Page 8 of Voices in the Stars
The front door was on the opposite side of our property from where I saw the hand waving at me. The stone steps chilled my feet as I walked down them. The grass was wet as I moved to the side of the house, keeping to the shadows. I should’ve taken a moment to grab at least a pair of slippers.
Everyone was using the back door, so most of their backs were turned to me as I rounded the corner to the back of the house. All that was left was to cut across the lawn to get to the nearest path into the hedge. The hand didn’t come out of a direct path, so I was just hoping I could find them once I was inside the maze. Taking a deep breath, I ran.
“Hey!” someone yelled from behind me.
I paused, breath caught in my throat. The hedges were so close. If I stretched my hand out, I could touch the leaves. If I kept going, I should have been able to make it before they caught me.
“What are you doing?” My heart squeezed in my chest as they called out again.
It felt like I had been standing there for too long. I needed to decide. This wasn’t life or death for me. It could be for that child. Nights here got freezing cold, and no one else knew they were there.
“You’re cutting too much. Keep goin’ like that and it’ll leave a patch,” they continued.
My entire body sagged with my breath of relief. That was all I needed to run the last steps into the hedge.
I was no stranger to the passages throughout the shrubbery. Aside from it being the hiding spot for me and Adrian, it was one of my few cures for boredom. There were only so many times I could read the same fairytale.
I would spend hours memorizing the twists and turns that wouldlead to every secret opening, the center clearing, and every exit. There was something different about it now. It was completely silent. The conversations had cut off the moment I stepped through the branches. Caws from the crows quieted. There wasn’t even the rustling of branches. All I could hear was my pounding heart.
“Hello?” I whispered after the first couple of turns. “I promise you won’t be in trouble,” I offered, not that I would have believed it if the roles were reversed.
Leaves rustled within one of the walls. Somewhere close, a child was laughing. Of course they would think this was funny. That’s better than panicking, at least. It meant I, hopefully, wouldn’t have to drag them out. I glanced behind me. I had only passed through a few of the many turns, which meant we were still too far from the clearing for the child to be hiding there. No, they had to be in one of the smaller clearings that were inside the thick walls. Taking a deep breath, I started shoving my way through the hedge wall.
This used to be much easier when I was younger. Being small made it easy to squeeze between the branches. Now, most of the branches caught and tore up my dress. I let out a hiss as several scratched my arms and legs. With a stumble, I fell into the small opening.
There he was. The little boy I saw earlier that evening with the blue suit and greased, blond hair was standing in front of me, a smile plastered on his face as he stared at me. I sat up with my knees tucked underneath me. Branches still scraped the top of my head.
“Hi.” I kept my voice soft as I looked over him. There were only a couple of holes torn into his suit. “Let’s get you home. I’m sure plenty of people are missing you.”
I held my hand out, hoping he would take it and let me lead him out. Instead, he let out a piercing laugh. I clasped both hands over my ears as the noise rattled around my head. He turned away from me, racing through another wall. With a curse, I chased after him.
This time, he didn’t stop at the next clearing. I caught a glimpse of his blue suit as he immediately raced through the next wall. His high-pitched giggles followed me as I tried to catch up. They echoed through my mind until it soundedlike he was next to me.
The small light the moon was providing slowly started to fade away. Glancing up, the hedges were twisting high into the sky, canopying above me until they blocked out most of the light. My brows furrowed as I kept running. Something wasn’t right. I would’ve been able to see any imperfections like this from my rooftop. No, the maze was perfectly uniform from start to finish.
Something caught my wrist as I tried to keep running. A yelp left me as I was forced to turn around.
“What are you doing?” Adrian hissed at me.
I rolled my eyes, ripping my hand away from him. Anger lit his brown eyes, his lips twisted into a snarl.
“I don’t have time for your bullshit right now,” I growled, turning away from him.
There was no sign of the little boy. This was the only path, though; he had to be somewhere in front of me. I was only able to take a few more steps before Adrian grabbed me again.
“Get your hands off of me,” I snapped. “There’s a little boy stuck out here. I don’t have time for this.”
“What are you going on about?” Adrian huffed. “I just came from that way, there’s no one out here.”
I threw my hands up. “A boy from the party is hiding out here. When I found him, he took off,” I tried to quickly explain.
His brows furrowed as he looked at where I was trying to go. My eyes rolled. There wasn’t time for him to decide if I was lying or not. I didn’t care what he thought because nothing he said was going to change what was happening.
When I pulled away, he didn’t grab me again. As I started running, I was shocked to hear his footsteps following.
“Go home!” I yelled back at Adrian.
“You need help. Obviously, you can’t handle this by yourself.”
