Zomtober Day 7&8, October 30th and 31st: Haunted House and Halloween
well, here I am five days after Halloween, finally getting this out 😂. Promise I wasn’t just being a slacker, I had some crazy stuff going on. But I finally got this done, and I hope you like it. This event was super fun, and if you love zombies half as much as I do, then I hope you have liked these.
Ray wasn’t sure what a “Haunted House” was. I mean, he could imagine what it was. A house that was haunted. But according to Zed and Addison, it was something different.
It started with their October visit to Seabrook, when Victor asked why there were pumpkins and spooky decorations on homes.
“Oh, it's for Halloween.” Addison said simply with a smile. When they all gave her a confused look, her jaw dropped in surprise.
“You guys don’t have Halloween?” she asked, sounding appalled. Vargas slowly answered.
“Do you mean, Hallows Eve?” he asked slowly. When everyone but VIctor and Vera gave him weird looks, he continued.
“It’s like, the holiday for the fall. It's a big festival with treats, and dancing, and all that. Lasts like a week. The last night of it we call Hallow's eve, because it is considered the eve before winter begins.” he said simply. Victor and Vera nodded, like this was perfectly normal.
“Weird. We have the harvest festival, at the beginning of November to celebrate the fruit of the season, before we go into winter. But what's halloween?” she asked in confusion.
Ray nodded equally confused. Harvest time held memories of childhood, and eating candied bloodfruit with Nova while spices and golden sunsets glowed around them.
This discovery led Addison into a very long tangent about what halloween was. Its history, its connotations. Everything from costumes, to trick or treating, to ghosts and horror movies. It was a holiday for the harvest, and the supernatural.
Great. Just great for someone who perpetually hated being scared.
It was only when they got back to the house, that Addison suggested the idea of a haunted house.
“Addison.” Vargas said slowly.
“What exactly is a haunted house?” he asked with amusement. She lit up, and began to explain enthusiastically.
“It’s basically a really creepy looking house, where you go and walk through, and a bunch of things happen to make you scared. Like actors in creepy outfits, or things falling on you. Stuff like that.” she said with a smile. Ray gave her a look.
“So you’re telling me… that you pay money to go to a house… and get scared… on purpose?” he said slowly. Nova snorted, and Victor laughed slightly while Vargas gave him an amused smile and Vera rolled her eyes.
“Getting scared is part of the fun of Halloween.” Addison said cheerfully. Ray grumbled and Vargas laughed again, walking over and slinging his arm around him.
“Come on, nothing bad will happen to you. Not while I’m here.” he said with a wink. Ray’s cheeks went pink, and he reluctantly agreed.
This made Addison super excited. In fact, probably too excited. She had decided that she was in charge of dressing everyone. Which turned out about how you might expect.
Nova and Victor, ended up in formal wear, with Nova in a blue dress and victor in a suit looking outfit. Addison said that they were characters from a show called “The Vampire Diaries” and that the characters “matched their vibe perfectly.”
Ray ended up in what appeared to be a sailor outfit, because his hair apparently gave “Conan Gray Vibes.”
She pulled these costumes out of her basement, swearing to god.
Vargas was dressed in some bloody outfit she said was “From a horror movie.” and Vera was in a white corset and blue skirt that Addison said was a character called “The corpse bride.”
He had missed that movie night. But Vera seemed very pleased with it, despite the fact she was painted blue, and he wasn’t one to argue with a woman in a veil.
All in all, they didn’t look half bad. Not a single one of them. They were all silly, but Addison said that was the whole point.
She herself, who had forced Zed to do Harley Quinn and the Joker, (Suicide squad was in fact another movie they had seen together.) gathered them together as they headed to a haunted house.
“It’s perfect, and it's the only reason we were ever allowed in zombietown.” she explained. Zed smiled and nodded.
“Yep. If there is one thing Zombies do right, it's Halloween.” he said. Ray smiled, the notion of their town having a specific thing just for them made him happy.
Even if he was fairly certain he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.
Ray sighed, as all his friends enthusiastically entered the tall ominous building in front of them. It appeared to be some sort of abandoned mansion, with tall frontings and windows boarded shut. There were cheap lights hanging from the house, and lights and ominous noises blared from the inside.
Just how he wanted to spend his afternoon.
