CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The spotlight from Ollie’s cruiser sliced a blazing hole through the black landscape. Only a few feet in front of them, Rosemarie and David were hunched over. Their frames were locked together, knotted in a struggle.
“I changed my mind, I changed my mind,” Alex said. “I wish we’d been wrong!”
Makani threw open her door and bolted through the icy air and muddy grass. The other three doors flung open behind her.
David twisted his body behind Rosemarie’s, securing an arm around her neck. His knife aimed for her throat. It was coated with a liquid shadow of fresh blood.
Rosemarie’s round face looked pinched and paralyzed. Makani saw the whites of her eyes like a spooked horse. Her long, straight hair leaned to one side as she held all her weight on a single leg. She clutched at the other.
Everything happened in an instant.
Alex screamed toward David. He turned in the direction of her caterwaul, angling Rosemarie toward her and leaving his back to Makani. Makani jumped on him. Everyone toppled to the ground, and Rosemarie cried out. Arms and legs and torsos tangled, and other hands were prying them apart, but Makani couldn’t tell whose hands were friendly and whose were his. Another cry shredded the night.
David wriggled out from the pile. His head turned back to them, and his eyes flashed as he recognized Makani. She was trapped, and he was right there.
But he was outnumbered. So he ran.
Rosemarie was curled up like a fallen leaf. Makani touched an unmoving shoulder, bracing for the worst. And then the girl looked up.
“Oh my God. Oh, thank God.” Makani began to weep. “Are you okay?”
“Just this leg. It hurts to move.” Rosemarie seemed a little dazed, but she gestured to the gash in her thigh. “How did you know—”
Darby dropped to his knees with a strangled sound. At first, Makani thought he’d been injured. But he was looking at Alex. Makani crawled forward.
No. Please. No.
It was starting to snow. Or maybe it had been snowing this whole time. Makani suddenly felt the cold wetness against her cheeks. She glanced up as David vanished into the maze. Plump flakes tumbled behind him through the car’s spotlight and headlights.
Ollie stood frozen above them. Maybe he was back inside the cereal aisle at Greeley’s, trying to decide whether to stay or give chase. The world felt locked in suspended animation. The only thing alive was the snow.
And then Darby released a gut-wrenching wail, and Makani knew. They all knew.
As Makani reached for Darby, Ollie shot toward the maze. Darby shuddered, hysterical, stretching to touch Alex but then pulling back his hand, afraid. The bumpy white vertebrae of her spine were exposed. Her neck had been slashed so deeply and so far across that she’d nearly been decapitated.
Makani’s skin went clammy. Bile rose in her throat.
Rosemarie pulled herself toward them but then turned away in shock.
“Call the police,” Makani said, clambering upright to face the enormous maze. The wind gusted, and the stalks swayed and rippled outward. Ollie dove into the current. So many people were in there. She couldn’t leave him to face the massacre alone. The cops were on the other side of Osborne; it would take them too long to arrive.
Rosemarie made a noise of surprise, no doubt discovering the missed calls on her phone. “It’s searching for a signal,” she said with frustration.
Makani nodded at Rosemarie and Darby. “Stay together.”
“No way.” Darby scurried to his feet, wiping tears and snot onto his sleeve. “I’m coming with you.”
Makani didn’t protest. They ran, full throttle.
Snapped cornstalks revealed David and Ollie’s entrance. The outer wall was at least a dozen stalks thick, and the brittle leaf blades scratched and tore Makani’s skin. Snow that had landed on the plants flew back into the air. Strobes burst erratically. A sinister soundtrack blared. Screams chorused nearby, and Makani’s chest seized, but the screams were followed by laughter. Just a couple of friends, stumbling across a costumed ghoul.
She exploded out from the stalks. Three guys shrieked, completely losing their shit. One of them was wearing a camouflage hoodie. Makani fell backward, but Darby caught her as he crashed through. The hoodie guy screamed again, but the other two were already cracking up. Thinking they were in on the haunted maze’s joke.
Makani took a second look.
It was a David Ware costume. The guy was also holding a plastic knife. She held back her fury to warn them. “You have to get out of here. It’s not safe!” She pointed toward the crushed cornstalks. “There are two girls out there who need your help!”
The hoodie guy grinned. “Ooooh.”
“You don’t understand,” Darby said. “David is inside the maze. He just slaughtered my best friend.”
“Ooooh,” the trio said together, louder. They shook their hands with the universal sign for spooky.
Makani couldn’t afford to give them any more time. “Which way did they go?”
Darby had the sense to look at the ground. Brace roots reached out from the soil like swollen fingers. Ears of fallen corn looked like blackened teeth and shrunken heads, their silks dangling like stringy hair. It was less muddy along the path—straw had been sprinkled over the whole thing—but it was muddy enough, and the indentations caused by two sets of running footprints were clear.
He pointed. “Here!”
The tracks led away from the point where Makani and Darby had entered the maze. “Go look! You’ll see them,” Makani shouted to the trio as she and Darby took off. As they rounded the corner, out of sight, Makani heard one of them ask, “Why weren’t they dressed up like the others?”
They traced over the doubled footprints, turn after turn. Every time someone screamed, Makani jumped. A sharp right, and teenage boy covered in blood and wielding straight razor leaped out at them. Makani and Darby shrieked and recoiled. But he was in Victorian costume, and the razor wasn’t real.
“So, you’ve found old Sweeney,” the boy said in a rough accent, somewhere between cockney and Australian. “But will you discover his secret?”
Darby’s brow rose with recognition. “Jonathan?”
“Ain’t nobody here who goes by that name, mate. The name’s Todd, Sweeney Todd, and—”
“Jonathan.” Makani didn’t know who Jonathan was, other than clearly he was from the drama club. “Did you see them? Did you see Ollie or David?”
Immediately, Jonathan dropped the act. Even in the violent strobe light, even underneath his pancake makeup, she saw belief—and then horror—register on his face. “He’s here? David Ware is here?”
“You have to warn them! You have to get everyone out of here!” Makani said.
“Go,” Darby said. “Go!”
Jonathan skittered away as Makani and Darby raced back down the trail. “Get out of the maze,” they shouted to everyone. “Get out of here, now! David is here!”