By Megan Hurt

Walking into the Lexington Center this past weekend, some unusual creatures may have made Lexington their home.

Ghost hunters, magicians and eight-foot-tall demons were walking around talking to people. Among them were booths selling everything from orignal horror artwork to one-of-a-kind halloween masks.

Rattling off the walls of the convention hall was the steady bump, bump, bump of a coffin hooked up to andrylics, which people could lay in with the lid shut for a wild ride.

This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday downtown Lexington was host to the second annual Scarefest paranormal and horror convention.

The event brought people from all over the country, as well as from the community, to find unusual merchandise, meet horror and paranormal celebrities and attend seminars about topics ranging from psychics to vampires.

A couple even got married in a Scarefest wedding, which was sponsored and decorated by Halloween Express.

Like most other conventions, Scarefest was about networking among people who shared a common interest, said Jeff Waldridge, co-creater and event manager of Scarefest.

Russell Miller, from Winchester, bought a Golden Ticket to the convention, which gave him access to all three days. He said that by the end of the third day, he had seen just about everything.

“I met a lot of cool people,” Miller said, “actors, special effects people. That’s what I like.”

William Thrasher, from Nicholasville, Ky., worked as a volunteer at Scarefest, running errands and helping with the costume contest.

Thrasher said the turn-out so far looked  bigger than last year, when 5,000 people attended over three days.

One of the more unusual things he had seen from this year’s Scarefest was The Pickled Brother’s Sideshow, where guys ate light bulbs and drank Windex,  he said.

He also enjoyed being able to shop at the different booths, because there was a greater variety of vendors than last year.

“I can get enough merchandise and horror DVDs to last me all year,” Thrasher said.

Shawn “Cap” Caplinger, of Smithville, Tenn., used his booth at Scarefest to sell his one-of-a-kind “Friday the 13th” hockey masks.

Caplinger began making masks similar to the one worn by the killer Jason in the classic horror film in February of this year. He orignally got the idea because he couldn’t find a replica of the mask for a halloween costume.

“I thought, ‘This couldn’t be that hard (to make),’ ” Caplinger said.

He then began making the masks from scratch, using his own mold to form the shells, then adding hand-dyed and cut leather.

Each mask, whether simple with a few scratches or intricately burned and cracked, is a one-of-a-kind creation from Caplinger’s own imagination.

“Every one of them is unique,” he said. “If I were to put 1,000 masks in front of you, no two would look the same.”

Caplinger learned about the opportunity to sell his masks at Scarefest from some Myspace friends who were involved with the event. Waldridge then emailed Caplinger several times asking him to be a dealer at the convention.

“I do everything myself, so I had to work 18 to 20 hours a day trying to stock up in time,” Caplinger said. “Now, I’ve almost been wiped out again.”

Caplinger said he enjoyed coming to the convention, where he was able to meet new people and make new connections.

“I really enjoyed myself, everyone was super nice,” he said. “It would be my privilege to come back.”