”SNAP OUT OF IT!” Alisha demanded, slapping me hard across the face.
That exaggerated smile under the dusty back hood started back at me, as the blade was pulled from Derek’s stomach for the last time, dropping him to the ground. While his girlfriend still screamed at me, I was practically paralyzed by the sight of the blood dripping from the long, jagged blade, blending with the pool forming around where my brother lay, barely twitching.
”DAMNIT, DANIEL!” she yelled again, slapping me even harder than before, finally inspiring my mind to collide with my body.
I looked at her and back to the robed figure, who was wiping the dagger caked in my brother’s blood across its chest.
”We gotta run, kid. You with me?”
I just nodded; something that was likely difficult to differentiate from my bodily spasms at the time. As the robed figure began to move in closer, stepping over Derek, I started to back away. As he, she, or whatever the hell it was lunged at me, it fell hard to the ground itself, as my brother clutched its ankle.
”Go!” he moaned.
That was enough to finally inspire me to run. Alisha and her sister were already a good ways ahead of me, while I kept stealing glances over my shoulder. It was during one of those intervals, when I turned back to what lay ahead of me, only to see no trace of anyone that I skidded to a halt once more.
”Alisha?” I called out, barely more than a whisper, “Sandra! Where’d you go!?”
Nothing.
I began to move steadily forwards in whatever direction we had been going before I lost sight of my companions, but when I heard the crunching of quickly paced footsteps coming from behind, I had no more time to waste. I took off, hoping to be out of sight before the robed figures caught up with me.
I could still see that unnervingly wide grin on the surface of my brain as I ran from one aisle to the next, getting myself so turned around, I had not the slightest clue where I was anymore. Even with the acknowledgment that I would not easily be making my way out of that God-forsaken labyrinth, I still kept going, darting from right to left, up and down, over and over.
After running on fumes for the better part of ten or twenty minutes, if I even had the slightest hope of guessing any sort of time frame, I slowed down, hoping to catch my breath before it left me passed out on the flattened corn stalks. When I stopped blindly charging onward, I tried to regulate my wheezing, while attempting to listen out for any sounds around me.
I couldn’t hear a thing. No footsteps, no screams, no voices, only the thumping of my pulse against the inner lining of my ears. When the image of my brother falling lifelessly to the ground flashed before my eyes, I fought to shake it away, hopeful to focus on my escape before dwelling on whether he may or may not have survived this.
’If I get out,’ I thought, ‘I’ll get help. He’s still alive; I know he is,’ I fought to convince myself, ‘but you can’t get him the help he needs if you’re dead too.’
Yes, with that sound of my brother’s flesh being torn apart by the lengthy, serrated blade beating against my eardrums as much as the images flashing behind my eyes, I didn’t believe it for a second, but I had to convince my legs to get moving again. It was while I waged that inner battle that another stomach-churning squeal snapped my attention back to my dire situation.
It was close; alarmingly close, but I knew I had to check it out. Given that it sounded as though it was one of the girls screaming this time, as opposed to those we had thought to be only messing with us, I knew I had to at least attempt to do what I could to save them. Sure, I was certain I wouldn’t stand a chance against any of the robed figures, but I had to try. Perhaps it was little more than my desperation to not be alone in this anymore that drove my actions, but it was something.
Again I ran from one turn to the next, pursuing yet another horrifying shriek as I plundered onwards. It didn’t take me long to locate the source of the new sound to accompany those already haunting my subconscious, but when I found what I was looking for, I knew that there was nothing I could do to help.
The red and green striped minidress was almost shredded in places, revealing torn flesh and tissue, spilling more crimson fluids across the ground. My legs gave out, dropping me to my knees beside the young girl whose eyes glared lifelessly up at the night sky. Her long brown hair was matted with blood and chunks of gore, seemingly thrown back at her from the sequence of attacks that ripped her apart.
I lost it. I just started crying and wailing out, unable to even hope to battle against such a formidable foe. The impact of my brother’s death hit me at full force, colliding with the surface of my brain as though it was launched from a cannon. I continued to howl my hopelessness into the night, even when I felt myself being lifted from the ground.
