The Lake house

DARK MAZE

A bright torchlight shone brightly among some dry trees slowly illuminating some dark shrubs which rested on a tall wooden sign-post that had two wood nailed to it pointing two different direction in the opposite direction. The stake stood in between a cross section of two pathway which divided in the opposite direction of a narrow path on the left and a wide open filled with grasses which was partly gilded by the waning gibbous. They had tread through the dry trees in utter silence and headed towards the two paths which they saw from afar using their huge flashlight to observe the corroded signpost in the middle of the separated pathway that ran into the dark forest in an opposite direction. As they got closer to the two paths, they abruptly stopped to figure out which path to take after noticing the old signpost pointing in opposite directions as well.

"Let's take this route. This is the right path to take", Kelvin said pointing towards the narrow path which he recognizes as the pathway he had earlier taken to the maze during the day but Stacy had seen the path from afar and didn't like the scenery it exhibits for them to see.

"No, that path is quite spooky. Let's take this other route which doesn't seem dangerous", she replied hesitating to move forward and shook her head as a sign of disapproval. She had been silent up to this point ever since he told her that they should get out of the forest first before getting a full explanation of his actions.

"Please don't fight me on this.....I said that this path is the right way out of the forest. Trust me on this", He earnestly pleaded trying to convince her to follow the pathwa he had previously venture through unscathed by the scary scenery including the wild voices hooting around the corner of the dry trees.

"Give me a good reason why I should trust you?", she asked sneering at him with her arms folded together glaring at him after hearing him mentioned a word that she doesn't want to hear uttered from his mouth.

"Well.....I .....saved you earlier from Stanley... ..those times I assist you daily in the campus especially those hard times with your family. Isn't that enough reason to confide in me?", He replied trying to recall the past assistance he rendered to her each time she needs it.

"Yeah but I've already forgotten all about it since you broke your promise not to go on with your wild theories. I trusted you and look where it landed me in.", She responded calmly trying hard to refrain herself from taking the narrow path.

"I don't blame you for that and I don't have enough time to converse with you right now. Let's take this path, time is slowly running out", He said looking at his black wristwatch with a worried look on his face which digitally read a minute past midnight.

"That's why I suggest you come with me to take this perfect route. If you want to venture into your death, go ahead I won't stop you but I aren't walking into that pathway that leads to doom", She adamantly said folding her arms tightly waiting for him to give up but he didn't relent instead he paused for awhile thinking of how to persuade her into following him in the right direction and to dissuade her from venturing to the wrong path which would ruin his plans and luckily came up with a good idea to change her mind.

"Are you feeling afraid?", He calmly asked her after much silence had erupted between them. He had promised to harshly deal with those who told him about the house if he eventually finds out that he risked his friendship with the others especially Stacy, for a hoax. He had promised that he won't embark on any other wild-goose-chase after the incident last year winter, when the life of someone named Matty passed away in the process in the third empty search.

"No, I'm not.... I'm trying to.... save our lives", She shrugged and replied gently trying hard to conceal her true fears and trepidation which had suddenly clouded her mind the moment she saw the narrow pathway.

"I can feel it rising in your voice", He said peering hard into her eyes which seems to wander away from his fixed gaze into another direction. She always hated every moment she's reminded of her weak point, making her feel very vulnerable and insecured leaving her despise herself for not being brave enough to handle such situations.

"I.....am ..... not afraid...I told you I.... logically choose the good path that isn't fraught with danger and wouldn't put us in peril!", She shrieked trying hard to control her emotions which betrayed her completely as she began panting heavily when her words reached it apex which made her to squealed out but he placed his left forefinger on her soft lips sealing her mouth completely which stopped her from uttering any further comments.

Don't be afraid.... I'm here with you and even though something happens....I won't leave your side", He said softly which soothes her fearful nerves and warmed her heart, driving away every traces of fear from her mind.

"But....... Can't you see that........ the path looks dangerous..", she can in a brief moment of as she remove his fore fingers from her lips and peered deeply at the narrow path that seems to be waiting for them to pass through.

"Yes I know. Its kinda looks dangerous outside but safe on the inside. Do you remember I gave to you last year at the campus?", He asked pulling her slowly along the narrow path towards the unknown while she remained distracted by his mincing words

"Yes, I do, that red hardcover book that talks about a tale of a flicker-bird that black feathers and a yellow head including a sharp beak", She replied following him quietly without paying attention to the dark trees at either side of the path

