Students are still talking about this year’s Haunted House and Costume Party combination. Students were encouraged to pass through the haunted house to get to the costume party.
The air was thick with anxious chatter and nervous laughter, and the line to get into the fearfest stretched the length of the yard.
From the moment they entered the “haunted” Black and Gold Room, participants seeking a scare were greeted by an eerie woman in white waving at them with a grotesque and bloodied face. The only light in the barrier-lined room came from a solitary strobe light that gave the haunting creatures an almost stop-motion effect. Two clowns, an apparently hungry cop, and a monster behind a glass door were among the roaming creatures.
“They did a good job,” says freshman Cordero Simmons. “I had to lead the pack because the girls was too scared.”
Students were chased, grabbed, and growled at as the workers did their best to give them a fright worthy of nightmares.
The sanctuary of the costume party was all that was on some fear seekers’ minds as they dashed for the open door connecting the exit of the house with the entrance of the costume party. Some were running so fast they fell down as the cop popped out to give them one last scare.
Those who fell didn’t stay down long, however, as students moved from jumping out of their skins to jumping out of their shoes and seats. The room and music were hot, but the bodies were clearly hotter. Dancers glistened and whisked away sweat as they danced and clapped on the dance floor.
Most of the costumes were either nonexistent or simple, but a handful were very complex. There were ghosts, zombies, faces painted to the likeness of the decorative skulls displayed during Dia de los Muertos, and even a kitty cat pixie.
There was no décor on the dance floor, but as partygoers filed out into the lobby, they were met with red and black streamer-covered hand rails, balloons, and more streamers.
The music and conversation carried outside the building, and every now and then the scream of a scared student in the haunted house filled the air.