Gabriel Santorini (santorini_spell) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-10-27 13:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | gabe santorini, maddy rigby |
Stalking in the cornstalks
Who: Maddy & Gabe
When: Thursday 21 October 2021
Where: Moapa Valley Zombie Paintball and Haunted Maze
Rating: G
When Gabe checked out the location of the Moapa Valley Corn Maze, and the activities, it had been a toss-up whether to drive, or just port there, as paintball paint in the car’s upholstery was a pain to get out he’d learned previously, fortunately in another vehicle. Even if they weren’t being shot at with the paintball, there were always ways that could go dreadfully wrong, especially dealing with zombies. And after all, this place was a farm, in the middle of nowhere, and there had to be plenty of places to arrive that they wouldn’t be seen. So as he headed to meet Maddy he slipped Amphitrite’s keys into his jeans’ pocket. Pulling out his phone he sent her a quick text.
’Ready?’
Rather than answering via text, an exterior door opened on the brick apartment building. Maddy emerged with arms raised, looking seasonally appropriate in a black sweatshirt with a skeleton print, ripped jeans with white lace hosiery poking through, and Doc Martens with orange laces. She was blonde, unlike the last time he saw her. There was a beanie stuffed in her hip pocket in case the temperature dropped. “What’s up?!” She made her way in Gabe’s direction, a big grin on her face. Upon nearing him, she presented a gift, which was a crinkly bag containing a lollipop, a full-size chocolate bar, and a package of Skittles. What was early Halloween without candy? “How’ve you been?”
“Great, thanks, and even better now,” he replied with a grin, eyeing the candy. He was still getting used to the concepts and traditions of Halloween followed in this country, and wasn’t completely sure if the candy was for them or they were supposed to share it with any children that came along with bowls. A shop assistant had tried to explain it to him when he asked about the different black and orange plastic bowls with handles, shaped like either a cauldron or pumpkin, with a handle. He withdrew his hand from behind his back with one of each of these, both carrying a variety of wrapped sweets that had also been recommended, and presented them to her.
“I wasn’t sure which one you’d prefer,” he explained a little nervously, “so I decided to give you the choice?” The usual soft accent was a little stronger with his lack of assuredness on what she would like, or if it was even what was normally done in this situation. He was just glad the stutter hadn’t returned. “I’m told one is supposed to be a pumpkin, and the other a cauldron?” he continued, eyes moving from one of the items to the other as he named them according to the supplied information. “Personally? Our cauldrons never looked like that, my sister would have had a fit!” The last part was definitely from a more comfortable place, and his grin widened to a point where there was a gleam in his eye and he gave her a wink.
“Oh, well in that case!” Maddy eagerly took the black plastic cauldron, suffering under no need to be historically accurate whatsoever, which was perfect because it did look more like something you’d use for making stew. “Thanks! But I’m gonna tell on myself. There’s no way this candy is making it to Halloween. Pretty much the only way I can buy candy in advance and not eat it is to leave it in the original plastic and hide it from myself, then search my house frantically a few hours in advance.”
She shrugged. Impulse control was not a strength. “Are we sticking with the original plan? You port us there, I port us back?”
"If that's still cool for you, sure!" he replied, switching the bright orange plastic pumpkin to his other hand and checking their surrounds. He'd had Bilson check with some 'friends' in the area of the farm and along with a good close look at Google had selected what would be a safe place for them to arrive without drawing any attention. It wasn't often he would do this with someone outside his closest circle, but given her own abilities he'd figured there was no real risk.
And it certainly wasn't showing off. A focus of attention, and small movement of his hand and the air in front of them started shimmering, ripples radiating out and growing wider as they became more visible. He reached over and took her hand, not strictly necessary, but it seemed like a good excuse to him.
"Let's go."
Maddy held onto the plastic candy bucket. She wasn’t sure what to do with it, so it was along for the ride. Uncertain of how this worked in his magical world, Maddy gamely held onto his hand, not wishing to get lost mid-transition from one place to another. She leaned forward to study the warbly air and couldn’t stop herself from excitedly asking questions. “How does this work? It’s a portal, right? Do you pick up a leg and step through? What’s it gonna feel like?”