It was as though I was floating weightlessly as the robed individual carried me through the maze, having thrown me over its shoulder like a healthy-sized sack of dog food. I didn’t fight. I didn’t rebel. I didn’t attempt to escape. It had been futile, to begin with; just the thought that I could survive something that my brother could not.
When my escort stopped walking, I was still out of it while my wrists and ankles were bound to some sort of wooden prop. Through the tears that still flowed, I could see that I was in a much wider spot in the maze; one that was at least four or five times the size of the slender pathways I had been running in and out of.
’Could this be the center of the maze,’ I thought, glancing around as much as I could.
There were six of them now; the robed figures, each with their own unsettling grin peeking out from the darkness of their hoods. Once my extremities were sufficiently restricted, the one who carried me there backed away to join the others in line. They all just glared at me, heaving their heavy breath, while maintaining their sinister smiles.
”What are you waiting for?” I asked through gritted teeth.
I was beaten. I was done for; I did not doubt that. Why were they just glaring at me?
”What the fuck are you waiting for!?”
Still nothing. They just stood there like robed statues. They weren’t even forcing out that exaggerated wheezing anymore.
”JUST GET IT OVER WITH, YOU PUSSIES!”
As one of them broke from formation, slowly coming closer to me, I wasn’t afraid anymore. My heart ached for the loss of the person I cared most for in this world. If they took him away from me, they could have me too, for all I cared.
No more running.
No more tears.
No more…
As it moved in closer, stopping only inches from me, it leaned over at the waist, almost pushing its face right next to my own. I closed my eyes, readying myself for the blood to spill freely to waiting corn stalks, pressed to the ground, when,
”Happy Halloween, baby brother,” whispered into my ear.
When my eyes blinked back open, they met not the malicious grinning thing that sought to lay me to rest, but the smiling face of the person I had idolized since I was a child.
”Derek?…what the..?”
I could barely form anything close to a legible sentence as Alisha and Sandra lowered their hoods, pulling away the grinning masks, followed by the two guys who forced us in here, and another blonde guy I’d never seen before.
They weren’t laughing at me, only smiling warmly as though they thought this torment they had put me through to be a heartfelt gift of some kind.
”You’re…alive? You’re all…” I stuttered while the truth of things struck me like a serrated blade to the midsection, “are you fucking kidding me!?” I belted, wrestling against the bindings holding me in place, “how could you!? Why the hell would you!?”
”It’s okay, kiddo,” Derek said, still smiling, chuckling a little under his breath, “it was just a joke! I just wanted to give you one good scare for Halloween!”
”ONE GOOD SCARE!? I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!” I shouted, still pulling against the ropes around my limbs.
”Woah, Danny,” my brother said, reaching out to hold my arms still, “you’re gonna hurt yourself. Let me…”
”DON’T TOUCH ME!” DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU PUT ME THROUGH!?”
I could tell that my brother’s accomplices were growing steadily more uncomfortable as they stared on with varying, though equally uncomfortable expressions, but I didn’t care. I felt betrayed by the actions of the one person I thought I could truly trust in this world; not only for this ridiculous charade but for leading me into this damned maze in the first place.
”You know how I feel about this place,” I said, lowering my voice, “you know it scares me!”
”Exactly,” he said, resting his hand on my shoulder, “that’s why I chose it, kid. I’m going off to college next year. I need to know you’ll be alright without me here. It’s time to face your fears and grow up some. Believe me, Danny, I’d never do anything like this if I didn’t have a good reason.”
”Cut me down,” I said, refusing to look him in the eye.
He just stared back at me, or so it looked through my periphery. The smile faded from his face by the time I allowed my eyes to meet his again, but I was still angry; still betrayed.
”Cut…me…down…”
With a heavy sigh, he reached into his robe, pulling out the pocket knife he had carried for the last few years. After the last rope was cut, I just stood there looking up at him, rubbing the raw flesh on my wrists from my writing against the course ropes.
”Danny, I…”
”Just get me out of here. You know your way out, right? You guys sure as hell got around well enough.”
”Yeah,” he said, lowering his head and looking defeated, “this way.”
