Tessa Carlson's Story

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When Zack and Sera were sitting in the first cart Ben pushed one of the buttons in order to let them start the ride. The rest would follow automatically so he walked to the third cart where Nikki was already sitting. He suddenly realized he hadn't given his second flash light to Jas or Tess. By now it was too late. He took it out of his pocket and gave it to Nikki. "Here, you hold on to this one. See anything scary, besides me of course, just shine it full on in the face." He was excited for the ride, it had been a while since he had been in a hunted house, and of course never quite like this. His 5-year old self was sitting on the edge of his seat waiting for what to come.

When Nikki and Ben past through the doors in their own cart of adventure the doors closed behind them, leaving them in absolute darkness. The first thing Ben noticed was the amount of dust in the air. Not strange of course, but it did dry out his throat very quickly. He had expected to land his face in some spider webs, but surprisingly it didn't happen once. He didn't find the ride as scary as it should have been. Maybe this was the price for being in the third cart, he could more or less hear when something should happen from the cart in front of them.

It was nice that there was a storyline in the ride, almost like Pirates of the Caribbean. Through the first scene they were welcomed to the hotel by the Concierge, an old friendly looking man with a solid grey moustache. When lightning hit behind the figurine you would see his skeleton. He explained the traumatic accidents that happened to some of the guests, and how they were never seen again. The scariest thing was probably the characters voice, a raspy sound with a solid echo. He carefully tapped Nikki and leaned in to tell her something. "Doesn't that guy remind you of someone?" He was thinking of teachers or something, but he was sure that he had seen that face before.

When the ride went on it felt like bats were flying over his head and he could hear their screeching sound. Before they got to the second part the ride suddenly stopped. "Dammit, I hate being right sometimes. This thing just started being interesting. Nikki, do you still have your flash light?" He grabbed the other flash light out of his pocket and clicked it on. A bright beam of light blinded him a bit after he had gotten used to the darkness of the attraction. He looked at Nikki who seemed a bit pale. Maybe it's the lighting, he thought. He got out of the cart and stood in front of it. He thought he heard something slipping by them. Probably a rat, but Ben didn't want to say it in case he would scare Nikki. "Okay, let's just follow the track, we should see the second cart sooner or later. You know, if you want to hold my hand, that's okay with me. Just an offer, don't feel obligated." He hoped she wasn't too scared, maybe he had read her wrong and she wasn't scared at all.

Step by step they walked over the track. If he would have been alone he would have tried to find a door or something that would bring him in front of the others, so he could surprise them. He felt they should be coming close to the second cart. "Nikki, can we just scare them a little bit? Let's turn off our lights now, we're almost there in any case. When we are behind Tess and Jas' cart I'll squeeze your hand three times, on the third time we scream our lungs out. Good idea?" In order to show his approval of his own plan he already turned off his flash light as not to alert heir victims.

She was having a good laugh and scare with Jasper, laughing at herself for being startled so easily by the fake props that jumped out and squealed lightly, covering her eyes. Though once the power went out, Tessa’s hand instinctively clamped on Jasper’s finding no amusement in the power outage and the fact that they were left in the pitch black. She scrambled for the flashlight that should have been in their cart expectantly until hearing Jasper’s words, waiting on Ben. She sighed out a little, sitting back, folding her arms. “Me too.” She wasn’t afraid of the dark, but in this instance she didn’t like waiting around helplessly in the dark, in an area she already had trouble trusting.

She tried to relax but her tensions were high and her senses were on over drive trying to peak through the darkness and listen for the slightest of sounds. Part of her desired to flee to the cart ahead meeting up with a few more bodies quickly, and out of the haunted house which somehow represented the idea of safety and relief, rather than wait expectantly like this. Tessa was restless waiting for Nikki and Ben to swoop to their rescue with some lights but silence was the worse thing to hear, building her anticipation of something jumping out at them and dragging them away. She drummed her fingers on the little cart blowing out her lips. "Come on, people," she mumbled.

Feeling Sera rest her head on his shoulder, he rest his head on hers. He felt a sudden wave of calmness wash over him and he even started to fall asleep. Zack probably would have had she not jumped and screamed. Still it felt good to rest and to be alone just the two of them, or it was till the power went out. This made Zack jump a little, as he quickly scrambled for his day pack and pulled out his flashlight-lantern and turned it on the lantern part of it. As the blue light from the LEDs pierced the darkness he used it to look around. He looked down at Sera's glowing face and smiled, his heart so badly wanted to kiss her and tell her how important she is to him and how much he loves her. But his brain told him that thus was not the time, had to make sure everything was ok first. Were was Ben, was he going to try and scare them or help them.

Zack couldn't just seat there and wait, not knowing if the others were ok. If Ben was ok or if he was just getting ready to scare Tessa and Jasper. So he set the lantern on the seat and grabbed his small backup flashlight. He kissed Sera on the forehead and whispered, "Ok, I have to see if everyone is ok. Stay here, stay in the light and stay in the cart. I'll be right back. Oh and watch out for Ben just in case he tries anything with you, I wouldn't want to have to beat up my best friend." With that he turned his light on, grabbed his day pack, that had a med kit in it and took of back down the tracks. Moving a quick as he can he had to get to the others, his thoughts kept drifting back to poor Sera, sitting in the dark by herself. "She is going to hate me after this." he whispered to himself as he neared the second cart. Looking around, "Were is Ben with his flashlights? Oh crap... Ben... really? right now...?" Then he thought about it, the look on Jasper's face... it would be worth it. Flicking the light of as he pretended to trip hoping he could use it as an excuse to why his light wasn't on and why it took him so long. Real he just found a seat kinda close and sat watching.