Also, what would it look like on the other side? Could a person on that end see them right now, as if through a window? Or would it be more like legs, arms, a torso, and a head appearing in thin air?
Gabe smiled at her, leading her the step and a half into the horizontal pool of air in front of them. From the environment where he’d met her, to the cornfields of the Moapa Valley took less than a blink, and as they finished passing through the portal it closed behind them, the pair now standing in the shadowy edge of the parking lot.
“Locally, it’s pretty quick, you hardly notice,” he’d started saying as they had stepped into it, “but it’s actually pretty much the same, anywhere,” he added as they were swept with headlights of a vehicle pulling into a parking space in the centre row. “I just need to, you know, do a little more.”
People were arriving for the evening’s festivities, pickups pulling in, family wagons unloading and kids calling out in excitement. “Shannon, get your jacket!” and “Terri, leave your sister alone, or so help me I’ll feed you to the zombies!” and “Why do zombies go for your brains?” which drew the response, “They’ll starve if they look for yours!” quickly followed by “Brian, can you please sort those two out?”
Gabe looked around and then back at Maddy with a grin. “Sounds like the paintball bus will be a real exciting time!” He held up his pumpkin. “Might be time to start loading up with sugar!”
Maddy looked around herself, bewildered. It hadn’t felt like anything. One minute, parking lot. The next, farm. “Huh.” How did he control where they went? Was it in the flick of his wrist? Wild horses couldn’t drag this out of her, but Maddy briefly pictured Gabe as the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia. She realized that his method of transference involved a manipulation of the environment, whereas hers was a manipulation of herself, or an object. Fascinating!
She was squirreling.
As appealing as zombie paintball could be, Maddy had her heart set on the corn-related activities. She released Gabe’s hand to reach into the candy bucket, then began eagerly unwrapping a miniature Snickers bar. Yummmm! “Can we do the corn cannon and the maze?”
“Of course,” Gabe replied, following her lead and reaching into the bucket to find a miniature Turkish Delight, unfolding the wrapper and shoving it in his pocket after popping the confection in his mouth. They headed toward the entrance to the activities, the sorcerer giving a quick glance over his shoulder to the location where the portal had formed, saw it was clear, and turned back again. “So you are into shooting things? Or shooting big guns?” he asked as they approached the entrance. He pulled two purple tickets from his pocket and handed her one - prepurchased ‘Haunted’ tickets. “Figured it would save us lining up,” he offered. “Includes the maze, the cannon, a haunted house and a hayride?” he added with raised eyebrows and a touch of what could be taken as innocence.
“Have you ever been on a hayride?”
“Oh snap.” Maddy took the ticket. “Let me know how much and I’ll CashApp you.” She started the brief journey to the booth, where a ticket could be traded for a wristband, and thought back to her youth. “I haven’t been on a hayride since… Maybe 11 years ago? They have this kind of stuff in Washington state, where I’m from. Not next to my house. I’m from Tacoma. But close enough. This is the kind of thing you do when you’re a teenager or a little kid. My parents weren’t into it, but they could be relied upon to find a family that was.”
Watching Gabe eat his candy made her consider another piece. She dug through her basket for an item that caught her eye and got in the short line. “I’d be lying if I said I never shot anything. Weapons, not people. I’m not a psycho! I just wanted to know what the fuss was about. Hey… Did you know there’s a company in Las Vegas that lets you shoot machine guns and ride around in a monster truck?” Maddy shook her head. “Why stop there? Just combine the two with a flame thrower and go full-on Mad Max.”
Gabe wasn’t really aware of Tacoma, or much about Washington State, other than it was on the other side of the country from the city called Washington DC, which was the capital. It had been a little confusing at times in conversations when he’d first come to the US.
“Shooting people tends to get you in trouble in most places,” he agreed with a nod, following along as she then explained about the option to go ‘Mad Max’. “That’s … intense,” he contributed, not entirely sure it wouldn’t be a great opportunity for some people to play out their fantasies, and the appropriate authorities to then monitor those people.
