A scary night

Clay, who works here taking care of the chickens and helping in the garden, is one of a couple dozen kids in the neighborhood who put on a Halloween walk through the woods.  They call it "The Walk of Nightmares."  He gets so excited about this event, and needs quite a few evenings off when they start the planning.  I say "kids," but they are in their late teens and some are well into their 20's.  Finally, after much urging by Clay, last year I attended the event. 

I spent the whole walk alternating screams with laughter.  It was great.  It didn't take much convincing to get me to go again this year.  Last year, I had to wait about 15 minutes, as they take people through in groups of six to eight.  This year, when I got there and signed up, I was told it would be 40 minutes!  It is obviously getting a good reputation.  I talked to people who were milling around the big bonfire, and many of them had never been there before.  One guy I talked to came Friday night, and he was back for another round on Saturday night.  His daughter, a cute little blonde who appeared to be nine or ten, said, "I LOVE to get scared!" 

I found out there is an advantage of doing things alone.  When I asked the gatekeeper how long it would be until my name came up, she asked what group I was with.  I said none, was there alone.  She said, "Hang out here.  I'll get you with the next group."  So my 40 minute wait was only about 20 minutes.  Okay!

Clay assured me there was something new this year.  Of course, I was screaming and laughing well before I got to the last leg of the journey.  The ghosts and ghouls seemed to know who was the most scared, and of course they would zero in on us.  In some areas, as you ran away from one hideous creature, another came at you from the other direction.  There was no place to hide!

And then, as we went around the last curve, a guy dressed all in black fired up a chain saw and was in pursuit!  That got to everyone, including the guy beside me!!  We all ran out of the woods, with the sound of the chain saw getting closer and closer.  I can only hope there was no chain on the saw, but I wasn't sticking around to check it out!

I had a wonderful time.  Just like the little girl who was there for her second time in as many nights, sometimes I LOVE to get scared!