"Exactly, it's the same here with the narrow path.. you see, in that book, other birds dread the flicker bird very much to the point that, they would create a hiding place under tree so that each time a flicker bird flew by. They would hide themselves inside until it has passed leaving them behind to come out again resuming it's former activities but one day, a young songbird went missing from its mother nest and having thoroughly searching for it, the mother didn't find her offspring after a rigorous search around the neighboring forest while the young songbird had mistakenly fallen into a nearby den of a flicker bird who took it as one of her offspring rearing and training it for a long time along with her other four offsprings. After a month, the young songbird had grown up with the other hatchlings. They were now capable of flying with their frail wings into the sky which they did the following week. And each time the large the herd of flicker birds passed it's mother's domicile, the mother of the songbird would catch a sight of a young songbird quite smaller than them flying amongst the herd beside them unharmed by the enormous size of flicker birds which made the rest of the other birds to dread their presence. This greatly puzzled all the other birds who took notice of this strange occurrence including the mother of the songbird but none of them dared to find out the reason for the strange occurrence until a day came, when she decided to venture into the territory of the flicker bird In order to see the song bird but couldn't pass through the boundary mark because of fear. Eventually, she came up with a good plan to achieve her goal using her most powerful weapon which is her song in order to attract the song bird whenever it flew by along with the other flicker birds. So, each time the herd passes her, she would sing a song which seems to chirp sweetly which attracted the song bird everytime it passes but a day came by, when the songbird decided to listen to the chirp that comes out of the forest each time they go there. Unknown to the song bird, her songbird didn't only attracted the young songbird but the other flicker birds loved the song each time they heard when they passed by her domain. On a faithful day, the mother bird came out of her nest after noticing the herd of flicker birds approaching her domicile and started to sing as usual until something remarkable incident occur which surprised her, the flicker bird had followed behind the song bird towards her direction, alighting on the tree in order to listen to her song. Although she was frightened by their great size, she didn't relent and continued to sing because of the young songbird who chirped along with her filling the whole tree with lovely chirping which pleased the flicker birds. Eventually, other birds got attracted to their songs when they heard the sweet chirping of the songbird and joined them. Slowly, the others birds weren't afraid of the flicker bird any longer", He concluded his narration when they got to the end of the narrow path.He had decided to distract Stacy's mind with a good tale from a book he had given to her last year as a gift for her birthday which aided her to overcome her fears of venturing through the narrow path. She felt relieved that they had walked through the narrow path totally unharmed by the scary creature

"Thanks for your help this time", She said breathing freely which calmed her tensed nerves after passing through the dark path.

"It's alright but I think we should press on right now", He said pointing his flashlight towards a high section of dried roses which tangled with a tall parapet of grasses on both sides of path. He instantly recognize the place to be old Maze of dried roses on it .

"Can you think of a way through the maze under the darkness?", She asked him after observing the decayed flowers with her torchlight and walked inside past Kelvin was plodding behind her peering at the map for immediate solution to their problem.

"Be patient and don't walk too fast. I'm still working on our way out of here", He replied peering into the map for directions while she stood in front of him staring at the decayed flowers which had a lot of dried wood on it. The map indicated two possible route to take in order to leave the maze and enter the it which had part of the route that led outside the maze to the open field before the lake torn out but luckily left a last step before the final entrance out of the maze. He was able to figure out the next turn and beckoned to Stacy to follow behind him in order to watch his back while he lead them out of the maze. They had gotten to the middle section of the maze and was about to take the right turn before his flashlight began to flicker abruptly making it difficult for him to decipher the map and cease to emit anymore light as it gently turned off by itself.

"Oh no, not right now. I think I need your flashlight", He said holding the map with his right hand and bent down waiting for her to give it to him.

"Don't you have any batteries to restore the torchlight?", She asked peering at his bag which was almost entirely engulfed in cover of darkness.

"No, I don't. What about you?", He rejoined with a question and took the large from her hand making her feel a bit vulnerable and scared in the dark behind him. She instantly embrace him tightly immediately he stood up which almost squeezed out his intestine but he wrenched her arm off.

"I didn't take any batteries from the store house.", She replied looking at his red knapsack on his back against her face.

"Then we better hurry outta here before the batteries also get totally consumed", He replied increasing his footsteps forward together with Stacy who moved at equal pace with him trying to get away from the darkness. As they walked in haste, an approached footsteps from headed towards them and suddenly stopped right in front of them leaving totally bereft of words. They both stare transfixed at Stanley especially Stacy who was quite dumbstruck but he snapped his fingers bring them back to reality which they did and decided to leave the maze before the flash light stop working. They turned right side treading continuously non-stop using the map as a sure guide and passed two dead end into the fourth route which took them closer to the last section of the maze.

They made it through the right route by turning left inside the maze towards the last section of the maze where the bright torchlight began to malfunction as it showed continuous signs of a low battery by flicking in and out until it finally stopped at the critical point for them reach the exit but luckily for them, Kelvin had memorized the correct route for them to take out the last section before reaching the main exit to the open field.

"Ok,..huh.... don't panic right now... allow me to think.....", Kelvin said trying to recall the last inscription on the map and stood resting his red knapsack behind the soft grass.

"Come on, hurry up and we get totally lost", Stanley eagerly exclaimed trying to hasten Kelvin's thinking while Stacy remained in shock to see Stanley close to her after much had occurred between them. As he tried harder to recall the last plan, he finally remembered that he had noticed the last turn before the exit on the map, which two more turns are required to be taken from where they stood but the problem was he wasn't sure if it should right or left turn...

"We've to take our chances from here on wards together. There are two more turns to take which I believe might start from on this side", He said pointing at the end of a turn which continued on the left corner. They followed the turn under the heavy darkness and turned left once more leaving only a right turn to take to the last turn before the exit which they took as advised by Kelvin landing themselves at the last turn which took them out of the maze. Kelvin and Stanley immediately fell downwards on the open grass which spread towards a lake while Stacy stood gazing an empty void of a huge structure at the far end of the open field before the lake.