“Your parents, they didn’t really follow the Halloween traditions?” he asked. “I thought everyone in America joined in on this. Did they object, or just not.. participate?”
Maddy shook her head. “They didn’t object. They took me trick-or-treating. They just weren’t into weeks of commitment to American consumerism. There’s rarely a time in America when you’re not preparing for or celebrating a holiday by spending lots of money and driving your parents up a wall.” At the window of the wooden ticket-taking structure, Maddy smiled and handed over her ticket in exchange for a paper bracelet. She slipped an index finger beneath the band as the man fastened it, making sure the sticky tab didn’t capture any arm hair.
The blonde stepped out of the way and waited for Gabe. “The only kids I knew whose families didn’t let them do anything Halloween-related came from particular faith backgrounds. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Muslims.” The bucket handle dangled from her fingertips. Maddy saw a little boy checking it out and she made eye contact with his mother, who gave her blessing. She let him rummage until he found the treat he liked best.
Following Maddy’s lead Gabe was soon sporting the paper bracelet and joined Maddy as her ‘stash’ of confectionery was being rummaged. Unsure again of the protocols he also offered his pumpkin for searching and soon the youngster was celebrating his finds. “Especially around this time of year,” Gabe noted as they started walking, following the signs that were pointing in the direction of what was already sounding like cannon-fire, fueled with massive amounts of compressed air rather than actual gunpowder.
“It starts with Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, right? And of course immediately after that comes the New Year celebrations. I mean, I’m used to the last two, in particular New Year as that’s a special time for my family, but I can imagine it must be a bit of hard going for parents, keeping up with it all. And these other religions, the parents didn’t participate at all? Didn’t that make it hard for those kids?” He looked around at the families and in particular children enjoying themselves, seeing and hearing the squeals and laughter from the direction of the ‘haunted house’ to the tired faces of parents herding their offspring toward the exit gates, clearly having been there for a few hours at least.
“Mm.” Maddy raised a shoulder. “I guess it’s similar to when you’re Jewish and it’s Christmas. When you’re small and you don’t understand, I guess it might be a challenge, but if they’re in a tight knit community, maybe that reduces the FOMO. The way I had it explained to me is, if you’re devout enough, you should be too busy with other things to participate in… I guess the frivolity of face painting and making jack-o’-lanterns?”
The blonde followed signs towards the corn con shooting range. “Plus it’s pretty clear we ripped it off from pagan traditions, even if it’s more about dressing up as Spiderman now.” A few stray corn cobs, stripped of their kernels, laid on the foot-trampled path near the activity. Maddy set down her cauldron. She picked up three cobs and lobbed them in the air, doing a juggling routine as they awaited their turn.
“So she can juggle too!” Gabe laughed as the cobs flew up and around, being deftly plucked from the air and continued back up on the same trajectory as its predecessor again and again. “You ever think of running away with the circus?” he asked, shuffling forward a little as the line moved in the general direction of the cannons. “Juggling, a little bit of magic, you’d have been a winner for any of them!” he suggested with a grin.
Maddy smiled. “I’d rather be on the trapeze! My luck, I’d end up selling peanuts in the stands.” She held onto two of the cobs, tossed the third high, and spun before catching it. A small curtsy to Gabe and she picked up her basket. Ahead of them, they could see that the ‘cannons’ were loaded much like t-shirt guns at an athletic event. Rather than firing into a crowd of enthusiastic people, they would aim at wooden targets in the field, essentially attempting to get the cobs through small holes cut into them.
When it was their turn, she hopped from foot to foot. “This looks so satisfying!”
Gabe laughed, eyeing the cannons and those loading them. There was a shouted explanation from one of the attendants, jokes run out about the ‘shooters’ standing back with hands up as the next round of cobs was loaded into the barrels and the staff cleared the range. “Let’s see who can get the furthest!” he joked as they were allowed to step up and ‘take aim’.
Safety goggles were offered, just in case anyone went nuts and turned at the last minute. Maddy put on a clear pair.
