The Pumpkin Head Murder
To celebrate Halloween, our company booked an immersive “rural horror” escape room.
My boss said whoever could make it to the end without screaming would get a ten-thousand-dollar reward.
As a seasoned horror movie fan, I was instantly tempted.
The core character in the escape room was a scarecrow wearing an oversized pumpkin head.
I admired how well the props were made, but the chainsaw noise was too loud, so I slipped into a hidden compartment, put on my headphones, and scrolled through reels.
The next day, I woke up to a strong metallic stench mixed with the sickly-sweet smell of rotting pumpkin.
The police told me our boss had canceled the booking at the last minute, and the actor originally assigned to play the character had gotten food poisoning.
That pumpkin-headed figure wasn’t one of their staff.