The Maze

Quick Author's Note: I am writing this fast and I am writing it for fun, literally stream of consciousness style writing. Expect some typos and errors along the way and keep expectations low. Now on with the story!

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You immediately regret your choice of footwear as the thick loose rubber boots clomp loudly over the stone tiles of the veranda, the cobbled terrace and then down the steep stairs but you carry on regardless. You are thankful for your mother’s shawl as an unseasonably cool wind blew this night. You surely look ridiculous. Cotton blue striped pajamas, big ol’ gumboots, and a fine elegant woman’s shawl around you. But you weren’t out here to win any fashion contest. Walking with purpose you weave through the garden paths trying to put some distance between you and the manor. It is dark but the half moon hanging in the clear star filled sky gave you just enough illumination to navigate by.

Only once you are past the towering Gothic fountain that dominated the center of the manicured garden do you even consider where you were actually going. You were looking for somewhere away from the light but really that was everywhere. You keep pushing forward and straight into the entrance of the tall hedge maze not worried about becoming lost as you knew the labyrinthine paths of this place by heart.

You are only 20 yards in however when you pull up short and stare at a wall of greenery that ought not to be there.

“What the heck?” You mutter to yourself. Thinking back you retrace your steps in your mind to be sure you hadn’t taken a wrong turn. No, you had taken the usual path. With a shake of your head you turn to head back to the entrance when you discover the path behind you now blocked by the tangled mass of branches and leaves that made up the walls of this place. “Oh shit.”

It strikes you then. Magic is real. Monsters are real. In this estate especially. The enchantment that broke at 8:44 pm had kept it all at bay. You were suddenly far less brave than you had been just moments ago. What might be out here right now? And how do you find your way out of a magical maze? Your eyes dart around fearfully. The once familiar hedges now spooky. Your imaginations conjures danger lurking in every shadow. You start at the sound of a gust of wind shaking the plants.

You look up to the moon and take a deep calming breath. For a moment you consider trying to find your way back toward the house but in the end you push forward, traversing the new unfamiliar paths and trying to keep track as best you could.

“Ves.” You whisper as you walk. “Can you hear me? If you can hear me please come see me again.”

Again and again you are frustrated by one dead end after another. After only a few minutes you are hopelessly lost, you had no clue where you were within the maze. All you could do is keep moving.

“Vespera. It’s me, Jacob.” You continue to talk, your voice providing comfort from the otherwise creepy night sounds. An owl hoots in the distance and you nearly jump from your boots. “Stupid owl. Ves, can you hear me? Are you okay? Did the spell hurt you? Please come back.”

You keep looking for a place where the darkness gathers but you receive no sign your sister is anywhere near. Pulling the soft and surprisingly warm shawl tight around your body you carry on, praying you survived your first night in this new world of the supernatural. You keep walking for another 50 or 60 minutes taking one wrong turn after another, you weren’t even sure if there were such a thing as a right turn in this ever shifting maze. Hope begins to fade and you were already picturing the morning when one of your more special family members would have to come rescue their stupid human kin from the backyard maze. Keeping Vespera firmly in your thoughts you soldier on for just a bit longer.

Just as you are about to stop you pass by a corridor that leads not out but to a feature you’d never seen before. You stop in your tracks and walk back to peer down the path. At the end it opened up into a square area with more maze on every side, a great vine arch framing each exit. It seemed to be a centerpiece of the maze yet you had never seen this area before. In the middle stood a fountain identical to the one back in the main garden, just smaller. It’s tip not quite rising high enough to stand taller than the hedges around it. With hope returning you start forward. If nothing else it will be nice to get to a space without these high looming walls bearing down so closely.

Hurrying in hopes that you can get there before the maze shifts again you hit the threshold of the interior yard and pass under the arch of vines. In the blink of an eye the long twisting vines come alive! Whipping down around you thorns scratch your face and attempt to ensnare you. Acting on instinct you fight for your life, just as you had with Vespera’s tentacles earlier. To your surprise the flailing thorny creepers find no purchase on you. They slip off of the shawl you wear like butter gliding across a hot Teflon pan. Your boots are claimed in the brief struggle but you soon find yourself safely out of their reach. Sitting on the ground you look back at the thrashing chaos in disbelief, your heart beating like a jackhammer.

Looking down at the thin woolly shawl you run a hand over its smooth surface. It didn’t show any sign of damage from the encounter. Looking back in the direction you believed the house to be you whisper. “Thanks Mom.” The vines tear your boots to bits before quickly twisting back together and returning to a still quiet harmless looking archway. You get to your feet and check yourself over, all seemed fine.

Beneath your bare feet is a carpet of cool soft moss. Looking around the square yard you see an exit in each direction, each with encircled by one of those nasty vine things. You’d gotten through the first time but were you willing to risk it again? And even if you got through what other dangers lurked out here?

“Great.” You sigh. “Now what?”

You consider screaming for help but quickly squash that idea. You’d rather starve out here than give Bron the satisfaction of coming to rescue you. Walking around the fountain you inspect it closely. Nothing seemed amiss. Just like the one in the garden the center spire depicts a host of gremlin faced gargoyles of gray stone with a steady stream of water burbling from the top and flowing down. You already knew climbing the slick wet stone to look around and get your bearings would be impossible. The dark pool beneath is quite still despite the water flowing down into it, you see the reflection of the moon and stars in the sky.

Huddling down at it’s side you pull the shawl tight. “Vespera? Are you here?” There is no reply. You let out a long hopeless breath and rest your head against the cool stone of the edge of the fountain feeling that you just weren’t ready for this world.

You sit up straight. “Wait a second.” Standing back up you look back down into the still dark water. Again you see the reflection of the night sky and the central pillar rising up from the surface…but what you don’t see is your own reflection. “What the heck?” Looking around the space for a stick or stone or anything you might use you find the are neat and tidy of any such detritus. Impatient with this damn maze you mutter. “Fuck it.” And you thrust your own hand down into the water.

You feel the moment your fingers touch the surface and then…nothing but cool breezy night air beneath. Your hand can be seen and seemed none the worse for wear. Pulling it back you look it over to see nothing wrong. “Huh.”

Leaning down you then dip your head into the pool and experience a most disorienting sensation as suddenly you feel gravity push down on your head from the opposite direction. Looking around you realize your head was now sticking out of the main fountain. What you had seen within the maze fountain wasn’t a reflection but a window looking up through the other identical structure. You shake your head in wonderment and pull yourself through, climbing out the other side and back into the central area of the main garden. You weren’t even wet.

You look around and all seems as it should. Gazing back at this larger fountain you notice the water here looked normal, you could see your own rippling reflection looking back at you. Dipping a finger in you pull it back wet. Whatever that passage was it seemed to be one way. You were shook but you also felt…bolstered. You had made it through a magical maze, with a little help from Mom. Maybe you weren’t so ill prepared for this world after all.

“Keep an open mind.” You whisper the mantra your father had drilled into you all these years. You don’t even glance toward the house and the safety it offered. Your eyes locked on the tree line in the distance you say. “I’m coming Vespera. I’m coming to find you. You are NOT alone.”

In bare feet you run. You turn off the path before the maze to sprint across the open lawn, red and gray shawl flowing behind you like a cape, and toward the wild forest.