I Swear You Will Be Fine

Dear Josh,

It’s time for part two of our Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) experience. I don’t know how to describe how much fun we had that night. I think I’ll break it up into little snippets instead of writing it as a full narrative – might be hard to make it flow nicely.

The first house we went to already spooked me out and you couldn’t stop laughing at me the whole time. But I think the funniest part was what happened after we exited the house. You ended up half-carrying me off to a corner to finish laughing at me. I might be saying the terms wrong, but I think the house was themed after a Malay ghost named “Pontianak”? And there were many scare actors that followed that theme – Malay uncles dressed in traditional wear, women in “Tudungs” (head scarfs), etc. After being frightened for five minutes straight, we walked out of the house and I was clinging onto you in fear. You were boisterously laughing in my face which also made me laugh, but I was still very much jumpy from the house. And in the corner of my eye, I see a lady wearing a “Tudung” walking really close by and I thought she was another scare actor ready to scare us so I whipped my head around, at her, and screamed… and you immediately clasped your hand over my mouth and half-dragged me over to the side to laugh as I realized that… that was in fact… a random, normal woman in a “Tudung”. That was not a scare actor. I had just screamed… at a random woman (possibly a teenager) wearing a “Tudung”. The realization had me squatting in the corner you dragged me to in embarrassment while you hunched over, hands on your knees, laughing at me. Your next words were, “YOU ARE RACIST!! OMG. YOU. ARE. RACIST!!! You thought that that girl was one of the ghosts inside!!” I can’t even argue with this… I did make a terrible mistake and screamed in the face of a random woman… Big oopsie… This became a running joke of ours.  

As I have mentioned, I was terrified of every house and every scare actor I saw. I couldn’t even hold it in and try to look cool in front of you. I tried, trust me. I really could not pretend to be unbothered. By the last house (fifth house of continuous scares, mind you), I was practically crawling. For the last house, which you mentioned was your favorite, we had to put on 3D glasses for the full effect. At one point, I was 100% sure I would not be able to leave the house because I was so exhausted from being afraid. It got to the point where I was either stuck to you (like, glued to you), or keeping my head down with my hands covering my ears and eyes as you guided me out of the house while laughing and happily waving to the scare actors. You were as sweet as always though – pointing out where a scare actor might be, describing aspects of the house because I was too afraid to look, pausing to breathe with me… I mean, you were laughing the entire time, but still sweet. I can still remember the sound of your laughter.

After we completed the five houses, it was close to midnight (or past midnight) but we were so fueled by adrenaline and laughter that we weren’t tired at all. I kept asking you if you were tired, knowing you had a 10pm bedtime, but you insisted on staying to get the full experience. We saw a bunch of people queuing up for the “Cylon” rollercoaster and urged me to come with. The queue was expected to be 120 minutes long, and we happily went in anyway. How did we spend the 120 minutes waiting? By quizzing each other on the DSM-5 – because we were going to take an exam soon after. How brave of us to go to HHN during an exam season, huh? At least we were revising! It was truly so much fun to just talk about anything and everything with you. We never ran out of things to say. I’m really so glad we have so many common interests. We finished the rollercoaster at nearly 2am and confirmed that there were no more rides we could take, then went straight to the gift shop after taking a bunch of pictures.

At the gift shop, we were desperately looking for something matching. We wanted something small but would remind of us of the day, and found a keychain of what I can only assume is the grim reaper (it lights up and makes a spooky sound too!). Sadly, there was only one of that key chain left on the shelf and we could not find anything else that we liked more than that. I was going to drop it and leave without getting anything. But you, thankfully, urged me to hold onto it in case another pops up. I did as you said, and when we got to the cashier, we asked her if there happened to be an extra. And guess what? She had one more left. We got exactly what we wanted and booked a cab home. I think we got home at close to 230am or 3am, and fell asleep while on the phone with each other. Imagine that! Spent the morning, afternoon, evening, and night together, and still wanted to call after! I think that’s pretty cool. I don’t know if anyone else thinks it’s cool though.

On the cab ride home, we were talking about the whole experience and how much fun we had. We were also fully aware that we would not be able to wake up the next morning for class. So, we crafted an email to the lecturer to apologize for missing class… because we had covid. How “terrible” of us! Guess what we did the next day? I came over, and we played games together (and studied too!). I’m not kidding when I say that you’re my best friend.

I’m sure I’m missing some details, but I’m really glad I wrote all of this down. In a few years, if my memory fails me and I forget something, I can always come back here and read this again. Oh! I think I should write about the other Halloween costume ideas we had. I suggested all the silly ones, just to see if you’d accept them. We had: ketchup and mustard bottles, a loofah and bar of soap, a fork and spoon, Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street (you vehemently disagreed with this one), a socket and plug (you found this one really funny, I don’t know how many people would get this), lime and tequila (we still drank at that point, but we’ve never had this together). And this year, a serious suggestion of mine would have been Princess Jasmine and Aladdin! I think you would have liked that one. I would have “forced” the doggies to do a little photoshoot with us. How cute would that have been! We’ll do it next time. I have so many Halloween costume ideas!!

I can’t wait to see you again and celebrate Halloween with you. I love you more, always, and forever.

Love always,
Sha