Scared Stiff

"I knew that I read it somewhere! This is it!" Veronica announced, yelled actually, from right next to me. She thrust a little black and white fanzine in front of my eyes for proof and then pulled it back before I could actually see anything that it said. I hoped that she hadn't realized that my gaze was nowhere near the words on the page. "According to this zine there is a secret section of the haunted house we're going to, apparently it's been there for a long time. But you need to signal that you know about it and want in." Now that Veronica had the attention of everyone in the car she lowered her voice and leaned into the goth persona that she had, dark hair and eyes fading into the dimness of the car. "And this will tell us, all of us, what we need to do to unlock the secrets."

From the front seat Tiff wasn't having any of it. "Oh, come on Veronica. We all know that you can opt into a scarier version of the haunted house. It's a well known thing, it's part of the advertising to attract a younger audience that think it may be for children. Not everything has a secret, mysterious side. In fact, most things are just what they appear to be. Many parts of the world are actually totally normal." Tiff flipped her curly blond hair, blew a bubble, and popped it to emphasize just what she was saying, whether she knew it or not.

The five of us in the car were all headed to the Devil's Den for what was supposed to be a fun night out and time away from the dorms. Devil's Den was a haunted attraction about forty five minutes from campus. It had been around for about twenty years, opening sometime in the early eighties. The theme was all around scary, but nothing too specific. The advertising I had seen blended zombies, vampires, and pumpkins all together in a generic Halloween pastiche. I wasn't a real big horror guy but I figured if it had been around for so long it had to be decent. Besides, I would probably do just about anything that I had been invited to. A month and a half into freshman year and it was feeling a lot like my high school experience. Especially when it came to girls.

I knew that I wasn't a bad looking guy. I was in good shape, I was tall, I could be funny at times. But I had absolutely no game. At all. I was still very much in the scared of girls phase of my life. More than anything I would be paralyzed with inaction, I always felt the need to consider all my options and think through any scenario that could play out. By the time I came to a conclusion the moment had usually passed and I was left alone. But at least I recognized this about myself and wanted to make a change.

Tiffany, Veronica, and Beth were all roommates in one of the dorm suites. As freshmen they were all thrown together randomly and, while they seemed to get along as a group, it was obvious that these weren't people meant to be lifelong friends. The driver, Tom, was the only one with a car and also Tiff's boyfriend. My connection was that Tom and I were from the same hometown a couple of hours away. He was a sophomore and a year older than me and I knew him because his brother was a close friend of mine from high school. Tom had been really nice to me since I got onto campus a couple of weeks ago and when he said that there was an empty seat in the car for a night out I jumped at the chance for something different. I was enjoying college but I never pictured being stranded on campus for months at a time, which is what it was starting to look like. And he mentioned that there would be two single girls, which made tagging along an easy decision.

I could see Veronica roll her eyes at the comment from the front of the car. In the extremely short amount of time that I had known Veronica, somewhere around twenty minutes, I got the impression that she did her own thing and didn't care much for the opinions of others. Always a little bit of an outsider myself, I could appreciate people that had the confidence to really own what they wanted to be.

"Maybe it's true, right? It's not impossible that Devils' Den is more than it appears to be,'' I offered in an attempt to get on Veronica's good side. I leaned a bit towards Veronica to look over her shoulder at the zine and was quickly distracted by her pale cleavage bubbling over the top of a deep purple corset. I sort of knew that was my intention all along but I was hoping it wasn't that transparent. "I don't know about this place but back home there was an arcade that had a secret area that served booze. You needed a password to get in, but it was a real thing. You know that place Tom? I forget what it was called."

"Yeah. Well, I heard of it but I don't know anyone who ever actually went there." Tom wasn't a big talker. He was more the handsome and silent type and it seemed like it worked real well for him. He had a bit of that long haired, skater guy look that girls seemed to go nuts for. For as long as I knew him he always had a girlfriend and they never seemed to stick around too long, their lack of longevity never a problem for him as far as I could tell.

