The Maze

Okay..so I won't be finishing up Silver Grin here. Although I have nearly completed the second half. This has turned out to be an excellent story, and I want to tweak it a bit more. It's fun to work out the kinks in this one for some reason.
Anyway, back to what this blog is about...stories.
Here's one, a short one, appropriate for us horror writers favorite holiday...Halloween.
Enjoy.

The Maze
By Lucas Pederson

Moving fast through the corn, Gabby glanced over her shoulder.
Was it still following her? She didn't know, nor did she want to know. She had to get out this maze before it found her.

Of all the haunted attractions out there why did David have to pick this one? In a place where folks were supposed to dress up in scary costumes and jump out at you, this was where real monsters stalked. Now those monsters had killed David, her boyfriend, and were chasing her through the maze. They would eat her too if she stopped.

Winding this way and that, trying not to brush any of the yellowed corn stalks and give away her position, Gabby wondered if the maze even had an end. It felt as though she'd been running for hours. Her legs burned, and she could barely breathe.

Behind her, something let loose a deep roar that vibrated her from the inside out.

GAbby began to cry then. There was no way out. No way out of this fucking maze!

Something crashed toward her through the corn stalks from the right and she couldn't help but scream. Terror sent panic through her mind like a wild fire. Gabby could not stop screaming.

Claws reached out at her from between stalks, slashing, wanting to tear her open and splatter her blood all over the corn stalks. Somehow, she managed to dodge these and kept running.

A large mound appeared in the trail ahead of her and she hurdled it like a track star. She couldn't stop. If she stopped, they'd get her.

Still screaming, heart racing as fast as her legs pumped, Gabby emerged into a gloomy swamp.

Here, she stopped, the change had been so drastic that it took her a moment to realize she'd made it out of the maze. But, where was she now?

The ground rolled and groaned under her feet. Stagnant swamp water gave the place a stink she wasn't sure she'd be able to take for long.

Gabby started forward when a pale hand shot up from the moist ground and and latched onto her right ankle. She shrieked and and managed to kick free of the grappling hand.

She staggered forward, gasping, her heart racing. God, oh God, she wasn't out of the maze. This was the part of it. A swamp of horrors hidden within the dry stalks of corn. Any rational person could tell her that wasn't possible, but this whole place wasn't rational, the maze wasn't rational.

The hand slipped back into the earth with a sick squelching sound.

Things groaned and tittered all around her. She turned in a full circle, unsure. Unlike the corn, there was no paths here to follow, just open swamp land that stank like putrefying shit. She gagged, moving deeper into the swamp, tears filled her eyes.

Soon she came to a stop, gaping a large placid pond infested with brown stuff like algae. There appeared to be no way around the pond. Gabby stepped closer, grimacing. She didn't want swim in that muck. But if she had to...

Silver snakes, no, not snakes, tentacles, shot out of the water and lashed out at her.

Gabby shrieked, jumping backwards..but she was too late. Two of the tentacles wrapped themselves around her body, on around her waist, the other her chest, and lifted her into the air.

From out of the filthy water arose a horror so grotesque, one look drove all sanity from her mind. A monster with a huge maw lined with millions of shark-like teeth. Red slanted eyes.

Gabby shrieked.

She was still shrieking as the monstrosity swallowed her whole.

The End

Happy Halloween everyone! I might get one more scary story in before Halloween day...we'll see. Time is difficult to harness now days...
Thanks...Later.

NEWS!!!

My dear friends!

I know I was supposed to finish out the story Silver Grin couple weeks ago now, but I've been extremely busy. However, this is business of different sort, for change.

Here's my news: I have had acceptances at two online publishers!!! Yes! Me! Finally! I am now officially a published writer! My hands tremble as I write this for I am so excited. I'm so damn happy! One story, called "Snap", can be found here: www.steelmoonpublishing.us Click the Enter Ezine button. I submitted here to enter a contest, and they published my story on their website under "Contest Stories". Soon folks are going to start voting for which story they like. And whoever wins gets ten dollars and placed on the Hall of Flame. Still, even without winning the contest, I feel as though I have won already. I got an acceptance. Someone wanted something I wrote, thought it was good. I'm happy.

The second story was accepted by Whortel Berry Press. I'll post the link as soon as my story is put up. Here, I just sent a story and it was accepted two, maybe three days later! They are going to place it on what they call Stars of Tomorrow. From there it will then eventually, hopefully, make its way into an anthology, if the editor feels it fits the book's theme, whatever that may be. Still, again, it's an acceptance. Now I got two under my belt, and I couldn't be happier!

I want to thank all of you. Without your feeback, and your encouragement, your kindness, I probably would have been stuck as I was before I even knew what a blog was. Stuck, and writing aimlessly. So thank you, my friends, thank you so much for all your help. I'm on my way!!!