TW: Haunted House

There is a floor plan of the Horror Walk in Chapter Nine, so if you haven't seen it yet/recently, you might want to look again so everything makes sense.

Lily and Aida could hear the first scream of the Horror Walk come from the Goo Room of the Horror Walk at precisely 4:37.

They glanced at each other, smirked, and burrowed into their respective niches to lie in wait for the first unsuspecting person to walk into the room. 

After a minute or two, two costume-clad students walked cautiously into the room. Immediately Aida walked toward them, slowly and menacing (the creepy mask and robes helped a ton) and the two backed toward the exit door equally slowly, as though Aida wouldn't see them if they were slow.

As they slowly walked through the room, Lily jumped out of her seat, (in full zombie attire, mind you,) and groaned, hissing and snapping at them. They screamed and fled from the room in fear.

Lily and Aida turned to each other and almost started laughing. It worked! Their attempt to scare people wasn't a complete failure!

〰️〰️

Their "shift" lasted 45 minutes, each time repeating the same; someone would enter the room, Aida would distract them, and Lily would chase them from the room with an unexpected jump scare.

Their break also lasted 45, while another pair would be taking their shift.

It was kind of strange; everyone below 4th year wasn't allowed in the great hall for the party (the teachers had explained why, but hadn't given any good reasons) and weren't allowed in the trophy room during the horror movies, so a classroom had been set up next to the hall for the 'underage students' to hang out in during the party or their breaks, depending on what they did.

So at 5:30, Lily and 6 other students sat in the classroom, twiddling their thumbs. 

"Well," said Elle, getting up from her seat and moving towards the door of the classroom, "I don't know about any of you, but I'm going to get some food."

"Very funny," replied Ravi, looked up at her from where he sat on a desk, "If you get caught we'll all get in trouble with the teachers, and then you'll get in trouble with us."

"I'm so scared." Elle laughed, a laugh that warmed up Lily's bones. Though Elle's words weren't kind, her voice held no malice. "Honestly, we've been working on this party for weeks, and now, when it's finally here, we're stuck in this room with nothing to do? We're not in detention, this is a time to celebrate! Why should we get anything less just because we're below 4th year?"

It was quiet for a second, but then Lily stood up. "You're right. We deserve some fun, come what may from the teachers." She felt triumphant, the zombie suit was a real confidence booster.

Ravi looked at the two of them. "Well, you're on your own."

Elle smirked. "Fine. Then you aren't getting any food when we get back." Her vampiric black dress swished out the door, Lily following close behind.

In the great hall, people were out on the dance floor, dancing to 'Psyco Killer' by the Talking Heads. Dinner itself was over, but there were still snacks on one side of the hall. 

Elle was very tall for her age so she could easily pass as a fourth year. Lily's zombie makeup helped disguise her, so they could both probably make it through the hall without being spotted, but they didn't want to take any chances.

"So what's the plan?" asked Lily, peeking into the hall through.

"umm..." Elle smirked, "I didn't totally think that part through..."

Lily snickered. "Do we really need a plan? We can just walk in and get some food, right?"

"No, it would look suspicious if we went in and just grabbed a bunch of food. What if we..."

〰️〰️

Lily and Elle each stood on opposite sides of the door, just inside the great hall, their hands wrapped around their wands in their pockets.

Elle muttered under her breath; "Wingardium Leviosa!" The dry-ice-smoke from the cauldron rose and spread across the floor, creating a foot deep layer of fog.

Once it spread to the outer corners, Lily muttered the same thing; "Wingardium Leviosa!" But instead of the fog spreading, a plate of assorted spooky kebabs floated an inch off the table, and down to the floor underneath the fog. It slid under the flog, around objects, and over to where Lily stood. 

The two girls slowly exited the great hall with their plate of kebabs and ran back to the classroom, laughing excitedly.

〰️〰️

Each shift was 45 minutes, so Lily and Aida only went out to the Horror Walk one more time before 'The Ring' ended. There was an activity in the Trophy Room when the movie ended, so the timing worked out perfectly.

"Okay, everyone!" Ashton walked up in front of the projector screen. "So, as you know we are going to watch 'It' at 8:30, but the question is, what are we going to do until then? Well, I'm here to answer that question." Ashton spoke, getting more excited by the second, her eyes brightening. "The game we're going to play is... 'What's in The Box?' It's a game where you have to reach into a box and figure out what is inside in thirty seconds, but you can only use your sense of touch. If you want to play, sign up over here-" she gestured to a table with a sign-up sheet, "-and you will be called over to one of the game stations when it is your turn."

