ENTER IF YOU DARE...
It's mid-October, not too long after dusk. A full moon hangs in the autumn sky, silhouetting the mostly-bare trees against a star-spattered sky as the car filled with you and your friends passes along a rural, two-lane road. Excitement is thick in the car, for tonight is special; not to be spent at the local night club or usual hangout, but a small, enticing ad in the newspaper brought word of something far better. Out here, on the edges of the city where the streetlights are few and far between, lies Madame Victoria's Mansion of Mayhem promising thrills and chills appropriate for the Halloween-season. A terrifying phantasm that rises from the chill autumn mists only once a year, and only for the briefest period of time.
A hand-painted sign, illuminated by a couple of clamp lights attached to a bush, is the only marker for the road. The words are written in gothic, drippy, and almost absurdly macabre letters, along with a skeletal hand pointing the way. The entrance road is full of potholes and well rutted... it would almost look like you were headed down some long abandoned path if it weren't for the artificial jack-o'-lanterns serving as way-markers along the shoulder. At the end, a teenager in plastic flashing devil horns shows you to your parking spot with the wave of a red flashlight, and it's everyone out of the car.
The night is crisp and cool, the smells of popcorn, cotton candy, and fog juice hanging on the breeze as your party makes its way up to the entrance. There's a brief wait in line, giving you ample time to listen to the screams, snarls, and less identifiable noises issuing from behind the fence. and you get your tickets; moving to stand in line with the other guests. From the queue, it's hard to see much; a weathered wooden fence roughly eight feet tall allows only the barest glimpses of movement and light beyond. The facade, though, is the foreboding portico of a decrepit southern mansion, the weathered steps creaking ominously as each group is let in by the creepily-smiling butler in the mildewed tuxedo at the front door. Some distance away, the off-key tootling of a circus organ can be heard, tinny in the cold air.
Welcome, to Madame Victoria's Mansion of Mayhem.
Enjoy your visit...