of my dream, and I shut my eyes. The line quickly moved as everyone shuffled inside. I took a deep breath, and Theo and I walked in. The doors slammed shut behind Alex and Henry, rending the space in darkness.
"Whoa, what the —," Alex sputtered.
The dark inside was impenetrable, and I could not even make out my own hands as I waved them in front of my face. My heart skipped a beat as I thought back to the recent night in my room, when all the light was sucked out of the bulbs. I'd always prided myself on being brave when it came to this stuff, and thanks to circumstances beyond my control, I was losing my edge.
Blacklights on the wall flickered on with a hiss, making Theo's red hair glow hot pink.
"That's better," she said.
We were in a dilapidated little room, with collages of body parts on the walls. Cavernous darkness stretched out before us. The people in front had already run into it, the shadow swallowing them. The faint strains of an out of tune piano came from somewhere inside. I squinted into the dark but couldn't see anything.
"Let's go," I whispered, looking at Theo.
She had a tight smile on her face, as though her stomach was upset. Our little group stuck together as we shambled down the hall. I could hear the boys talking quietly amongst themselves behind us.
The first room bore the first scare. Theo wandered into the center, when suddenly a trap door opened above and a rubber corpse in a cheap suit deployed on her. She screamed and doubled backwards, nearly falling into me. Righting herself, her face remained frightened, eyes big as soup bowls. Her tiny hands were clasped up by her chin.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.
"Just a little scared, that's all," she said, smiling self deprecatingly. "I'm a wuss when it comes to this stuff."
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, surprised. She had seemed as keyed up as me to visit the haunted house. "You did fine when we were spying."
"When you were what?" Henry asked. I ignored him.
"I didn't want you to think less of me," she admitted. "It's only in situations like this, when there are jump-type scares. The anticipation makes me jumpy."
Suddenly, I felt very selfish. I grasped her hand. "If we stick together, we'll get through it fast." I assured her. She nodded, visibly gathering her resolve as we proceeded farther on into the house.
Haunted houses were old hat for me, but I quickly became disoriented. Not good when I was trying to comfort Theo. We made our ways through the rooms in the murky space, only occasionally lit by dull colored lightbulbs. The sound of other people shrieking farther inside made Theo tense up. Every time there was another shout she squeezed my hand.
A monster jumped at Theo from the left and she screamed, dropping my hand. The mechanism rattled as it retreated back into its hiding place inside the wall.
"See, just a stupid old contraption," Henry reassured her, patting her gently on the shoulder. He could tell she was scared, in fact it looked like she was trembling. Again I felt like a jerk for bringing her there, for my own selfish reasons. Especially when odds were that the house would keep all of its secrets and not share any with me.
We came out to a pencil-thin hallway. It was only big enough for one person to go through at a time. I went in front and edged forward. Theo followed me, took hold of my hand again. I had never suffered claustrophobia, but the battered walls suffocated me. Although I had been looking forward to the cheap thrills, I didn't like being in the orphanage, not only for Theo's fear, but for reasons I couldn't quite name.
In the next room, a boy our age was sitting in a creaky rocking chair. He had his legs pulled up beneath his chin, wearing what looked like ripped, dirty pajamas. His tortured eyes remained on a spot on the floor.
"He locked us in the closet," he gibbered, rocking back and forth, the chair squeaking in time with his movements. "He locked us in the closet and we couldn't get out."
Next to him was, I guessed, the closet door he spoke of. It swung open, revealing hanging plastic skeletons that began to shake. Henry started laughing behind us. The boy in the rocking chair stopped for a second to glare at Henry's disrespect, then went right