“At first, I thought so,” the words spilled out, “but in order for you to understand, you must first understand how the maze came to be, and what exactly the maze is.” I watched her and her silence, and let the winds of memory sweep through me, pulling me back to the night I died. I told her my ending and my beginning.
The air had been thick with anticipation, the school bustling with preparations for the Hallows’ Eve festivities. The maze had been constructed on land steeped in history, a burial ground where the past still lingered close to the surface, where creatures murdered the innocent, and the school covered it up, but the ground remembered.
I’d been filled with youthful arrogance, convinced that my magic could shield me from the ordinary issues that plagued the world, but as I accepted a dare, and ignored the warnings my body gave, I succumbed to something I had never expected: illness.
Pneumonia, they would have called it now, but back then, it was just another reminder of our vulnerability. I rememberstaggering through the paths, my breath shallow, my body betraying me, the mind numbing cold I felt until I felt nothing at all.
I had been drawn to the maze, the vibrant colors of its decorations beckoning me, the dare a classmate whispered that I couldn’t spend the night alone in a maze without chickening out ate at me until my ego demanded that I accept it.
As my body became a victim to the sickness, I felt the earth and ground consume me, twisting, and seeping into my very soul as we became one. The maze welcomed my despair and my helplessness, absorbing the last of my essence and powers as I gasped for life, the warmth of my magic fading into the cold embrace of death.
In those final moments, as I slipped away, I felt the maze awaken as it pulled the last flicker of life from me as it intertwined with my dying breath, weaving my magic into its very fabric. The ground, once a resting place for the unfairly departed, demanded a price for the sins that were committed.
As such, we became one.
I blinked, the memory retreating like shadows at dawn.
Now, as I stood before the unmoving Gwendolyn, I continued to explain to her the truth of my existence as I knew it. “I was what you would consider in this day and age agoodwarlock.” My voice was low and steady. “As my magic infiltrated the soil and the maze, we were both reborn, into this. The maze, it calls to those who have no hope for repentance. It sees into the depths of your soul and flushes out all that is good, and all that is light. Those who have none perish within its walls, and I havea purpose in death that I didn’t have in life. There are some creatures that are far too dangerous to consider letting free.”
I saw the flicker of understanding in her eyes, the same spark that ignited my obsession. “But it welcomed you.” If I had a heart, it would be racing. “It was never its intention to kill you, I realized that when it didn’t break your legs and snap your fingers as you ran from me. It's choosing you, inviting you, Gwendolyn.” I smiled adoringly at her. “Likeness craves likeness, my love, and the maze and I have found our second keeper.”
Chapter Eleven
Gwendolyn
His words hung in the air, tantalizing. “A second keeper,” I repeated, my curiosity simmered. “Whatexactlydoes that mean?”
He stepped closer and enveloped me in a chill that radiated from him instead of heat. It tickled my skin and almost burned yet I gravitated toward it, relishing the sensation. I now understood the pull I felt toward the maze was also toward him. “It means you have a choice, my love,” he said with so much reverence lacing his voice, causing my obsession with him to bloom, a heady mixture of infatuation, history, and power.
“You can continue on the way you have, the maze would let you leave as it adores you, or you can let it adore you, embrace all it has to offer, and stay here, with me, and become its second keeper, and with that, wield the power of the maze.”
“Wield its power?” I repeated, feeling the rush of it bubbling beneath my skin, alive with the possibility.
A flicker of intrigue and knowing crossed his face. “The maze knows Gwendolyn, the mazeprovides.It will let you hunt, and I will watch.”
A thrill shot through me at his words, igniting a fire in my core. “Hunt?” I whispered. “But once a year? I don’t know if that’s enough,” I mused. A wicked grin crept onto my lips as visions of blood and chaos for those who deserved it danced in my mind.
The maze rustled its stalks as if in agreement, whispering promises of abundance, affirming my need for more.I will provideit seemed to say, and I felt its magic resonate within me, thrumming with anticipation at our common goals.
“If you choose to stay, the maze will provide,” he echoed, his eyes glinting and they were alluring.
“I had planned to come here for a reason, before you, to take care of a problem.” The words slipped from my lips, heavy with intent.
“Like I said Gwendolyn, the maze knows, and the maze will provide.”
As if summoned by our conversation, a distant shouting rang through the air, a symphony of desperation riddled with rage. Kasper’s grin widened, that wickedness coming to light in his eyes. “It seems the maze is ready to sway you, to woo you, and show you what it can offer.”
The stalks swayed closer as if begging me to accept their gift. “What do you mean?”
“It’s who you’ve been looking for,” he purred, his voice low and sultry. “Jake, the maze has brought him here, for you.”
A rush of old and new anger filled me, and my usual appetite for vengeance seemed larger than it ever had before and I had this inkling that I was also feeling the maze’s thirst for vengeance aswell as my own. “Jake,” I breathed, my mind racing with all the possibilities of the hunt.
“Now,” Kasper said, stepping back to let the shadows envelop him. “It’s time. Embrace the thrill of the hunt, Gwendolyn. The maze will guide you, and I will be right here,watching.”
The shadows Kasper hid in started to wrap around me and envelop me, its whispers that didn’t quite form words were easy to understand though. They urged me forward in a particular direction, my feet moving of their own accord. I was ready to unleash that part of myself, to embrace the chaos that long simmered within me.
“Go,” Kasper's voice filtered, a lovely caress that I craved. “You’re perfect for this, my little creature.”
