The very last fright at the haunt was Ed Tucker.
He was a gruesome sight, a bloodier, rotting take on the traditional Egyptian Mummy.
It helped that Ed was 6’8” and imposing even without the costume.
It helped further that Ed was outside, curtained off behind the exit, when hauntgoers thought they had survived The Psychoterium Kastle.
Many people virtually collapsed when Ed loomed in after the “Congratulations, You’re Safe” sign.
Laurel Ancett grabbed Bill’s hand, carefully.
His nails were filed to points, part of his persona as “Babylon Bill” Fassmayer, the creator of one of the most popular haunts in the Great Lakes.
Laurel met him at McCrory Community Center when he was teaching basic carpentry to graduates of a substance abuse program and she was teaching Tai Chi to senior citizens.
She knew of the Psychoterium, everyone in Wabash County knew it, but she had no idea the gentle,funny guy helping the tweakers with their vocational skills was Babylon Bill.
The filed nails and fangs and mascara came later in the year.
He told her he wouldn’t have time to date her, really, because his busy season was coming up, and Laurel was pretty sure that was a “not interested.”
How goddamn busy could a carpenter in Wabash County be?
Then he texted her at 2:45am to say that when he wasn’t busy, he wanted to spend every waking minute with her.
The next morning he outed himself as the proprietor of The Psychoterium.
Now, on Day 4 of 38 days, they watched the lines wrap around the small warehouse with 6 connected semi trailers full of insanity, shock frights, fog, tactile gore and eerie noises.
“You ever get scared in your own place?” Laurel asked, watching a piece of Ed fall to the grated walkway in front of two very frightened older adults.
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