Short gothic horror stories

The maze.

It's been two months now. Ten missing posters have already appeared on the board. And now, our co-worker Emily has had her missing poster put up. How could we let this happen? One of our own is gone, but we still have no leads. It needs to stop. Now.

We have arranged to go to the deserted town on the edge of our city. It was the last place Emily went. She said she'd found a connection between all the missings. Maybe, Maybe the perpetrator knew that and decided to take her. If only I had joined her. She wouldn't have gone missing. So now it's my job to find her. Bring her home safe.

We set up our car and headed to the town. The silence was almost deafening as we entered. As if time itself had stopped. Nobody uttered a word, but I could tell they were all just as nervous as I was. Elizabeth clung to Miko. It was clear she didn't like it here. Kai reluctantly pulled the car to a stop. "This is for Emily...You wouldn't want her to turn her back on you, would you? So let's do this." He mumbled before getting out of the car. Elizabeth got out, me and Miko follwing.

Everybody was paranoid and scared. But nobody seemed to want to admit it. There were no twigs or sticks on the path we were following, but I swear I could hear snapping behind us. I brushed it off as my mind playing tricks on me and continued, putting on a brave facade. We kept walking, but suddenly I felt a cold pain before everything around me faded to black.

I woke up. Kai was lay next to me, limp. I shook him a few times, and he sprang back to consciousness. I helped him up before we observed our surroundings. It seemed like we were in some sort of maze, but there are no mazes anywhere near our city. And what happened to the others?! There was a shadowy figure at the end of the hallway, I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, but I knew it was there. When I turned to take a good look at it, it seemed to almost vanish into thin air. I shook my head and followed Kai down the corridor.

We walked and walked. It all seemed hopeless. Until we saw Elizabeth beckon us in her direction. I stumbled forward, Kai followed. After a while, we saw light. We were getting out! But where was Miko? We shook these thoughts before heading towards the light. Freedom.

It had all gone to plan, the fools trusted me. Miko smiled as he painted the last x on. Only one had gotten out alive. But I'm sure nobody will believe him. We drugged him. There is no way anybody is going to believe somebody who was on drugs, will they?