When I received a letter in the mail informing me that I had been chosen to take part in a social experiment, I jumped at the opportunity. I mean, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I simply had to take it.
When I arrived at the predetermined location for an informational meeting on the matter, I found that there were fourteen others including myself who were the official “guinea pigs.”  Three men and two women in business attire and lab coats stood at the front of the group. The friendly chatter immediately stopped when one of the women stepped forward and said, “May I have your attention please.” She said it like she expected everyone to obey, and that’s what we did. Right off the bat, she seemed like one of those women you don’t mess around with. Her authority made her seem even taller and skinnier than she already was.
“Thank you,” she said curtly, “Now that everyone has arrived, we would like to explain the situation to you.” My face burned slightly as a realized that I had been holding the entire group up, even though I was only seven minutes late.
“Let us begin. I must ask that you please hold all questions until the end.” She paused and swept an icy gaze over the group before she asked, “How many of you have ever been to a haunted attraction around Halloween time?” Several confused hands went up, and she continued, “Good. Then some of this will sound familiar to you.”
What kind of experiment is this? I wondered. The woman straightened her lab coat and said, “In most haunted attractions, the actors are not allowed to touch you unless you sign a waiver. We have two haunted houses, both identical to each other. Another group of fifteen that have signed waivers and will go through a regular haunted house attraction where the actors are allowed to touch them. This group, however, will go through a real haunted house, with real asylum patients, real zombies, real vampires, etcetera. Ideally, both experiences should be virtually the same, but our intent is to study how people react when they know it is real, versus when they know it’s not. You should be on site for about four hours at which point we will-”
“Uh, I’m sorry,” a girl from the group blurted out, “But how is any of that real? There’s no such thing as zombies or ghosts or vampires, ‘etcetera.’ So you’re basically just paying for us to go through a haunted house thing. Nice try.”
A mysterious smile crossed our hosts’ lips.
“Oh I can assure you that it is very real. Our scientists have created zombies and many other nightmares for you to enjoy, much like Dr. Frankenstein.” The girl opened her mouth to inform her that Dr. Frankenstein wasn’t real either, but the woman cut her off.
“We knew it would be difficult to convince you of the reality of the situation. That’s why we’ve brought one of our little friends along with us.”
These people are psychotic, I realized, What have I gotten myself into?! I need to get out of here, ASAP. I turned around to head back to my car, only to discover that there were security guards circled around us, each a few feet apart. Great.
The other four scientists brought out a glass coffin type thing, and waved at us to come closer. Warily I stepped closer, partly out of curiosity and partly because the security guards had started to close in on us, forcing us to get closer to the scientists. We were definitely outnumbered.
People whispered quietly to each other until the thing in the coffin came into view.
There was a dead man with hollow cheekbones and rotting flesh lying inside, and it looked very real. I instinctively put a hand over my mouth.
One of the male scientists muttered to the other, “Let’s wake him up,” and the other nodded as he placed a tube into a hole on the side, which started to fill the glass case with a white gas.
Suddenly, the zombie’s eyes flew open and he began screaming and moaning and rolling around inside the case, attempting to escape. The group gasped and jumped backward.
The other woman scientist, a blonde with a round face, stepped out from behind the case and said with a sweet voice, “Here is what the actor zombies from the other haunted house look like.” Another man dressed in a zombie costume stepped out. Compared to whatever was in that case, he definitely looked very fake.
“Now,” the blonde continued, “Some of you may still be skeptical. That’s alright, you’ll get used to it eventually.” The way she spoke, as if this were some kind of party, sickened me further.
At this point, everyone in our group was very uneasy, and unsure of what to think. Despite the protests of that one dumb girl from earlier (among a few others), our hosts ushered us onto a school bus where they informed us that our next destination would be the site of the experiment.
The real haunted house.