"Exactly," Tiff jumped on the opening, emphasizing what Tom had said. "Classic urban legend. Everyone has heard of it but no one actually knows anyone who did it. It's always an uncle's friend's roommate's brother or something. We were just talking about this type of thing in my Honors Intro to Media class. How important sources and corroboration from multiple parties is the key to reportable information." Since we started the drive this was the third time that Tiffany had mentioned something she learned in one of her classes, each instance used as a refutation of something that one of her roommates had said.

"I guess you're going to miss out then, Tiff. Me and Brett are going to figure out what this is all about and uncover the mysterious, perhaps sexy side of this haunted house. Right, Brett?" Veronica leaned into me a little and I felt the fishnet of her stockings rub up against my leg.

"Totally," I confirmed. "I'm in." The college girls had not been very kind to me so far and just the slightest amount of attention was enough to get my blood moving. My cock stirred inside my jeans, twitching when Veronica put her hand on my knee and gave a little squeeze.

"Great. What about you Beth?" Veronica turned to Beth, her other roommate and one that was proving to be exceptionally quiet. Since I had gotten in the car she had barely said a word, a lone comment about a book she had read that was quickly contradicted by Tiffany.

"Maybe? Do you know anything else about it, if it even is true? What is that little book you're reading it from?" Beth's voice was quiet and had a very passive quality to it, a sharp contrast to the strength of her two roommates. I had been the last one to get in the car so I hadn't gotten a good look at any of the women, so I didn't have a feel for what Beth really looked like since Veronica was seated between us. Beth had straight brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and wore a gray sweatshirt. Besides that I couldn't see much of her, though what little I could see of her body suggested a thicker girl. Seated, her thighs rubbed together and she had her arms crossed on her lap, resting on a small belly.

"It's a zine that I bought at that little indy book store just off of campus. The metal dude that works there recommended it to me. We were talking and he thought that I would be into it. There's mostly stuff in here about local legends and folklore." Veronica paused and turned her attention to the front of the car. "You know, the type of stuff that you won't learn in class. I figured since I was new to the area I wanted to learn a bit about where I'm living."

In the darkness of the car I could see Beth light up a little bit at the explanation and move forward in her seat so that she was facing the two of us, Veronica and myself. For the first time I got a somewhat clear look at her and my eyes were immediately pulled to her chest, the letters spelling the name of our state college stretched wide across the front of the sweatshirt. I was shocked that I hadn't noticed before how much she filled out her top.

"That sounds cool, I love that kind of stuff," Beth added and her eyes drifted to the zine that Veronica was holding in front of her chest.

"Yeah, same here," I added, wanting to insert myself into the conversation with the two of them. "So, what's in there? What do they say about this haunted house?"

Now that she had everyone's attention again, Veronica sat back and explained to all of us what she had read. I could tell that she enjoyed being our focus for the moment and she sat up straight with the overhead light still on her, thrusting out her chest proudly. She ran her painted nails through her black hair, giving us all a chance to enjoy the sight of her. Veronica's breasts weren't huge but they were spilling out of the corset that she had on, pale globes that held my attention like a crystal ball. I could certainly see my future in them. Over the corset she had on a light jacket that she had left unbuttoned. The jacket was army surplus attire, olive drab and a small German flag on the sleeve.

Veronica began, "Devil's Den has been around for about twenty years, but the mansion that it's in is really old. Like, late 1800's, apparently some turn of the century robber baron type built it after he had amassed an enormous fortune from coal. Legends from locals say that there are all sorts of tunnels and crypts in the place that he had constructed."

Beth interjected, "What do you mean crypts? For burying people?" She sounded a little freaked out.

"Probably. I don't think it was that uncommon for rich people to be buried on their property. Europeans would do it all the time with their castles," I added in my two cents, though based on her face I don't think it was the answer that Beth wanted to hear.

"How convenient," came the voice of reason from the front seat. "The haunted house just so happens to be built over an old burial ground. That's quite a coincidence."

