Keep moving. Survive.
As she rounded the next corner, she heard a faint sound, unlike any of the screams or cries for help she’d grown accustomed to. No, this was a softer voice, more like a child than a man. But surely no child could have accidentally wandered in…
“Is anyone there?” the voice called. Unless Hazel’s ears deceived her, a young girl had found her way into the maze. Itdidn’t matter how, because the child didn’t stand a chance and would more than likely suffer a brutal death within this hedge.
Hazel sighed. They’d tossed her into this trial with a bunch of selfish, ruthless men. The likelihood of even a single one of them coming to the girl’s aid was slim. Was she foolish to involve herself? Probably. But she couldn’t live with the vision of a child being mercilessly torn apart by monsters.
So, she turned toward the voice. As if on cue, the girl called out again.
“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m lost.” She sniffled as though fighting tears.
Hazel ran toward the voice, which sounded closer the second time. But when she rounded the corner, she met another dead end, and there was no child in sight.
“Please help me,” the girl called again. Only this time, the voice came from behind her. But… she could have sworn…
Damn hedges messing with my head.Somewhere, far too close, Hazel thought she heard a low, beastly growl. The hair on her arms stood on end and her locket warmed in warning, but she willed her feet to move. She might not be the only one hunting for the child.
Hazel doubled back in the direction she’d come from. But without warning, the hedge wall slammed shut before her, simultaneously opening an alternative path to her left. She did the only reasonable thing and changed course, pausing only to listen for the child… who’d gone concerningly quiet.
Frustrated, Hazel broke her own silence. “Hello? Are you still there? I’m trying to find you,” she called. For a moment, it was eerily quiet.
Then, the girl cried out, “I’m over here!” sounding somewhere up ahead.
Hazel tore off toward the voice again, noting how the air grew cooler and heavier the further she pressed on. The walls were closer together too.
But she pushed on, turning sideways to shuffle through the narrowest parts. Eventually, the path opened into a small clearing. In the center was a crumbling fountain. And just beyond…
The crown of a dark-haired head peeked just over the stone rim.
Hazel almost leaped out of her skin with excitement. “Hey!” she called to the girl, more a whisper than a shout. “I’m here to help.”
But the child did not respond. She didn’t so much as move at the sound of Hazel’s voice.
Perplexed, Hazel rounded the side of the fountain, carefully approaching the child’s hiding spot. But what awaited her stole her breath.
A woman, not a child, sat before her, knees pulled to her chest. The woman’s head hung low. She was rocking slightly… and humming. Her kohl-black hair was soaking wet as though she’d just crawled out of the ruined fountain… and she was naked. Completely, utterly naked, her sickly pale skin drawn taut over her bones.
Hazel recalled something else Slaide had told her earlier in the day:trust nothing and no one. Your own senses will betray you if you let them…
A chill crawled up her spine as unease coiled in her belly. She’d ignored the heating locket, assuming it was due to some other threatening beast lurking about. But something was wrong here.
“Ruuuuuunnnnnnn,”hissed a whisper-like voice in the breeze. But she had so many questions, and even though thiswasn’t the child she’d come for, she worried the woman still needed help.
Hazel reached out to touch her, to see if she was awake—or alive, for that matter. But before she made contact, the humming stopped.
She froze, hand outstretched.
The woman looked up at her slowly, her tangled black hair parting around her face. She was skin and bone, her sunken cheeks painting a portrait of a tortured soul.
Her eyes left Hazel speechless. Two milky, sightless orbs stared up at her with an eerie, unnatural awareness.
And then she smiled, revealing multiple rows of jagged, needle-like teeth.
Hazel had walked right into a trap.
The woman lunged for her, teeth gnashing just inches from her body. She stumbled backward and nearly fell, somehow keeping her feet beneath her.
And then she was running. Hazel ran like she should have the moment the strange feeling crawled over her. She made up for it by sprinting now, rushing around corners with reckless abandon.
