“I’ve made some new friends, met some cool people…” Her tone shifted and that finally got my attention. “There are these guys though, they…well they give me the creeps. You wouldn’t believe the way they stare.”
I felt that surge of rage and protectiveness in me, and also a sense of excitement.
“Clara, I wouldn’t worry too much about them, you know how to handle yourself.” My voice was deceptively calm, but really I was mentally making a list of all that I had to do. Research the grounds extensively, get a little bit more information, make a plan, and then attack. They wouldn’t stand a chance, no one ever did.
“I know, but it still creeps me out. I just wish they would leave me alone. The one guy, Jake, he’s the worst, and he’s huge. I just wish I had a little backup.” I heard her shudder over the line.
“Hm…” My mind started racing with my new task.
“Gwen? Are you listening?” Clara’s voice pulled me back, but I was already lost in my plans.
“Of course,” I lied, my hands deftly working as I finished securing the ropes. The man on the floor squirmed, realizing he was no longer in control, the fear bleeding from him felt like a balm to my soul.
“Just be careful, okay? I worry about you,” Clara said, her concern palpable even through the phone.
“I will,” I promised. With a final glance at my captive, I was ready. “I have to go Clara, I have something to take care of. I’ll call you tomorrow with a date I can visit.”
I hung up, the weight of her words lingering in the back of my mind. But at that moment, all I could focus on wasthis.
I leaned closer to him. “Do you remember the faces of the girls you stalked? The ones you watched without permission,touchedwithout consent?” He looked away from me, swallowing hard, pleading whispers falling on deaf ears. “Please, I didn’t mean…”
“Your pitiful lies are just that,pitiful lies,”I hissed, stepping back to survey my options, grabbing a dull knife from my selection. “You see, justice doesn’t always come from the law. Sometimes, it comes from someone like me.” I stepped back toward him, his sobs starting to fill the room mixed with pleading.
“I’ll never do it again, I promise, I'll never do it again.”
I studied him for a moment. “You’re right, you won’t.”
He started to squirm, his breathing quickening as I brought the knife closer, scraping the blade across his cheek so only a small pebble of blood formed. He was shaking his head back and forth pleading, promising.
“Fear looks good on you.”
His pleading was now fully muffled and consumed by his thoughts as I took my blade and drug it across his throat, his tears finally relenting on garbled words of blood.
“Dead men tell no lies,” I whispered to the now corpse.
Chapter Ten
Kasper
She’s perfect.
Gwendolyn stood before me, the fear in her eyes from earlier was now replaced with mischief and menace, causing my need for her to grow. I felt drawn to her in ways I didn’t care to try and explain. I felt alive for the first time in hundreds of years. I saw and felt the way the stalks that made up the maze reached for her, swirled around her, caressed her.
It was captivating, she was captivating, like I said,perfect.
“I did my research,” she began, her voice smooth and confident, all tendrils of the fear it once held gone. “About the school, about the maze. Some pieces didn’t fit but looking at you, feeling the maze, I'm starting to put it all together.” She pursed her lips and I could see the way everything was coming together in her mind, putting it all together now that she wasn’t playing the victim. “It took a while, it took old newspaper clippings and then obituaries and some whisperings in online chats about what happens here. About what this place is, I ignored most of it, thinkingno way.But they were right, weren’t they? About the school, about some of the students.”
“Yes.” Magnificent little creature she was to behold and I was enamored.
“What were you, or better yet, what are you?” She cocked her head to the side in assessment.
“I’m a ghost now, and keeper of this maze, but during life, I was a warlock.” I grinned when she showed me not even a sliver of fear.Perfect.
“So you can explain it to me then, what happens here. Someone dies here every Hallows’ Eve, it’s you, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Am I the next victim?”