Veronica smirked and ignored Tiff and continued her reading. "The zine says that this coal baron was into the occult and at some point he took a trip to England to connect with Crowley and all those other types. When he came back he had a wife, a dark skinned woman that scared a lot of the locals when she would come into town. Plus, there are stories of a lot of people who worked for him just disappearing over time. And townsfolk too, just gone overnight. But the family had so much money that no one ever asked questions and nothing ever happened to them. Eventually they died off and the family was mostly forgotten. In the 1980's the guy's grandson finally sold the house. I guess it was pretty rundown by then and some people bought it because they thought it would make a good haunted house. No one knows what happened to the family fortune."

Tiff butted in again, her nasal voice cutting the flashing darkness of the highway and cutting the attention from Veronica. "Oh, come on. You all believe this story? Some anonymous rag writes whatever they want and you just fall for it. It sounds like the plot of a bad movie."

I was surprised that the first response came from Tom. He put one hand on Tiff's thigh and gave it a light squeeze. "It could be fun. Let's listen to the story. It could set the mood for a spooky night, babe." Tiffany didn't say another word, her eyes drilling into Tom, and Veronica went on.

"Anyway...the people that worked at the Devil's Den that first year thought that it was going to be like any other haunt. Dropdowns and startle scares, some creepy visual effects, that sort of thing. But, and this is where it starts to get weird, some of them said that there was also an after hours secret version of the haunted house that was more...adult. At first it was just for the people that worked there. But then word must have got around and some of the visitors to the haunted house wound up finding their way in. And it turned into sort of a sex club."

I could feel my cock throb when she said the last two words, it was not what I was expecting but it struck home and I felt like a thousand thoughts hit me all at once.

"Really?" I piped in, maybe a little too much excitement in my voice. "That's not where I was expecting this to go. I thought you were going to say that people were disappearing or getting lobotomized or something."

Veronica turned to me and I could see the mischief in her eyes. Maybe for different reasons, but I could tell that she liked the story as much as I did. "I know. But this sounds fun too, doesn't it?"

"Sure. I'm down for whatever. What else does it say?" Veronica smiled and her eyes looked me up and down before turning back to the zine.

"Well, it's a pretty short entry so there isn't a lot of detail, but it does say that the sex version of this place is still around and explains how to get into it." She turned her body to face Beth and gave her a little nudge to her chest with her elbow and I saw the mass of Beth's chest wobble. "What do you think, roomie? You down to see if this is a real thing?"

Just then an incoming car passed us on the highway and their headlights briefly flashed on us. The illumination was only for a moment but I could see two raised nipples pushing against the heavy fabric of Beth's gray sweatshirt. Two thick nubs with enough stiffness to be visible despite the sweatshirt, the blue shirt underneath, and the bra that the girl must have been wearing. I wasn't the only one stiffening from the story Veronica was weaving.

In contrast to the tell of her body, Beth's voice was shy and lacked the strength of her nipples. "Um, I don't know. It sounds like it could be weird. If it even is true, and I don't know if it is or not. Who knows..." Her voice trailed off, her answer not definitive at all. But I could see in her eyes that her interest was more than peaked in where this night could go. She was certainly entitled to play it coy if she wanted to, though.

Veronica grinned and sat back, a hand on each of the thighs of her backseat neighbors. "Great. We'll just see where this goes then."

Before arriving at the haunted house Veronica filled us in on what else she had managed to learn, producing yet another text from her backpack to support the rumors that she had heard. I was starting to think that she knew more about the situation than she had initially led us to believe. The other book was a small, self published memoir from an adjunct professor in American Studies at our university. According to Veronica the author had researched all sorts of folklore and urban legends in the area and written about her experiences pursuing the truth behind all of them. The book was recent and only had a brief mention of the haunted house we were headed to. Without going into details it merely said the rumors about the place were true, and that if someone wanted the full, secret experience they needed to be prepared for an intense night.

