Monsters After Dark

I stood at the mouth of an alleyway off the brick paved streets. Groups of people walked along. Some had their arms wrapped around themselves, whether from the chill of the October air, or from fear of what might be around any corner, it was hard to tell at a glance. But it was those who lacked vigilance, at the edges of their respective parties, that made the perfect targets.

As one group of people, three strong, passed by, I realized the man nearest to me had his head turned away. He was chatting amiably to his two lady friends. But most importantly, he didn’t see me there at all. Excellent.

I slinked out from my hiding place, knees bent to keep myself low. I quickly caught up to the group with the oblivious man, and matched their speed, positioning myself directly in his blind spot. One of the women in their group stopped talking, and covered her mouth, faintly shocked.

“What?” asked the man at her expression. “What’s going on?”

The woman pointed straight at me. “Behind you!”

As soon as the man turned, I straightened myself and raised my arms partway, expanding my silhouette. I growled, baring my teeth. He froze.

A moment of silence. Then, his compatriots started giggling.

“She really got you good, Frank!” exclaimed the woman in the middle, slapping him across the back. Frank joined in the laughter, a dry, mellow sound that gave me the satisfied feeling of a job well done.

The second woman was pulling out her phone, and said, “Can we take a photo with you?” But I was already in the wind, melting back in with the rest of the amusement park crowd, before she even had time to finish her sentence. It was policy for the scare actors not to stop with any one group for too long, and photos were something the park could charge a special experience fee for.

Nighttime blanketed Six Flags with darkness. The cool air of October the week before Halloween felt damp against my skin, but the costume I wore, a ripped up black hoodie over black and white striped shirt and purple pants, all covered with red stains to suggest blood splatters, kept me warm enough. I had tucked hand warmers into my gloves before coming out, as well, since one of my coworkers had given me the heads up that a cold front was approaching from the north.

Music blared over speakers throughout my assigned area, a pounding electronic beat that felt energizing. Fog machines at one end of the section filled the air with a slightly cloying aroma. The noise of the crowd intermingled with the mechanical sounds of roller coasters in the distance. It was a chaotic and bizarre place. And I was entirely within my element.

My manager, Angela, approached me where I was lurking in the shadows. Her neon yellow jacket made her visible from a distance. I peeked at the clock tower in the corner of the large, open area, and realized that the end of my shift had crept on me.

She didn’t even have to say much for me to know what she needed.

“Head backstage, kid. It’s time to wrap things up.”

“Shoundsh good,” I mumbled around the large prosthetic fangs in my mouth. I kept up my skulking walk and unapproachable demeanor until I reached the gate. A brightly colored Employees Only! sign indicated that there’d be no park guests in the area beyond, so I dropped character.

Just past the gate were a few other scare actors on a smoke break. One was dressed as a werewolf, like myself, and wearing a jacket over his costume to keep the scent of cigarettes off. The vampire to his left had done the opposite, taken off his long red cloak and set it down on the bench behind them. I briefly waved at them, and they nodded in acknowledgement.

The backstage area was a long, winding, paved road, with side paths linking to various areas of the park proper. I could look up to my left and see from below the last lucky few riders of the Batman roller coaster, who must’ve been let on just as the park was about to close for the night. Past that, the go-cart track, the smell of diesel still lingering in the air.

Off to the right, I reached the locker rooms for the scare actors. A cramped little space, the ladies’ changing room needed to be staggered in use to keep the room from overflowing. I was among the earliest to be sent in, and quickly got to my business.

Opening my locker took me two attempts, since the dial was a bit fiddly. A pair of actresses from one of the paid haunted house attractions walked in, their masks already off, revealing the matte black patches painted around their eyes and mouths to hide the skin that would be otherwise visible.

“Do either of you need to borrow a makeup wipe?” I asked.

“Please,” replied the shorter of the two, Monica. I handed her one from my green packet. I had found out in the first week of working there that the brand I bought was particularly effective at stripping grease paint from skin. The only downside was that it dried your face out, but that was better than having residue left behind, and acne coming up the next day.

