How do you spell scaredy cat?

V-I-C-K-Y-R-A-J-K-E-M-A-R.

  • Entertainment host Virginia Johnson 'shared the scare'
  • She took a Bay News 9 producer with her to walk through haunt
  • The Black Spot is new to Busch Gardens this year

That’s Vicky Rajkumar. She is a producer here at Bay News 9. She likes haunted houses so much she even worked in one once.

Haunted dwellings still scare her, though. And it seemed unfair to hog all the fun-fear for myself.

So I decided to 'share the scare' at Busch Gardens.

We got an exclusive sneak peek at one of their new haunts, The Black Spot. More shipwreck than house, it’s filled with rum, treasure and trouble.

What’s that… sounds like a pirate’s nightmare?

You’re right. The Black Spot is a perilous walk through the shipwreck of the Devil’s Bride.

"We know there's such a rich history of pirates in that Tampa Bay area," explained Ben DeWitt, Project Manager for Howl-O-Scream. "We wanted to do this exactly right and that is why we were so excited to try this out."

The Black Spot is based on the lore of pirates marking traitors and various undesirables for death.

Who knows if you are marked? The pirates do — especially their leader — Captain Saw Tooth Silas.

Along with various seas monsters and sea hags, the scurvy dogs stalk you while you walk through the wrecked hull. There's a room filled with 'rum' barrels, except it's actually a bloodied treasure room and a creepy crack in the hull filled with seaweed and doom.

And I dragged Vicky through all of it. For once, I wasn’t screaming alone.

You may remember we walked through another Howl-O-Scream Haunt, the new Hotel Hell, with Bay News 9 photographer Bobby Collins, and he basically laughed at my fear, and alternatively made me go first and then left me to die.  

Vicky gives the haunted shipwreck an 'A' for the anticipation factor — the scariest part for her.

“I think it's the walking for a while, and then it starts to get a little long, you think you're safe, and then bang,” she laughed. “It just comes out of nowhere and makes you cry like a baby.”

Howl-O-Scream is going on at Busch Gardens select dates through October 30,