I leaned my head against the dirty bus window and sighed, remembering the stern woman’s words.
“Both experiences should be virtually the same,” she had said. Virtually the same, I thought, Except we can, you know, get brutally murdered or eaten or infected or-
I shook my head. Haunted house attractions were usually a pretty fun experience for me. But this one was real, and when certain death is a very high possibility, nothing seems very fun anymore.
The tall, skinny, female scientist with the stern face lead us off the bus and onto the lawn in the front yard of the house. The house itself didn’t look like what you would imagine a haunted house to look like; It was more like a giant flat white box. And by giant, I mean huge. It would definitely take at least four hours to get through, especially if the inside wove around like the maze I was imagining in my head.
“We will now split you up into five groups of three. When I call your name, get into your group.”
She began calling out names and people separated themselves from the larger part of the group. There were only six people left when she called out, “Brianne Johnson, Jameson Phillips, and Hailee Bernard: you three are in group four.”
Just my luck. It turned out that Brianne was that annoying, skeptical girl from earlier. Jameson was a muscular, blonde guy who seemed very shy.
“Oh my gosh I am not doing this,” Brianne said firmly, “I did not sign up for anyhing like this.”
“Actually,” the plump, blonde scientist cut in, “The letter you received in the mail was very clear that if you arrived at the informational meeting, you were automatically signed up and were under our jurisdiction until the experiment was concluded.” She smiled a psychotic, sweet smile that made me want to throw up.
“Well I’m not doing it with only one boy. I’m only going through if I get two boys in my group.” Brianne narrowed her eyes and folded her arms.
“Well sorry I can’t be a big tough guy for you,” I scoffed. I was about to say more, when one of the male scientists with brown hair and glasses stepped forward.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” he nodded, “but your current group is who you will be required to go through the experiment with.”
“Inconvenience?!” Brianne explained, on the brink of hysteria, “You know what’s inconvenient? That you’re putting us through a highly life-threatening experience with no regard for what we want to do! We get absolutely no choice on the matter!”
Finally, I thought, exasperated, Something intelligent came out of her big mouth.
Another male scientist butted in.
“Miss Johnson,” he said, “because of your behavior, group four will now be known as group one, and gets to go through first.”
Brianne’s jaw dropped.
“Wow thanks a lot!” I shouted at her, “What a treat! Now we get to die first! You know, if you would just keep your mouth shut once in a while, none of this would-”
“You’re blaming this on me?” she screamed, “I’m not this psycho-person who came up with this brilliant death-trap. And for the record, we were going to die either way! That’s what they want!”
“That’s enough,” the blonde scientist said. Turning to a group of four security guards, she told them it was time for us to begin. They grabbed our arms and escorted us to the front door, Brianne kicking and screaming the entire way, Jameson staying silent but looking very distressed, and me, still yelling about how stupid this situation was. At least me and Brianne agreed on that.

We were practically thrown inside, and the door slammed behind us. I picked myself up off the ground and quickly surveyed our surroundings. It was quiet, and not too dark. I could see paintings hanging on the wall and old dusty plants and spiderwebs everywhere, going down a short hallway.
“Okay,” I started, “The only way to go is down this hallway.” My two team mates picked themselves up and also began looking around.
“Whatever,” Brianne said, “Let’s just get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we can get our deaths over with.”
Jameson suddenly spoke up for the first time, except he mumbled something under his breath no one else could hear.
“Sorry,” I said, “It’s James, right? I didn’t catch what you said.”
“Jameson, actually. And I said it’s a possibility that we could survive.”
Brianne and I both froze and stared at him. He shrugged and continued, “Well it is. I think it would be better to die while optimistic, so we might as well do our best.”
Brianne’s jaw dropped. Then she composed herself again, cleared her throat and walked over to Jameson, linking her arm through his.
“I changed my mind,” she declared airily, “this team might be alright after all.”
I rolled my eyes and mumbled something under my breath about trying not to throw up.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. For the love of all mankind, can we just get going now?”
I almost asked what happened to “the sooner we start, the sooner we can get our deaths over with,” but it would probably be answered with something along the lines of “I’ve been inspired to choose a different path and be happy,” and that would just make me want to gag even more.