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When he pinched Nikki's hand he heard a voice from his own mouth he did not quite expect. Why the hell is my scream so high? Nikki did her part and when they jumped in front of the cart, clicking on their flash lights, they could see their obvious result on Jasper's face. As Jasper crumbled up from his fall, Ben could not contain his laugh. The fact that he had fallen onto Zack had just been icing on the cake. Unable to contain his laugh combined with the dusty air made Ben cough uncontrollably. When he came to he saw one of the group was missing, Sera wasn't there.

"Hey Zack, where is Sera? You didn't leave her alone did you?" He walked closer to Zack and continued in a whisper. "This is just the kind of situation I was setting up for you, and than you leave her behind?" Ben sometimes could not believe how clumsy his friend was with girls. With his looks and manner they should flock to him, but Zack never really seemed to be able to manage the attention. "Let's go and save Sera from loneliness, shall we?" he asked the others. With his flash light pointing forwards he followed the track to the first cart. He mainly pointed the light on the floor as not to fall over the track itself.

He was fairly confident now that the power was out. No surprises now... Just as the thought that a swooping sound came in and something fell from the ceiling. A second scream escaped his mouth, this was not as voluntary as the first. He dashed backwards and enlightened what apparently was a ghost. A sheet with eyes was dangling from the ceiling, no sound, but a hint of a smile on its face. Apparently not everything in this place was running on electronics, this thing must have been triggered by him walking on the tracks. "Okay people, I admit, Karma is a bitch..." Feeling less shaky he continued on the track, prepared for any further surprises.

A minute further and Ben discovered Sera, laying unconscious on the side of the track. He ran forward and sat down on his knees beside her. "GUYS, it's Sera, she's unconscious," he said with shock in his voice. "Come and help me." He placed his left hand underneath her head, with his right hand he weakly hit her on both cheeks in a hope to wake her up. "Sera, can you hear me?" he asked her without receiving a reaction. He used his hand to feel her cheeks and forehead to see if her temperature was okay. It seemed a bit higher than normal, but not alarmingly high. Secondly he grabbed her pulse and counted for 15 seconds. Her pulse was absolutely fine, leaving only one thing. With his ear he listened at her mouth hearing a usual breathing. With his free hand he put the end of his flash light in his mouth. He than opened her mouth and saw nothing in sight was obstructing the airways.

He removed the flash light from his mouth and sighed with relief. "It seems she hit her head on the track in her fall, but she is okay. That explains her being unconscious, but not why she fell though. Does anyone have something we can put under her head for now? Maybe some water as well?" He felt terribly responsible as they never would have been in here like this if he hadn't pushed them to.

After Tessa’s startle from Nikki and Ben, she smacked the cart a little but instantly started laughing as Jasper toppled on top of Zack. But she also noticed quickly that Sera wasn’t with Zack. She felt furious that he thought it wise to leave her alone but bit her knuckle to avoid over-reacting and causing unnecessary drama. She jumped out and paced up forward down the track, glancing back to make sure she was followed by the others.
With the flash light guiding just ahead of her steps she almost fell over Sera, gasping and crouched beside her.

Tessa watched Ben tend to her, anxiously. It wasn’t like she was wounded on the battlefield but returning to a friend unconscious for no apparent reason was abnormal. She bit her lip and took off her thick jacket, rolling it around her arm to serve as a pillow for Sera, tucking it under her head carefully and second glancing Ben to make sure it would suffice. She sat by Sera, legs crossed now as the next step must have been waiting for consciousness to return and bombard her with what caused her fall and why didn’t she just follow Zackary.

She squeezed Sera’s hand a little, like she normally did when they partied too hard and their coherent responses would not fit the other’s timing. However she stopped, feeling like something were right behind her, slowly drawing her hand back to her own lap. A feather light touch like ice on her arm caused her to shiver and look over her shoulder. No one was there but as time ticked, she only felt worse about this place. "Nikki?" she checked. Her stress and worry were activated and slowly growing beyond bothering to hide.

He got up and dusted himself off, now that Jasper was done falling on him. Turning to answer Ben it dawned on him, he left, of all people, Sera alone. Without wasting a moment Zack ran back to the first cart, were he looked for any sign of her. That's when his whole body went cold, "GUYS, it's Sera, she's unconscious," "Zack what have you do you dumb..." he shock it off as he grabbed his pack and ran towards Ben. Like a runaway freight train he plowed through any of "monsters" that got in his way. As he got close, his mothers first aid lessons kicked in, he dropped the pack and quickly knelt by Sera's head. Carefully he removed Tessa's jacket, "No you could cut of her airway. Doesn't look like there is any spin injury, just hit her head. Help me roll her on her side." Once she was on her side in the recovery position, Zack leaned his face next to hers to check for breathing. Relieved that she still is he whispered to her, "I am so sorry. I will never leave you again. I... I love you Sera." With a soft kiss to her forehead, he sat up, "I'm so very so everyone. Its my fault, we should never have came here, I should never have left her alone. When she wakes up I'll take her to my mom. As an EMT she should be able to help, that is if I can get her away from Dad. The rest of you stay with Ben, he'll take better care of you then I ever could." The guilt was killing him, he was used to guys getting hurt, its part of surfing, or being a guy, but he never had someone he cared about get hurt like this. At less not on his watch and not because of him. "Stupid Zack, how could you let this happen?