The crowd hung on Ashton's every word, eager to play. Aida caught Lily's eye, who caught Jessi's eye, who caught Olivia's. Suddenly, everyone made a mad dash for the sign-up sheet. Jessi was closest so she got in line and signed each girl up.

Jessi walked over to the other three once she had signed them up, and they watched other people begin to play the game. After a few minutes, Jessi was called over to a station, and told to stand behind a covered box. The seventh-year helping with that station smirked at her, and dramatically revealed what was inside.

Inside the box was a clump of matted hair. The crowd of people watching shrieked, out of laughter or disgust it was unclear. But whatever Jessi's internal reaction was to their cries, she reached into the box right away. Lily smiled at Jessi's curious expression, while she held one of the grossest things that Lily could think of at the same time.

Quickly, Jessi retracted her hands with a grimace on her face and said, "Its hair, isn't it?" which got her a cheer from the onlooking students. Jessi gave Lily an overdone scowl, then smiled as she walked back towards her friends.

Next, it was Olivia's turn. She was much more nervous than Jessi and shivered slightly as she walked up to the table. Once again, the seventh year removed the cover with a flourish, and this time inside was the box was a pile of... butter. A literal pile of melting sticks of butter. 

"It's synthetic so we don't waste any food," Jessi whispered to Lily and Aida.

Olivia looked at her friends hoping for a hint or clue, but their expressions of well-wishing weren't what she needed in the moment. Olivia reached in bravely, copying Jessi, but as her pinkie finger brushed the butter, she retracted it quickly with a gasp. 

"You got this, Liv!" Aida called, and with new hope, she tried again. 

She reached into the box again tapping the butter with fear in her eyes, and suddenly said, "Butter! Butter! It's butter, right?" The cheers of everyone watching made her smile, and Oliva walked over to them, wishing Aida good luck as she went for her own turn.

For the third time, the seventh-year removed the cloth that was around the box, and for the third time, the audience gasped from what was inside. A large sandcastle, with seashells for doors and windows, and pointy auger shells for towers. 

Olivia smiled hopefully at her friend, and Aida reached in bravely. She tapped the sand hopefully, confused on what was inside, then moved her hand upward, bumping her finger against an auger. She wasn't in pain, but she jumped and pulled back her hand from the shock. Without hesitation though, she brought it right back, close to figuring out what was inside. Sadly, the textures of the sand and shells confused her, and she couldn't make it in thirty seconds. 

Aida walked back dejectedly to the others. Lily gave Aida's shoulder a squeeze as she walked to the front, and while the seventh-year moved the next box, she saw Jessi say something to Aida, which made Aida's sad mood completely disappear, and gave Lily some extra confidence.

As the seventh year (Lily later learned that their name was Alex) removed the cloth that was covering the box, and every single person watching gasped. Most with shock, but Jessi with excitement. Jessi was one of Lily's best friends, and she didn't have a bad thing to say about her, but some of the things that Jessi was excited about Lily found terrifying. Like dragons, and a lot of other animals. Oh crap, Lily realized, if Jessi is excited, It's definitely an animal. 

Ok, she thought to herself, let's just be nice and gentle, whatever it is, we don't want to hurt it. She glanced up at Jessi. Jessi wore an expression that seemed to say; Go on, you've got this,  but Lily couldn't tell if it was meant to be comforting, especially since Olivia wore a face of terror, but she decided to go for it anyway. 

She reached into the box and reached around. Her hand brushed against something but she couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't furry, but it wasn't ruff, like scales either. She gently tapped the animal again, and it clicked; "It's a lizard." Lily glanced at Jessi. "No, a bearded dragon." For getting it right, she was rewarded with a round of applause.

〰️〰️

For the rest of the night, Lily, Jessi, Olivia, and Aida spend their time together. Laughing, sneaking around the party getting snacks, and listening to the music coming from the Great Hall.

What truly took the cake for Lily was getting to scare her cousins, then, later on, hear them talk about 'that terrifying zombie in the last room' without having any idea that it was her. Their littlest cousin, the one that they always protected, had scared them the most.

{A/N First of all, I wanted to say thank you all SO MUCH for getting me to 200 views. It means the world to me and I truly couldn't have done it without you. In addition, I want to apologize for taking such a long time on this chapter. It's been tough because I never expected that Halloween would last three chapters, and I just got tired of writing it. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, and I hope you see you in the next one!}