When I think of Halloween, I think of all things scary: scary costumes, haunted houses, and horror movies. My favorite part of Halloween is going to haunted houses with friends or family; it gets me in the Halloween spirit. This year, I went to a haunted house with friends I met here at OU called “Twisted Minds.”

Twisted Minds Picture

The haunted house was about 40 minutes from campus, and it was in a pretty deserted and empty location. When we pulled up, it was very dark. There was little light, so we could not see if something was lurking around us. The first thing we heard when we parked was a chainsaw blaring in the distance. While I am the kind of person to get excited hearing the chainsaw, my roommate did not feel the same way. I like the thrill of haunted houses and the adrenaline they give you. My friends and I walked to the haunted house to wait in line. You could feel the energy around you while waiting for your turn: anticipation and a sense of worry. Right before we got to the front of the line, my roommate backed out and went to wait in the car. My roommate was the one who drove us to the haunted house, so when she went to start the car, it didn’t budge. Little did I know, and the rest of us know, that we were stranded at a haunted house full of terror. Soon after she found out we were stuck here with no way to get back home, she frantically called me, saying that her car would not start. Before finding this out, I was perfectly content and not scared at all for the experience I was about to get in the haunted house, but the idea of having no way of getting home concerned me. Not only because we were 40 minutes from home but because a haunted house is not the ideal place you want to stay the night.
Having the idea in my head that we had no way of getting home made the experience at the haunted house that much better. The thrill kicked in as my friends and I slowly crept through the haunted house, with clowns creeping behind us and demons giving us terrifying jump scares at every turn. As we were running out of the haunted house and getting chased by a monster with a chainsaw, I prayed we had a way to get home.
When we got back to the car, my roommate hurriedly tried to turn the car on so we could get out of there as quickly as possible due to our freight, but the car would not cooperate. We called everyone we knew, trying to get a ride…no response. We were just about out of ideas when my roommate, about 10 minutes later, tried starting her car again, and it did. We were in shock. We had yet to determine if we would make it home that night, but we took a chance driving 40 minutes in an undependable car. On our way home that night, we all hoped that we would make it safely without our fears of the haunted house returning to haunt us.