East Lyme – Six-year-old Mya Dennis of East Lyme made her way through the Walk of Horror three times Friday night before convincing herself she wasn't scared anymore.

According to her brother Elliot, 10, she ran "the fastest she's ever run" the first time the sound of a chainsaw caught them unaware at what they thought was the end of the trail.

Elliot said Mya pushed herself through two more trips around the outdoor trail — under hanging heads, into spider webs, and against gusts of air and bursts of water — until the maniac with the chainsaw no longer sent her running.

On Saturday afternoon, the family was back at the East Lyme Community Center for more.

"It's fun, and the chainsaw guy's not that scary," Mya said at the two-hour event just for kids.

Brother Ethan, 8, wasn't having it. "Mya, yes he was," he said. "You were crying."

All three Dennis kids vowed to come back that night and Sunday for more.

The Walk of Horror, put on by the East Lyme Police Cadets, started five years ago. That's when East Lyme police officer and founder of the local police cadets organization, Mark Hallbauer, "suckered in" a few friends and then convinced the cadets to get on board.

Roughly 10 of Hallbauer's friends and friends-of-friends make up the core group of organizers, he said. They help guide a dozen cadets and their families through the laborious process of making the annual event happen.

The trail includes props ranging from a massive wooden pirate ship rescued from a local 'buy nothing' page on Facebook to handmade cannons to a coffin that may or may not have someone in it at any given time.

Other attractions include a demonic Sponge Bob Square Pants screaming about Krabby Patty. Prisoners try to escape from their shackles. Real trees glow in the dark under blacklights with the help of spray paint. Jump scares abound.

"It's all about diversions," Hallbauer said. "You get them focused on one thing and you have something else happen."

In an effort to engage all five senses in the grotesque, the trail includes rotting flesh scent pods.

"We've used the smells of cotton candy or chocolate chip so they're breathing that in, going, 'Oh, that smells so good.' Then we hit them with the rotting flesh and they throw up," he said.

But do they really?

"They do," he said. "We've had them throw up."

Nora Askew, an eighth grade student at East Lyme Middle School, has been a member of the cadets for a month. For the past week she's spent about six hours per day in areas like the underwater tent, where she helped scale a mermaid.

"Before that, I'd never seen a mermaid skeleton," she said. She worked alongside Molly Perrino-Rossi, an East Lyme 911 dispatcher and wife of the chainsaw-wielding Robert Rossi.

Askew, who has long wanted to be a police officer, FBI agent "or something along those lines," said becoming a police cadet and learning from people like Perrino-Rossi has made her realize how many opportunities there are in emergency services.

"This program really made me see more possibilities of things I could be," she said.

Cadets ages 13-20 from East Lyme, Montville, Salem, Waterford, Lyme and Old Lyme get training in law enforcement techniques while putting those skills to work at local events through traffic control, crowd control and helping out after major disasters. The structure of the group mimics the town's police department, with members using their interview skills to rise through the ranks of the organization.

The event started Friday and runs through Sunday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the community center, 41 Society Road. Volunteer Susan Menghi of Waterford, whose 21-year-old son is a former cadet, said she saw about 300 people come through the pirate ship that served as the trail's entrance on Friday night.

Menghi put together a glittery purple and blue costume for her role as a siren, known in mythology for luring sailors to shipwreck with their sweet song.

"Come out and have some fun," she said. "Hopefully you get a little scared."

Visitors are invited to bring nonperishable food items for Care & Share of East Lyme and pet supplies for Waterford-East Lyme Animal Control. Cash donations will be accepted for East Lyme Police Cadets.

e.regan@theday.com