Between The Rows (Part 2 of 2)

  

After a moment of conversation, we decided to head straight in the direction we thought would put us out somewhere between the entrance to the maze and the parking lot. We started moving, ignoring the path and just quietly pushing our way through the corn stalk walls of the maze while trying to stay oriented towards our goal. We were relying on our sense of direction and the brick wall to our right—our theory being that the wall was likely fairly straight and if we kept it on our right we shouldn’t get turned around.

The music and pig cries didn’t lessen as we moved. If anything they got louder, but I wasn’t sure it was because we were moving closer to the source. It was almost like the air itself, or maybe the corn, was suffused with the sounds, and the longer we walked, the more I felt that the animal squeals were digging into my brain and the eerie rhythms of the music and singing were worming into my bones.

Then we hit another wall.

“Fuck!” Alison said in a loud whisper. She turned to me and I could see how upset she was getting. I wanted to hug her, but instead I tried to sound calm.

“It’s okay. Let’s turn left. The wall has to end because this is the side we entered on. There has to be a break somewhere, right?”

Alison and Jenny nodded and we went on. Between our intermittent walks through the deeper corn and my steadily rising panic, I was finding it harder and harder to breathe. Maybe that’s why I didn’t hear the footsteps behind us. I felt a hand close tightly on the back of my shirt as Alison whispered in my ear.

“There’s someone behind us. I thought I heard them a minute ago, but I couldn’t see anything. Then when we left that last patch of corn, I know I heard someone else move the stalks after we were all out.” My heart leapt but I forced myself to keep walking. Jenny was holding my hand again, but she was on the opposite side of where Alison was talking, so I didn’t know if she had heard what my sister had said.

I gave Jenny’s hand a squeeze to get her attention and spoke in a slightly louder whisper than Alison’s. “There’s someone behind us. We need to run. Alison, hold my hand and we all stay together. When we see a break in the wall, we turn and head for the parking lot.” Alison took my other hand as I strained my ears for sounds from behind us. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I could barely make out the rustle of a heavy foot stepping on one of the dead corn leaves that littered the floor of our current path.

Squeezing both of their hands, I whispered, “1…2…3…go!”, and we took off running. Alison was faster than either myself or Jenny, but she slowed her pace as she realized she was going to pull too far ahead to hold my hand. I kept looking to my right, waiting for some sign of light or the world beyond the corn. But all I saw was darkness. It seemed impossible. The maze was big, but it wasn’t that big. We were moving at a good rate of speed and had already been walking in this direction for several minutes before we broke into a run.

The sounds of music and animals had receded for a time, but they returned now and seemed to come from everywhere. I began looking in every direction, desperate for some sign of escape, some indication that we were finally out of the maze. Then I saw light ahead of us. Almost crying with relief, I surged ahead, pulling Alison and Jenny along with me.

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We stumbled out into a large open circle somewhere deep within the maze. There were tall torches spaced around the perimeter, and in the center was a small group of people wearing robes and carved wooden masks. Some of them were singing while others played odd instruments, but as we broke through the corn two of them stopped and looked at us for a moment. I was so shocked by what I was seeing that it took me a moment to register that Jenny had pulled free of my hand and run to the staring couple.

When they removed their masks, I understood both more and less. It was Jenny’s parents. She was hugging them and talking excitedly, though their conversation was in hushed tones that didn’t carry to us over the sound of the music and singing. I heard a new squeal and realized that there were massive looming shadows back behind the people. Suddenly the music and singing stopped and the crowd parted for the shadows to step forward.

They were boars. Four massive black boars that all sported sharp, yellowed tusks that they swiped at the air as they trotted forward into the center of the clearing. Their eyes seemed to gleam red in the firelight, and I felt my bowels loosening as they stared at us with their small, evil glares. Not knowing what else to do, I looked at Jenny, who was absently patting one of the boars as she smiled up at her mother.

“Jenny? What is all this?”

She looked at me, her face hardening. “This is what’s necessary, Kyle. I know you feel scared and betrayed, but we don’t have a choice in this.”

I shook my head, bewildered. “What? Who is we? What are you talking about?”

She sighed and gestured at the group of people gathered around them. “This is my real family. My parents and I are part of a very special group. I guess you could call it a religion, though that’s not really right. But the patrons of our way of life…of our power and knowledge…they’re losing a…” She smiled ruefully and shook her head as her mother patted her shoulder. “No, they’ve lost a battle against a stronger foe. There is a new king of Hell and we must pledge our allegiance to him before it is too late.”

One of the other people stepped forward and pulled off their mask, revealing the plump, dark-skinned face of a woman that looked like an elementary school teacher or librarian. “That is blasphemy! The infernal order will be restored! I have tried to hold my tongue, but we should not be throwing our lot in with that thing, even if it would let us.”