“You’re on!” Distance. Okay, she could do that. Maddy took over operation of the cob-blasting device, the tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth. She considered the angle of the gun. Nothing could be done to compensate for the wind but fortunately, they were shooting at the same in the same direction. “I feel like Linda Hamilton,” she said. When it was time to fire, she squeezed the trigger, keeping the barrel just above horizontal to the ground.
Pffffffoooooo!
“Whoooo! Gabe, did you see that?!” She lifted her goggles, as if that would help her see farther.
Gabe nodded, grinning, watching how far hers went, and adjusted the angle of the barrel up a few degrees. His mouth was slowly twisting to one side as he concentrated, glancing from where hers landed to his cannon, and then… ‘bang-whoooosh’! He straightened up and followed the trajectory, the sound of others firing theirs starting to fill the air.
“Damn, good shot!” he told her, holding up a hand for a high five. Their cobs made it the furthest of that round, but it was hard to tell which made it further between the two of them, the number of cobs already lying on the ground making it hard to identify.
Maddy slapped his palm. Once reloaded, she took hold of the cannon again. “Let’s try to hit the target.” Maddy lined up another shot, this one towards the target that had been set up in the field in line with her tube, which was on the right side. As the website advised, the cannons might be able to fire three-hundred feet but they were wildly inaccurate. “Annie Oakley!” she cried. Her finger squeezed.
Maddy’s second cob did graze a target; it was just the wrong one. “Pbbbt! My bad.” She half-cringed, half-laughed and slinked away for someone else to take a turn. Clearly this was for the professionals.
As Gabe started to take aim a small fracas broke out at the next cannon, what could only be two brothers arguing over whose turn it was, and the younger one losing out. Gabe looked around for parental involvement, but couldn’t see any, so leaned over and tapped the younger sibling on the shoulder. “Here, go for the target,” he told him, handing him the safety glasses. He took a step back as the older sibling scowled, growling, “can’t hit the side of a barn!” and turned his attention on his own target. The younger lad looked up at Gabe and stammered his thanks, grabbed the handles, standing on tip toes to get a better view of the field, and made some small adjustments. The two corn cobs launched. As they spun through the air what appeared to be a slight gust of wind stirred the dust of the firing range, a large crow dropped down, talons wrapping around the cob from older brother’s cannon, then dropping it to the ground, the other cob finishing its flight path through the hole in the centre of the wooden target.
As the younger brother spun around, his face alight and eyes wide, Gabe held up a hand and high-5ed him. “Good shooting buddy!” he grinned, ruffling the youngster’s hair, realising it was just what his father used to do to him. His hands dropped back to his sides and he quickly shoved them in his pockets before turning to look for Maddy.
Off to the side, the blonde stood with her candy bucket, watching the situation unfold on her tiptoes. “Not bad,” she told Gabe when he joined her and their exploration of the attractions could continue. “Unless that kid’s a sniper.” The corn maze loomed ahead of them, a large field with easy and challenging mazes set side-by-side. The mazes themselves were fun designs that had been cut into the crops using a drawing, GPS, and a lawnmower. Each had one entrance and one exit, and a number of dead ends and loops. At night, people used flashlights and cell phones to find their way in the darkness while employees jumped out of the shadows. Maddy asked, “Do you like kids or is it more about underdogs?”
With a slight shrug and twitch of a grin Gabe looked back over his shoulder briefly before answering. “Combination of both? I never had a big brother, but plenty of cousins, competition in our family was pretty tough. And kids can be damned cruel without even realising it, especially at that age,” he added as they joined the movement toward the maze. As they approached the entrance he looked at her and with a completely innocent gaze stated, “now doesn’t this just look ah-mazing?”
“Womp womp...” Maddy gave him a good-natured jostle with her shoulder as they passed through an opening in the tall plantings. “You know, if you’re too corny, the crops might think you’re one of them and they’ll never let you leeeeeaf.” She pulled one of the stalks toward her face and stared at him through the green and brown plant. Maddy released it and it wobbled back into place. The maze took them left and she happily spun along the path, candy rattling in the bucket.
A loud groan echoed, followed by a laugh, and shaking of head, hand clutching at his chest as if wounded as he followed her along that path. “As long as you’re OK with being in the haunted section, becuz in there you’re likely to be stalked!” he said, rushing up behind her and blowing on the back of her neck before rushing past her and getting a few paces ahead, turning to walk backwards.