”Come on, Danny,” Sandra said, pulling off the heavy-looking robe to reveal the wounds that appeared so much more fabricated than they had through my fear-altered vision, “we didn’t mean…”
”Leave me alone,” I said, swatting away the hand she reached out.
”Think we went too hard on him,” Frankenstein asked Derek as we passed by him.
”Maybe. I didn’t think…wait,” my brother said, cutting his head from side to side, “where’s the…?”
It wasn’t until then that I noticed the circular clearing no longer had any visible exits. Assuming this to be just another part of the night’s festivities, I felt my face begin to flush once more.
”Seriously, guys?” I said, turning to face the group of suddenly bewildered-looking teens, “enough already! Can we just…”
”This isn’t us, Daniel,” Alisha said, looking thoroughly perplexed as she glanced from her sister to her boyfriend.
”Nate? Is this you guys?” Derek asked.
”Nuh-uh. I don’t even…”
”It’s all planted in the ground,” the blonde guy said, tugging at the stalks, two at a time.
”What?”
”What the hell is this, Derek?” a very uneasy-sounding Alisha asked, before screaming out again when something rolled across the ground towards us.
She wrapped her arms around her sister, who had begun to whimper slightly, while the big guy in the Frankenstein costume muttered curses under his breath. When the pumpkin came to a halt, staring straight up with a fierce and mocking smile carved into its jack o’ lantern face, everyone grew silent and still.
I just glared down at the thing with my jaw unhinged, still battling to wrap my mind around everything that had occurred up until this point. When the long corn stalks began to rustle violently, making it appear as though the whole labyrinth was quaking around us, it was hard to differentiate my own involuntary shivering from my surroundings. A low humming sound was barely audible above the trembling leaves, but it gave me the impression that something was drawing closer, as it gradually escalated.
“Push through,” Frankenstein said, weaving his hands between the stalks, “it’s just corn. We can…SHIT!”
We all spun to see him wrestling against the vines that were wrapping around his arms and legs. Derek ran to his side, quickly slicing through the attacking greenery with his pocket knife.
”HELP ME!” my brother shouted while cutting and pulling the stems away, as more continued to wrap around the big guy.
I ran up with the skinny werewolf and blonde guy and we all attempted to yank at the weeds which were practically engulfing the writhing Nate. Sandra had dropped to the trembling ground, shaking her head and whimpering louder, while Alisha stood, seemingly frozen in place, with her hands cupped around her mouth.
Within seconds, no matter how hard we fought against the corn stalks, as ridiculous as that sounds, we could no longer see even a hint of the boy in the Frankenstein costume. While we still frantically battled to free him, he was swiftly pulled away from us, with only his muffled scream in his wake.
When his yelling fell silent, I still stood there just staring at the opening he left behind, mentally checked out while Derek snatched me by the wrist, shouting for the others to follow. When the deep and guttural laughter echoed from seemingly all around us, it didn’t take much convincing for everyone to start running.
”Yeees…” the haunting voice spoke, “run, run away, my little darlings…”
Sandra squealed out a high-pitched shriek, while the blonde guy whined and moaned.
”What the hell is that, Derek?” the visibly shivering boy in the werewolf costume asked, while we continued sprinting across the slender pathway, left in the wake of his friend’s hasty withdrawal.
”How the fuck should I know!” my brother barked, still not letting go of my wrist.
”Run…run…run away…” bellowed out with each word coming from a different direction, ending with a sinister laugh that damn near knocked my feet out from beneath me.
”Keep going!” Alisha said, now helping her little sister remain upright.
Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, our path became blocked as another wall of thick corn stalks burst from the ground. The blonde guy who had been running the fastest, lost his footing as he skidded to a halt, falling with his back flat against the ground, stopping just short of the newly formed blockade.
As the werewolf reached to help him back to his feet, the flattened stalks sprang to life, wrapping around him like tendrils.
”NO!” he screamed, “HELP ME!”
His words were quickly muffled as the vines constricted, yanking him flatter to the floor of the labyrinth. Given the blood-curdling squeal that erupted from his mouth, I was unsure if he was being pulled into the ground to be buried beneath it, or if the snapping sounds that accompanied his horrified wails were his bones fragmenting as the stalks returned to their previous state.
