The Night Tournaments

23 - Arielle

~ A Few Hours Ago ~

I yelped when the surprise neighborhood parade engulfed me and my friends, swallowing us whole. Clowns, donkeys, witches, ghosts - you name it - banged deafening drums in our ears and shoved us around, and I tried to cover my eyes and ears.

"Arielle! This way!" A familiar voice called just then, and I squinted to see Archer West frantically beckoning me to join him from the other side of the mob. With difficulty, I stumbled my way through the thick crowd and finally reached him, and he grabbed my wrist before leading me into a different, parade-free street.

The two of us sprinted away from the noise and slowed down to catch our breaths as soon as the horde was out of sight.

"Whew, that was a close one," Archer said, panting.

I smiled at him, exhaling as well. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Archer. But . . . what about the rest of our friends?"

"I can't see any of them from here," he answered as he peered at the place where the parade had just been. "Hmm, that's strange - if they safely separated themselves from the crowd, we would be able to spot them somewhere."

"Should we go back to find them?" I asked, worried. If Archer hadn't yanked me out in time, I was pretty sure that I would've still been stuck in the midst of the parade, too.

"We'll have a low success rate," he told me as he resignedly shook his head. "I'm assuming that Bree and Flynn will eventually find themselves a way out, if they haven't already . . . but I'm a bit concerned about Claude."

I laughed uneasily. "Well, um . . . I trust that Bree and Flynn will take care of him. And they'll probably realize that we already got out, right?"

"Hopefully," Archer agreed, scratching his head. "If anything goes wrong, we'll likely get a call from them, so . . . maybe we don't need to worry too much? It's a shame that we all had to split up, though."

"Yeah, that's a bummer," I said as I sighed. "But I'm positive that they'll figure everything out on their own just fine."

"Then, in the meantime . . . what should we do first?" he inquired, slightly awkwardly. "If I'm remembering correctly, this neighborhood usually has some pretty awesome stuff to try out."

"Hmm . . . is there anything that you recommend?" I said cheekily as I crossed my arms. "I'm basically open to anything, as long as there's no risk of death."

Archer looked into the distance, then excitedly pointed. "Ooh, it looks like there's a haunted corn maze over there."

"Oh, I've actually never been in one," I remarked, biting my lip. "Is . . . is it similar to a haunted house, just outdoors?"

"Kind of," he explained. "It requires us to find paths through the maze and make it to the other side, and along the way, there's atmospheric fog, strobe lights, and scare actors. It's a real thriller, because it's clearly very easy to get lost."

"O-oh," I said, unsuccessfully attempting to sound confident. "I - I do get pretty easily scared, though . . . is that all right with you, Archer?"

He just chuckled and ruffled my hair. "Don't worry; I'll make sure that you don't get hurt. Just try to enjoy the experience!"

I nodded and took a deep breath before we entered the haunted corn maze. I really, really didn't like jump scares, but I wasn't about to ruin all of the fun on Halloween night. Besides, I wanted to venture outside of my comfort zone a little, at least for today.