A haunting good time

A male figure donned in a Hays High T-shirt and jeans fell to his death at the foot of Malloy Hall’s steps Wednesday evening. The dummy, affectionately known as “Otis McDonald,” was used as a prop for the Haunted Campus Tour, the annual event hosted by FHSU Intramurals.

The tour began in Gross Memorial Coliseum, where students signed in and could eat chili and watch the movie “Saw.”

From there, tour guides led groups to the first two stops. Storytellers described the legend of “The Blue Light Lady” and a tale of a student who lost her life in the pools of Cunningham Hall.

Freshman Sabrina Brown, a member of the Delta Zeta sorority at FHSU and one of the tour guides of the evening, said she enjoyed leading students from place to place.

Freshman Sami Pfeifer succumbs to the zombie virus Z1N1. Pfeifer, a member of Fringe Theatre Company, helped stage scares in Malloy Hall.

“I like being in leadership roles: Plus, it’s fun watching others get scared.”

Brown led students down by Big Creek, with students dressed in gorilla suits and various villainous costumes featured in horror films.

Fringe Theater Company takes part of the tour every year, providing scares for horror enthusiasts. This year, “Otis” made his debut by tumbling down two flights of stairs.

“I love scaring people. Part of me feels a little left out since I never get to go on the tour, but it’s OK because I love being with the group and watching the people freak out,” said junior Melody Miller, a member of Fringe.

“We are just damn scary,” said junior Marc Hertel, president of Fringe, with a laugh.

Fringe had various attractions in its part of the tour, including people dressed up as cannibals.

“It’s like a performance — when they get scared, it’s like a job well done,” said senior Stacey Rathert.

Car alarms sounded, and mannequins with fake blood covered the campus parking lots and walking paths while students with chainsaws chased the participants.

Senior Kindra Degenhardt said she enjoyed going on the tour.

“I was scared quite a few times sporadically. The decorations were really good — you could tell a lot of work went into it.”

Degenhardt participated in the tour with alumnus David Galindo after a classmate recommended the tour.

Galindo said he liked the thrills of the evening.

“The tour was pretty interesting — and good exercise. It’s always the guys you can’t see that get you. You look around, trying to find all the scary stuff before it happens, and then the guy behind you that you didn’t know was there gets you,” Galindo said.

“I am afraid of chainsaws and masks, so the guy in the water and the chainsaw guys were really scary,” Degenhardt said.

“It was definitely worth the two dollars — you got food and fun. It was just a good time.”