Page 11 of No Way Out
“And if I don’t?” I asked.
“If I catch you, then you’re mine to play with.” He chuckled.
My legs trembled beneath me, “For how long?” I asked.
“For as long as I want.” His real voice broke through the voice changer again, but I still couldn’t place it.
His words sent cold panic through my entire body.
“I’ll give you a head start, and I’ll even point you in the right direction.” A lantern lit up in the distance, showing an opening through the stalks of maize.
“One,” he counted. I stepped slowly toward the light.
“Two.” My heart thumped louder, his voice distant as I moved to the illuminated path.
I picked up the lantern, not missing the opportunity to preserve what little battery I had left on my phone.
“Three.” There was too much electricity in the air, and I moved faster than before, a new wave of energy coursing through my body out of pure self-preservation.
I’d worked too hard for this life to let someone take it all away from me, to trash my name because I made a stupid mistake, as if no one else had ever fucked up before and an example needed to be made of me for all to see.
Bile surged its way up my throat, but I swallowed it down, my feet stomping with urgent need as a faint ‘four’ vibrated in the distance.
I needed to find the way out.
Yet, some sick, twisted, part of me wondered if I’d like to be caught just the same.
“Dude,wherethefuckare you? I’ve been calling and texting you for hours.” She sounded pissed, as if she wasn’t the one who completely ditched me.
“I’ve been stuck in this maze looking for you, asshole. I barely get any service from being in bum fuck nowhere. Throw these ten feet corn stalks in the mix, and I don’t even have a single missed call. You’ve probably just been fucking Kyle in a porta-potty.”
“You’re still in the maze, Mila? Kyle, she's still in the maze. Go get the cops.” Her panic made my heart beat faster.
“What are you freaking out about?” I steadied my voice, knowing if I showed a glimmer of anxiety, she’d unravel.
“Some kid went fucking psycho in the maze and started killing people! The carnival is filled with cops, and they said they emptied the maze, but they’re afraid of sending too many cops inside because it’s so hard to get out. It looks like all the people who knew how to get out got killed.” The pause on the other end of the line was heavy, even though I knew it was my turn to respond.
My arms suddenly turned into lead, the sound of her voice becoming distant as I dropped the phone from my hand.
“Mila! Mila!” I could hear the faint shouts from the phone.
How the fuck was I going to get out of here?
Isloweddown,confidentI’d put some distance between us this time. My heart still fluttered violently in my chest while I did my best to keep track of every turn I’d taken. I should have left that stupid lantern on the ground, kept it as a marker to make sure I wasn’t going in circles.
I was definitely going in circles.
I’d found myself in a familiar spot, the perch and cross with a scarecrow high above me looming menacingly.
I turned away from it, unsure if this one was a prop by the way it hung lazily from the stake. With my head turned, looking behind me, I ran forward. I was stopped abruptly, choking, wheezing from the feel of a hard wall knocking the wind from my lungs. I turned to face the scarecrow, the noose over the mask, the smell of mint gum in the air.
I looked back to find the perch was now empty.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” I heard through the voice changer, a drop of panic somehow recognizable through the camouflage of the machine.
“Demetri—Dr. Harkins?” I asked, breathless, the hope in my chest expansive, draping my body in a warm surge of comfort.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in tightly. There was a desperation to his embrace, a fear I could feel through his touch, as if what had happened between us earlier was going to be more than just a regret.
