Thursday, October 25, 2007

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.

8 comments:

LoveRundle said...

http://www.splatterpunkpress.com/

It's a publishing house looking for short stories that I think really fit your genre, such as the story you wrote, "Chop Shop." The bad thing is that they don't offer much in the way of money for the story, so you might have to put a little charity into this offer, but you'll have something in print if they pick you up. It's so completely outside the genre I write, but I'm thinking about writing something anyway, and submitting it. Tell me if you submit to them okay! Happy Writing!

Charles Gramlich said...

Cool description.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Happy halloween. Splatterpunkpress, eh? Not too shabby, this one.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

long time, no see (or read), lucas. loved the story.

Lucas Pederson said...

Christina, thanks for the site address. I checked it out and it seems appropriate for some the stories I write. Yet, I noticed on the guidelines page, at the top, it said something about being closed. I don't know if that's for submissions or not. It sort of confused me. I'm going to send them an email asking them about it. When I know, you'll know. Thanks again...and Happy Halloween!

Charles, thanks buddy! Happy Halloween!

Stewart, great to see you! Yeah, I check it out, it looks pretty good. We'll see. Happy Halloween!

Wayne...oh my God you are alive! :-) Wonderful to see you stop by. My apologies for not making enough time to stop by your place for a little commenting. I feel as though I'm being swept away by everything all at once. Sort of scary. Anyway, Happy Halloween to you!

Fab said...

Another great story Lucas! Really enjoyed this one!

(sorry for not been able to visit sooner)

Lucas Pederson said...

Fab, thanks and don't worry about visiting late...if there is such a thing. I've been meaning to visit all my friends, but I was moved to 3rd shift at John Deere and thrown on ten hour days, plus Saturdays, and I've got a couple good stories in the works, one of which is the novel I've been working on since this summer. So, it's quite alright, my friend, at least you stopped by, and that's good enough for me. Later.

Fab said...

Ah then I shouldn't feel to guilty! Yeah my job doesn't make it possible to blog as much as I did before...