Chester, a junior, was the starting quarterback for his high school football team, and a legend in his own mind. He definitely had some talent, but not near the superstar level he thought he was. His prominent flaw was that he had the unfortunate habit of taking all the credit when his team won, but would blame his teammates when things didn’t go so well. In an interview for the school newspaper after a late October loss dropped the team’s record to 4-3, he blamed an interception he threw as the result of his wide receiver not running his route perfectly, and his fumble was caused by a massive failure of the offensive line on that play. Even if those claims were true, it was understood by everyone else on the team that players should never publicly blame teammates like that.
The team and cheerleaders came up with an idea to knock Chester down a few pegs. They volunteered to run the annual town’s haunted house for Halloween.
The senior team captain named Arnold would be the host for the event which was held in the drama room of the local middle school, which was made up as a dungeon. When Chester arrived, Arnold, dressed as a zombie, greeted him with “You’re late. Most of us are ready.”
Indeed, several members of the team were already in position. Harold had his head and hands in a set of stocks, and next to him Leroy was locked in a cage. Doug was lashed to a post with many coils of rope, and near one wall Gerald was stretched out on a rack, handcuffed to lengths of chain over his head and below his feet, and all of them had blotches of cheap fake blood stains on their ragged clothes. One empty spot against the back wall had two eyebolts six feet off the floor and two feet apart. As Chester saw this Arnold took out two pairs of handcuffs.
Chester was suspicious. “You’re nuts if you think I’m getting chained to the wall. Find something else.”
Two cheerleaders, Phoebe and Rhonda, were busy decorating the room with carboard skeletons, ghosts, and witches. Phoebe commented to Rhonda, “See, he’s not so brave like he brags.”
Rhonda replied, “Give him a minute.” Rhonda felt the same as Phoebe, but this was part of the setup.
The girls acted like they thought they were talking quietly enough so Chester couldn’t overhear, but in fact they were just loud enough. Chester, who fancied himself a lady’s man much more than was actually the case, couldn’t bear the thought of girls thinking him a sissy. Fortunately, Arnold came to his rescue.
“Oh come on, this is for little kids, so none of this is real. Show him, guys.”
Harold lifted his right arm, revealing that the stocks were only apparently closed on one side, and had parts of a disconnected hinge screwed into the top and bottom pieces of the stocks. Leroy merely pushed his cage over on one side; it wasn’t very heavy and had no floor. Doug wriggled out easily, showing the long rope wrapped many times around him was not tight at all. Gerald reached out and released the safety latches of the handcuff links that were attached to the chains. This allowed him to unhook those links, and then he could release the similar latches on the links around his wrists and then his feet.
“See, these are fake.” Arnold demonstrated how the release catches worked. “Now you try.”
Chester tested them, and found they were easy to work.
“Careful,” warned Arnold, those chains aren’t very strong, and you’ll break them if you pull too hard.”
Now confidant, Chester attached the handcuffs to the bolts in the wall, and immediately unlocked them to be sure, before locking them again. He grinned at the cheerleaders across the room.
“Here, have some blood,” offered Arnold, slapping a red-colored rubber blotch with adhesive on the base to Chester’s shirt. “Get ready everyone, the show starts in five minutes.”
Arnold went through the door, and suddenly the lights went out. Chester panicked and fumbled for the safety release latches, but felt something else close around his wrists. He shouted, “Hey!” but got no response. Anxiously, he fumbled at the handcuffs on both hands. As he was shaking it took a few tries to release the safety catches, but something was wrong – his hands were still chained to the wall somehow. In the darkness he could hear some spooky noises, most likely from some recording. There were also some shuffling sounds, and then the lights went back on.
Chester found himself alone. He could now see that genuine handcuffs had been placed on his wrists, so while he had managed to unlock the toy cuffs he was now secured to the wall for real.
“Hey, come back here! This isn’t funny!” he shouted, unsurprisingly to no avail.
Then Chester realized he was wrong; he wasn’t alone. There was a spider crawling along the floor to him. He blinked, and recognized it as a tarantula. He screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice rising to an unnaturally high pitch.
“There’s a poisonous spider in here, get me out of here!”
The spider kept advancing. Chester strained, but couldn’t break free. He continued to scream, and prepared to kick the spider, when a little girl entered the room.
“Hey, don’t hurt Herman!” It was Nadine, Rhonda’s ten-year-old little sister in a witch costume. She rushed forward with a shoebox and reached for the spider.
Regaining control, Chester spluttered, “Don’t touch it! That’s a tarantula!”
“I know, but this kind isn’t dangerous. He got away when my friend was cleaning his cage.” She calmly picked up the spider and put in the shoebox.
Chester was speechless. He felt like a fool, and recovered in time to speak only when to his dismay he saw Nadine pick up something from a chair next to the door.
“Hey, is that a phone? Is this being recorded?”
Nadine didn’t turn around or answer, and hurried back to the room where Herman belonged, smiling the whole time. Being trusted to play this part in the plan gave her a very satisfying feeling. A minute later the lights in the drama room went out again.
Beware Disrespecting Your Team (m/m)
A bit of fun but it would be better if the first paragraph came with an English Language translation! ![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
They all say boxer shorts are cool,
but little Speedos always rule.
but little Speedos always rule.