Chapter Three
Gwendolyn
Somehow the night deepened, draping the world in black.
I stepped away from Clara before she could protest and I heard her shouts from behind me but my racing heart soon tuned her out as each step led me away from her, and closer to what called me.
The space around me felt electric, alive with whatever beckoned me closer.
The breeze danced through the trees and carried with it a scent of death and something… sweet.
Whatever it was led me to the entrance of the maze rather quickly, and I paused.
The towering hedges loomed before me, their dark shapes twisted and curled despite the lack of breeze, it reminded me of a heartbeat.
Almost as if the stalks were breathing. The pale light of the moon cast a path and illuminated the way forward.
The pull that had plagued me since I got off the bus was much more like a magnetic force now, urging, no, demanding that I enter.
I was compelled to brush my fingers against the rough texture of the hedge, a jolt of energy shooting through me. It was as if the maze recognized my touch and flourished under it. It awakened something dormant deep inside that bristled as it awoke.
The breeze ruffled my hair as if murmuring a warning that I no longer cared about. “Gwendolyn…” The voice echoed throughout the chambers of my heart, haunting yet sweet, a siren's call that resonated with the one thing you couldn’t see or touch. My soul.
I took a step forward, then another, and suddenly the path unfolded before me, revealing a way into its depths.
One step into the maze and the outside faded into nothing, the laughter of the students faded into silence before my next breath, the glow of the lanterns extinguished as I was brought into its fold.
Here, it was just me and the whispering of the maze, entwining me in a dark dance of fate I wasn’t yet aware of.
As I walked deeper into the path that was laid out for me, the shadows that were my only companion lengthened and curled around my ankles and back like fingers longing for touch.
I embraced it without a second thought. I felt it seep into my skin, merging with the siren's call and touching on the essence of who I was.
I no longer felt like Gwendolyn, I felt like something that belonged here, within the embrace of the maze.
I felt it then. A presence that lingered just beyond the stalks, a soul who was just as intertwined as mine yearned to be.
A name I could taste on my tongue but didn’t know yet.
A name that felt woven into my core but still couldn’t say.
It sent a shiver down my spine, and I welcomed it, a thrill raced through me and it urged me deeper into the maze.
“Gwendolyn…” The voice was clearer now, it sounded like it spoke in tongues of the past. A soft whisper now drifted through the air. My heart raced, thrumming in time with the pulse of the maze. The presence I felt pushed against the barriers of my understanding and drew me closer, and deeper.
The path that was straight before twisted off before me, and led me to an archway of tangled branches.
I hesitated for a moment, a flicker of fear sparked within me.
What was I doing? It was almost like I had no control over what was happening, my mind and body lost to whatever this was.
A warning echoed in my mind, something sinister was at play here, but I no longer had a choice.
It was intoxicating, and I was where I needed to be.
I stepped through the archway, and the air grew colder, thick, and a flurry of snow started to come down around me, the hedges seemed to move in closer to create a more clear path.
They seemed to whisper secrets to one another.
As I kept my pace, I felt the trickle of something watching, something behind me and I could have sworn I caught glimpses of movement from the corners of my eyes, but they darted just out of reach when I turned to look back.
The feeling of being watched was suffocating and the feeling wrapped itself around my throat like a noose, and I knew, knew he was here, whoever he was.
“Who are you?” I whispered, half-expecting a reply but only silence greeted me. Yet, I could still sense him, a shadow that lurked just beyond the edges of my vision.
As I ventured deeper, the whispers grew louder, swirling around me.
“Gwendolyn…” It had turned my name into a symphony against the silence of the night.
I felt my heart quicken, and my fingers twitch, the unmistakable feeling of fight or flight starting to take over, and yet, I couldn’t move.
It felt as if I were on the precipice of something…
monumental, life-altering, and I won’t run, not yet anyway.
“Gwendolyn…”
It beckoned me again, so I continued, each step becoming consumed in the silence, matching the heartbeat of the maze, and possibly…the long forgotten pulse of something else.