Ack! Air down the collar of her sweatshirt. Maddy’s shoulders crept up. “Bleeurgh!” She shivered and shook the sensation out of her arms. “I have to admit, Gabe. That was smooth. Some might say silky smooth.” Maddy reached over to flick the pale styles, or silks, atop an unshucked corn cob. “If you think you can top it, I’m all ears.” Her mouth opened, an ‘oh!’ of cheesy, badum-tish humor. A pair of teenagers dashed between them, breaking left and right at the intersection that awaited them.
“BAH!” With a wave of its arms and legs, a scarecrow on a post revealed itself to be very human, and not a set of overalls stuffed with hay. Someone shrieked and laughed.
Gabe had seen the pair of teenagers approaching and had managed to sidestep so as not to get run down, but hadn’t picked up on the scarecrow until it launched out of the cornstalks. The wizard might have been the source of the shriek, but at least he managed to keep upright as he stumbled a few steps in the opposite direction, away from the leaping jack’o’lantern-adorned lurker.
“Dammit!” he laughed, shaking his head and regathering his composure, laughing at himself and eyeing the retreating figure of the scarecrow. “Here I was thinking they got awards for being outstanding in their field, but not here so much!”
Maddy laughed at the scarecrow interaction and the aftermath of it. “See, that sounded like a pun, but I’m not sure, so I’m gonna ignore it. Also I can only take so many at a time.” On a whim, she turned right, pulling Gabe by the elbow. Maddy knew enough about mazes to understand how to escape simple labyrinths by wall-following, but based on the drone photos she’d seen of Moapa Valley’s previous corn mazes, this was no simple hedge maze where everything was connected to the perimeter. It had islands that would lead you in loops, if you weren’t paying attention. Also, corn had a tendency to be… well, patchy. What was supposed to be a solid wall might look like it had a break in it.
“What’ve you been up to? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!” Maddy saw something dark and suspicious on the plants ahead of them. She shined her cell phone light at the stalks, which had been splattered in fake blood. “OooOOooh…” On the other side of the row, people dashed through the narrow space, searching for the exit, their shoulders making the plants rustle and sigh.
There was no sneaking along the pathways laid between the cornstalks in the entrances to the main body of the maze, the debris underfoot giving away any movement, despite the number of feet that had already trod before. Intersections reduced the number of people on the same path, but also created the illusions of openings to pathways where none were, lights flickering through some thinner patches of the stalks.
“This way!” Gabe suggested, angling his head toward an entrance on the other side from where there was a lot of movement, light and laughter. It led into a path that curved deeper into the cornfield. Squeals and laughter erupted behind them, while ahead the shadows deepened a little. The debris underfoot was a little less trodden, the walls a little thicker. It seemed somehow appropriate to lower his voice a little, when answering her question.
“It’s been a while,” he agreed, “and I’ve been keeping busy, chasing up a few leads, and following up on the family business. Spent a bit of summer down in Peru, and over in the UK, plus a few trips home. How about you?”
“Peru. Wow.” She moved a spider web -- real, not decorative -- out of her face and continued trekking. “I got a new job,” she offered. “I’m working full-time at this venue called Iris, doing costumes and make-up. The Rabbit Hole left me on the payroll in case I want to pick up extra shifts but,” she wrinkled her nose, “I’m not going to unless I have to, and I got a new roommate, so. Her name’s Trina. I don’t know that much about her, except she’s a bartender on the strip and she doesn’t leave cereal bowls out until the milk solidifies.”
These counted as pluses in her book.
“Iris, huh? I think I’ve been there,” he mused, pushing the spider web up against some stalks to give it something to hang onto other than his hair. The flicking of his fingers was not ornamental, the fibres were rather sticky. And this explained why he hadn’t seen her at The Rabbit Hole when he’d dropped in there a few weeks earlier..
