Queen of The Maze

Trapped

This mornings wake up call was a lot better than yesterdays. This time I slept through the weird noises coming from around the glade, sleeping peacefully. I was woken up by the noise of the walls. That's a weird way to describe it. But that's literally what it was. I got up quickly, had a fucking freezing shower in my clothes, got changed, and headed to where the sound was coming from. Yesterday when I ran around the glade, it was evident that there was no way out. There were vines on the walls, but they didn't go all the way up. There were no breaks or parts in the wall, no escaping the square. The assholes who did this must have had some real good fun. But today there was a massive change. Really big. There were doors. In the wall. The walls had doors. The huge concrete gates moved out of the way to reveal a path. Concrete, with vines climbing up the sides. At the end of the path were two connecting paths. Different directions. No way to tell which one was correct. I though that was a little suspicious. 

I calmly walked into the wall with caution. No, scratch that. I bolted in thoughtlessly. I wanted to get out of there. I chose a path at random, remembering which way I went. As I kept running, I kept having to make choices of paths. It was like a maze. A maze with walls bigger than my ego, and I just knew that whatever sounds I was hearing at night, belonged to this place. The maze. I liked that. The maze and the glade. Has a nice ring to it! And so I guess I could call myself a mazegirl? gladee? No. Ive got it. A glader. Yes. I cleared my head, satisfied with my thoughts, and realised that I had no idea what my last turn was. I panicked. I retraced my steps with an educated guess, and with my heart pounding so loud in my chest I could hear it, I returned. It had felt like hours of running, but I had probably only been gone 30 minutes. 

For the next couple of hours I tried everything I could. Marks on the ground in charcoal so following myself back would be easier. I tried making a ladder so I could climb on top of the walls instead of through them. You would think that would work right? No. Some idiot had put a force field on the top. Couldn't get more than three steps no matter where on the walls I tried. I tried climbing across the vines on the walls in the maze. I sustained many injuries from that idea. By the time I had run out of ideas it was dinner time. The sun was setting. I was in the middle of kicking the wall repeatedly when I heard the same noise I do during the night. Like a growl and a scream at the same time, the most inhuman thing you could hear. I stood back from the maze entrance, contemplating whether to investigate the sound. I didn't get a chance to decide because the wall started moving again. Except this time it was closing. I had a split second to decide whether I wanted to spend a night (or however long those doors would close for) with the thing/things that where in there. My instincts told me I would have better chance not going. I love my instincts.

I turned away from the closed doors. I went and cooked some more venison over the fire. But tonight I didn't plan on sleeping. I planned to stay up and listen. Listen to the maze and whatever is in it. But before I settled in for a sleepless night, I walked over to the wall and ran my hand over the engraving. 3 days.

Nyla. 

For the countless days that followed, that was all I did. During the day I tended to the garden, hunted if I had to, cried a little, and ran the maze. The very odd thing was, mapping the maze was very hard to do. Why? Because it changed. The stupid maze, could change. I was wondering what the scraping sound I heard at night was. Turns out, it was the walls moving. Re-shaping the maze. Making me more confused as the days went by. And tired. I got my winks in between chores, but never felt safe enough to really close my eyes. Had to have one eye open. In case one night the doors didn't close, and the creatures that were out there came to my home. I decided to call them grievers. Because that's what they sound like. I've seen glimpses of them, when I travel really deep into the maze. weird metal looking arms, is all I've concluded about them. But they sound like they're grieving. Howling and wailing during the night, like the only one they've every loved is gone. I know for a fact they aren't human because humans sure as hell can not reach those octaves. 

"I'm starting to go insane. The only thing keeping me grounded is the idea of the box coming back up to take me back, Or the MAZE STOPPING THE SWITCHY WALLS EVERY FUCKIN NIGHT!!!"

Each day, after I've had my dinner, I walk up to the wall and touch my name, reminding me of how long it's been. 30 days and it still remains the same, like nothing else in this world.

Nyla.