I Went To One Of Those Extreme Haunted Houses, But Something Went Horribly, Horribly Wrong
From the outside, the maze looked quite big and intimidating, though as it turned out, the massive building was just where souvenir photos and payments were taken. Past the building and through to the outdoors was where the real fun began. The Haunted Corn Maze which then led to the Carnival Mirror Maze.
“Here it is!” Said Steve.
“Still not sure I’m seeing the point of this…” I said, with a semi puzzled look on my face.
“The corn maze! The part everyone looks forward to!!!” Steve moved closer to me and started whispering. “Plus, places like this will have the girls all over us. The experience is to die for.”
“We have to get through the maze while all sorts of monsters and killers chase us.” said Tanya.
“Right, we went over that…but I mean-” Mid-sentence, what Steve had said settled in and I shut up, realizing the quieter I was, the better chance we had of Steve’s plan working.
“Can we please make sure to not get separated this time?” said Jade.
“I’ll see you on the other side, be quick and stick together. Don’t get separated!”
Steve wasted no time ignoring Jade’s request and running off into the maze, which was actually really well put together. The long dirt pathways, walled by tall cornstalks, did a good job of forcing a sense of foreboding to wash over me and the other maze-goers. Combined with the dim artificial twilight, this place was actually kinda creepy!
By the time we got inside the maze chaos had already broken loose. People were screaming and running into each other all over the maze, seemingly with no direction. Everyone had lost their minds, or at least that’s how it seemed…Something must have really freaked them out.
We were about halfway to the mirror maze when I heard a very realistic chainsaw start buzzing over the sounds of people screaming in terror. Whatever it was that I was walking toward, Steve was running away from…until he ran into me, knocking us both to the ground.
“Ru…run for your lives!” yelled Steve, as he scrambled to his feet and ran off into the darkness.
Immediately, I noticed the chainsaw buzzing had stopped. I picked myself up and looked at the girls.
“Steve really gets into this doesn’t he?”
“No..some…something is wrong.” said Jade.
“Something does seem really different with him.” said Tanya.
“Okay?” I said, holding back a laugh. “What is he possessed or something?”
Both of them looked as if they had seen ghosts. Granted, I knew they scared easily, but I was under the impression that they enjoyed it, so I stopped talking and kept walking. We followed the path until we came across some strange marks on the ground. I thought someone had been dragged off the path into the cornstalks, but strangely enough, I hadn’t come across any actors…The people seemed to be hiding and no one else had come in behind us.
We kept making our way through the maze and came across a man lying on his back. Only his upper body was visible on the path, while his legs hidden by the cornstalks. The man reached his hand out to me. Naturally, I grabbed his hand to help him up and pulled. I froze in horror… His body was severed at the bottom of his torso. The rest was…gone.
I looked back at the girls, trying to hide my shock and horror, but the looks on their faces said it all…this maze had just gotten real.
Frozen in shock, I continued holding his hand and staring in disbelief. His body just…stopped…at the torso. The look in his eyes told me that he was definitely not an actor. His grip went limp in my sweaty hand, his face white and the life left his eyes. It wasn’t until Tanya let out a war cry and ran off that I gained the capacity to let go of the poor man’s hand and try to make sense of my surroundings..not that there was any more than corn, darkness and terror surrounding me at this point.
That was also when I realized that Tanya hadn’t run down the path, but instead, into the tall corn stalks.
“Drew, I’m scared.” Jade almost whispered. She grabbed my arm with both of her trembling, little hands. “Please don’t lose me.”
“Wait! What the fuck is going on???” I started to pace, realized that the path was a bit narrow and walked in tight circles instead. “We need to get out of this fucking maze!”
“I know, but. I…I’m scared Drew” Said Jade, who was nearly crying and walking in tight circles right behind me.
The truth was, I was fucking scared too. I picked a fine day to leave my phone in the car, along with my favorite knife, which I carried with me basically everywhere. Oh, and my pre-game alcohol. How would I protect Jade? I didn’t even have a way to protect myself! Come to think of it, Steve had convinced all of us to leave our phones, and in the girls cases, their purses in his car, so as not to provide any kind of distraction whilst in the maze so we could better immerse ourselves in the experience, to make it seem more real. Well, it was real alright and I was going to die sober.