(Usual Disclaimer Time: Even though this story almost entirely takes place in a high school setting, all the characters in this story are 18 years old or older, and since we’re living in the wide wonderful world of porno-land here, where clichés roam free and things might get a little unrealistic from time to time, please remember it’s all in good fun, I swear.)
(Author’s Note: So it’s been a long, strange trip, but we’ve finally made it to Halloween night! I aim to provide creepy, sexy fun. After receiving some well-warranted criticism of my last chapter, I want to apologize for biting off more than I could chew and sacrificing characterization for too many scenes of smut. Moving forward, I will aspire to keep things more streamlined to avoid such issues unless the chapter absolutely calls for it. Thank you for your criticisms; though I don’t say it, I value the quality criticisms every bit as much as the praise. As always, if you’re enjoying this, please, please, please drop some stars, reviews or shoot me some feedback. Though I may not always respond, I do love hearing from all of you and seeing that you’re enjoying the series. It keeps me going and motivates me to continue writing more. You’ve all been wonderful and I can’t thank you enough for all of your kind words and encouragement!)
Previously, on Senior Year Memories: It’s finally Halloween, and nerdy 18-year-old Ryan Collins has a lot on his plate. Helping run a haunted house for his school paper for the school’s annual Halloween Scream carnival, Ryan was frustrated by the constant, demanding texts from paper editor Nadia Barclay and moderately frightened by the fact that he appeared to have been followed around school by a girl in a creepy ragdoll costume. To top it off, it was a sexually exhausting day, after morning shower anal sex with best friend Tori McNeil, lunchtime sex in a school closet with cosplayer Mallory Dourif, and a threesome with cheerleaders Kaitlyn Pruitt and Haley Campbell. However, when the threesome was interrupted by Nadia, Ryan was able to help her relax through the powers of hardcore sex in every hole, just in time for Halloween night…
***
When I was a kid, I used to believe in monsters. It’s not exactly my greatest point of pride that I once thought Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s monster walked the earth, but really, how is that any different from believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?
Like all those other fictional characters of my youth, I grew out of believing in them when time and experience taught me that they were nightmares made up in the minds of talented authors and artists, and that they weren’t all that scary anyway. Not when there are real world monsters to truly fear. I learned this quick when I became introduced to Kyle Bowman. Growing up, I was completely convinced there couldn’t be a greater monster than him, and if only that were true the world would be a damn sight better place. Studying history had taught me that real monsters didn’t howl at the moon or suck the blood of virgins, no, they held power as despots and moguls, running countries and corporations and killing infinitely more people than a reanimated corpse with bolts in its neck could ever dream of. Fictional monsters came and went, but real monsters, they were constant, and they were legion.
And yet…
And yet. There’s always an “and yet.”
And yet, despite all of this understanding, there was a part of my mind that knew this was a lie. It knew better than the rest of my rational mind that not only were monsters real, but they were everywhere, hiding in every dark corner, waiting to pounce at a moment’s notice. They gained power from lack of belief, and the more I tried to banish them and push them away, the more they’d be after me.
It was a silly notion, the voice in the back of my mind of me as a small child, back before I loved horror movies and was entranced by them only because I felt physically incapable of looking away from the terror. That me was a deer in headlights when it comes to the stuff of nightmares, at first stunned by the darkness before taking flight.
It was only that I was on my bicycle at the time that allowed me to skip the “stunned” step and go right for “flight” when the monster came for me on Halloween night.
I pedaled with all my might, my lungs burning from exertion and fear. I didn’t scream because it wouldn’t have done any good, just one more voice in the night where screams were common and considered jokes. I couldn’t scream anyway for how much of my breath I needed to keep ahead of the monster’s implacable pursuit.
I was close to home. Once I got inside, I could lock the door and I’d be safe. I was on familiar streets, and I knew they weren’t. If they were, they’d have found me sooner. I could do this… but what would be the point? They could’ve taken me at any time if they wanted. Were they playing with me? Why were they playing with me? What had I done to them?
The answer was bahçeşehir escort easy: it didn’t matter because it was Halloween. It was the night when the monsters came out to play, and tonight I was the monster’s toy.
