r/shortstories • u/HiIAmAdam • 11h ago
Horror [HR] Mr. O'Grady's Fear Spectacular
Let’s see what happens this Friday night. Excited wouldn’t quite be the right word: nervous anticipation. I’m wondering how much longer Mr. O’Grady can keep this thing operating. There is no way Mr. O’Grady is making money from this enterprise, it is purely a passion project. Two weeks ago we received a visit from the health and safety department, and I’m pretty sure we’ve been officially shut down, if you can even shut down illegitimate businesses. Mr. O’Grady doesn’t tell us anything, we continue with business as usual, and with tactical adjustments to marketing and ticket sales, we keep customers coming through these doors every weekend.
If there is a method to the madness, no one but Mr. O’Grady knows it, but madness is guaranteed. This all adds to the mystique of it all. Whatever experience is reported on one weekend has no relation to the next. “Did you get dangled from the top of a building by a man with a leather face?” one friend might say to another, to which the other friend may reply, “no, but I nearly died falling through a collapsed floor.” You have to be in the know to hear these reports, or even know that this place exists.
“They have to feel like they’re lives are actually in danger,” Mr. O’Grady says, “rules can’t apply here, otherwise, we’re just another entertainment business.” His point is fair. A scary environment can only do so much to someone that knows they have paid to have an experience from an established business, and believes they have rights in the space. But an established business this is likely not. The multiple injuries and much refuted fatality prove this. Some sort of interaction with electrical equipment. It was chalked up to the guest not remaining within the property boundaries, and they died in hospital from an existing condition, Mr. O’Grady would insist. Mr. O’Grady seems to have a good lawyer. No one has seen or heard from the employee who witnessed the even. The people that come here now know all of this. The dangers are all stated in the waiver and kept from authorities by the non-disclosure agreement. The guests are as mad as Mr. O’Grady and they fuel each other to push the boundaries. The sorts of people that jump from cliffs and climb cranes, or attempt stunts with motor vehicles and home made pyrotechnics. Macochists. This is a sanctuary for masochists.
We spend the weekdays preparing and executing Mr. O’Grady’s weekly visions. I spent yesterday and today pumping the basement with water. We have a trained diver on staff, Brad, who has been orienting himself with the flooded basement and escape routes. Brad used to be a scuba instructor at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki, before he was caught selling to clients and hotel guests. He would anchor his goods off shore, and may have been operating a similar storage operation for a large drug ring. All to say he is now back on the mainland laying low for the time being. Carter, our carpenter, has been rigging up an opening in one of the main level rooms, which will drop a guest that will be strapped to a chair into the basement below. The water is cold. The plunge will not be pleasant.
Not all of the workers here are as mad as Mr. O’Grady. Some, like myself, just wanted an opportunity to work in the entertainment industry. It’s a fun place to work, is what everyone knows coming in. But there are some that absolutely are as mad as Mr. O’Grady, possibly more mad. These are his henchmen. They’re what make the wheels turn. Perhaps they will inherit the place some day. As for me, I am just part of the safety team that tracks guest locations and tries to minimize hazards without compromising Mr. O’Grady’s visions. The pay is good, is what keeps us here, and from reporting to the health and safety department
He is a master of atmosphere, Mr. O’Grady. He spent many years working as a set designer for movies. “We will create danger, but with atmosphere, with darkness, we create disorientation, confusion, the potential to be trapped, and with these we create anticipation, and with anticipation, fear. That is the space where we can really get to the soul, and it is our canvas from which anything is possible.” The atmosphere he creates would probably be enough for most thrill seekers. The way he uses lighting, in addition to the implements of the effects and sound teams is truly spectacular. But it is not enough for Mr. O’Grady. It would not be enough to have people to just walk or ride through such a space, like any other haunted house. He respects these, though, they are what provide the foundation for what he does here.
Mr. O’Grady gives us weekly lectures on the theory of fear: Fear 101. “Isolation has nothing to do with fear,” he has lectured us. “You can put someone anywhere in the world, the most isolated corner of the world, and it will be quite pleasant there, peaceful. But cut them off from the rest of the world, take away all forms of communication, and suddenly they will be trapped. No matter how much space they have, they are trapped in a world they don’t know, that they need to escape from, and they need to get back. The constriction of an ability to gain life-sustaining resources. It will eat the average person alive, until they actually have to survive.”
I admire Mr. O’Grady’s passion for fear. To commit your life whole heartedly to a singular thing like he has done. He eats, sleeps, and breathes fear. Never tires of it. I wish I had something like that.
Until they actually have to survive. “It is not in facing death, that people are actually scared,” Mr. O’Grady has explained, “because this is when adrenaline and survival instincts will kick in, and these things will replace fear. It is in the space before this, then, the moment of anticipation, the idea that danger is present, that death may be possible, when the actual reality of the danger is not yet clear, this is where fear resides. The idea that death is around the corner, and not knowing how you will react when faced with the unknowns. This is the space that we operate in, and must try to prolong.” Great horror movies capture this moment well. Mr. O’Grady no longer works on movies due to some safety incidents.
The young man is strapped to the chair. A couple of costumed henchmen had wrestled him and forced him into the chair placed an implement on top of his head. They slammed the door followed by the sounds of multiple locking mechanisms fastening. After stomping his feet desperately, a candle has fallen from an unsturdy side table in the corner. The rug and curtains are going up in flames. The guest believes this is not part of the plan as sounds of electrical current fill the room - this is what they think was to be scaring them. They are trying to rip their arms and legs from the restraints desperately, calling for help. They are suffocating as the fire builds and the smoke accumulates at the top of the room. The smoke line is slowly dropping like rising water. The guest begins coughing vigorously, and then they are in ice cold water.
Many freeze. That is the most common reaction. The body goes into shock. Brad does a good job unstrapping the guest and bringing them to safety through the pitch black water. I observe and report the guest’s status as they lay red faced, coughing and vomiting on the floor, still trying to gain their breath from the inhaled smoke. They report that they feel like they almost passed out, and can’t remember anything after hitting the water. They thought initially that they were being doused by a fire-fighting hose until they were fully under water. They say they’ve never felt more alive.
Ten out of ten. A successful experience, Mr. O’Grady says.
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