Alex sighed happily and took in the warm beams from the sun overhead. The Hollywood area of Universal Studios was pretty open-aired, with plenty of shade under large palms trees. Jordan and Dix came back with ice cold sodas from a nearby vendor, passing out the Freyan drinks to everyone. Kaiden looked rather skeptical at his Sprite and took a sip a little too fast, nearly snorting it out of his nose. Alex bit down a laugh and passed him a spare water bottle that he took thankfully.

"That is one strange drink," Kaiden remarked, pinching his nose. "But why does it taste so good?"

"Sugar," was all Bear said with a smirk. "It's almost as much as a glass of dillyberry juice."

Alex nearly choked on her Sprite this time. "You're joking, right?"

"What, getting flashbacks, Alex?" Jordan raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Just wait 'till I tell you about the time that I had to carry—"

"Jordan, that is way too much information already." Alex cut him off by pretending to steal his hotdog. It shut him up pretty quick.

Bear was staring at his phone and up ahead, trying to find a path through the busy crowd of people. "Are you really sure you want to go see a horror make up show?"

"I wanna see Dec's reaction to them — he does not do well with horror. This one time—"

"Uh-uh okay, quoting Alex, that is way too much information already," Declan simply slapped a hand over Kaiden's mouth (a bit more brutish than Alex's). "If anything, I'm going to tell the story."

"Go ahead," Jordan mentioned with his hotdog.

"Picture this. I skip the assembly for the VR-enhancement stuff at the start of our year, but goodboy Kaid over here didn't. Now I don't do well with horror stuff, we all know that. I stroll into the Rec Room, put on the headset, turn it up to the highest horror level because I got dared by Blink. Two seconds in and I'm screaming like a baby because a freakin' wolf licked my face!"

Declan told stories very well and with magnificent hand gestures that nearly knocked out passerbys or made the whole thing funnier. Arriving at the Horror Make-Up Show, the front was set up and decorated like an 80's movie theater. It was a pretty blue and pink palette that stood out against the other buildings, with hundreds of bulbs that shone bright and reflected prettily off the windows.

"Okay, I was not expecting this from a horror make-up show." Dix remarked, slurping her slushie. "Shall we?"

"We shall." Jordan grinned and took Dix's arm, leading her inside. Bear and Declan followed them, trailed last by Alex and Kaiden. Alex hooked her arm through Kaiden's accepted a quick kiss to the forehead and they strolled forwards into the Horror Make-Up Show.

The floor was exactly like any cinema - with a gaudy fabric as a pattern, bright red and blue with a super-fancy ceiling. There were even chandeliers every so often that lit up the space so you could see the pieces better. Most of the art was boxed up behind glass and safely lined up with red-velvet brass fencing.

"Look at that clown!" Dix gasped, pointing to a red and yellow haired mannequin. Jordan, ever the jokester, turned around frantically and over dramatically with his finger out.

"There it is!" he pointed right for Bear, who rolled his eyes and took Dec's hand so they could look at more gory stuff.

Dix and Jordan were caught up with the circus exhibition, whilst Alex and Kaiden decided to walk further along and see what was up ahead. A group of people had begun gathering, all with cameras and excited expressions.

"Everyone please follow me towards Theater One, we'll be starting there shortly. Ah, miss," said the 80's dressed movie usher with a wink, "You won't want to bring popcorn in."

The lady pulled back from the fake popcorn exhibit with a laugh and Alex tipped her head towards the moving crowd.

"Wanna see that?"

"Why not?" Kaiden smiled, and they tagged onto the back just as the doors shut behind them. The people filled out the red seat haphazardly, with no real arrangement. Alex led Kaiden over to seats in the fifth row, since the most excited (which was admittedly the rest of the viewers) had already taken up the first four. Her hand comfortingly in his, Alex watched the heavy velvet curtains move and rustle before grand music started up and the curtains rose.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the most gruesome, the most horrifying, and the most terrific Horror Make-Up Show in all of Universal Studios!" A man in a coat with tails and a rather large top hat announced the opening speech with a wide grin, spinning a gold-topped cane with expertise. "Get ready for a bout of comedic thrills and grisly chills, because you ain't seen nothing yet."

The lights in the theater switched off with his exact words, then turned back on a few seconds later with new people on the stage. A blonde woman in a white lab coat showed off a row of pearly teeth. The man next to her was dressed like a news anchor, in a dark blue suit paired with a patterned tie. They didn't look particularly threatening, of course, if one ignored the table of surgical tools and the massive knife that lay upon it.

"Is this normal for Freyans?" Kaiden whispered to Alex with wide eyes.

"Oh yes," she kept a straight face and tried not to let her surprise show, "We do this all the time."

