Several bodies slid along the blackened walls of a haunted maze in search of fearsome entertainment.

Flashes of white light exposed ghoulish characters throughout the darkened maze inside the Prison of Terror at the Cyclone Truck Stop, corner of Highway 30 and Dayton Avenue. The prison started its two-week run last weekend.

A group of four seventh-grade girls — Amy Warg, her sister Bridget, Rachel Klaman and Amanda Housken — were greeted at the door by a prison guard with an icy stare. The right side of his pasty face was covered with crusty red slashes. His coarse voice pierced the air over sounds of whirling wind as he directed the fresh bodies into the prison.

The girls were blinded by darkness as they crossed the threshold of the prison door. They found their way through the prison by clinging onto one another’s shirts and creeping along the walls through narrow hallways and open rooms.

As hallways faded into dead space, the anticipation of surprise heightened. The girls didn’t know the size of the rooms, or how many creatures were lurking in the corners.

When the flashing lights would spark, the four girls would scream in unison and run past the creature and down another hallway.

The girls went past a caged creature, an executed man, a tight crawl space and out of the prison, enthused for more.

“It was kind of scary, and kind of not,” said Amy Warg, one of the seventh graders. “I had fun because I like being scared, and I was with my friends.” All agreed they would have to come back next year.

Amy Fry, co-chair for the haunted house, said the Prison of Terror is an annual fund raiser for the Ames Jaycees, an organization of people between the ages of 21 and 40 who do community service work for Ames.

“The money goes back to the Ames community, so there is more boo for your buck,” she said.

Molly Redenbaugh, president of Ames Jaycees, said all the money from the Prison of Terror goes toward Christmas projects and funding throughout the year.

“It’s nice to know that your $5 is going to help the Ames community, not into the pocket of a private individual like another haunted place in town,” she said.

Redenbaugh said they have a large number of ISU students working in the haunted house.

“We try to get kids from the college involved as much as possible, especially on this project because it’s so much fun to scare the pants off people,” she said.

Andrew Reich, senior in architecture, said he has had a good time scaring visitors in the prison this year.

“I work at it partly for fun, but also because it goes to a good cause,” he said. “One of my highlights was when I made an older guy wet his pants when I was in the snake room.”

The Prison of Terror will be open daily until Halloween. It is open from 7 p.m. to midnight today and Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday for children. It is also open Monday and Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.