We started down the hallway, with Brianne holding tightly to Jameson the entire time, which left me to lead the way. The hallway turned right and led up some stairs, that had a big black door at the top. I stood in front of it for a while, collecting my thoughts and breathing deeply.
These may very well be my last breaths, I thought. I don’t do well with that whole optimism thing. It doesn’t last long.
“What on earth are you waiting for?!” Brianne gently shoved my back as she said, “Go!” I wanted to punch her so bad. Instead, I replied quietly through gritted teeth, “I can do it myself.”
I gripped the doorknob and turned it without another word.

Suddenly, the atmosphere was insanely chaotic. We were met by lights and sirens whirring and a man in a HazMat suit who promptly asked, “Have any of you been infected?” We stared blankly at him, so he asked again.
“Have any of you been infected? This is very important, you must get going. But if you’ve been infected then we need to-”
“Okay, we get it, and no, none of us have been infected!” Brianne rubbed her temples. “Can we just go now?”
“Yes ma’am,” the man answered, stepping aside and revealing another door. “You may want to move as quickly as possible from here on out.”
“Thank you,” I told him, opening the door and stepping through.

A woman’s scream came from directly to my left and I instinctively jumped away. She was in a lab coat, kneeling on the floor, surrounded by ripped up paper.
“You ruined it!!” she sobbed, “You ruined it!!!” She was screaming so hysterically that she probably didn’t have the strength to harm me in any way. Then again, I didn’t want to take any chances. Also, I had no idea what she was talking about. I started running through the lab with Brianne and Jameson close behind me.
Where’s the exit, where’s the exit? I thought desperately. The alarm was still going off and it was making it very hard to think straight or see what was going on.
“Over there!” Jameson pointed. All three of us dashed for the door.

We slammed the door behind us and stopped to catch our breath for a moment. We were in another hallway that had a barred window in the wall a little ahead of us and to our left, with a door to the cage was on the right side of the window.
“Is there something in there?” Brianne whimpered as I cautiously walked forward to take a look inside. I kept close to the wall and slowly moved my head to look through the window. What I saw made me inhale sharply, and then I couldn’t move.
“Run,” I whispered, “Run!” I forced myself to move and sprint around the corner where James and Brianne ran into me.
“In here!” I opened the first door on my right and we all piled ourselves in. I heard the heavy footsteps continue down the hallway, then they stopped, and headed down back where they came from. The cage door slammed and all was quiet again. We all breathed heavily and tried to adjust ourselves into a more comfortable position in the tiny closet.
“What was that thing?” Jameson asked, “I didn’t get a close enough look at it.”
“You wouldn’t want to,” I exhaled, “It was a giant rat. Except in the cage there was the remains of a body - a human body.”
“Gross!” Brianne flinched, “That is so disgusting.”
Yeah, and we could have just as easily been it’s next three meals, I thought.
“We should go now,” Jameson sighed, “We just have to be really quiet.”
We opened the closet door and climbed out as quietly as possible, which was difficult, because we were all tangled up together. At the end of the hallway we found another door, that was left ajar. James stuck his head in and blanched. Looking back at Brianne and I, he lifted a finger to his mouth, signaling us to keep quiet. We all crowded around the doorway to see what was inside.
It was a bedroom, with a small bed and a dollhouse in the corner. Through the window on the far wall, you could see and hear a thunderstorm raging outside. A nightlight plugged into the wall made everything appear yellow and even more eerie. But the worst part was the little girl sitting with her back to us on the floor at the foot of the bed, singing softly to herself. There was no way we could get to the door on the other side of the bed without her noticing us. Jameson stepped further into the room and was about to step over the bed when suddenly the girl began to stand up, sitting herself on the bed. She still made no indication that she knew we were there.
“Looks like we have to go around her,” Jameson whispered.
“Are you kidding?” Brianne scoffed, “I am not walking in front of that thing.”
“She can’t do anything to us,” I said, “Let’s just stay close to the wall. And if she tries to attack us, we can totally take her. She’s just a little girl.”
“Things aren’t always what they appear to be,” Jameson reminded me, “Especially here. But I think it’s worth a shot. Let’s go.”
We inched our way along the wall and around the bed. She observed us curiously, not unlike any other child would, but with her pale, white face and the black smudged around her eyes, her expression read something more along the lines of “I’m curious how many different ways I can murder these trespassers.” She tilted her head and continued humming a creepy tune that made my head spin.
I wasn’t completely aware of the fact that I had stopped moving directly in front of her, but the black around her eyes made her bright green eyes appear even brighter, and they were drawing me in, inviting me to come closer. The song she was singing was so hauntingly beautiful that I wanted to dance and get completely lost in it.
Suddenly it was all torn away.
“What is wrong with you?!” Brianne exclaimed. I opened my eyes and realized that the girl’s bedroom was now behind us.
“But - wh- what happened?” I asked, thoroughly confused.
Jameson pursed his lips. “I think she kind of... hypnotized you, so i dragged you out of the room and then you just collapsed here.”
I shook my head. “Man, that was weird…”
Against Brianne’s wishes, Jameson let me rest for a few more minutes before we got up to continue.

