God's Gone AWOL

[3] *intense screaming* (Part 2)

Every time they reached a dead end, Atticus would just blast through the maze using his endless supply of holy fire. However, behind them, the same BOOMing sounds just grew louder and louder. The time between thundering echoes grew shorter, and the ground shook harder. Almost as if whatever it was, was running towards them, each second drawing closer at an alarming rate.

At one point, they burned their way through a hedge, only to find themselves in another square garden. If it weren't for the horrific sound of some giant, unseen monstrosity chasing them, Atticus would have felt inclined to stop and read the obelisk at the center. However, unlocking the rhyming riddle of the maze was no longer on the agenda, so long as he could use brute force to escape.

"Wait! But the obelisk—!" Bentley started.

Atticus ignored this and just kept running, dragging her along with him without a second of hesitation. They ran all the way to the other side of the garden before they both suddenly came to a halt. Another cold shiver washed across Atticus, body, causing his hair to stand on end.

Those massive footsteps had stopped.

Everything was completely silent.

"Bentley—?" Atticus was just about to speak when all of the sudden, a gut-wrenching scream erupted from somewhere nearby.

It wasn't the bellowing cry of a monster. Nor was it the wail of a lost soul. It was the wretched, explosion of sound drawn from the depths of a human body experiencing unbearable pain. And as far as Atticus knew, there was only one human anywhere in the near vicinity.

"It's Leslie," He said at once.

Then he took off, running towards where the sound had come from. Or at least in the rough direction. In a place like this, it was hard to pinpoint the location of anything.

"Wait, Atticus," Bentley called after him, "Don't just run away!"

It was too late. He'd already charged off into the tangled mess. With a little sigh, Bentley reluctantly ran after him. The two wove between hedge after hedge, wall after wall. There was no sign of Leslie anywhere.

"Leslie!" Atticus called, "Leslie, are you alright?"

"Did that shriek of terror sound alright to you??" Bentley yelled from behind.

He called out Leslie name again, but there was no answer. In fact, there was no sound at all. No more screams. No more BOOMing. No more crows shouting in alarm. Just his and Bentley's intermingled breath, floating in the white air. This wasn't a promising sign, but Atticus wouldn't give up. So he just continued walking forward.

Until he found something.

Something small and black caught his eye. It was partially buried in of one of the hedges, right as the maze rounded a corner. It wasn't anything extraordinary or dangerous looking, but the fact that it wasn't a plant made it stand out tremendously. Atticus rushed forward to pick it up, but once he saw what it was, his pupils quickly shrank.

It was a hat. Specifically, a hat belonging to a bellhop uniform. And there was blood on it.

Instinctively, Atticus looked around the corner of the maze. When he saw what was ahead of him, his eyes flashed a dangerous shade of gold.

"What? What is it?" Bentley came hurrying up to join him. "Oh..."

A heavy scent of iron permeated the air. The path ahead was stained red, dripping with fresh blood. It soaked through the grass beneath their feet, as though each green blade had fought a vicious battle like a true weapon. The trail dragged on into the fog. Whoever the blood belonged to had been dragged rather violently for a rather long way.

"We need to find him," Atticus said quietly.

Bentley said nothing and just nodded. Heart pounding, Atticus took the lead, following the gruesome trail deeper into the maze. But even as they went, they didn't see any other trace of the missing bellhop. There was plenty of blood. Blood on the ground, blood on the hedges, blood on their shoes. But there was no other evidence of Leslie or even his body.

Neither Atticus nor Bentley felt any relief at this.

They followed the trail right up until they met a dead end. But the blood hadn't changed directions, which meant the maze must have grown over the path again. Oh well. Time for more holy fire. As soon as there was a good enough size of a burning hole in the hedge, Atticus climbed through. Then Bentley followed shortly after.

Neither was prepared for the sight on the other side. Atticus had been expecting either another set of green hallways, or a horrific b****y c****x somehow involving Leslie's dead body. He was not expecting to see a beautiful garden, filled with flowers, marble statues, and butterflies. After tumbling through their smoking and rather unorthodox entranceway, both he and Bentley froze in alarm.

