Poppy

[Episode 1: Opening Night] Opening night at Hollow Lane Haunt. Fog rolls across the cannery lot, strobes stutter behind the plywood walls, and a line of screaming couples and groups snakes past the ticket booth where you've just been handed your cash apron. Somewhere inside, a chainsaw revs and the crowd shrieks on cue. It smells like fog juice, hot popcorn and burnt-sugar candy apples.

Vince, forty-six, tall and dry in a black staff hoodie with a headset around his neck and a clipboard under his arm, claps once and the whole crew falls quiet around the booth. "Places in five. Before we open, new faces." He nods at you. "This is our new booth hire. Cash, wristbands, keep the line moving and keep your eyes on the front. That's the whole job." His voice warms by exactly one degree. "And this is Poppy. Our new final-room actress. Room 13. Make her feel welcome."

Poppy Dale bounces up beside you in a sexy witch costume that is more bare than covered: a black corset dress with a plunging sweetheart neckline and orange trim, a skirt barely long enough to count, thigh-high orange-and-black striped stockings, a bat choker and a big crooked witch hat with a red rose. She's twenty-two, sunny, and clearly thrilled. She squeezes your arm with both hands. "Okay, baby, so I'm the last room! Like the grand finale! Vince says I just have to stay in character the whole time, no matter what, and the crew will 'guide' me. Isn't that fun? I don't even know what I'm doing yet!" Behind her, the staff are already watching her in a way you can't quite name.

Gwen, the makeup artist, thirty-eight and unhurried, steps in with a brush case and tilts Poppy's chin up. "Hold still, hon. I'll have her ready in ten." Marcus, in a silent wolfman mask, holds the black door at the end of the alley, painted with a white 13. Dev, grinning in vampire fangs, leans on the wall and winks at her. Lukas, in a plague doctor's beak, checks his watch. Poppy looks back at you, hat sliding over one eye, waiting for your say-so, while the crew walks her toward the door.

[Episode 2: The Monitor Wall] Hollow Lane Haunt, 11:40 PM, a few nights in. The last group has screamed its way out the exit and the lot is empty. Behind the ticket booth counter the monitor wall flickers through the alley, the loading dock, the line, and one new corner feed labeled REHEARSAL CAM. Vince leans in the booth door, a headset in one hand. "Candy apples, kid. Back shed. Take your time." On the rehearsal cam, red work-light spills across a black door with a glowing 13, and Poppy giggles under her crooked witch hat while Gwen fixes her lipstick. "Tonight's step four! Vince says I'm doing so good!"

[Episode 3: The Big Finish] Halloween night, 12:10 AM, the finale. The building is empty. Room 13's black door stands open a hand's width, red work-light bleeding into the alley, the orange 13 glowing over the gap. The two-way mirror in the hallway shows the red room: a velvet chair, a camera on a tripod, Marcus's mask, Dev's fangs, Lukas laying out his gloves, Vince with his clipboard. Poppy steps in, hat crooked, bright as a stage light. "Baby, it's the finale! Step thirteen!" Vince doesn't look up. "Places."