When the blood began to bubble and seep through the thin gaps, spitting and spraying against the still trembling greenery around us, I needed no further clarification on his fate.
”Holy hell!” the slender boy said, backing away while attempting to wipe the fresh blood stains from his furry shirt.
”This way!” Derek said, heading back the way we had come, gesturing to a left turn a few feet back, “come on, Jordan! There’s nothin’ we can do for him.”
The werewolf still glared down at the crimson pool where his friend once lay, shaking his head from side to side as he backed away from it.
”Move, Jordan! We have to…”
My brother had no chance to finish urging his friend to run, before more of those vines shot from each side, instantly swallowing him whole. I stared on again with my lower lip quivering, as I could only make out the lone horrified eye peering out from within the tendrils of green.
For a moment, it was as though everything fell silent around us, as we gazed upon where the maze had claimed another soul for its own. It wasn’t until the vines retracted on each side, carrying with them whatever section of the boy in the werewolf costume they held, that each of our screams blended into one.
Again, my brother snatched me by the arm, while his girlfriend did the same to her sister. By this point, I was only vaguely aware of anything, with my mind still reeling from the shock of everything. I knew I was running; I knew I was speeding alongside the person I trusted most in this world, but beyond that, everything was a blur.
We sped right, straight for a bit, then left and right again, every move almost guided by what the labyrinth would allow. Pathways opened and closed around us, leading this way and that, while that guttural voice continued to mock our desperation.
”Ah yes…this way, no that! Which will it be…what will you see? Shall you set yourselves free? How long will it take, do you think, to find me?”
It laughed again; a loud and haunting belly laugh at our expense.
I felt my senses begin to return, only to find us still charging onwards in search of an exit. I noticed that Derek was now carrying a hysterical Sandra, while Alisha held onto my wrist. I almost wanted to ask her to let go, as I found it difficult to move as freely with her clutching onto me, but it did make me feel ever so slightly safer like this, even if I did believe our escape attempt to be futile.
We were in its domain; whatever the hell IT was. It was toying with us. We ran the path it chose, not one of our own selection. Still, regardless of those undeniable facts, I knew we couldn’t let up. Unfortunately, this inner rationalization came to a quick halt when we came face to face with our inevitable end.
When the opening before us closed shut, forcing our hasty retreat short, I felt my stomach lurch at the sight of only more tall corn stalks to our sides and backs. There we stood, each gasping for breath, while the young girl in the tattered red and green striped minidress sobbed in brother’s arms, in a space maybe five by five feet, with nowhere left to go.
”JUST LET US GO!” Derek shouted into the night.
”Not just yet, my good lad…there is far too much fun to be had…”
”WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?”
”It was you who came to me, dear boy…would you so abruptly put an end to my joy?”
”Please,” Alisha begged; tears forming in her eyes, “just let my sister go…“
”Take me,” Derek said, glancing back at me, “let the others go, and you can do whatever you want with me.”
”No!” I barked, “don’t just give up!”
”An interesting offer, you have presented to me, but should that be enough to set your friends free? I have each of you now, to do with as I please, but you still beg for unwarranted release?”
”They’re innocent,” my brother said in a cracking voice, “this is all my fault! Please just…”
When the stalks parted to our left, I once more felt my jaw drop. It looked as though it could very well be that same, circular clearing we began running from, but it was not how we left it. The wooden prop I had been tied to was now replaced by a large throne, pieced together by a combination of vines and bones; some of which appeared as though they had been freshly pulled from some unsuspecting corpse.
When I noticed the bloodied and matted fur poking out in places, I had to assume that theory to be quite accurate. After taking in the sight of the torn slivers of the werewolf costume, it didn’t take long to see the strips of green latex that once belonged to a cheaply made Frankenstein outfit.
”Come in, come in…come into my home, do not leave me here to linger alone…”
It wasn’t until it spoke again that I took note of what was sitting upon the gore-lined throne. That same pumpkin which had rolled into this very area now gazed down at me from a skeletal frame, composed of just as much greenery as the chair upon which it sat. The robe it wore looked to be one of those my would-be kidnappers left behind, though the elongated emerald bones of the arms and legs protruded considerably more than its previous owner.