This entire night was beginning to feel exciting, like the five of us were following the clues of a treasure map that would lead us to something incredible and rare. I didn't entirely believe everything that Veronica had said, certainly not all of it, but I was willing to find out. If nothing else the pursuit was fun. And, with the exception of Tiffany, we were all getting into the narrative that was unfolding. Our enthusiasm for it had the bonus of getting her to stay quiet for a bit, which was also nice.

Once we arrived in the parking lot I immediately understood the creepy appeal of the old mansion as a haunted house. Lit dramatically, it was visible on the entire approach and the house only got spookier the closer that we got to it. The building itself was huge, a large Victorian manor that was set on a hill overlooking the area. Its presence was impossible to ignore and the dramatic lighting that had been setup only increased the sense of foreboding that the place seemed to possess. At the base of the hill was the parking lot and a ring of concessions surrounding an area with picnic tables. There were a significant amount of people and cars, but the sheer size of the place kept it from feeling crowded. Aside from the haunted house there was nothing else around but darkness.

The five of us stepped out of the car and took it all in. It was a chilly fall night with a near full moon overhead that cast everything in an ethereal pallor. Some clouds drifted in front of the moon and the colors swirled together to create an unusual reddish tint that put a dangerous edge on the night. Kind of a perfect evening for a haunted house.

"I'm already so into this," Veronica announced as we began to make our way from the car to the ticketing area. I noticed a bounce in her step, a palpable reaction to the environment around her that also had the effect of making my cock stir. There was something in the air other than the piped in spooky music and the smell of fried concession foods. "And we haven't even gotten to the best part yet." For the first time I was able to get a good look at the three women outside of the car.

Tiffany walked out in front of us and led the way, holding hands with Tom and leaning close to him. She was tall and willowy and walked like she owned the place. Her narrow hips swung from side to side and drew attention to her ass, a tiny metronome counting the eyes that Tiffany assumed were watching her every step. Her tight fitting jeans flared out at the bottom, a look that was common on campus these days. I noticed several other haunted house attendees that did fall under the spell of the leggy blond, though I didn't count myself among them.

Instead I slowed for a moment to tie my sneakers and allowed Beth and Veronica to pass by me. Like Tiffany, Veronica was tall but she didn't have the thin silhouette of her roommate. I was surprised to see that she was more athletic than I had expected, her goth exterior and offbeat intellectual interests led me to assume that she would possess less of a physical presence. Clearly a woman of varied pursuits, Veronica had not ignored her body for the sake of her mind. Encased in her black fishnet stockings were a long set of toned legs that invited my eyes up to a short, leather skirt that accentuated her round ass and tapered waist.

Perhaps sensing my hungry gaze, Veronica spun on her heels and called back to me. "You scared? Catch up, boy." She didn't wait for a response and spun back around. Her long black hair fanned out around her body and she stepped loudly on the gravel of the parking lot, thick soled Doc's crushing the stone beneath her. Her tits, high and pale, bulged out due to the tight lacing of the velvet corset that she wore. Her unbuttoned jacket was short and hugged her body close. It was quite the look. I had no idea if this was an everyday look for her, or just something to compliment the spooky night that we were having. Whatever it was she pulled it off. Veronica radiated confidence and I couldn't help but fall in line behind her.

"Coming," I responded and picked up my pace after the two women. Reaching into my pocket I adjusted my stiffening cock to a less obvious position. There wasn't a good reason for it but I was eighteen and it happened all the time. Being out with a couple of girls was more than enough to get a rise out of me.

Of the three roommates Beth presented as the odd one out, outwardly she possessed none of the self assuredness of the other two and seemingly did what she could to deflect the male gaze rather than attract it. Beneath the plain blue jeans and college sweatshirt I saw the ample curves of a sturdy young lady, thick and rounded in all the right places. Her ass was wide and full, a luxury model built for comfort compared to the sports car of Tiff's sculpted rear. And while the bulging breasts of Veronica may be hogging attention, the far larger ones that Beth had hidden in her sweatshirt teased at a size that was rare in college freshman. Simply put, Beth was stacked.