Chapter Fifteen Something Wicked This Way Comes #2
It was cute the way Lyra was such a paradox.
She wore plaid skirts and corduroy pants to collect creepy insects from the mud.
Always coming into the dorm with dirt dusting her knees and palms. The way she crossed her legs when she sat with a book in her lap yet burped louder than any grown man I’d heard after downing a can of Coke.
How she could be so soft, so feminine, yet do something that would be viewed as tom boyish.
I admired the way she was able to balance out the pieces of herself so easily.
“Probably not, but we are gonna give it a shot.” She laughs, pulling me towards the shortening line for the entrance to the maze.
We talked to pass the time, watched as students failed over and over again, the shrill airhorn piercing the sky just before a teacher announced another team had yet to locate the key.
Our turn was next, we stood between Lyra’s psych teacher and my statistics professor, waiting for the go-ahead to enter the looming darkness between the plush green hedges.
A gust of wind hit me from the back, pushing me forward enough that I had to catch myself on the edge of the maze. It barreled through the trees, their achy limbs groaning and swaying beyond us.
Looking down at my balled fists, the way my nails dig into the flesh of my palm, as the rhythm of my heart begins to pick up.
“Briar!” Lyra snaps her fingers in front of my face, attempting to bring me back to earth.
“We are up.” She smiles, heading into the Labyrinth first.
The fog has settled low on the ground, sucking her up into the mist as she disappears inside. Fear licks the back of my neck, but I quickly shake it off. Following after my friend.
My hand reaches out to run along the side of the hedge maze, my other clicking the on button on my flashlight. The glare hits Lyra in the face and she raises her hand to shield off the bright light.
I point the light towards the left, then back to the right seeing the two different paths. The fog making distant visibility nearly impossible.
“Wanna split up? We can cover more ground that way.” She offers.
My first instinct is to say no. We are stronger in numbers always. But this is a school function, not a plan of escape from them. So I nod,
“I’ll take the left. Good luck.” I give a smile in good spirits.
As we go our separate ways, I take a deep breath, tilting my head to crack my neck a bit. When I begin to navigate through the lefts and rights, everything becoming a bit blurred as I do so I try to pick up the pace.
I know we only have so long inside here and I hate losing. The farther I get inside the more lost I feel, every turn, every change in direction feels like the wrong way. The height of the maze is too much for me to look up and over the hedges, so I can’t even tell if I’m close to the middle or not.
I’m sure the airhorn will be going off any second now, that thought alone has me running faster.
“I am a lifetime rat owner, I should be able to get out of this stupid thing.” I grumble, taking a deep breath and coughing a bit. My lungs wet from the fog. My heart ached a bit at the mention of Ada. If they let me graduate without killing me, I was coming back to stab him for killing my pet.
I place my hands on my knees, dropping my head to catch my breath.
When I lift it again, I lift it with my flashlight, scanning it in front of me. The light passes through the mist, catching the white paint of the tower that stands tall a few feet in front of me.
“I’ll be fucking damned.” I whisper, a grin on my face.
As I approach the structure I spot the golden skeleton key dangling from a single thread from the steps. Reaching on my tippy toes, I wrap my fingers around the brisk metal, pride filling me to the brim.
I hear the pluck of the string letting the key go as it falls into my hands. There are a few seconds for me to admire the faux gold, but my action seemed to trigger a horrible set of events. As if the string had been booby trap and I’d been the perfect victim.
Screams, high-pitched, ear-piercing shrieks erupt from around me. Voices shouting from outside the Labyrinth. I jump, spinning from left to right expecting someone to be near me. Instead there is a consistent ring of shots fired into the night, a distinct sound of gunfire.
It’s just fireworks, I rationalize, even though there is no sparkle or flicker of colorful light that ascends into the clouds. I can tell myself it’s fireworks all I want, but it won’t change the truth.
“Everyone remain calm and please, head to the courtyard!” I hear one of the teachers announce over the microphone, the voice echoing towards me.
I wasn’t sure what was worse.
