The Spooky Maze

Aarav's Adventures

"Enter at your own peril" - the tacky neon board read far from our sight as we roamed around the traditional haunted maze-type place that's been going on from aeons in our Udaipur. I can't quite remember who convinced us to visit this hell of a place, and how. It may have been Naman, crying out loud for never having been a part of an old tradition. Myra and Zarina seemed pretty convinced, and well, I didn't want to miss out on Naman's face when he would finally face his fears of clowns. Oh yes, that was the "rule" of the maze we were supposedly going to enter. I could sense the regret he felt when we broke this rule to him. Well, we all could since his face literally started sweating and lost all of the pink it had due to the chilly night of Halloween!
Oh I forgot to introduce myself, I am Aarav, and all four of us were really excited for this adventure,little did we know that the adventure was more excited to thrill us.

Here's how the haunted maze looked like-dark, haunted characters here and there, orange all over the place, spooky pumpkins, dummy mummies with loosely tied white tape hanging. Something was different about this maze  that were the vibes ha. The place had all imaginable props, set-ups, situations, characters, real living things and everything which would induce fear in anyone who entered. You name any deep-rooted fear, and they will provide you with something - physically, psychologically, visually - which would eventually force you to face it and win over it. And if one couldn't conquer his fears? Well, then, he/she would have to spend the night in the maze. Believe it or not, that was the rule, and while we laughed it off as too lame, Naman was sweating dry heavily. Nevertheless, we couldn't care less about some social initiative that came up in Indian minds to help us face our fears. Naman, however, kept insisting while also turning visibly blue, that we went inside, and so giving in to his tantrums, we did.

Zarina showed no signs of fear, and we all knew for sure that the maze couldn't get to her, for everyone feared Zarina, but as for her, she feared nothing. Myra, on the other hand, is a little scaredy-cat; she feared the tiniest of things, but most of all, she was horrified of mirrors. I have a strong feeling for years now that it's because she's afraid to look at her tiny nose in the mirror. 

Anyway, after a long series of debates we entered the maze. Did we take the right decision? -Well, we were still unsure. Now, the frightened four commenced the dreadful maze hand in hand. We walked further into this labyrinth of fears, leading us to a door with skull carved on it. I opened the door leading to a room, cringing at the creak of the door halfway into the room, and door slammed shut. Myra and Naman screamed with panic, chills went down my spine. There was definitely something different about this maze; a feeling of light-headedness was building up as I looked around.

Dust, cobwebs, ripped curtains, a flickering chandelier with broken strings of crystals, a chair and a gloomy staircase. Rancid breath and mildew smell filled the room, rat squeaking and suddenly the chair jolted back tilting towards us, a gracious invitation by the invisible and the unknown. We held on to each other as a shiver curled through the hair on the back of my neck and cascaded down my spine. Myra was about to break down when a roaring menacing laugh rang in our ears. The voice reverberated, “Welcome, visitors. To continue with the maze, take  the stairs, and do not look back, ever! The rule is simple: conquer your fear or your fears will conquer you.”

We walked upstairs, resisting every urge to look back. We were about to reach and  Naman missed a step. His cry echoed as I held his hand without turning back. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Myra whispered, “let's stay together, I- “. A windy storm took over us, and while we tried our best not to let go of each other's hands, a sensation of being dragged took over me, and I yelled “Definitely not the right decision, stay stro-“ and the frightened four parted ways forcibly so.