The Maze

Hope Didn't Get Me Very Far

(A/N: Before we begin the first chapter, I would also like to inform y'all that the prologue has no set time period, but the first chapter is when the main character, Ashley, is entering the small town called Sacramentum, California where the maze is located, even though she doesn't know that yet. Sorry for interrupting into the story, just thought I'd give y'all a quick heads up there)

All I could think of was how strange everyone looked when they saw me arriving in the front seat of the truck next to my mother. They stared at me as we drove past. The people I saw ranged from small, playful children that stopped in shock when my mom's car drove by to gawking elderlies, almost tripping over their own feet or cane as they saw the red truck driving into the town. What was up with these people?

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The staring didn't stop until our car was parked at the house, and even after we entered, it still felt awful silent.

I asked, "mom, what is this place?"

"It's one of the smallest, most secret towns I could find in California that has the cheapest plots of land for us to live on," my mom explained as she set down her car keys on a table, starting to unwrap the pieces of cloth covering all the furniture and to start unpacking boxes. "I thought I told you about this place before honey."

"You have," I stuttered, "I just - I - I don't know, I guess I thought it would be different and not have a million strangers staring at me as you drove your red truck. When you said we'd be moving to a place called Sacramentum, California I thought you were just kidding. It's the weirdest name for a town. Did you take Latin back in high-school? Do you know what Sacramentum means?"

"No," my mother replied, just shaking her head as her long, auburn hair whipped through the air of the small home.

"Sacramentum means mystery in Latin," I explained, shaking my head as I forced my butt down upon a sofa covered in a dirty white piece of fabric.

My mother questioned, "so this place is literally Mystery, California?" I nodded my head as my mother giggled and exclaimed, "then who knows about this place, darling. Maybe this entire town is a mystery and you're going to crack it. Maybe you might be Sherlock Holmes in disguise."

"Yeah, as if Sherlock would want to disguise himself as a sixteen year old teenager with acne, anxiety, and a divorced family whose house just burnt down, causing them to move to the most unlikely place in the world; Sacramentum, California," I muttered under my breath as my mom began to take the pieces of cloth off of the furniture.

She asked, "did you'd say something honey?"

"No," I replied with a fake smile.

My mom smiled back and exclaimed, "well then, come and help your old mother over here in getting this place ready to become a home."

"Let's hope it's not a forever home," I muttered yet again, getting off of the sofa and placing my fingers around the edges of the cloth before tearing it away to reveal a red sofa underneath.

"Aye," my mother replied, "let's hope."

Hope didn't get me very far...

(559 words)