9

        This is starting to feel like home, Byron thought as he sat across from Janice once more. The guard was even the same one that brought her in the first time they had spoken, creating a strange case of Deja vu.

“The girl who told us about interactive theater was one of those artsy types, you know, short hair, glasses, probably plays ukulele? I think Julia knew her from a community art class she had taken, but I'm not sure.

She had just gotten back from some show that was themed around cult brainwashing, and she praised it so heavily that we just had to go. Walking into that place was one of those moments where everything changes. We were hooked. 

This was exactly what we were looking for. 

We devoured these things; anything that allowed some degree of freedom and interaction became our weekend getaway. The best part was, we didn't have to wait until October for these things as they ran year long. Some of them were scary, some were whimsical, but all of them, even those that weren't that great, held us enraptured. It was this obsession that led us to the House. 

We met up that day at Wires, the retro arcade that Lacey worked at. She didn't need to work (none of us did) but she loved the place, and after the owners discovered how much time she spent there, they offered her a job. Her shift ended at nine, so, like a bunch of swarming ants, we descended on this place every Friday at eight-fifty. 

Kelly looked like she was going to explode, but she wouldn't tell us what had her all excited until Lacey got off ('Until we're all together I'm not saying nothing,' she kept repeating) so by the time nine rolled around, we were all pretty intrigued. Kelly wasn't the type to be overcome by emotion like this, so we all knew that she must have stumbled across something really cool. 

Finally, nine o'clock rolled around and Lacey made her way to the front area, pulling off the coin vest they made her wear. 

'Hey guys!’ She exclaimed, hugging us each in turn. Lacey always hugged us when we met up, it was just one of those things that made Lacey… Lacey.

'Hey yourself,' I said hugging her back. That was one of my quirks. I had picked it up from some movie a while back and couldn't quite make myself stop using it. 

'Kelly has something to tell us,' Julia blurted after being hugged. 

'What?' Lacey asked with excitement. 

'Why don't you ask her? I've been trying to get it out of her since we met up!' Julia pretended to be irritated by our friend, but we all knew that she was as intrigued as the rest of us. 

'So, what do you have to tell us?' Lacey turned and looked at Kelly.

'I found something to do this weekend.' she announced, an ear-to-ear smile on her face. 

'Yeah? What?' Lacey was now also intrigued. Kelly always had the best plans. 

'It's another show, like the ones we've been going to, but it's one I've never even heard of before.'

'Good reviews?' Lacey raised her eyebrows in question. 

'Couldn't find any.'

'Then how do you know if it's any good? If nobody's heard of it, maybe it sucks,' Julia chimed in. 

'It's brand new,' Kelly explained. 'Tonight, is the first night. I thought I'd get us tickets before everybody knows about it and it gets crowded out. Remember when that one show was on TV and you couldn't even get tickets for months afterward?'

'Yeah, I remember.' Then I asked, 'So, what's it about?'

'The website said personal nightmares. It's called Dream House and it tries to get into your head, taking things that you are afraid of or thinking about, and brings them to life!'

That did sound cool.  

'So how do they know? What you're afraid of I mean.' Julia probed. 

'I bet they make you fill out some form when you walk in, either that or they quiz you at the door or something. I bet it's going to be cool as hell!'

'Alright, I'm intrigued.' Lacey declared. 'Do we have time to grab something to eat before we head out?'

'Yup. The first showing is a special midnight show, so we have tons of time.'

Like I said before, we all sensed that this night was going to be special, different. It had to be a sendoff and capper to hundreds of similar nights, ones that we would most likely never have again.  So, when it came to dinner, we knew that not just anything would do. We ended up eating at a French place on Lafayette Street. Now, a place like that usually requires reservations way in advance, but Julia decided to call anyway 'just for the hell of it'. 

We somehow got in. 

We took it as a sign. 

And that brings us back to the car, driving to the Dream House with Kelly behind the wheel, Glen Miller and Billie Holiday crooning from the radio. Our trip took us about an hour, in a route that mostly followed the Hudson River north. Finally, we arrived in the tiny village of Ardsley, a place where none of us had ever been before. 

'Why would they have a place like this way out here?' Julia wondered. 

'It's not that far from the city,' Lacey replied, sounding slightly brittle. 

'Yeah, but who's gonna leave the city for it?' Julia looked out the window as she spoke. 'This doesn't look like the kinda place that thrives on art or anything.'

And it really didn't. Don't get me wrong, it looked like a nice place; the sort of sleepy northeastern village Bradbury or King might write about, but not the sort of place that would have the right kind of people to feed an (most likely) expensive experimental theater production.

'Maybe it was cheaper to set it up out here,' Lacey shrugged nonchalantly. 

'Yeah, maybe,' Julia agreed hesitantly. It was clear in her voice that she was already disappointed. 

'C'mon, this is gonna be cool,' I encouraged, 'Didn't you say the lady that ran the place had a good imagination?'

Lacey nodded. 'Yeah, and that's what matters, right?'

***

When the guard called time’s up, both parties' shoulders slumped. Byron and Janice knew that, for the first time since this started, they were getting somewhere. 

“C'mon Betsy, just a few more minutes?” Janice said to the guard, eyes pleading. 

“Now you know rules are rules.” Betsy stated. Her voice was no nonsense, but Byron could tell that she too was enraptured by the story and didn't want it to end.

“Just ten more minutes,” Janice insisted, sounding for all the world like a child that wanted 'just one more' story. 

“We'd better wrap it up for the night,” Byron said while putting away the tape recorder. “I don't want to cause any trouble.”

Janice sighed in resignation, “Alright.”