Jenny’s father gestured and one of the other masked figures punched the woman in the stomach hard enough that she doubled over onto the dirt. “Beatrice, I’ve told you before. You’re either onboard or your meat. Guess you’ve made your choice.” He stroked Jenny’s hair and in a softer tone, “Honey, it’s time to prepare the vessels.”

Jenny nodded and took up a large bowl that was sitting nearby on the ground. As if on cue, the boars all simultaneously knelt down as she began to dip her hand into the bowl and pull out a white paste of some kind. One by one, she painted symbols on the large, wide foreheads of the beasts as her mother intoned some kind of prayer.

“Great Hunter, new King of Hell, we beseech you to take this offering in your name. Take these creatures as your vessels, uses them for your ends and make their hunt, your hunt. Their kills, your kills. And know by the blood and the fear and the life that is consumed that we pledge to serve you as we served the Infernal Court in times past. This we pledge.”

With that, she turned and pointed at Beatrice. “You are not a part of this. You are now a part of them. The meat. The prey.” As one, the boars turned and regarded her briefly with the same hatred they had previously reserved for Alison and me.

“You’re all fucking crazy.” Alison had let go of my hand and took a step forward before a warning snort from the closest boar made her retreat. She pointed her finger at Jenny. “You fucking bitch. We took you in. Kyle has done everything to make you feel better. And what, it’s all a trick? A trap? Because you’re all part of some satanic cult or some bullshit?”

Jenny smiled thinly at her and waggled her hand. “Eh, technically we’re not satanic, but potato tomato. Pretty much yeah. But you should be saving your breath. You know, for the running and screaming.”

Alison stepped forward again and I saw she had a small can in her hand. Pepper spray. “Way ahead of you, cunt.” She hit the button and quickly fanned it back and forth into the faces of the four boars. The maze echoed with their angry screams of pain as Alison spun back to me and grabbed my arm. “Go!”

We plunged back into the corn, my sister’s speed and strength causing her to nearly drag me along as we went off in a new direction from the way we started. There was no time or breath to spare for talking or planning. I was just trying to not slow her down as my lungs burned and my heart thudded in my ears. Almost like the end of a terrible dream, I thought I could make out electric lights ahead. The ticket booth.

I never saw the thing that tripped me. One moment I was up, still running and keeping decent pace with Alison, and the next moment I was covered in dirt and gasping to reclaim the breath that had been knocked out of me. She stopped immediately and came back to pick me up. That was all the time the boars needed.

A black blur swept by and drove her off her feet. She landed ten feet further away, having actually skidded out of the edge of the corn and bumped against a trash can filled with the remains of that night’s crowd. I crawled forward and got to my feet, intent on helping her, but as I moved past the last of the corn, two of the boars bore down on her again, impaling her leg and her side with their now-bloody tusks. I screamed and went to attack them, to stop them from hurting her more, when I heard Alison’s voice.

“Go…run…now…take them…” I saw she was pointing with a twisted hand to where her pepper spray had fallen. It was attached to her car keys. I picked them up, planning on using the spray against the boars again, but a third was on her now too, all of them stomping and cutting and biting as they tore her apart. It was too late—or at least that’s what I told myself as I looked on in terror.

So I ran. Tears streaming down my face, I passed the ticket booth and the gate before turning to head into the parking lot. The boars didn’t follow, and though I could barely see through my sobbing, I managed to find the car easily in the mostly empty lot. I got in and was cranking up when I heard a knock at my window. I jumped and looked out to see Jenny smiling at me.

“We got our two sacrifices, so the boars aren’t coming after you. I’m glad that Beatrice decided to pipe up. I didn’t want you to be taken tonight.” She looked slightly sad. “I really did always like you best, Kyle.”

I didn’t want to roll down the window, so I just yelled through the glass. “I’m going to fucking kill you.” She said something else, but I was already slamming the car into reverse with the intention of running her over. I stopped to put it in drive, and when I looked up, she was gone.

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I told my parents and the police what happened, but no evidence has been found. No suspects have been arrested. The cornfield has been abandoned and Jenny has joined her parents as missing persons. I know that no one believes me. At least not the more fantastic parts of what happened. My parents think they were part of some crazy cult, and that I either imagined or exaggerated the boars and the walls and the rest. I can’t say I blame them. When they checked the cornfield, they didn’t find any walls or signs of animals out there.

But I know what happened to me. What happened to my sister. And I know it’s not over. Because I remember the last thing that Jenny said as I tried to run her down for killing Alison, for betraying all of us.

“See you next October.” 

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