The entrance was crowded. Teams waited in line for staff to distribute maps and candies. After a long wait, Lady News finally secured their map and a black plastic bag containing ten candies.
“The Reading Room and Boutique have long lines; I bet the Barber Shop and Cafeteria are the same. Let’s head to the yard—it’s bigger and has more sections,” Lady News suggested, rushing them toward the backyard. “I’m so glad I chose hunter boots rather than heels tonight.”
The yard had fewer teams. It was divided into sections by tents lit with fairy lights. They swiftly headed to the nearest one, Tent No. 2.
“One team at a time,” a clerk in a glowing skeleton costume, holding a big candy bag, instructed.
“Four of us,” Lady News said, handing over their map and one candy. Other teams quickly arrived, forming a long queue behind them. The clerk stamped their map and said, “One minute.”
They entered the tent. It was pitch black inside. They used their phones for light and saw a single coffin. When they stepped close, it suddenly opened, and a vampire sprang up, screaming at them in fright.
“The candies are inside the coffin,” Spion said, immediately grabbing them.
“How many?” Trevor asked.
“Five,” Spion replied, dropping the candies into their bag, which Report Man held.
“Go! Quickly, to the next one,” Lady News ordered. They left the tent and ran.
They raided ten tents over the next twenty minutes. All were similar: each contained five candies hidden in a monster’s nest, mouth, hands, or pocket. The queues grew longer in front of the tents, and every time a team left, the clerk went inside to replace the candies.
“Only the last one left in the yard: the mini-maze,” Lady News said, checking the map.
The mini-maze was surrounded by an inflatable wall, looking like a spooky castle from the outside. Five teams were already in the queue. “Five minutes. There are ten candies in total. Find them all, good luck,” the clerk smiled as it became their turn.
The maze was not difficult. They easily picked up eight candies along the way, found in broken pottery, tucked into corpses, and lying in a witch’s pot.
“Only two left, and less than two minutes,” Lady News waved her phone, looking around frantically.
“There! That bat’s two eyes are candies,” Report Man pointed his phone’s light toward a bat perched on the tall maze wall.
“How do we get up there?” Trevor asked.
“Ride on my shoulders,” Spion grinned at him.
Trevor climbed onto Spion’s shoulders, reaching out for the bat, but the bat suddenly flew away, scaring Trevor, who retracted his hand and nearly fell.
“It’s a drone,” Trevor said, looking at the drone-bat one arm’s length away, trying to catch it. Spion unsteadily held him, saying, “Don’t move so fiercely; you’re too heavy.”
“Abandon. We have no time. Go!” Lady News said, rushing toward the exit.
Trevor jumped down. They all ran out, feeling deeply unsatisfied.
“We go to the first floor first. If there are still long queues, then we head to the basement,” Lady News suggested, looking at the map.
Unfortunately, the Reading Room still had a long line. They went to check other rooms, and fortunately the Cafeteria had few teams, so they entered without a long wait. The Cafeteria was a large area, allowing three teams to enter per turn, but only for three minutes. All candies were placed openly on plates on tables, turning the challenge into a pure race to see which team could grab the most. Spion proved agile, ravening a lot of the candies, leaving little for the other teams.
“Probably fifty. That was the easiest part of the game,” Spion said contentedly.
Next, they rushed to the Barber Shop, then the Boutique. Both places were dark, filled with mannequins dressed as creepy monsters. Some mannequins even made scary sounds when approached, but that barely phased the team anymore. They calmly and composedly plundered all the candies they could find on the displays and mannequins.
When they went back to the Reading Room, they met the group of Gothic makeup clowns. Spion said hello to them. The one with green hair waved back and called him over.
“You guys go line up; I’ll catch up,” Spion told Trevor.
Minutes later, Spion found them in line waiting to enter the Reading Room. He held up a candy bag. “She gave me all of their candies,” he announced.
“Wow, lucky! You must have charmed them,” Trevor said.
“Of course,” Spion beamed. “They’re from Oz, here traveling for a week.” He handed the bag to Report Man.
Report Man started transferring the candies to their main bag, but he found a card inside. “She even left you her phone number!” he giggled, handing the card to Spion.
“Well, I did charm them indeed,” Spion said, slipping the card into his pants pocket.
“They gave us probably sixty candies,” Report Man estimated, glancing at their gain. “We have more than two hundred now.”
“Cheers! I can smell the prize,” Lady News said, full of fight.
The team before them left the Reading Room. The clerk went inside to replace the candies. One minute later, she came out and welcomed them to enter. “Five minutes. There are twenty candies. Good luck.”
The room was dark, lit only by light filtering in from outside. They used their phones to look around. All bookshelves were covered by curtains decorated with Halloween sprites. Five to seven child-sized, bald murder dolls sat on chairs beside the reading tables. All made an eerie laugh when they approached.
They checked the dolls and plundered ten candies.
“Where are the other ten?” Trevor wondered.
“They could be behind those curtains, on the bookshelves?” Lady News walked to the bookshelf close to her, tried to lift the curtain. “It’s fixed. I guess they don’t want us to mess up the books.”
“Look at this. A Sphinx guards the way to the tiered seating. A box is on the top seats,” Report Man said, pointing his phone toward the box.
When they stepped up to the Sphinx, it opened its mouth. A tablet was visible inside, the screen lit up. It emitted a deep, ancient voice that seemed to vibrate the floor:
“Harken, O’ mortal seekers of ephemeral sweetness. Before thee lies the ultimate reward. Solve this riddle, and I shall grant thee passage. The answer must be correct, or I shall consume thee whole, body and soul.”
“Can we just take the stairs? It doesn’t look difficult,” Spion said, pointing at the spacious seating area.
“Noooo,” a sudden, sickeningly resonant voice crashed through the room. A large, pitch-black figure detached itself from the window curtains nearby, its shape blurring the air around it as it walked toward them. Where its head should be, two menacing red orbs glowed with hostile intent. The air around them turned icy cold. They didn’t just scream in startled surprise; they screamed in pure, visceral terror, their fear echoing in the sudden, absolute silence of the Reading Room.