“I’m not scared of you” gasped the small pirate as he quivered before me. I slashed my crimson and gnarled claw through the darkness and growled before continuing to strangle the Victorian damsel with the ivory pallor who lay sprawled and shrieking on the floor before me. The pirate smeared himself against the wall furthest from me; his body compacted into a rigid stick. He left no appendages dangling and vulnerable for a cackling witch or a monster-headed woman who might be lurking in the shadows. The pirate stood frozen, only for a moment, before being whisked away in a shrieking mob of fairies, clowns, and ghouls.
The little nymphs that invaded Mary Hobbs last Friday night are children who are mentored and tutored by Guilford College student volunteers through Project Community. The kids came from Pathways, the Buddhist Center, Montegnard-Dega, African Services Coalition, and Glenwood Library ESOL.
Project Community worker and haunted house coordinator Emily Hatch said, “Many of these kids are coming from tough situations, and this is a safe opportunity for them to have a little excitement and fun. It’s also great to see kids from such diverse backgrounds come together.”
Terrified by the already creepy dorm transformed into a Halloween extravaganza, some shrieked at my ghoulish appearance, while others were so scared that they rushed by me without a glance.
Mary Hobbs resident sophomore Emily Gelblum was surprised when she entered the dorm on Friday night. She found it transformed into a house of horror. “The bathroom was really scary. The lighting was an spooky green and ‘red rum’ was written in red on the mirror.” Gelblum shivered at the memory.
Of course the horror show couldn’t be too gory. The target audience was under twelve years old. The amount of blood and guts was limited, and there was a good deal of corny to tone down the creepy.
The tour included many of the typical Halloween themes. A haunted house wouldn’t be complete with out the clichd cackle of the wart-nosed witch. However, the tour also had it’s own unique touches, such as the dead girl who sang opera, and the mismatched monsters whose costumes were created from whatever they could find in their wardrobe.
First-year Mary Hobbs resident Connie Carringer said, “It was a lot of fun to get dressed up as an ax murderer, and to work with people in the dorm that I hadn’t worked with before. I liked to scare the little kids. They were really sweet.”
And so went Mary Hobbs’ annual haunted house. It was a freak show of almost entirely girls, who transformed their cozy and somewhat shabby abode into a disheveled nightmare rated G.
The faded wallpaper and the eerie oil paintings of serious women long gone sends shivers down the spines of Hobbs residents all year long. Last Friday night, covered in cobwebs and glowing in the black light, I didn’t know if they were scarier than they had ever been or just plain funny.