Maddy turned a corner and yelped when a zombified circus performer with a dangling eyeball laughed in her face like Doctor Giggles, then pranced away. “Son of a… biscuit!” she breathed, remembering the venue’s ‘no cursing’ rule, which was ludicrous given the situation. Normally she’d declare rules shmules, but tiny kids. “I’m not even afraid of clowns. Me and Derek took a road trip to that clown motel in Tonopah? That didn’t freak me out at all. This dude’s gonna give me nightmares.”
“I was going to ask that, about the clowns, and whether they were a freak out to you. I’m sort of ambivalent, but that dude? Yeah, going to have to keep an eye on him,” he continued as they started down the pathway again. “Is that the hotel that has its own cemetery out back? I never really got why someone would build a hotel right next to the dead centre of town…” As he was talking his hand reached up to brush against the hair on top of his head, the back of his hand coming into contact with something above his head, something moving, causing his body to duck down and his head to quickly turn and look up. A few words were muttered, unintelligible unless one had a good grasp of Greek. There, suspended above them, and only faintly visible against the night sky, was a mesh of fishing lines with dark, syrupy-looking globules hanging from them at head height for the slightly taller than average. He cleared his throat and straightened up again, a small shiver running down his spine as the sensation had reminded him of too many times his sister had played pranks on him.
“Uh… what was I saying? Yeah, clowns and cemeteries and nightmares,” he said, clearing his throat.
“Well, according to the website,” Maddy said, pushing pretend glasses up her nose, “This brother and sister duo built the motel there in memory of their dad after he passed away and he was buried in the Tonopah cemetery, and this guy was big into clowns, so they decorated the motel with his collection, and it became a thing. People kept giving them more and more clowns. Like, shipping them clowns from all over the world. This is what happens when people find out you like something.”
Maddy stopped, convinced she’d seen this part of the maze already. But… maybe not. She should pay attention. She began walking again. “When I was thirteen, I had this button on my backpack. It had a picture of an alien ship and it said ‘reading is out of this world.’ I got it free at the library. I thought it was kind-of funny. Somehow people got the idea that I was obsessed. Not with books, with aliens! So for like, the next four years, people kept giving me alien-themed gifts, until finally I had a meltdown on my seventeenth birthday when my parents wheeled out this martian-shaped cake covered in green icing and I was like, ‘ENOUGH!’”
She smiled.
“Hmm, people can be odd,” he laughed, reaching over and brushing some spider web from her hair that had at some point managed to attach itself there before turning his attention back to checking out the path ahead. “And I have to ask, what shape is a ‘martian-shaped’ cake? And what is it with green and outer space?” he continued as they approached another intersection. A couple of teenagers, cellphones in one hand, torches in another, tore across the intersection.
Was that fake or authentic spider web in her hair? Maddy felt it best not to ask for her own sanity. Spiders didn’t spook her in the abstract but who wanted one traipsing through their hair? “Martian-shaped is… you know! The little, green men from science fiction. They have a big, bald, toddler head and a teeny, tiny chin, and their eyes are black and they have Voldemort’s nostrils!” She made a turn, relying less on instinct now and more on the world they could sort-of, kind-of glimpse through the corn as they approached the perimeter. “And I actually know about the green thing! Because someone gave me a book about aliens. It’s from English folklore. There was this group of children who disappeared and when they came back their skin was green. They were probably just super anemic. It’s crazy how something like that can influence pop culture hundreds of years in the future. I mean,” Maddy lifted her plastic cauldron of candy. “Case in point.”
Gabe looked at his own plastic pumpkin and nodded ruefully. “Yeah, case in point,” he agreed as they continued walking through the maze. “So other than visiting clown hotels with their own cemeteries, what else have you been up to? How was the railroad tunnel hike?” Some sudden and loud shrieking behind them made him stop and turn, taking a second to realise the noise was the result of a successful one-eyed clown pounce on another ‘victim’ in the maze. He cleared his throat as he turned back to the direction they were heading, his cellphone torch highlighting something on the ground, what appeared to be feet protruding into the maze, the rest seemingly in the ‘wall’ of cornstalks.