Being trapped in this maze or not knowing what was happening outside of it.
My survival instincts had been triggered more in the past few weeks than ever before. This was nothing like getting busted by the cops or almost being caught by the guy you’re stealing from.
This is much worse.
“Lyra!” I scream at the top of my lungs, my throat ringing painfully. “Lyra!!” I bail out, my flashlight guiding me as I start to retrace my steps that I’d already begun to forget.
My eyes are straining to see in the darkness, working to look for Lyra, while also trying to get me out of this maze safely.
The fog and screaming had already discombobulated my senses enough, now there was blaring music that begun to vibrate the walls of the Labyrinth.
No lyrics, just discordant chords signaling a looming fate in my future.
It sounded like music that was played on a carousel, meant to attract people to the bright colors and spinning horses.
It’s just some joke the upper classmen pull on the younger students, I think. That’s all this is.
“Lyra!” I try again but hear nothing called back for me. The sound of a loud thud reaches my ear, just before my eyes dart to the right and onto a thin black cylinder that had just begun spewing bright red smoke from the top. It leaked and bubbled spreading around me in thick waves.
Starting at my feet before escalating up my body, I didn’t wait for it to continue taking up space. I started moving forward, my arms stuck out in front of me like a glorified mummy.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
More smoke bombs flying across the tops of the hedges, landing in random spots around me. The fumes have overtaken my vision, completely swarming me in an alarming bright red color.
Terror washing over me, raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck. My heart pounding in my ears as my eyes burn with irritation.
I was not frightened nor was I afraid.
What I felt was beyond a useless noun.
What I felt was a tangible, living force that crept over me like a hungry beast. It chewed at my raw flesh, tearing me limb from limb until it could feast on the immobilized heart inside my chest.
I could no longer control my hands as they trembled.
Coughs littered my lungs, waving my arms with little use trying to move the smoke from my vision.
Everything was a blur, all of it spinning too fast. I stood for a few moments, my stomach churning, closing my eyes wishing I was little again.
Wishing I was back home in Texas and seeking comfort in my father’s arms. Allowing him to protect me.
I thought of my father and how he raised me to be stronger than this.
Braver than the girl who lays down at the feet of those determined to knock her down.
He showed me how to steal the wealth right under their upturned noses.
I was taught to be unafraid of the bumps in the night. Because I was the bump in the night.
A shaky breath grazes my lips, my flashlight doing nothing except illuminating the clouds of smoke directly in front of my face. I focused my ears to the sounds of screams, to where the voices echoed from, if I could head in the direction of them, it would lead me out of this maze.
“Lyra!” I choke out, hoping my strangled voice will alert someone.
I shove the key into my pocket, popping the flashlight into my mouth and holding it with my teeth as I tear my pullover off my head and tossing it onto the ground.
A black wife-beater sticks to my skin with the help of some sweat that had trickled down between the valley of my breasts and onto my stomach. I steady my breath and try to calm the panic, moving towards the exit.
That’s when I hear the snickering.
A dark, hooded chuckle that made my muscles tense.
They cause me to move my legs faster. Knowing something was close.
They were close and I was trapped in here with them.
The menacing aura from the sound had my bones shaking with panic.
Echoes of laugher bouncing off the inside of my chest, buzzing in my head.
The carousel music spun faster, surging louder and louder with every step forward.
I felt a breeze of wind behind me, a chaste of a touch on my lower back making me spin around only to be met with more smoke.
Another whisper of a hand against my left leg has me turning again.
They were right there. Just beyond the wall of smoke, hiding, playing.
I spun in circles while they grazed my body when I turned away from them.
I was stuck in a false reality. Shoved inside a haunted game I wanted no part of. My stomach swirled, my mind swimming as they cackled and brushed against me. Appearing and disappearing into the shadows.
They were everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Impossible to keep up with.
“What the fuck do you want?!” I scream, fed up with the games, tired of the cat and mouse torment. My flashlight pointed straight ahead as my chest heaved up and down with anger, “What do you want?!” I yell again.