And to think this day had started off so well.
I saw my house up ahead. Dad would be asleep in his room, dead to the world. That child’s voice in the back of my mind told me to call out for him, that he’d send the monster away, but I knew that was foolish. This was my monster, and only I could deal with it.
I hopped my bike up onto the curb, ditching it as I stumbled for the front door. I tripped over the walkway, falling flat on my face on the grass, cursing myself for making the kinds of mistakes that a slasher movie victim would make, the kind that Tori or Josie or I would’ve made fun of. It was so easy to make fun of them when you weren’t being chased, and the part of me that wasn’t convinced that I was about to be eaten, that small part that knew I was going to make it out of this alive, wanted to remember this and not make fun of those buxom horror movie victims ever again.
It probably wouldn’t happen, but it was worth remembering.
I got back up onto my feet, slowly, not looking back, focused on the front door. The porch light above it was lit, and with the light there was safety. I stumbled for it, reached it, fumbling for my keys in my pocket. They slipped through my fingers, clattering on the doormat.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed, bending over to pick them up. My fingers wouldn’t cooperate, grazing the keys, almost picking them up but then dropping them again. Finally my fingers looped through the key ring, picking them up and making for the door.
It was too late, though. They were right behind me, standing too close for me to run.
The high, giddy voice giggled. “Trick or treat!”
***
I lunged, screaming from the darkness.
My victims, a couple of freshmen by the looks of them, screamed even louder, darting around the corner of the snaking maze we’d built in Bungalow 237. It must’ve been the fiftieth time we’d pulled this exact scare, but they fell for it every time.
Chuckling, I slid back between the black curtains into the dark little alcove I’d helped build, smiling possibly even wider than the painted on smile that Mallory had added to my face. I didn’t know then that within a few hours I’d be running for my life, testing the imagined safety that my childhood home offered when I ran from a monster. I was blissfully unaware of many things then, because all I had to focus on was that Regan Hills High School’s Halloween Scream was open for business, and as one of the people running the “Dr. Happy’s Asylum” haunted house, that was good news indeed.
From the limited reports I’d heard, the crowds were going to break records for Regan Hills High’s Halloween Scream fundraiser, which was good news for us. Whether or not we at the Puma Press would have a better and more successful haunted house than the drama club like Nadia wanted wasn’t for me to say, but from the gossip I heard, it sounded like we had a longer line (no doubt helped by Kaitlyn and Haley and Brooke and a bunch of their friends dressed as sexy clowns out front helping us drum up business), and that we’d more than recoup our investment.
I heard another group coming. I knew this because Tori and I were a team around this corner of the maze. Dressed and made up as a cute clown, she was a distraction, a fakeout scare a few feet away meant to get the attention of parties as they passed through the maze. Once they were distracted by her, I slid out of my concealed hiding space and scared them however I saw fit. Sometimes I screamed, sometimes I slapped my glove, covered in washers, against one of the hard walls near my hiding spot getting a nice loud jump scare sound. I probably should’ve used the glove more and screamed less at first, since I’d probably have a sore as fuck throat the next day, but it was just so much fun getting them to scream their heads off with my even louder scream, I couldn’t resist.
I leapt from my hiding space and gave this group another good scream. This group, a mother and father and a girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve, all screamed bloody murder, running away.
“Nice one!” Tori called out. It was hard to hear anything over the heavy metal music playing over the loudspeakers and the screams of paying customers, but we were close enough that we could hear each other, barely.
“Thanks!” I replied, tapping my hand to my forehead. She responded in kind, then waved me back into my hiding spot.
I was riding high, and certain things couldn’t have gotten any better than this. Considering the day I’d had, that wasn’t unimpressive.
(And yes, here’s where I go into a flashback within a flashback, I’m sure Deadpool would be proud of me or at least talk some serious shit right about now. Probably both, bakırköy escort now that I think of it, that does seem his style, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it brief.)