“Short!” she said. “So you’re not technically supposed to go at night?” Maddy tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I left my lantern at the entrance because I thought it would be funny, but a security guard or a park ranger or something crept up in the dark and scared the crap out of us. Derek hit him by accident and we had to make a run for it so we wouldn’t get arrested.”
Maddy nudged one of the shoes between the corn stalks, trying to see if it belonged to a living person or was a pair of prop feet.
Gabe managed to suppress a laugh at the picture Maddy had just painted, but it was unclear whether that was voluntary, or it was swallowed in fright. The feet poking out were a subterfuge, drawing the unwitting investigators to do just what Maddy had done. Movement, in the form of kicking, or nudging, triggered a large red-lit figure to lurch up from inside the stalks on the other side of the path, close behind and beside them. The figure let out a blood curdling cackle, and was carrying a large, glinting knife, or so it seemed from the corner of one’s eye that was still watching the prone legs bait.
Maddy shrieked and took off running, adrenaline carrying her through a wall of corn stalks into another aisle, where somebody in a leatherface costume waited. A chainsaw started. It wasn’t a real chainsaw, only the sound of one, but it was authentic enough to make her ‘nope’ out of that row, too, and then she saw why. As people neared the exit of the maze, the staff upped the spooky-factor.
“Gabe! This way!” she shouted, running like hell for the exit, candy rattling in her toy cauldron.
It took all of her self-control not to trample a child on the way out.
Another expletive in Greek would have been heard, and probably was by the staff member if they’d been able to hear anything over their maniacal cackle and through the costume they were wearing. But the sound stopped with a sudden, ‘HUH? Dammit!’ as they felt the prop knife leave their hand as a blue flash briefly lit the area. One thought the wizard had was whatever the glinting item in the person’s hand was, it wouldn’t be frightening anyone again this season, now it was buried deep in the ground in the middle of the field, away from any access paths.
He took off in the direction of Maddy’s voice, and started traversing the path forged by the teleporter, the sound of the chainsaw less frightening as they’d been triggered by her passing. “It’s OK, here, all good,” he found himself saying to a group of kids being herded by their parents - he gave a shake of his pumpkin bucket to get the kids’ attention then handed it to the parents before turning to follow Maddy’s path. He broke into a jog, sidestepped another pair of legs and ducked beneath a bent stalk that now lay across the path at shoulder height.
“Maddy? Where are you?” he called, looking left and right at an intersection he’d reached. He wondered for a moment if he’d taken a wrong turn.
“I’m out here!” she called from safely outside the maze. Maddy jumped up and down, waving an arm in case he could see it. “Oh.” She turned on her cell phone flashlight and waved that instead, a makeshift lighthouse or airport beacon of sorts. “I’m shining my light at you.” Now that she was back in the open, surrounded by people and generator-powered lights, it was quite easy to see the feet running back and forth in the maze.
He could hear her, but it was on the opposite side of what looked like a solid wall of cornstalks. He’d clearly missed the path, or taken a wrong turn when negotiating the family group. “Wait on, just getting my bearings!” he called out, “I’ll be ri…..” He stopped calling out, a grin spreading across his face and a loud strangled, gurgling sound punctuating his words. He silently took a few steps back and looked up into the night sky.
“I think you went the wrong way. I can’t hear you!” Maddy shouted. She turned off the flashlight function on her phone and wiped the screen. It was smudged with something gross. She realized it was some sticky, red gel from the fishing line mounted above their heads and made a face. “Yuck.” She scrubbed at it with the hem of her sweatshirt. When Gabe didn’t immediately emerge, she unwrapped a Three Musketeers and ate it.
When he realised Maddy wasn’t about to teleport back into the cornfield Gabe felt a little stupid, and scratched at a spot in front of his ear. After a few more seconds and a glance from one side to the other he stepped through the shimmer that appeared in front of him, out into the shadows just outside the ring of lights focused in on the main activities areas. Shoving his hands in his pockets and after giving a quick look around he strolled across the empty space, slipping between a few piled up haystacks and walked up behind Maddy.
“Seems I took a wrong turn somewhere,” he said quietly in a deepened voice, leaning down next to her ear.