"Okay," was all he said, though he still looked a little unnerved.

The screen behind the pair on stage lit with an image of Frankenstein. The props behind them ranged from fridges to shelves stuffed full of jars, to random heads sitting on tables, and lots of eerie red and blue light. Eerie was a good word to describe it all.

"We all know this lovely fellow right here," the woman gestured up to Frankenstein behind her, "Frankenstein is known all over the world as one of the most iconic monsters. I'm sure we've all wondered at some point how exactly they got him so frightening."

The lady walked them through several behind the scenes of horror shows, even demonstrating on her suited partner.

"Enough of the old films," she decided loudly, and the screen switched off. "This is the real stuff. Would anyone like to volunteer?"

The man was wheeling things around the stage in preparation, with lots of tools and large buckets covered with cloths coming out. A few people in the rows in front of Alex stuck their hands up excitedly. One was picked, a young girl about Alex's age who seemed to really enjoy horror judging by her themed shirt. Her mother paused to snap a photo of her posing amongst the gory props.

"Do you know anyone named Sasha, Cassie?" asked the woman.

Cassie shook her head. "Afraid I don't."

"Well, hold on a sec there," the woman - Sandy - puffed out her cheeks and reached inside a base that her partner James was holding up. Out she pulled an arm, which she deposited in Cassie's outstretched arms, followed by a leg, another arm, a finger, and finally a shoe. Kaiden's grip on Alex's hand had tightened, his expression a mixture of light fear and laughter. It was so cheesy it was funny and only a little scary.

The small kids down there couldn't tell the obviously fake blood was fake, which made it all the more funnier when one of them gave a little shriek and buried himself into his mother's arms.

"Are we terrible humans for laughing at kids?" Alex murmured to Kaiden. He moved his head in a combination of a shake and a nod with a little chuckle.

Sandy and James instructed Cassie to deposit the severed limbs on a nearby counter, then James whipped out the rather large knife and pretended to corner Sandy with it. They spent several minutes trying to convince Cassie to let them chop her arm with the knife - she played along with their jokes even though it was clear she wouldn't mind.

The hosts then argued over who would chop Cassie's arm off loudly to the fright of the kids in the front row. Sandy threatened James with a bloody rubber arm, James waved the knife, and it went on like that for several minutes until they calmed down and Sandy sliced Cassie's arm.

A little gasp escaped Alex (she wasn't really really scared, it was just so sudden). Something in the knife made it look like Cassie's arm was really being chopped, because it seemed so realistic.

Sandy withdrew the knife to show no blood, Cassie brandished an unharmed arm to the audience and a round of laughs went around. Sandy explained how the knife worked in easy words, demonstrating it on her own arm. James brought out a few more props and they both showed the audience how they worked with jokes embedded in every other word.

Another audience member was called up to try on a weird colander helmet that was connected to a large furry monster. The animatronic copied her movements exactly, one furry paw raised, two furry paws raised.

The severed heads on display were probably Alex's second favourite part. Her first was when Kaiden was beckoned down to the stage to mix a large gallon of blood that was of the highest movie quality. At first, she had been worried the blood might have been too much for the both of them - they'd seen way more than necessary of the real stuff.

A flash of nervousness crossed his blue eyes, but Kaiden pulled it together and gave the kids in the front row a reassuring grin. When his gaze crossed to Alex's, she drew a small heart in the air in front of her with a finger. He responded by drawing one so subtly on the table she almost missed it, but it was there she knew he was okay. Kaiden was perfect when he played along with the hosts' jokes, pretending to be scared, to laugh, to joke, mixing the blood and ingredients as the hosts continued their funny lecture.

"I think that's enough for today folks, I hoped you enjoyed a horrifyingly funny show! Next time you see some movie blood, you have the badge to say you know how to make that!" Sandy gave them all a large smile, and the lights started flickering back on. "Have fun out there, y'all!"

Alex took Kaiden's hand without a word and they both walked outside quietly, where the others were waiting. They must have finished their own activities.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kaiden said, squeezing her hand. "You were there. That was enough to make it fine."

"Let's go finish the rest of Hollywood, then!" Alex kissed him on the lips quickly and hugged him tightly. "Tell me if you need a break, okay? The new world stuff is kinda overwhelming, and trust me, I know that."

"I will," he promised. "Only if we do the Terminator ride before lunch."

"You sound like Jordan."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"If you start eating everything off the menu at lunch, I'll let you know and we can have an intervention.."

A/N: no way i wrote all of this i don't know how but i do know it took a long time and i JUST WANNA FINISH THIS PART SO I CAN GET TO HARRY POTTER LAND SOON. I think I'm going to smush the next three parts of Universal Studios together so we can get there quicker :)

-dommie out