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Granny and Richard returned, as promised, for the shift change. From her slightly mussed bouffant, I'd guess they had taken a ride or two through the Tunnel of Love.
Meanwhile, Johnny and Nate grabbed some hot dogs for the walk down to Trevor's place.
"Thanks," I said, taking one gratefully.
We had a grand old time heading down to the saloon. The guys filled me in on all their adventures. From the haunted mazes to hay rides, it sounded like they had practically seen it all.
But as we rounded the corner, I was shocked.
"DUDE! Look at all the people!" Johnny exclaimed. "That's, like, a LOT a lot."
A huge crowd had gathered. Madison saw us coming and wrinkled her nose. "Okay. So I have two of you on my guest list, but he needs to pay," she pronounced, pointing at Johnny.
"Sure thing, hoss!" he replied, reaching into his jeans pocket and pulling out a sock that he was using as a wallet.
"EW! Why don't you have a wallet?" she asked.
"Not big enough to hold my wad of cash," he said, pulling out a stack.
She rolled her eyes as she accepted it, but I could see she was going to want to spray it with disinfectant the moment she had a chance.
"So, just wait here for the tour?" I asked.
"Yeah. Try not to get into any trouble," she replied, giving Johnny the stink eye.
Suddenly, another familiar voice piped up. "Hey, everyone! What are you doing here?"
We shifted to see who it was. Lottie gave a friendly wave as she walked towards us.
Nate seemed surprised. "We're going on the tour. What are you doing here?"
"Madison reached out and asked me to do a rundown of her tour and how it is the place to be this Halloween season," she said as she waved her handheld recorder and camera. She smiled at Nate and then dictated into the mic, "I see all the cool kids are here, even one of the founders."
Nate groaned. "Is this why Trevor wanted us here tonight? To pad out his numbers for the reporter?"
Johnny seemed blown away. "They are so smart. I mean... That's really smart."
But before we could say any more, Tango stepped out into our group. He was dressed in a cape and ghoulish makeup. The undercurrent of chatter quieted as everyone gave him their attention. There was a nervous giggle from the back.
He held out his arms like he was channeling Bela Lugosi. "Ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, you are here for a tour of Seaside, a town fraught with danger and murder."
Nate rolled his eyes.
I mean, technically, Tango wasn't exactly wrong. But the scenery chewing seemed a bit over the top.
"I, Tango, will be taking you on a tour of the haunted forest, and introducing you to the gruesome secrets of this innocent island."
Johnny was totally sucked in. He turned to me, amazed. "Did you know we had gruesome secrets? I should see if Echo can put some of this in his tour."
I bit my tongue, knowing how well that would go over.
"Now, if you will follow me..."
Madison handed out flashlights to all of us. "If you break it, you buy it," she haughtily informed everyone in the group.
As Johnny took the flashlight, he muttered to me, "Did you know if Madison and Tango started dating, we could give them a couple's name and call them 'Mango'?"
Taken off guard, Lottie snorted. She grinned at Johnny, delighted by the way his brain worked, and said, "I may steal that for one of my articles someday."
Johnny held up his hand for a high five. "Go for it!"
And unlike other people who left Johnny hanging, Lottie reached up and slapped his palm. Johnny was stoked.
The crowed began moving and Tango walked us out to the outskirts of town. We came to the field where Trevor was hiding. Horrified, Tango pretended like he had just stumbled upon Trevor's bloody corpse, but then as we walked away, Trevor jumped up and scared everyone. Running, Tango led us into the forest.
So, I'm not the brightest bulb, but wandering around a dark forest at night with nothing but flashlights seems like a dumb idea. The crowd around us was laughing and loving all of the spookiness, but I could see Nate adding up all the opportunities for people to twist an ankle or fall in the dark. He reached out and grabbed me as I stepped wrong on a tree root and almost took a tumble, myself.
"I sure hope Trevor has a lot of accident insurance," he muttered under his breath as he righted me.
But the very real dangers seemed to be beneath Tango's notice. Instead, he raised his arms once again and proclaimed, "Here we are in the haunted forest! Beware the ghosts who live among the trees."
I saw a flash of a pirate skirt between the trunks and braced myself for whatever cue Tango had given Madison.
There was spooky music. I guess part of the show was using atmospheric sound to make it seem scary, and the people around us were getting into it. I grabbed Nate's hand, preparing myself for a jump-scare. Trevor had warned us that there were ghost decorations that were supposed to come flying out at us.
Except, instead of ghosts, there was the sound of something coming down a zip line overhead.
It was a friendly, plastic, inflatable unicorn.
Tango stopped, completely thrown, as everyone around us started laughing. And then suddenly a confetti cannon went off, with glitter and sparkle.
"DUDE!" said Johnny, holding up the palms of his hands like he was catching snowflakes. "This is RAD!"
Lottie fired off pictures right and left, smiling as she took notes. I had a feeling this was going to make the front page.
"Echo..." Tango swore.