Vargas paused on the threshold, seeming to notice the hesitancy from ray, who stood a few paces behind.
He walked back down the steps, and stopped next to him bumping his shoulder lightly with his own.
“Come on, stick with me.” he said with that same stupid smile that made his heart race.
Ray sighed, and looked back up at the tall looming building. Then, he took a step up the wooden boards, smiling clown friend in tow.
“Let’s get this over with then,”
Vargas smiled, and then grabbed his arm, practically dragging him inside.
Oh great. This should be good.
It was not in fact, good.
Easily, top ten things he wishes he never did. Just top ten though.
He spent virtually the whole time running around the place, while various things popped out at them, or various people with axes or knives. The place was built more like a maze, intentionally hard to escape.
He and Vargas ended up in a room, hands on their knees as they panted from the running. After a few minutes, Vargas started laughing, like he had just seen the funniest thing ever.
“Oh, now you’re laughing? What’s so funny?” he said, straightening while slightly out of breath, and running a hand through his curls. Vargas tracked the movement, swallowing thickly.
“I don’t even know, probably just adrenaline. Or that look on your face.” Vargas said, pointing a finger at him with a slight huff for a laugh.
Ray brought a hand to his chest and gave a small laugh.
“Oh my face? You should have seen your face. And heard your scream. Seriously I thought Nova was there with how high pitched that was.” he said with a small laugh. Vargas rolled his eyes, straightening and swatting his arm.
“Okay, we get it funny guy.” he said, sounding slightly annoyed, but a smile was creeping onto his face.
Ray laughed more, and the atmosphere for a haunted house got significantly… warmer.
He suddenly felt the proximity of him very acutely, and it made his throat feel dry. He cleared it, and glanced around.
“We should uh, probably look for a way out yeah?” he asked, fidgeting with the edge of the shirt he was wearing. Vargas smiled, and nodded slowly.
“Yeah. yeah a way out.” he said, as if reiterating it would get him out of a daze. Then he smiled again, and grabbed his hand with a wink as he led him out.
“I like being here with you.” Vargas said, the flirty tone unmistakable. And although that made ray nearly choke on his own tongue, some advice nova had given to him earlier popped into his head.
“The best way to deal with flirty vampires is to flirt back in a way that they don’t expect.”
And so, he lifted the hand that was intertwined with his own and kissed the back of it softly.
“I like being here with you too.” he said with a smile.
And even though they were in the dark, with actors waiting to jump out and scare them at any turn, was it worth it to see vargas face flush and his mouth open like a fish?
Nova laughed, as she and VIctor perched themselves on an abandoned roof.
“How much longer until they find out we payed the actors to keep them in there longer?” Nova said with a giggle. Victor smiled, and laughed with her.
“I give them maybe another 15 minutes. 20, if Ray does that thing with his eyes that distracts Vargas from the world.” Victor said with a laugh. She shook her head fondly, gazing at the streets below.
“Gosh, they are so oblivious. Its almost painful to watch.” she said with a sigh. Victor raised an eyebrow, and nudged her shoulder.
“Reminds me of someone else.” he said with a laugh. She looked offended.
“We were not THAT bad.” she said defensively. He snorted.
“Love, it got so bad between us that Vera threatened to lock me in a closet with you. Multiple times. And Ray threatened to throw himself off a roof. We were definitely that bad.” he said with a fond look and a laugh, as he brushed her hair off her shoulder. She sighed, and looked at him with that twinkly look.
“Maybe. But at least we figured it out.” she said with a soft smile. He gave her one in return, kissing her forehead.
She sighed, looking down at the streets full of costume clad children.
“You know,” she said, looking back at him.
“It’s no Hallow’s eve, or harvest festival. But I'm glad we spent halloween with Zed and Addison. Its nice to see different kinds of cultures. I know that's what you always wanted to do.” she said with a smile. He smiled back, slinging an arm around her shoulders, which were covered by his suit jacket.
“I did always want to. And it was even better, because I got to do it with you.” he said with a cheesy smile. She rolled her eyes, and kissed him, a smile playing between their lips.
When she pulled back, she lay against his shoulder as they came closer together, gazing at the stars. And yeah. Everything wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn good.
“Happy Halloween Victor.”
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