The Friday before the haunted house was going to open, Liam and Ali were rushing around doing everything they could. The kids had come out this week from the drama club and had some great ideas while helping to set up. It was hard for her to let go of the reins, but she found that Liam was correct in that the kids had pretty warped minds at times.
This definitely was, by far, going to be the best haunted house yet. For all the work that the kids did, she gave them free passes and then an extra one for a friend.
Her mother and Liam’s mother were in the bakery now, making all sorts of gory things that they’d need to add tomorrow. The haunted house would open right after lunch. And though it was still light outside and most wouldn’t get the spooky graveyard effect walking up to the barn, the inside was still spooky enough to make people scream.
The best part was that some of the areas had the teens dressed up and reaching out to grab at people. She’d done that one year but didn’t have enough people to make it work most times, so she had bats and bugs that would fall from the ceiling and such instead.
But between Liam and the teens, there was a lot more live interaction this year. Not to mention the technology that Liam incorporated. She found he was a big kid at heart, just like her.
Dinner with both mothers had taken place two weeks ago and had gone off without a hitch. Liam’s mother was very sweet and gentle. And though Liam said her mother and Amy were a lot alike, Ali didn’t think so.
Sure, her mother was sweet, but she wasn’t always so gentle. It was probably the hard life of working so much, where Amy had never really worked at all.
“My mother is going to go through it first,” Liam said walking up and putting his hands on her waist from behind. She loved when he did that. When he claimed her as his for all to see. She told herself she should probably stop creating little fairytales in her mind, but she couldn’t help it.
“How come?” she asked, turning and putting her arm around his waist.
“Because she’s scared of these things. It’s not even finished and if she walks through and jumps then it will be funny to watch.”
“That’s mean, Liam,” she said, laughing.
“Well, you could go through with her. Maybe it’d be good for the two of you to bond.”
She laughed. “I’m not scared of this. I’ve done it my whole life. And bonding, while your mom is clinging to me, isn’t what I had in mind.”
“Then maybe it would be good for you to go and reassure her it’s fine and what to look out for before it happens. Go give it a trial run. There’s no one jumping out and grabbing her and the lights will be on.”
“Fine. Go turn the music on and tell me when it’s ready.”
Ali went to find Amy while Liam set up the computer that would time things popping out and falling down from the ceiling along with the right music to set the mood.
“There’s no smoke and I’m already freaked out,” Amy said when they were walking toward the barn and past the makeshift cemetery that Ali had set up.
“There’s nothing to be scared of,” she said. “It’s all fake. You even helped me set these up.”
“In the daylight, the arms and legs sticking out of the ground didn’t seem too scary. Now I’m afraid I’m going to have nightmares.”
Ali reached her hand down and held Amy’s. “I’ll tell you when everything is going to happen. You’ll end up laughing more than anything.”
“I’ll take your word for it, but I’m not convinced.”
Ali lost count of the number of times Amy jumped or grabbed her arm when props were moving. On top of that, Ali feared she might have lost some of her hearing with the way Amy was screaming the whole time.
In the end, Liam was right though, it was a good bonding experience for them, because when it was all done, Amy hugged her close and laughed, then thanked her for bringing joy to her son.
***
“That was awesome,” Liam said on Sunday night when they closed it down. He’d always enjoyed the haunted house as a kid, but never realized how much fun it was to be behind the scenes.
“Wasn’t it?” Ali asked. “Now you know why I’ve been so excited about it. When I was younger I used to dress up and hide throughout the maze and scare people when the time allowed.”
“Really?” he asked. “I bet I saw you at some point since I came every year.”
“Most likely. As I got older and it took off, my grandfather and mother needed the help running it instead of letting me play inside of it.”
“It’s going to stink taking it all down tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t want to do it one more night?” he asked.
They were busy from the moment it opened until they took the last ticket tonight, running thirty minutes longer than planned.
“The weather isn’t going to be good. Most people aren’t going to come and stand out in the rain, though honestly, it would have a great effect in the cemetery.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” he said.
“I can’t. I’m beat. I’m always ready to crash afterward and then we have to take this down on top of it.”
“Leave that to me,” he said. “I’ll get some crew here tomorrow and another day and we’ll get it all down and packed up.”
“Don’t put my stuff away. I’ve got a system of storing it and I don’t want it touched by anyone other than me.” She stopped talking and just stared at him. “I’m sorry. That was wrong of me. In a few months it’s all going to be your stuff anyway, so you can put it away any way you want.”
He pulled her in. She’d been such a great sport and he was wondering if the reality was hitting her that this was the last haunted house under her family ownership. “It’s still your stuff, Ali. I fully expect you to be here doing this with me next year.”
“Do you mean that?”
Her voice broke a little and he questioned that even though he’d been trying to show her how much he cared for her, she obviously didn’t know. Of course, it wasn’t as if she’d told him either.
One of them had to take the first step, and he was guessing it should be him. He still remembered not so long ago that she didn’t want to have a relationship with him because he had more than her. That she didn’t want anyone to know for fear they’d think she was trying to snag a husband to support the farm. Her excuses didn’t seem to end in the beginning and he figured that was still bleeding over in their relationship.
“Yes, I do.” He ran his hand along her jaw, then tucked her hair behind her ear. “Ali, don’t you know what you mean to me?”
“No,” she said, her eyes looking up at him, confusion and hope swirled together like soft serve ice cream on a beachfront, wanting and needing everything better but afraid it’d melt all over the place knowing the heat would be too much. There was a vulnerability he didn’t see from her often.
He took her hand and put it over his heart. “Deep inside of me, this beats for you. It beats for this place. I love you.”
Her eyes started to fill and he wondered if he was showing his cards a little too soon. “I love you too. I didn’t want to say it first though.”
He laughed, not surprised to hear that. “Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you to think I was using you.”
“I’ve never thought that at all. I don’t now either. Let’s close this all up and go home. We can figure out how to clean up the mess later.”
“Can we go to your house tonight?” she asked.
“We can. We can go there together every night if you want.”
“Tonight will do.”
He was trying not to be hurt over that, and knew he still had more walls to break down. Good thing he was handy with a sledgehammer.