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The Day I Discovered I Wasn’t The Badass I Thought I Was
Damn that clown!
I’ve always been an extrovert. A live wire. The life of the party. What’s the opposite of a wallflower? Whatever it is, that’s me. I don’t shy away from confrontation, and half the time, I’m surprised by the words that come out of my mouth. All that to say, I consider myself a badass. So much so that it’s the tagline on my website.
But all that changed the day I took the tour at Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum in Las Vegas. One of my college friends (we’ll call her Nads) was visiting, and I pushed through my typical weekend laziness and found something fun to do. I’d seen a TikTok about the Bottomless Drag Brunch at a bar called The Garden, and it looked fabulous, so I bought two tickets.
Unbeknownst to me, Nads had some ideas of her own. She was a big fan of Zak Bagans, who had a show on the Travel Channel. When I heard the words “travel channel,” I assumed it was a regular travel show. You know what they say about assuming?
Spoiler alert — I was definitely the ass that day.
Zak Bagans’ show “Ghost Adventures” is a series that features Zak and his co-hosts as they travel and investigate haunted locales. He took his love for the paranormal, bought the historically spooky Wengert mansion, procured a vast amount of occult and cursed artifacts, and opened an award-winning haunted house.
My mama didn’t raise no scaredy cat, so when Nads suggested the haunted tour, I barely hesitated in saying yes. I love horror movies. I devour horror novels. Hell, my first author crush was Stephen King. I could handle a little rinky dink haunted tour. Plus, it was right down the street from the Bottomless Drag Brunch, so we wouldn’t even have to drive there.
I only had one concern—and it was only a slight concern—because in my mind this was different from those Halloween haunted tours where creatures jump out at you. I thought this would be an educational experience. To confirm my belief, I asked one of the staffers in the lobby if anyone or anything would jump out at us. The woman assured me no one would.