I was pretty sure my day had peaked when I fucked Tori in the ass this morning, but then I had sex with Mallory, which was pretty amazing too, and a rough threesome with Kaitlyn and Haley that I was sure would’ve worn my dick out, if I hadn’t had some even rougher sex with Nadia right after. I’d cum three times in the day before Halloween night had kicked off, and I was feeling close to drained, but with the Halloween Scream ahead (and soon to be over), I pulled myself together. I went home and showered, downed a couple energy drinks and got back with time to spare to rally the troops and join the line of people from the Puma Press and cheerleaders getting made up as evil clowns for the evening.
Seeing so many people I knew and had come to know because of this project in the same place at once, some of them getting made up like clowns to scare with me (Kaitlyn, Tori, Haley, Brooke and Josie), others who wouldn’t be because of their instrumental jobs elsewhere in the haunt (Nadia, Rose and Mallory), it was at once strange and awesome. Strange because I never thought I’d know this many people I might call friends, awesome because, well, I liked that I could call most of them friends.
The energy drinks had me nervous and unable to focus on Nadia’s overly wordy pep talk, but once she was done and we all got into position, there was no going back. It was Halloween, and we were here to scare. I was nervous at first, almost afraid that I wouldn’t be able to scare people if I had to.
Once the Halloween Scream started and Rose kicked in the music over “Dr. Happy’s Asylum’s” speakers, I was close to ready. Once I heard the first victims start to blunder their way through, I was pumped. Once I heard Tori distracting them, I knew what I had to do, and I delivered, giving them the most bloodcurdling scream I’d ever screamed. I’ll never forget the fear in their faces, that genuine look that flickered behind their eyes where they forgot that I was just a high school kid and they thought I was seriously a monster out to kill them. They screamed, they ran, they gave me a high I didn’t know was possible, one that I’d become very familiar with as the night went on.
I was good at scaring people, I liked scaring people, so it seems only fitting that we end this flashback within a flashback and get mostly caught up with time on that one occasion where I might’ve gone too far.
I was in my hiding spot, waiting for my next cue, when I heard the telltale scream of a girl losing it at Tori jumping out. There was something in this scream, though, something different from all the others. Something told me that this girl’s scream wasn’t just show or some startle response, but actual, genuine fear. On a primal level I understood that sound, and I knew, I just knew I shouldn’t have jumped out. I should’ve stayed put, should’ve just let this girl collect herself. There’s a lot of things I should’ve done, really, but it was Halloween and I was high on fright and I just decided to go with it.
I leapt out from my hiding spot and screamed at the top of my lungs.
A girl I recognized from my AP History class but never spoke to whirled around from Tori to me. Short and mousy with wavy blonde hair that fell to her shoulders, her face was already a mask of terror with tears streaking down her cheeks when I jumped out. When she saw me, it was like a switch was flipped behind her eyes, a light being forcefully turned off. Her face went slack and she fell down on her ass, blubbering incoherently to herself through wet lips while on the verge of hyperventilating.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
“Shit,” Tori said, jumping out of her assigned spot. Kindly, she grabbed the girl by her shoulders.
“Hey, are you alright?” Tori asked.
“I don’t… I don’t… I need to go, need to get out of here, I didn’t want to, they made me, they-“
She wasn’t able to put together a full sentence, but the picture was clear and awful enough to sink my stomach. Clearly some friends had dared her to go in when she didn’t want to, and by the time she’d reached us, she was at her last limit. Tori was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I was the one who kicked her while she was down. I felt like shit, but I didn’t know what the fuck I was supposed to do about it.
Thank god Tori was better on her toes in a crisis than I was.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Tori said soothingly to the girl, then to me. “You watch our corner, I’ll get her out of here, make sure she’s safe.”
“No problem,” I said. To the girl, I added, “I’m sorry.”
The girl was staring without seeing, but mobile enough that Tori was able to get her on her feet and help her along the path. It might’ve been strange to others walking through, seeing başakşehir escort Tori take the girl away while still dressed as an insane clown nightmare herself, but who knew, it might’ve just added to the atmosphere to see a civilian getting kidnapped.
Retreating back into my hiding place, I kicked myself. First for scaring the girl that bad when I knew I shouldn’t have, then for hating myself when this was something I’d looked forward to for so long, then for making such a big damn deal out of this on Halloween when it was her fault for coming in here in the first place, then…
Fuck it. It was nobody’s fault. I was doing what I’d vowed to do, and she was pressured to come in here. She’d get better, and I’d just have to get over myself if we were gonna salvage a fun night from this. This had been too good a day to end like this.
