Chapter 5 - In The Corn Maze

I wasn’t scared at all the first ten minutes. People in lame costumes would jump out, yell, “Boo!” then retreat. Skye of course screamed like she was about to die, Chase laughed, Annabelle giggled and Doug stayed completely silent. Me? I barked unimpressed and offensive comments at the people who were supposed to be scaring me. I’d rather not repeat them. I’m not very proud of myself.

 

Then we turned a corner and the terror began.

 

I was at the back of the pack, Skye and Doug in front, and Chase and Annabelle in the middle. A chainsaw revved and people screamed from a distance, so none of us panicked, thinking that the chainsaw wasn’t our problem at the moment. Then an evil clown with a chainsaw jumped out and got up close and personal with Annabelle. She screamed and tripped into Chase’s arms, who was laughing. I smirked as I watched Annabelle composed herself and self-consciously began walking again.

 

The corn around us was all dry and ugly, and it had inched its way into my shoe. I stopped and pulled off my shoe and emptied all the corn, not bothering to yell at the rest of the group to stop.

 

A scream echoed from in front of me, which sounded suspiciously like Skye. I chuckled to myself, but stopped when I heard footsteps.

 

Someone’s trying to scare me, I thought. Good luck with that.

 

But when I looked up, there was a blue-faced boy grinning creepily down at me. I shrieked, pure terror tearing through me, as I faced the ghombie. I acted on instinct and didn’t think about what I was doing. I shot up, wound my fist back, and punched the ghombie hard in the face.

 

“Holy hell!” He yelled and clutched his face.

 

I tried to squirm around him, but he grabbed my waist. I expected his freezing hands to seep through my sweater, but they didn’t. So I stopped struggling and turned around. I touched the boy’s blue face and was shocked when I felt a hot blush on his cheeks.

 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” I cried. “Are you okay?” I put my other hand on the side of his face that I’d punched to look for injuries. Blood painted my fingers when I pulled them back.

 

“Dear God, I’m so sorry.” I was nervous because he hadn’t said anything yet.

 

He started shaking, and I got scared. Did I just give this person a seizure? Was I going to kill him? But then I heard his laugh, deep and throaty, as it boomed and echoed throughout the field.

 

“Are you okay?” I squeaked. I was terrified now. I’d made someone go insane. Great.

 

A couple came into view, and the boy stopped his laughing. He grabbed my hand, which was really warm, and pulled me into the corn. He pulled out a little flashlight and handed it to me.

 

“Is it bad?” he asked.

 

I switched the light on and examined the damage. His cheek was bleeding, and was very swollen. His face was completely red and blotchy, and kind of gross, but I still lied for his comfort.

 

“It’s not too bad. Couple band-aids and you’re good as new.” I tried to shake off the nervous feeling I had in my stomach. What if I got kicked out? What if they called my mom? Oh, God, the beating I’d get for this would be unbearable.

 

“Okay. Cool.” He grabbed the tiny flashlight from me and shone it in my direction. He seemed to be checking me out, and I would’ve slapped him for it, but I really didn’t need to injure the kid anymore.

 

“I’m Nate,” he volunteered.

 

I hesitated. Did I really want this kid to know my name? But I couldn’t just leave him hanging there, all hopeful and optimistic.

 

“Andrea.”

 

Nate was holding the flashlight so I could see his face a little. It creeped me out that he had blue makeup on that looked so much like a ghombie’s face. And it didn’t help that his cheek was practically gushing blood.

 

“Okay, you’re bleeding pretty bad,” I told him, embarrassed.

 

He touched his cheek again. When he pulled back blood-covered hands, his face paled. But he kept his game-face on and shrugged.

 

“Just a little blood. No big deal.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, until you die of blood loss.”

 

“What?” He became alert.

 

“Let’s go back to the barn. Or something.”

 

He smiled at me, his white teeth gleaming. “Let’s?”

 

I flushed, but stepped back so he couldn’t see it. “Or you could. I’m perfectly okay just continuing on my way without you.”

 

He chuckled. “Whatever.”

 

So I pushed out of the corn and back into the maze. I started walking forward again, grumbling to myself about how stupid boys could be.

 

 

The rest of the maze was incredibly dull. I didn’t even flinch when someone jumped out at me. I was too lost in thought. When I was finished, Skye, Chase, Annabelle and Doug were waiting for me.

 

“Andrea, where the hell were you?” Skye asked and stomped over to me, her face red and eyes puffy. “We thought you’d died!”

 

“Correction,” Chase interjected. “Skye thought you’d died. The rest of us watched her freak out and cry over nothing. It was kind of a brilliant prank. Well done.” Chase clapped sarcastically, but I was more interested in Skye, who was trying very hard to hold it together.

 

I hugged her. “It’s okay, Skye. I’m okay.”

 

“That was a mean prank,” she muttered.

 

“It was no prank. I punched a guy.”

 

Chase laughed. “He must’ve been scary as hell.”

 

“He looked like a ghombie.”

 

Annabelle scoffed. “Ghombies are a myth. There’s no way someone would be able to die twice and become two different types of supernaturals. It’s not possible.”

 

I shot Chase a confused look.

 

He waved me over. “Hey, Andrea, can I talk to you alone for a minute?”

 

I followed him without saying anything.

 

“Annabelle doesn’t know I’m a ghombie whisperer?” I asked when we were out of hearing range.

 

Chase sighed. “At school they teach us that ghombies are fake.”

 

“But they’re not!”

 

“But no one will believe you if you said you’re a ghombie whisperer. The teachers are telling us there is no such thing as a ghombie, or ghombie whisperer. I don’t know where they think they’re getting their facts, but just stay quiet, okay?”

 

“Fine. But this is stupid.”

 

Chase patted my arm. “You’ll get through it.”

 

I harrumphed and walked back to the group. 

Author's Note

thanks for all the great feedback, everyone! i've been getting lots of reviews and it's awesome! as always, i appreciate your criticism or comments or whatever you do.

Reviews

[TheKaylaPup]

opps, didn't mean to post that yet, it should finsh:" Me? I barked unimpressed and offensive comments at the people who were supposed to be scaring me. I’d rather not repeat them. I’m not very proud of myself." i could have died. this is great, you need to be published.

[Robbie~xoxo~]

Your characters leap of this page... the personalities come to life! I really like how you have developed this story. Great job!

[Ness of Love]

This chapter was funny! And the shape-shifters are being taught that ghombies don't exist? I hope you'll write more about that later on in your story, sounds intriguing.