Haunted House Funnies--Scares Happen!

I used to own a commercial haunted house back in the early 2000’s when my daughter was a preschooler. I’d take her out to the haunt during the day to dress sets or repair stuff. I just know someday she’ll tell a head doctor about all the times that as a preschooler; she took naps in a cemetery, had many monsters to play with (that were real) and that she loved playing in Bloody Mary’s coffin. LOL

One day, she and I went out to the haunt so I could work on the crypt. She had a big old cardboard box in our staging area she loved to put props, stuffed animals and other toys in and close the lid. She would play in the big box for hours and I was glad. I always knew where she was and that she wasn‘t into anything that could harm her. Our staging area is where the actors kept their costumes, props and where we all ate and drank during breaks or meetings. The Parks and Rec department owned the building we used and they would bring inmates to empty the trash and clean up the park during the day.

This particular day, I heard the back door open as I glued vines on the crypt but I wasn’t alarmed since I was just outside the staging room door and I knew it had to be the guys from the city. Suddenly I heard a man scream bloody murder, then my daughter scream bloody murder and all hell break loose as deafening crashes and booms came from the staging room. I ran in to see a frozen picture of a huge man grabbing his chest, eyes bugged out and falling out the back door screaming as if the devil himself was after him. On the other side of the room was my daughter was screaming bloody murder standing in her box with a mask on one hand and her stuffed Moosie in the other. I grabbed her and called out to the inmate to come back as a new round of people came rushing in. The supervisor of the inmates came in not knowing what had happened as the rest of his crew took off after the screaming inmate.

Oh, the tangled web we weave when we forget to tell people we’re going to be in what should’ve been and empty haunted attraction! The poor inmate, Lafayette was already scared to come into the staging area because he was very superstitious and was afraid the props/masks would come to life. The other inmates must have gone back the night before and told the others about the strange and freaky stuff they’d seen kicking up his superstitions. He had no idea that my daughter or I were there and when she popped out of the box--he thought his worse fears had come to life. My poor daughter popped out of the box expecting to see me when she heard someone moving around and wanted to scare me. She got the scare when she saw poor Lafayette standing there so she screamed when he screamed.

At took a lot to coax the poor guy back and explained what had happened. He finally calmed down enough we could reassure him that it had just been my little girl and not a monster. My little daughter went over to him and said she was sorry for scaring him but continued to tell him how much he’d scared her too! LOL I swear it was like a freaky Norman Rockwell painting the way they were both frozen by fear making it easy for me to see exactly what had happened the second I came in the room! Oh what a day that was and I wouldn‘t have missed it for all the money in the world!