By Adrian Hsu

Even though it was the afternoon and the sun was still high, me and my family had arrived at Disney Sea. We had planned to meet there with my relatives. Me and my relatives got settled, but by now, the sun had gone down, so we had to wait until tomorrow to do anything fun. It was now morning, we were waiting in line for this haunted house. My cousin and I had seen this haunted house so we went to check it out. Of course the little ones wanted to follow us. At first sight, it caught our attention because of how many people there were, and how big it was. The only bad part was that there were a lot of people in line. That only made us want to try out the ride even more. Anyways, we decided to wait in line, but we had to wait a LONG time. First we ate some food and talked about how haunted houses don’t even scare you. That was for the first half an hour. For the next of the hour, we ate candy and jumped around. We totally underestimated how long we would have to wait. Everybody had to wait about 3 hours in total. After 3 hours of boringness, it was FINALLY our turn. Me and my relatives walked inside the haunted house. The thing was: this particularly haunted house at Disney Sea was not like any boring, lame short ride for toddlers. In fact, I think that it was a little too much for me. I totally suggest it if you are not scared of heights and darkness together. Basically, it was just a room like a mini movie theatre. There were seats and a screen, but the weird part was that there were seatbelts. The tour guide told us to sit on the seats and fasten the seatbelts like we were in a car. I then did what the tour guide told us to do, and so did everyone. Once everybody got seated, the tour guide told us to enjoy the ride. “Huh,” I thought, but little did I know that this was going to be a roller coaster of emotions. After the tour guide shut the door and left, the lights turned off and left us in pitch darkness. “Uh – oh,” I thought. I had always been scared of darkness. “Thank goodness I’m not all by myself. . .” I though. Just then, the whole room shuddered and started to go up! “Uh- oh again,” I thought. I also hate heights because I once read an article about someone going rock climbing, and the person had died, because he fell down. Personally, I also had an idea of what this ride might be, but it was a great one. After going up about 80 ft or so, the screen turned on, and a head appeared along with a haunted house. It started laughing and said “too late.” Then, the whole elevator dropped. I was so stunned that I couldn’t even scream. It was dropping down about 80 miles per hour.. I could not feel the seat beneath me. It was like I was falling into darkness, into a pit of doom, not wanting to know what was in store at the bottom of the pit. It was so scary, and keep in mind again that I’m scared of both darkness and heights, and this ride was both combined. I never screamed so loud before in my entire life, and I’m serious. Normally, my scream was like a little yelp, but this time, my voice was a little higher than usual while I screamed shrilly: “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I was also pretty sure that everybody around me was screaming too. Just then, the whole thing stopped falling. I was so relieved that I was startled when the screen turned on again. I also heard crying; I probably didn’t hear it earlier, because I was too busy trying not to go insane. Anyways, it was the same ghostly translucent head, but in a different setting. It looked towards us and said: “you are doomed,” and I totally believed it. The room went back to its normal night sky black state again and the elevator started going up slowly. Anyways, it was the same thing as before except it was much, much terrifying. It went all the way to the top; by the way, the top is very high, I saw it when we first entered Disney Sea. It was about 10 stories high, and you get the idea. It probably was a great view, except that there were pterodactyls sky rocketing in my stomach, so I did not think much about it. I also did not want to think about what would happen next. The door opened, (by the way, it is a different door, it is the size of the wall, so you could say the wall opened), and it exposed the outside world with an extreme ray of light. It was similar to a flashlight (that is on) shining in front of your face. Then, you guessed it, the room / elevator dropped. I screamed the same as before, except ten times worse: “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Just pretend the screaming was with capitals. After the movie theatre box stopped dropping, I thought to myself: did that go on for about 3 minutes? I was not that sure, because it felt like an hour to me. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuu!!!!!!!!” After what felt like an eternity, the ride slowed down and went back to where it was when this monstrous screaming started. The room stopped falling into oblivion, and the lights flashed on like a television screen. Just as the lights turned on, I got startled from plopping down on my seat. Now I know why we had the seat belts, I thought giddily. I had gotten way better as soon as the lights had turned on. Then, ca-ching! It was the sound of a suitcase being unlocked (if there is a lock). The tour guide stepped in, and everybody was in a hurry to swiftly file out. When we got out, I somehow had a feeling that I had become braver with dealing with heights now. Why is that? Well partly because I pushed past my limits, totally got scared out of my wits, and got fooled by this attractiveness . The other part is also that next time I go on a roller coaster, I’ll remember that I went on something way more scary, and that I lived to tell the tale. I also overcame my fear of darkness, because I was falling in darkness, so next time around when I’m in the dark, I’ll at least know that I’m not falling.