“Did you hear what happened at Nightmare Mansion?” The taller girl, Jen, stood a step behind me and Monica, as we crowded around the single mirror in the corner of the room, taking off our makeup.

“No, what?”

“Daniel told me at our meal break that they had to shut the place down for the night after someone brought in pepper spray.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” chimed in Monica. “I guess security missed it when they came into the park. He pulled it out after Wilbur Stone—you know Wilbur Stone, right? He scared him and the girl he was with. And since the whole building is pretty cramped, the ventilation spread it around, and soon everyone in there was coughing and choking.”

“Jesus.”

“From what I heard, the both of them got a lifetime ban from the park, and maybe are looking at assault charges, depending on how it shakes out between Wilbur and the police.”

“I sure hope so. I mean imagine dating a guy like that. ‘Look at me, I’m a big strong tough guy. If an actor tries to do their job around me, I’ll knock them the fuck out.’ I hear that all the time from dudes at my school. Like, imagine feeling threatened by a theater kid.”

“Have you had any character batteries in your area lately, Lisa?”

“Nothing too bad,” I answered. “Although a lady flipped out yesterday when I scared her. Gave me a swollen lip, but since she said it was just a reflex, I told Angela not to do anything about it.”

“Still, you gotta be careful.” Monica was nearly done with her makeup, and was checking herself in the mirror. “Teddy told me that last year, some girl said he touched her butt during one of his photoshoot sessions. Except his hands were on camera the whole time, and he was able to prove she was lying.”

“I don’t think my lady was lying. She seemed pretty apologetic about it either way." I paused. "And just between us three, Teddy can touch my butt any day of the week.”

Jen broke down laughing, and soon it was contagious enough to spread to all three of us.

“For real? Isn’t he like, way too old for you, miss orange badge?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I only still have the orange name tag because I hadn’t bothered to get a new one after I turned 18.”

“He’s like, 30 though,” Monica added. “And it says he has a girlfriend on his Facebook, anyway.”

“Well then, that’s why I said ‘just between us three.’ You can’t tell anyone, ok?”

“Tell anyone what?” A fourth actress walked into the dressing room. Vivian’s makeup was vivid blue airbrushed over her high cheekbones. Her demon horns and black wig, she had taken off, leaving a harsh line between her character’s skin and her own, just below the hairline.

“Nothing!” I squeaked. Vivian was a dancer, and spent a lot of time with Teddy. Her troupe, the demons, had a major role in the more public facing roles. The shows that every park guest tried to show up to. And the fact that they got the most expensive looking costumes and makeup meant they got featured in the promotional material for the park. To say I was jealous was the understatement of the year.

She sighed. “As if I couldn’t guess.”

The air turned icy, and I said nothing as I finished taking off my makeup, and then turned to my costume. Monica and Jen did the same.

“Listen, I know it’s none of my business, but just… Be careful, ok?”

“Second time I’m hearing that tonight.”

“I’m serious. There’s more to people than you realize. Stay in your lane, kid. Keep it professional. Just because you see someone before they have their horns and makeup on, doesn’t mean you actually know them.”

I nodded. Maybe she had a point, but I wasn’t interested in hearing that the guy I had a crush on was bad for me.

“It’s not like I was going to say anything anyway,” I murmured.

“Keep it that way,” Vivian replied.

I finished taking off all the layers of my costume, leaving me with just my thermal long sleeve shirt. I put on the STAFF t-shirt that I was issued by the park over top of it, and my black jeans. The costume, I folded in a quick but neat heap, and took with me, along with my backpack, out of the locker room.

I brought my outfit to the costume department’s window, where they traded it for my employee ID. I clocked out, and began my long walk to the employee parking lot. I stopped along the way at the makeup building, and left them my set of false teeth, so they could hold onto them until my next shift.

Along the way out of the park, I saw Teddy talking to someone by the HR building. He was out of costume, probably having clocked out already, and speaking to someone dressed in a blue polo.

I made eye contact with him as I passed, and smiled slightly. He nodded, and kept talking to the woman in the blue polo. 

The employee parking lot was vast, and as I pulled out, I saw the park glimmering behind me, the lights going off one by one as the park shut down for the night.