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The two couples left early the next morning for Salem; it was a couple of hours drive and then they had to check into the hotel before doing anything else. Addie wanted to book two rooms and force her friend and Nick into spending some time together. However, her husband disagreed with that plan and she finally relented, booking three rooms instead. Howie loved her, but he knew that she was really pushing the limit with that scheme.

After the friends checked in, dropped off their bags and found a shuttle ride to the center, they arrived at one of the museums Emma wanted to see. She knew nobody else was thrilled with the museum idea, so she was willing to make a concession if they would go with her. Addie and Nick loved haunted houses so she agreed to go to a couple of them if they would do this one thing for her. She regretted her decision when she saw the haunted house Addie wanted to do last.

Emma didn’t want to explain why she didn’t want to go to the last house; she didn’t want to seem like a baby so she just kept quiet. They made their way through the rest of the houses with Emma keeping her eyes shut as tightly as she could and hanging on to the back of Howie’s shirt. Nick had offered to stand behind her so nothing could jump out after she passed them. He could see how uncomfortable and nervous she became with the visit to each house and was seriously considering asking Addie to break the deal Emma had made to go in all of the other houses.

“Maybe Emma and I should sit out here and wait for you guys.” Nick suggested to the others at the last of the houses. “I think Emma’s had enough scares for one day.”

“Uh-huh,” Addie replied, “a deal’s a deal.”

Emma had agreed to do this for her friend and she felt like she couldn’t back out. The problem she was having with the last house is the fact that it was about clowns. She had a fear of clowns since she was a little kid and seeing the movie “It” when she was a teenager completely freaked her out, confirming that clowns were awful. After watching it, she became deathly afraid of clowns and wouldn’t even go to the circus because of them. However, she refused to tell Howie and Nick why she was afraid; she didn’t want to look like a baby in front of them.

“She’s right,” Emma said, “I did make the agreement.”

“I don’t care, you really look like you don’t want to do this,” Nick replied with a long stare at Addie, “even if you made a deal. Deals can be broken.”

Addie continued to insist, and Emma finally gave in; she hated what she was about to do but she didn’t want to tell either of the guys why she didn’t want to. Howie agreed to let her hang on to his shirt again and Nick assured her that he would be right behind her.

They made it about halfway through when they noticed a maze with mirrors right next to them. There was screaming come for the room and they noticed people going through; they assumed that they would eventually get around to it and Emma was dreading that. Making their way down another corridor, the spot where Emma was standing started to move and a door flew open. Because she was on the moving floor, she slid into the room so quickly that neither Nick or Howie could stop it. They heard her yelling for them and Nick tried to get through the passage; it was locked and wouldn’t budge.

Nick heard Emma crying out and desperately looked around for someone who could open the door. He eventually came to a person and physically dragged them back to the door.

“Get that thing open now!” Nick demanded.

“I can’t,” replied the gentleman, “only the manager has that key. Besides, she’ll be fine once she figures her way past the clowns and out the other side.”

Addie knew how frightened her friend must be and got right in the worker’s face. She squared him with her fiercest teacher face and hissed at him.

“I swear to God, if you don’t get that fucking door open, I will let these two guys tear it apart piece by piece.”

He turned to look at Howie and Nick and saw in their faces that the woman was right. Using his walkie talkie, he told the entrance to stop letting people in and called for his manager.

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Emma was in a panic; she had just been separated from her friends, she had no idea where she was or how to get out and she continued to hear people screaming. She didn’t know if her friends could get to her, so she started through the maze; she quickly realized that it was specifically designed to have a person get to a middle room and then they had to find a hallway that led out. The problem was that all the exits looked the same and they each had clown’s faces that would come through the glass.

Her fear increased as she spent more time in the room trying to get out; if she had been less scared, she might have been able to find her way out. The terror was making her forget which exits she tried and which one she didn’t. She felt like she had been in there for hours trying all the ways before she suddenly heard a voice she recognized.

“I’m coming Emma!” Nick yelled. “Stay where you are, and I’ll get to you.”

Her heart started beating faster and she tried running to the entrances to find him, but it was making it harder to figure out where she was. Nick called out to her and told her to stop moving.

“I’m trying to find you, but I can’t do that if you’re running down halls.” Nick called out to her. “Please sit down on the floor wherever you are and cover your head with your arms, so you can’t see anything.”

“I’m scared Nick!” she yelled back.

“I know.” Nick replied with concern. “I swear that I will get to you no matter what. Just sit where you are and cover your face.”

Emma was finally able to get her mind and body to work at the same time and she took a seat on the floor, rested her face on her knees and cover her head with her arms. Time moved so slow and she started to fear that he wouldn’t be able to find her, or he might have to stop looking. Her anxiety was at an all time high when she finally felt someone’s hand on her back.

Emma’s head popped up, hoping that it wasn’t a clown, and started to cry when she saw Nick squatting down next to her. She threw her arms around his neck and started to sob; there was no feeling she could describe that would explain how happy she was to see him.

“It’s ok,” Nick told her, “I won’t let anything else happen to you.”

She started to cry harder and his heart broke; he loved her more than anything and knew he had to get her out of there. He told her to hang onto his head, he scooped one arm under her knees while the other wrapped around her back. Lifting her up, he called out to Howie so that he would see where they were coming from and let them out.

Addie felt sick to her stomach when she saw how white and upset her friend was; she had just thought the houses would be fun with a couple of small scares. She knew at this point that there was no way Emma would ever go into a haunted house again.