Free Exsanguinate by Killion Slade Page B

this hungry bunch of scare hunters. They wanted more.
    In figuring the haunted allure to this room, it seemed to me it induced a variety of sense deprivation and overstimulation. The human mind had trouble understanding if the train was real or not. Self-preservation would motivate people away from the sound and the vibrations in the floor. Another light approached from the right hand section of the room. The train whistle blew again. This time people moved sooner, but an additional train came barreling at us from the left hand side. The trains were going to collide. We were caught in the middle. Thunderous roars of screeching brakes on metal wheels and tracks sent people screaming and running in all directions. When in reality, there was nothing in the room with us … or at least that’s what I thought.
    Hoping this was the end of the show, I waited for the doors to open up into brightly lit hallways and refreshing night air. Anxious to get out, I looked again for safety security lights along the floor or for any signs to exit the building. People seemed to have calmed down when they realized the train wasn’t going to leave them dead and reanimating into zombies. Another dense cloud of smoke blew in at our feet once again.
    I heard a man call, “Janey, Janey, where are you?”
    This gore fest wasn’t over yet.
    I looked back to where I thought we’d entered the room, but couldn’t be sure anymore since the room walls, floor, and ceiling were all painted black. Completely disoriented, any interior or exterior doors were not discernible from the sides. It looked as if there was no way out. People illuminated the floor with their phones to see, but that was about as far as the light went. The fog reached up with its tentacles and engulfed any amount of light from the devices making it nearly impossible to see. It was as if the murkiness was a creature all of its own and sucked the light and security away from us.
    A foul odor filled the room. The stench of rotting meat, old hot dumpster, and sweaty gym shoes filled the air. I envisioned people holding their noses and covering their mouths, same as myself. People next to me coughed, laughed, and sounded grossed out by the odors.
    A desperate voice rang out among us. “Janey? Has anybody seen a girl in a mermaid costume? Janey?”
    I knew then it mus’ve been Triton from the couple behind me.
    Another voice answered back, “Man, I can’t see shit in here – let alone your girl.”
    So far in this room we had been bombarded with light, dark, sound, movement, and smell. They couldn’t touch us, so what was next? I wanted out of this crazy room.
    “Janey?” The man’s voice grew increasingly desperate as he called out his girlfriend’s name. Since the girl did have a tail on her costume, I was afraid she might have tripped and could be easily trampled in the chaos. “Help me. Please, has anyone seen Janey?”
    I opened my mouth to answer him, when the train horn blasted through the sound system once again causing me to jump in alarm. Several women screamed at the immediate intensity of the horn blast. It was the loudest it’d been and left my ears ringing. Light shattered the area as a silhouetted horror scene illuminated stage left. A man with hands on his hips stood next to another man at the gallows. I couldn’t make out any distinct features other than the blackness of contrast. The masked actor awaited his command to pull the rope descending the man to his swinging deathbed.
    Crack!
    The man shot through the hole in the gallows. People screamed in horror as the victim twitched and writhed. The lights went out leaving us with only our audible senses to experience the man’s death. Gurgling, choking sounds hung heavy in the air. Not a person in the crowd made a single noise. That man hung there at the end of his rope, which must have unsuccessfully broken his neck. His body undulated in my mind. His moans portraying his agony until the shaking in his limbs