The next hallway was full of torn apart furniture, and we struggled to stumble our way through it.
“It smells bad,” Brianne complained.
“Shh!” I told her, “It’s been quiet for a while. We can either enjoy it while it lasts or be even more on our guard because this could all change at any moment! And bad smells are not the worst thing we’ve encountered thus far.”
Brianne didn’t say anything else for a long while after that, but I did catch Jameson smiling to himself from my little speech.
Jameson suddenly stopped in front of me.
“Did you hear that?” he asked. Brianne and I both shook our heads. Jameson shrugged.
“I guess it was nothing,” he replied.
Fat chance, I thought, Everything means something here.
That was when I heard someone directly above me whisper, “I seee youuu…”
My blood ran cold as I gasped and looked up. There was nothing there but the cobwebs on the ceiling.
Everything that happens here is so cliche, I thought, You’d see it at any haunted house attraction. But it’s a lot more terrifying when you know it’s real.
As we were about to turn the corner, a door behind us creaked open. All three of us turned around to find someone standing in the middle of the hallway.
For a moment, time was frozen. No one dared to breath or move. The dark figure broke the silence with a loud groan and began stumbling towards us.
We did our best to get away, but he could run surprisingly fast for a zombie. Brianne tripped over something or other that was laying in the hallway and the zombie grabbed her ankle and started to drag her back down the hallway. I quickly grabbed her arms and yanked as hard as I could, but it only slowed him down a little. Brianne continued screaming and crying, when out of nowhere, Jameson smacked the zombie over the head with a chair leg.
I don’t know if it’s possible to kill or knock out a zombie, all I know is that it fell over and didn’t get back up, and we didn't wait around to see if he ever would.

Brianne continued sobbing for fifteen minutes after that.
“I- I- I- just c- can’t believe th- that I’m st- still alive!” She cried, “J- James, y- you saved my life!!”
“It’s Jameson,” he corrected her.
“Oh, and what am I?” I said sarcastically.
“You almost ripped my arms off!” she screamed at me, “The point was to hurt the zombie, not me!”
“If she hadn’t grabbed your arms to at least slow him down, there’s no way I could’ve caught up and acted as quickly as I did,” Jameson interrupted.
“Well- well-” she tried to come up with something else to say, but when she couldn’t, she went back to moaning and crying her eyes out.
Jameson and I looked at each other and shook our heads.
That’s when a crushing realization hit me: We were never getting out of here.