The Garden of Heathen

The Box

Aussie was pulled from a very pleasant slumber. As she slowly came around from her unusually blissful sleep she remembered that she was sharing the floor with Gally, so that's probably who's hand she was holding close to her chest. Her eyes fluttered open to see Gally laying on his side facing her, their foreheads almost touching. When she looked up her nose slightly brushed his and she felt his hand grip hers a little before a contented little hum resonated in his throat. Aussie felt a little smile tug on the corner of her mouth, but it was soon erased by a familiar noise, the one that woke her up in the first place.

Aussie would recognize the creak of the box doors being opened anywhere. But no alarm had gone off, who was opening them and why?

She slowly sat up and tried to gently slip her hands from Gally's but he held tight and his eyes opened. She put her free hand to her lips to shush him as she nodded toward the window. They crouched shoulder to shoulder as they looked across the dimly lit Garden. It looked like almost all the girls were gathered around the box. Seeing it wasn't grievers, Aussie jumped up and shook Gertie and Georgia before running out of her house, a sleepy and confused Gally hot on her heels.

"What's going on?" Aussie asked as she came up to the box and saw the black abyss of the empty shaft.

The girls parted and she saw Hedy standing there with a rope, illuminated by the few lanterns that were now lit.

"What are you doing?" Aussie asked gravely as a bad feeling took over her gut.

Gertie and Georgia caught up just then and stopped short in shock at the gaping pit in front of them. Gertie felt Gally grab her shoulder before he whispered for her to go find Joan. That was when she realized that not all the girls had gathered at the box. She crept away into the shadows before sprinting for the house.

"Hedy figured it out," Lanie said with a pleased smile. "The box is the rabbit hole you talked about."

"What?" Aussie asked confused.

"It just makes sense, doesn't it? It'll be so-"

"Uh, no it doesn't make sense," Aussie interrupted. "Lanie, Hedy, you were both here when we tried the box before. We dropped so much stuff down it, it's almost bottomless-"

"But it's not," Hedy interrupted her. "The box comes from somewhere and that's where we're going."

Aussie gave her a look of disbelief.
"This is crazy! We've tried this before, the White Rabbit clue we're supposed to follow hasn't even shown up, and if it was this simple why is there a whole shucking maze out there?" Aussie listed off on her fingers, getting annoyed by the lack of reason. She'd taken a step forward and Gally grabbed the back of her shirt to keep her from getting too close to edge. "Nothing has even changed yet- the note said things would change and there would be a sign and that's when we're supposed to go."

"Things have changed," Hedy replied. "The grievers are coming into the Garden."

Aussie's blood ran cold as she locked eyes with Hedy, knowing full well that her suspicions were right. Hedy was responsible for the goat. She'd staged it all so she could scare the girls and convince them to try her way. To be their savior.

"The maze was just a distraction, they put the monsters in there to keep us out," Lanie said calmly as if she'd rehearsed this before hand. To Aussie she just sounded brainwashed. "It's really simple. It's the safe way out."

"Why would they put us all here and torment us if there was a simple way out?!" Aussie yelled.

Gertie was jogging back with Joan and the rest of the girls.