Little Mailbox of Horrors

It's fun being a travel writer who specializes in theme parks...well, most of the time. I get to ride roller coasters, review resorts and restaurants. and generally have a good time all in the name of work. However, things turn sinister when September rolls around. That means it's almost October...and almost time for Central Florida's annual terrorfests, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal and Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens.

My first clue that my favorite season was near was getting the finger from Busch Gardens. You can see it for yourself below:



The severed finger in a jar came courtesy of Sylvie, the 2010 icon and head of the rock band MyX. As you can see, she has a unique way of getting back at former boyfriends (and hapless guys who just happen to cross her path).

Then, along came an innocent looking letter from Universal, including a flash drive inviting me to the media opening event and purporting to contain a special sneak peek of the event:



Alas, poor Heather Summers (the narrator) is stopped in her tracks by Fear himself. He's the 2010 icon, and you can see what he does to her by clicking here for my Examiner article, which contains the video.

But that wasn't all. Soon enough, the following letter showed up in my mailbox. Apparently poor Heather was having more trouble with Fear:



And what could be in this special box?



It's all wrapped up in a bloody piece of burlap:



Aha, a special branding iron with the mark of Fear:



Here's the XX branding iron in all its glory:



I'll be covering both Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream this weekend, so click here to join me on Twitter for live tweets.