About Maze and Moon

by Drew Zachary
12 pages / 4200 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Baz decides to participate in the county's Halloween festival by joining the masses at the huge corn maze out in the middle of nowhere. He's having fun until he realizes that it's gotten dark, he's alone, and he's hopelessly lost. It's the perfect time for him to remember the local legend about ghost Ethan, who's to haunt these parts. Ethan supposedly got lost in a corn maze one year and died before he found the exit. Will the ghostly figure Baz sees be his rescue, or his doom?

Sample

Baz wasn't sure when exactly the corn maze went from being "a hell of a lot of fun" to "wow, this is kind of creepy", but there he was. Creeped the fuck out.

The maze was the county's centerpiece of the fall season, the big to-do during the harvest and Halloween celebrations. Hundreds of people had descended on the site, and the air was alive with all kinds of good smells from the vendors and music from the buskers. Kids hooted and hollered, and adults in costumes made the whole gig one good time after another.

When he'd entered the maze, Baz had been one of twenty people let loose by the zombie manning the gate. With loud shouts, everyone had scattered and gone running, branching off at each turn and fork until he was running alone, grinning broadly as he made his way steadily deeper into the field.

He'd run until he'd had to slow to a walk, proud of himself for keeping track of his right and left turns by counting on his fingers. By his count, he'd taken three more right turns than lefts, so the exit should be way over on the right somewhere. Baz figured he was deep enough in that he could start making his way that direction, though he knew he'd have to double back a lot.

He couldn't hear anyone else, which was a little odd. Sure, it was big, but he should at least be able to hear other people walking and talking. Frowning, Baz stopped and listened hard.

That was when he started to get creeped out. Not a single sound came back to him, not even the music and screams of the kids back by the gate. Uncomfortable, he looked around, turning a slow circle. The night air was crisp, and the stars glittered sharply overhead. A gust of wind rustled through the corn stalks and Baz shivered.

"Right," he said out loud. "Over that way." He started walking again, his hands shoved in his jeans. It was corn, for God's sake. It wasn't like he had to follow the actual path. He could just crash on through to the edge of the field whenever he felt like it.

That would be cheating, though, and he'd for sure have to say why he'd done it that way. So he walked and he took turns, one after another. And another. And another.

The path wasn't beaten down, not like it had been at the entrance. Apparently he'd made his way so far into the maze that he was striking new ground. "Not exactly the way to get out, then," he murmured. Baz paused for a moment, debating whether to turn back or to carry on, looking for a cross path that had more traffic.

Baz looked up at the moon, just in time to see an owl overhead, silent and sleek. "Walking," he said, hurrying along and heading back in the direction of the start rather than toward the exit.

He wasn't sure how long he walked, but he wasn't getting any closer to out that he could tell. He was getting a little cold, though, and that sucked. Baz still couldn't hear anything, couldn't see the glow of lights from the fair. Which was when, of course, his imagination dragged up the story of Ethan Rohan.