Maze

-Epilogue-

Thursday, October 31st, 2014. 3:13AM. Police arrived on the scene at the residence of Mrs. And Mr. George Howell, 497 Willow Drive, Windsor Locks, Connecticut. They drove up the dirt road and approached the front gate and discovered the wrecked car of one Jefferson Sheffield. Severing the chain with bolt cutters, they were able to pry the gate open. After entering the property, they discovered what was Amber's blood splattered across the interior of the vehicle. They continued on up to the house with haste. The sounds of the sirens drew Emily out of the tent. She was hysterical and clutching onto a necklace that she had removed from the body of Thomas when she had found his lifeless corpse. George came dashing out of the house after concluding a phone call with the authorities to report the death of his son and grandson, plus the other bodies they had come across.

They had been dispatched because of Amber's call so when they came closer to Emily, and noticed the blood on her clothes from cuddling her departed son's body, they drew their weapons and demanded that she remain where she stood with her hands in the air. They requested the same of George. Four of the seven officers proceeded into the maze, while the remaining three stayed to restrain them in handcuffs. The four officers split up inside the tent and searched for the victims responsible for the call that brought them there.

A younger officer, only having been on the force for a year, was the one to discover the body of Thomas Howell, age fourteen. It was an appalling sight, and although the display of the corpse was not gruesome, it was enough for him to be sick. Another officer came across Jefferson Sheffield's body when he caught out of the corner of his eye the stream of blood trickling from the bottom of the closed iron maiden, rendered speechless when he opened the door and saw the state of the deceased. The other two officers searched as a pair, and together found Brian Sheffield and Matthew Howell. Brian was lying on his side, one end of the bone still protruding from his eye socket. Matthew has been found prone, with his eyes closed and thin streaks of red running over them from when Emily had shut them with her fingers that were dampened by his blood.

After exiting the maze, they called for back-up. While waiting for their arrival, the officers on scene continued to search the premises. The same officer that had found Thomas was also the one to find the body of Tessa Donahue. When the remaining officers searched the house, they did not discover any more bodies, but came across Emily's studio. They saw her various tools for sculpting and her supply of wax and other materials necessary for her to carry out her craft. Among those items, they found objects used for taxidermy and preserving physical remains of once living beings. Once the back-up had reached the property they initiated the procedure for this type of occurrence. Although they had no evidence that any of these murders had happened at the hands of the Howells, they were taken in for questioning.

Several hours of interrogation had taken place and police were disappointed to discover that Emily and George had been telling the truth, leaving them with no leads. Their stories had been honest and contained no flaws. Emily had come from a family of politicians. She was also from one of the wealthiest families in upstate New York, where she attended the fine arts college Bard. After receiving her degree, she honed her craft further and received employment at Madame Tussaud's House of Wax in NYC. George, on the other hand, had been raised in rural North Carolina on a small farm. Although he continued to practice agriculture, he had made a living off a construction company he started after working in the field for a few years once he completed his high school education. The two had met in the city when George was there for a construction conference and Emily had been out enjoying her day off. It was not long after they met that the two married.

The newlywed couple moved to Connecticut where they had been given a large piece of property by Emily's parents. George had spent the next two years constructing their dream home, and working on the land. Emily retired and focused on raising their child, but kept up with her art. George had started another construction company, and after a couple of years of much success, sold it for a nice profit. He retired prematurely and spent most of his tending to their land, and constructing an area for livestock so they could become more self-sufficient, which helped keep their wealth very much intact.

Once their son was older and out of the house more often than not, the two had become bored and wanted a project to work on. It was then that Emily had the idea to utilize their excess land to create a way to display her art to the public and also allow George to have a way to work on his passion for building; thus the maze was born. It started out as an all wax display but over the years they got the idea to use excess parts from the livestock they would not use for food and all the haul from Matthew's hunting trips as a way to intensify the horror aspect of the maze. It had been a very popular attraction up until five years prior. As they got older their energy had faded, and the maze became a seasonal attraction and had lost much of its word of mouth attention, especially after it closed for two seasons due to a surgery Emily underwent.

One of the detectives assigned to the case was a specialist in osteology and anatomy. He examined the displays inside the maze and was able to decipher what bones and organs belonged to what. Emily used parts that had closest resembled that of the remains of humans. Cow brains were used instead of a person's. What Brian had thought was the small intestine of a human was actually that of a deer. Every bone on display had also come from cattle and deer, and various other animals Matthew had hunted. The remaining items, which were figures resembling deceased human bodies and remains, were all constructed from wax and sculpted with extremely close attention to detail.

After no longer being considered suspects, the Howells were questioned on any information they had pertaining to the murdered persons on their property besides that of their kin. They were not able to provide them with much information. The only essential piece of information they had was that originally a group of four had entered the property, but only three had remained. The fourth, which they knew to be Amber based off the phone call she had placed, was reported missing. An APB was placed for her. The Howells had been released from custody. But when authorities returned to their property a couple of days later with follow up questions, the bodies of Emily and George were found hanging at the entrance of the maze, swaying in the breeze like wind chimes but silent as snowflakes coming into contact with frozen solid land.

Three years have passed since the Windsor Halloween Murders; an unidentified suspect remains at large and the case of the disappearance of Amber Wallace has been closed and left unsolved.