“Hey!” Maddy spun around and lightly flicked his arm. “We said no porting out of the maze!” There had been no such agreement not to go screaming through a wall of crops. But she’d only done it under duress, so she cut herself some slack. “I guess it’s a draw. I can’t exactly declare victory after running from old red-face.” She shrugged. What could you do?
Then she brightened. “Oh! This means it’s time for me to teleport you!” She looked around for a semi-private area where no one was likely to notice people going missing. Over by the tractor seemed like a good bet. The tires were enormous and if they stood next to them, it would do a decent job of blocking them long enough for Maddy to work her magic. “You’re not gonna chicken out, right?”
“Depends. Are you going to freak out again? Because that? Could end us in all sorts of trouble!” he grinned.
“Whatever, man, I heard you scream earlier.” Maddy smiled. Who did he think he was fooling? She led the way to a giant, green John Deere tractor, which was parked in the shadows beside the corn field. “Okay, technically I can do this alone, but it helps ease the transition if you’re thinking of the same destination. Otherwise it can get funkier trying to hold onto each other and you’ll probably toss your cookies. So... think about the parking lot where we left your car.” Maddy stuck her arm through the handle of the candy bucket and took Gabe’s hands. “I do recommend closing your eyes the first time.”
Maddy took a deep breath and shook her arms like spaghetti noodles, getting loose. After a moment of concentration, the world tipped further on its axis and spun around them. Gabe may have experienced it like a bad case of vertigo. The ground could no longer be felt under their feet. There was no sensation of air moving on their skin, but there was a rushing sound. As soon as it came, and might cause a novice to impulsively reach out to brace themselves in the void, it was over.
They were in Maddy’s parking lot. Amphitrite was parked nearby.
Maddy let go and raised her hands for a double high-five. “Up high!”
Using portals in Gabe’s world was akin to simply stepping through from one location to another. The transition was done by the actual casting making it as smooth as stepping through an open window, once the practitioner had perfected the skill. When he’d first started it had been the usual hurdles, such as judging heights, and angles. Walking into mid-air was not good for the ankles he’d learned the hard way, and stepping through to find yourself face down on a pavement was not something he wanted to do again, nor most of the other things that had gone awry during his training.
This was different to what he was used to, but not enough to discombobulate him, or his sense of balance. He put that down to his upbringing on the ocean, as it had been similar to standing on a deck being tossed by large waves. Instead he was able to lift his hands and returned the high-five. “Love your work!” he declared with a grin.
“Thanks!” The plastic bucket banged against her elbow. Maddy had forgotten it was hanging there. “Are you going to the Samhain party at Lux?” She figured there was a good chance, since she saw Gabe there at Beltane. “I’m gonna go this year, so I might see you.” Last time, she’d been doing grisly make-up for a local haunted house on the big night. Maddy heard through the grapevine that some people’s costumes made them unrecognizable in 2020, so then again, she might not see him.
“I think so,” he nodded, pulling his keyfob from his pocket as he recalled the previous year and ending up appearing as Poseidon. “ At least I hope so. Even just to see if it’s as crazy fun as it was last year,” he added. He’d made the mistake of telling his sister about it, and she’d been intrigued, wanting to attend, much to his chagrin. He always felt a little like he was being judged when she was around and he hoped she had forgotten, or was called on by the family business.
“You going to dress up, or is that a big secret, only to be revealed on the night?”
“I am sworn to secrecy,” she said. “Which is also handy in case I change my mind.” She raised her palms. Maddy pulled out her keys. “I’m glad we did this. Maybe I’ll see you this weekend?” She went in for a hug and messed up Gabe’s hair before retreating for the evening. “Don’t be a stranger!”
A car bounced into the lot, bottoming out on the dip. It was her overly talkative neighbor. Maddy cringed and did a cartoon tip-toe towards the door. If she acted fast, she could get through her locks and safely inside before they roped her into a conversation.
Gabe watched her go, smiling to himself as he pressed the button on the fob and climbed into the driver’s seat while the other car pulled into a parking slot a few spaces down. The low thrum of the Porsche’s engine starting was followed by the sound of the tyres, the vehicle carefully navigating the parking entrance, and heading to Henderson.
To télos