Heaven had a garden similar to this one. Atticus had once heard it described as "The only splash of colour in the entire realm." which was actually quite accurate. Heaven's garden was famous for being the most luxurious and fragrant in the entire universe. Compared to this one, it was larger, of course. And the variety of plants was much greater. But the marble statues, the benches, the cleanliness of it all, even the softness of the surrounding air was very familiar. Atticus couldn't help but feel a little put-off by the entire place. Although it felt like a sanctuary compared to the spiraling hell of shrubbery behind them, something about it was strange.

Both Atticus and Bentley's eyes shifted to the structure in the middle. It was an angel statue, about fifteen feet tall. It was carved beautifully in renaissance style, with long elegant curls draped over its loose robe. Two white hands were pressed together and its smooth face was tilted upwards, as though in relaxed prayer. A gentle and benevolent smile pulled at the corner of its lips, causing its handsome features to appear even more appealing. To create such a work of art must have taken an astonishing amount of effort.

The only thing peculiar about it was the eyes. They were a dazzling gold, as though they were painted as an afterthought. The effect made Atticus a little uneasy again.

"I wonder which angel that's supposed to be. They're awfully pretty," Bentley started, then she saw the expression on Atticus' face. "Not as pretty as you! But still pretty,"

Atticus didn't respond to her.

"The trail of blood ends here," He said.

"Ah, so it does. Do you think that boy might be somewhere in this garden?"

"That's what I'm worried about,"

"Well the best we can do is look, right?" Bentley said.

Atticus nodded.

After looking around the garden for a while, there was still no sign of Leslie the Bellhop. There was, however, something else. Upon examining the angel statue closer, Bentley discovered that it was standing on a trap door. Specifically, a sparkling, golden trapdoor. A rush of relief washed over both of them, they had finally found the way out.

"The statue must be here to guard it," Atticus said.

"So how do we get it off?" Bentley asked, "Ask it to kindly step aside?"

"You may try. If that doesn't work, I'm willing to destroy anything that stands in our way of freedom,"

He was right. They could probably just blow the statue to bits. After all, it was a big ol' piece of rock. Atticus had already burned half the maze to ashes in desperation, so it wasn't like he had any respect left for this place. And besides, how could a fake angel hold against a real one? It couldn't very well fight back.

Bentley nodded and put her hands together, mirroring the statue's polite position. Then bowed her head to speak.

"Oh great, unnamed, divine deity," She addressed its carved, sandaled feet, "We humbly request that you allow us passage through the doorway on which you stand. In the name of the Holy Spirit, we thank you for your aid."

The statue didn't move.

"Perhaps you method was too similar to praying," Atticus said, "Angels aren't supposed to accept prayers after all,"

"Yeah that, or angels just don't like me in general,"

"You are correct. That is actually more likely,"

"Hey!"

"You said it first," He said with a straight face.

"You're not supposed to agree with me,"

"What am I supposed to do then?"

Bentley rolled her eyes.

"You're supposed to say, 'That's not true, there are some angels out there who actually like you a lot!'. Don't you know how fishing for compliments works?"

Atticus let out a weary sigh.

"Alright, then. Not all angels dislike you," He agreed, "In fact, I can think of one angel in particular who LOATHES you to the deepest extent,"

"I hate you," Bentley replied.

"I LOATHE you." Atticus smiled serenely.

After a breath of silence, Bentley burst out laughing. For just a second, Atticus' smile almost turned into a laugh of his own.

Of course, the moment was ruined shortly after. Without any warning, Bentley's eyes abruptly flashed a bright red. She spun around and shoved Atticus behind her again, shielding him with her body. The movement had been so sudden and unexpected, he almost thought she was attacking him.

Then he saw what she was looking at and immediately felt the air grow cold. Those chilling shivers of fright that had been following him since they entered the maze suddenly erupted all over his body, drowning the brief flutter of happiness entirely.

The angel statue was gone.

...