6 Meeting With the Park Manager

The manager put down his burger and slowly turned around. When he saw Daniel standing by his side he first raised an eyebrow and brought his hand to his chin as if he were thinking deeply about something.

"Ah that's right! You're Ben's nephew, Dan," the manager snapped his finger as he recognized the young man before him. "Come sit down, there's no need to be so formal with me boy, why I've heard so many stories about you it's almost as if you were my own nephew. Have you eaten yet, I'll order both of us another burger."

Before the man could raise his hand, Daniel who at first was shocked by the manager's attitude quickly stopped him. "There's no need for that sir, I just wanted to quickly talk about the haunted house."

"Stop with that sir nonsense, you call me Miles, though if you prefer I don't mind if you called me uncle Miles." The man stood up and forced Daniel to sit down, beckoning the server to come over and serve them two combos. "Now what about the haunted house?"

Daniel, who was relieved that they were finally discussing the issue, quickly listed out all the problems with the haunted house. "Well the thing is, I'm not sure I'll be able to get the haunted house up and running in only seven days. There's dust everywhere, most of the props are either broken or unsuitable, the clothes are a bit old and so-,"

"This I'm afraid is not my decision to make," Miles interrupted Daniel before he could go on and on listing all the numerous problems with the haunted house. "You see, initially that house was supposed to be torn down months ago, but one day I got a phone call from your uncle asking me to prepare a place for you if you ever left New Hope. He specifically requested that I give you that old house, and He even went as far giving me the money, that he got from selling your old parent's house, begging me to do him this one favor."

"But why would he do that?"

"I'm not sure, he never told me. The point is, that the executives are breathing down my neck, and just last week they gave me an ultimatum. I would either get that house up and running in one week from now on, or even if i called in all my favors that house would still get torn down. You're quite lucky you showed up when you did, if another week had gone by, I don't know how I could've faced your uncle when he came back." At this point the waiter came in with their orders and set it down on the table. Miles, still a little hungry, grabbed the burger and started eating, however Daniel whose head was full of questions wasn't quite in the mood to eat.

"Even then, I still won't be able to get the house in proper shape in week." While Daniel understood Miles's dilemma it didn't change anything, there was simply too many things that he had to do.

"Don't worry about that, I just need an excuse to give to the executives. It doesn't even matter if it's scary or not, as long as there's something there I can stall for more time while you keep working on the house."

So it was like that. Daniel was reassured; it felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted off his chest, however the work was still too much for one person alone. Determined to still ask for help, Daniel looked at the manager right in the eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could even say anything he was cut off.

"Dad!" Daniel turned his head to the entrance, where he could spot two people standing side-by-side and walking towards them. The girl who had called out dad sped up, leaving the other person behind, as she leaped into the arms of manager Miles, while the other person perhaps feeling awkward at having been abandoned also hurried to catch up. Daniel looked at the girl closer, and feeling that she was quite familiar leaned in to get a better look.

Isn't that the girl from the booth this morning, the one kept breaking stuff?

"Just in time, Daniel let me introduce you to my daughter, Elena. She also recently started working in the park, but she's a little clumsy so I worry about her quite a lot." Manager Miles turned to Daniel as he smiled and introduced his daughter to him.

The girl feeling shy from having already been exposed protested cutely "Dad, don't say that."

Manager Miles smiled even more as he thought of how adorable his daughter was, then he turned to face the other person who came with Elena and raised his hand to introduce the other person. "And this is Jack Matthews, one of our best security guards."

Daniel turned his head and faced the other person and all he could think of was 'Wow'. Jack Matthews was huge, almost 6'5, and he towered over everyone else in the diner. He was also ripped and you could see his muscles and a few of his tattoos through his uniform. Daniel rose up to shake his hand, but it just made him feel even smaller as he stared up at the security guard who had a fierce expression on his face.

"H-h-hi," Daniel stuttered as he was intimidated by the hulking pile of muscle that stood before him ready to rip his throat apart if he said the wrong thing.

Jack stared at his hand before offering up his own and giving Daniel a very painful handshake. "I look forward to working with you," Jack said as he gave him an intimidating glare that.

"Right of course, no I feel the same way, wait what do you mean working with me?" Daniel still caught up in his fierce momentum didn't quite hear what Jack said and so he answered instinctively.

At this moment manager Miles cut into the conversation and tried to smooth things over. "Well I thought that you would need help so I pulled two of my finest employees to help you out."

These are your finest employees! The security guard alone might kill me if I do the wrong thing, not to mention your daughter who might just break everything that's already not broken. Oh god what have I done to deserve this.

Daniel pleaded to the heavens for mercy, but it seems that the line was already busy as his uncle continued to tell him about all the park policies and closing times.

Spaced out, Daniel couldn't remember how the rest of the conversation went until at some point the manager turned to him and said "And that's all that you should really know, do you have any questions?"

"No sir," Daniel's shoulder dropped as he submitted to his fate.

"I told you, call me uncle Miles, and don't worry I'm sure things are going to be just fine. Your uncle always told me about how you'd never give up and how tough you were, I'm sure this time it won't be any different." Uncle Miles stood up as he flashed a big happy smile and patted Daniel's shoulders before leaving him with his two new employees.

"Right, well lets head to the haunted house first,"

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Back at the haunted house Daniel stood before the front door with his two new employees. "Ok how about this; Jack you help me clean up all the broken props from the first floor and toss them out the back, and Elena you go to the staff break room and don't touch anything."

Elena, happy that she didn't have to do anything, cheerfully replied "ok!"

On the other hand Jack, still rough around the edges, ignored Daniel and walked to the back of the haunted house saying he was going on a smoke break.

I'll be surprised if I don't run this haunted house into the ground.

Daniel along with Elena stepped into the haunted house where they both broke off into the right and left respectively. Daniel thought it would've been a good idea to sort through the rest of the boxes and see what's left, that and he didn't want Elena near anything breakable, but before he could even step into the room he heard a loud thump from behind him. Elena had tripped on the carpet and fallen on one of the few salvageable mannequins, or at least it was before she fell on it.

"I'm so sorry," Elena apologized profusely but Daniel wasn't really in the mood to be angry at her.

"It's fine, just watch your step please." Thinking back on it, Daniel realized just how few mannequins and props were actually still in proper working condition. For Elena to have tripped on one of the good ones really goes to show 'lucky' the girl really is.

Whatever let's just see what's in all these boxes, and so Daniel spent fumbled through all the boxes in the room until there was only one left. Most of the boxes held simple things like clothes, mannequin parts, fake blood and makeup, so Daniel didn't expect this box to be any different, but little did he know how wrong he was.