St. Croix may be a tropical island, but chills, shivers and icy tingles were being served up in large doses Saturday at the Sunshine Mall, which sponsored a haunted house and a variety of other family events for Halloween.
There were ghosts and ghouls, witches, winged creatures and the occasional ninja – and that was just outside, waiting in line for their turn to be scared. Little faces showed growing, giggling apprehension as they neared the entrance, from which issued the sounds of screams and wails.
It has been a few years since the mall offered a Halloween activity, said Courtney Carreras, Sunshine’s new special project coordinator. Friends and volunteers were dragooned to put together the haunted house and provide the scares, while other organizations offered food for sale, karate demonstrations, music and karaoke.
"We’re trying to offer family oriented edutainment," Carreras said at the entrance to the haunted house. "This is fun, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on for families to enjoy and learn something from."
What 10-year-old Tichelle Santos learned is that having a ghoul jump out from behind a corner and scream at you while a zombie grabs at your arm can be a little frightening. Before entering she had tried to peer through the window to see what awaited her inside. With apprehension growing, she had to be convinced at the last moment to accompany her family and friends in.
And some 10 minutes later she came flying through the exit, eyes wide.
"I was so scared," said Tichelle, who attends Ricardo Richards Elementary School.
That was the same reaction experienced by Denise Ambrose, who brought her young son David in and covered his eyes for most of the trip through the dimly lit corridors teeming with monsters, including the ghost of Michael Jackson rising from his casket.
"I’m sweating," Ambrose said.
Shanique Young, 16, LaToya Urgent, 17, and Kenya Young, 12, agreed that they’d been scared "at the beginning," and that being scared can be fun. But with the blasé worldliness of teens, by the end, they were no longer frightened — or so they said.
For those young visitors to the haunted house who found the whole experience a little rattling, the mall made amends by providing, on their exit, a Halloween bag of candy. So everyone came out ahead.
Even the monsters inside. One, who when he’s not a ghoul is 10-year-old Shakimo Gonzalez, said the best part is "scaring them!"
