.

"Dude, sorry. I just... never thought in a million years I'd open up the door and see this face." He held out his hand to Austin. "How are ya, man?"

"Good. Confused, but good."

I smiled. "Don't be confused. It's a long story but I have known Syn for a really long time."

"Wow, really? That's awesome!"

Brian walked us in and took us to the great room where everyone was. Not only did I know Syn, but I knew Zack as well. We had a little bit of history as well. "Holy fucking shit." He said when he noticed me.

My heart was in my throat. And not because I loved him anymore or because I wanted him again, but because everything he'd ever said to me came rushing back all at once. "Hey Zacky." I half smiled. It was a bit more complicated than the platonic relationship I had with Brian. I was a fangirl of Zack's and when I got to know Brian, he told Zack about me. Then I befriended Zack. And we flirted pretty heavily for a while.

"I cannot believe you're here!" He hugged me.

"Confused again." Austin said.

I didn't know if this was really confusing him or if it was pissing him off. "I met him through Brian. It's been a long time since I've talked to him though."

He smiled and nodded, "Oh, okay. I get it."

I reassured him by grabbing his hand again. "So you two are interested in working in this thing?"

"Yes! I love getting all gored up and scaring people."

"And I want her to teach me the haunted house ropes." Austin smiled.

Zack took us down the road to a house that he had apparently rented or bought. "Alright, so this is it."

"Any particular theme?"

He shrugged. "Haven't really thought about it. Any ideas?"

"Well, I've done haunted asylum, haunted maze, and zombie apocalypse themed scarehouses before. If you go with a theme, it's easier to place characters and have scenes that work with each other."

"I'm feeling like we should have enlisted you a couple months ago." Brian laughed.

"She's one of those creeptacular girls. And she knows the ropes." Austin tightened his grip on me.

I looked up at him and smiled. "Creeptacular is my middle name."

I walked through the house. It was huge and had serious potential. If the budget was loose, we could really turn this into something amazing. "So, I have an idea." I said once we made it back to the front door. "I think Austin and I can enlist some bands to get involved in acting with this thing. My best friend is marrying Craig Mabbitt so he and ETF will probably be on board. I know the rest of Mice will enlist and then we have you five."

"Go on..." Zack said, arms crossed.

"If we can get enough actors in here to make this a hit, advertising will be the easiest thing in the world. You can use the money for donation and even have a raffle for VU merch or even a guitar or something."

I could tell he was pondering the idea. "You really think you could make it happen?"

"I know I can make it happen. If you tell kids there's a haunted house featuring Escape the Fate, Avenged Sevenfold, and Of Mice & Men, they will flood this street to go through it." I watched his eyes dance, thinking again. "If you can do a three night run, the amount of money you would make would be epic."

It was quiet for a couple of minutes. "Get people on board and come up with a theme. I'm gonna put you in charge of making this happen."

I squealed and jumped. "This is the best thing that I could put my effort towards, trust me."

Zack started following me on twitter before we left and I'd already texted every band dude Austin knew from his phone to see who else we could get onboard.

"I got it. You know, like, how crazy the Nightmare video was in that abandoned looking hospital, right? We could do a story about a doctor who experimented on patients and ended up basically reanimating them, so now it's crawling with zombies. In the biggest bedroom, we could make that the doctor's "lab" and they're all working on this patient, but check it... The doc is a zombie too, so basically ripping organs out of this patient and eating them and the machine is all flatlining and the patient is twitching... when the group comes in, the patient reaches for the group and is groaning cause it's a zombie now too."

Austin was grinning at how excited I was.

"How about you two take those roles? Patient, doctor... Austin and Jess, you could do that." Brian motioned at us.

"Oh my god, I would love to! What about you, babe?"

"I'm definitely down."

"Alright, awesome. Seems like you're on the right track." Brian smiled.

"What about makeup? I'm not married to you know who anymore, so.."

"I can do makeup. I love doing zombie makeup. If I have the tools, I can make it happen." I pulled up a few past Halloween pictures on my phone.

"Man, this went from shit to straight badass in like two hours." Zacky said.

"All thanks to you, my beautiful girl." Austin kissed the top of my head and pulled me to him.

We all went back to Zack's mansion and Austin and I were heading out to leave. "Stay in touch, alright? I'll see you guys tomorrow. Dan and Jason should be done covering the house with plastic by then."

We waved goodbye and headed back to the car.

This haunt had my creative juices flowing and I was determined to make it completely spectacular.