Secrets Are

Book 1: Secrets Are Deadly | Chapter 4

I looked around at the group I was hanging out and waited to see if Brooke or Ryan were willing to go in a haunted house with Ben since I wasn't willing to do that. Kate was the only one I knew for sure that would go into a haunted house with her brother. I think Ryan liked going into haunted houses, but I hadn't hung out with him at the Halloween Festival in a while so I wasn't exactly sure if he would go.

He had preferred to hang out with his friends or his girlfriend of the time after Mom and Dad had allowed him to go off on his own without their supervision than with his family. This had been the first time since I was twelve or thirteen that I had hung out with Ryan, so I didn't exactly remember whether or not he liked going into haunted houses.

"I'll go into a haunted house with you, but I know Brooke won't go in with us since she usually stands outside when I go inside them," Ryan said looking over at his girlfriend. She nodded her head in agreement but didn't add to what Ryan had said. At least I would have someone to hang out with while Ben, Ryan, and Kate went into a haunted house together. Since Kate loved going into haunted houses, I usually waited outside for her and people watched while she went inside by herself. I just couldn't do scary things.

"I'm so going in with you guys. I'm not that easily scared," Kate said looking over at me and smiling mischievously. Knowing that look she was giving me means she was thinking about all the times she liked to sneak up behind me just to make me jump. I definitely didn't like being scared so I guess that meant that I was easily scared. I rolled my eyes at her as she laughed and then I said, "Shut up. Not everyone likes being scared."

"I'm glad I won't be the only one standing outside of the haunted house. Sometimes people who are going inside the haunted houses like to rudely tease me as I'm waiting for Ryan and Ben," Brooke said smiling at me. I looked over at her, smiled back and said, "I know what you mean."

"Alright then, let's go check out the new haunted house before we go into the one that they always have every year," Ben said. Ryan nodded his head in agreement and then we were off to go to the new haunted house. I had heard that it was supposed to be even scarier than the one they had last year, which definitely didn't make me want to go inside. For as long as I could remember, scary things had never been my thing. I just didn't see the fun in wanting to be scared.

When we reached the new haunted house, Brooke and I stopped before the entrance. I looked around to see if there was someplace else we that could stand besides near the exit of the haunted house, which wasn't too far away from the entrance, but there were a lot of other rides and booths around the new haunted house. There was no place that we could stand except near the exit of the haunted house. We would probably be hard to find once the three who were going into the haunted house came out of it since there were a lot of people around. The place still looked just as crowded as it had been when the festival had opened up.

I was surprised to see that there were still some young kids around since it was past nine now. Even though it was a Friday night, there usually only was adults and teens still here at this time of night. Usually, all the kids were gone by now, but maybe since it was the first night everyone was staying longer or their parents just wanted to tire them out as much as they could so the kids would be easy to put to bed. I'm sure there were less kids here now then there had been when the festival had opened up.

And eventually all the younger kids would be gone, along with their parents. This place would start to look a little less crowded once families with young children decided to go home.

"Okay, so you two will be by the exit when we come out?" Ryan asked as I saw Kate and Ben get into line, most likely to save a spot for themselves before the line gathered more people into it. It was pretty long already so we would be waiting awhile for them. I wasn't sure how big the haunted house was or how many people were let in at a time so I didn't know how long it would take them to get through it.