That wasn’t to say that I didn’t let a few parties pass by. I told myself it was because I was waiting for Tori to return, but it was really just an excuse to get my mojo back. Once it became clear that Tori wasn’t returning any time soon, I geared myself up for my next attack. I heard someone approach, and once they were within striking range, I leapt from my hiding spot, screaming.
The girl’s lack of reaction wasn’t exactly confidence building.
Neither were her words, “You’re not very scary.”
Noa Kanzaki. I could’ve known that she’d be one of the few who didn’t scare easy. 18 years old and 5’6″ of tight, lean muscle, her dark, intense eyes could’ve stared down a rampaging bull and made it beg for mercy. As usual she wore her short, choppy black hair slightly spiked and tight, comfortable clothes that allowed for maximum mobility. I didn’t know her well, but I’d had classes with her, and always thought she was something of a jock even if she didn’t play any school sports.
She wasn’t moving, only staring at me with the intensity of an animal ready to attack. I wanted to tell her to move before the next group got here, but how would you do that?
“Ryan Collins, right?” she finally said, looking through my makeup with ease.
“Uh, yeah?” I replied.
For the life of me, I couldn’t tell you why she pulled up her shirt, revealing first some impressively tight six-pack abs, then a pair of B-cup tits in the frilliest, girliest black bra I’d ever seen. For all of her clothes that looked like they were ready to work out at a moment’s notice, this bra looked almost top shelf out of a lingerie shop.
I was confused. Then, when she pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of me, I was blind.
I blinked my eyes, willing the spots away in the darkness, feeling as Noa darted past me further into the house. It wasn’t the strangest encounter I’d had with a girl this year, but it had to be up there.
My vision returned slowly, but I didn’t need it to fumble back into my alcove. I missed a few more people passing by as my vision normalized, and I was fine with that. There were plenty of other people I trusted to scare in here, let them have their fun.
I wanted Tori back. Together, we really kicked ass. On my own, well, I had girls setting off phone flashes in my face. While I didn’t mind Noa’s other flash, I only just realized that Tori was protecting me every bit as much as she was leading up to my scare, and that I needed her.
Where was she?
After a few agonizing minutes of debating when I’d jump out, a face slid through the curtains of my alcove.
“Hiya, Ryan!” Brooke exclaimed. As one of the sexy clowns, her face was less nightmare inducing and more low budget Harley Quinn, but she had the energy to spare that she fit the part well.
“Hey,” I replied. “Aren’t you supposed to be outside?”
Brooke waggled her head back and forth, making her pigtails bounce. “I am, but Tori’s taking care of an emergency and needed help filling in her spot. She asked for volunteers, and ’cause she’s so fuckin’ good at eating pussy, I, like, totally said yes. That my spot over there?”
She cocked her head in the direction where Tori had been stationed. I said, “Yeah.”
“Bitchin’. You just tell me what I gotta do, and I’m there,” Brooke said, smiling widely.
I was annoyed with Tori for abandoning me, but I couldn’t stay too annoyed since she was probably still dealing with the girl we’d freaked out. I may have lost my partner in crime, but if the cost of decency was giving Brooke a crash course in being an evil clown, then it was a price I was good to pay.
“Alright,” I said. “Here’s what you gotta do…”
***
The Halloween Scream was supposed to close at 11, but we didn’t get the last of the stragglers out until after midnight. When the night began, I’d first thought I could do it forever, but by the end of the night with a hoarse voice and a sore lower back, I was glad when the last customers had left and we finally closed the doors to “Dr. Happy’s Asylum.” Over the next few school days it’d be our responsibility to tear it down, and that would be a bittersweet moment to top all bittersweet moments, but we’d done it.
We’d survived Halloween.
Whether I’d survive Nadia was another matter entirely, the way she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me on my painted white cheek.
“I think I love you! You too!” she exclaimed, letting me go and planting a matching kiss on Josie’s cheek.