”Welcome, welcome, my travelers, four…Now, what exactly possessed you to come through my door?”
We all stood in a row, glaring up at this abomination before us. With every word it spoke, the carved expression on its face adjusted to fit.
”It was my fault; my decision to come into your maze,” my brother said with confidence in his words.
”Is that true?” the pumpkin asked, “was this all because of you?”
”Y-yes…so, please don’t punish them! Just take…”
”No more words,” the creature said, holding a leafy finger to its mouth.
The fact that not only had its voice deepened even more, but a rhyme did not follow this lone sentence, made me fear our time was at an end.
”YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!” it screamed, spitting pumpkin guts and seeds to the ground, “HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF SOMEONE JUST LET THEMSELVES INTO YOUR HOME!? WOULD YOU LET THEM LEAVE UNSCATHED!?”
”I’m so sorry, I…”
”NO…MORE…WORDS!”
It lifted itself from its throne, standing twice the height of Derek as it stared down from its hollow, triangular eye holes.
”Three lost…three may yet be free…which one of you four shall remain here with me?”
Before I had the slightest chance to intervene, Derek stepped forward. As the creature slipped off the robe, revealing more of its hauntingly thin frame, my brother looked back at me with a smile; tears dripping down his face.
”I love you, kiddo.” were his last words before the filthy black fabric was thrown over my head, hiding whatever happened next from my eyes.
When I pulled the robe away to see only the outside of the old corn maze before me, I fell to the ground, unable to prevent the scream from breaching my lips. Even when the arms wrapped around my back, while the girls attempted to lift me back to my feet, my agonized wail would not let up.
•
In the weeks following the disappearance of my brother and his friends, the authorities searched every square inch of that labyrinth, as well as the woods surrounding it, but nothing was ever turned up. They even plowed the whole thing down, before digging in search of anything that remained of its victims. Ultimately, they couldn’t find so much as a trace of anyone it claimed for its own, but there was nothing left of the old corn maze by the time the work was done.
I can’t say that it surprised me when it turned back up by the next Halloween, though. I couldn’t help but wonder whether it grew back the natural way, or just sprouted out of the ground overnight. Given that I didn’t return to that awful place until the following October 31st, I have no idea how it returned, but I knew it would be there; didn’t doubt it for a second.
I didn’t go trick or treating that year, or any other after that last time. Sure, I let my folks think I did, but I had made arrangements for the ride back out there long before that night. I just had to see it for myself, you know? Just face off against that damned thing and beg for it to give back what it took from me.
Before I could enter, though, the pathway was blocked to me; not by the stalks forming another wall, but by the one who chose to stay behind to grant us freedom. In many ways, I wasn’t surprised to see him either, even if the hope of pulling him free from that place were short-lived.
We talked for a while that night and every Halloween that came after it. Even all these years later, he still looks as young as he did that last time we went door to door in search of bag loads of candy. It may be the only time I can see him, and he refuses to tell me what his existence consists of the other 364 days of the year, but I will carry on this tradition for as long as I am able.
Sandra and I are going to be parents soon. Yes, we’ve both been through our fair share of therapy over the years, as has her sister, but that awful night brought us closer than I could have ever imagined. Maybe it’s simply the fact that we could only confide in each other after that night, as nobody would believe our account of things. While the psychiatrists help, we haven’t exactly been forthcoming about everything with them.
Given my wife’s condition, I’d say there’s a good chance our son could be born any day now. I just hope that he doesn’t decide to wait until Halloween to make his grand entrance. I have an appointment to keep, after all; one that I hope to have him accompany me on when he’s old enough. It’s only right that he meets the man he’s named after.
I don’t know why that thing allowed us to leave that night; something that Derek claims he doesn’t have an answer for either, though I suspect he understands far more than he’s letting on. Perhaps someday, though, when my life has passed me by and I’m nearing the end of my journey; maybe then I’ll have the answers I seek.
When my final Halloween comes; when I visit that labyrinth for the last time, maybe it’ll allow me to enter again. If I can’t free my beloved brother, perhaps I can join him in whatever truly lies beneath the old corn maze, just outside the city limits.