The Lake house

THE OUTER MAZE

"Alright, listen up, we are gonna need a required direction for the search party", Michael said looking at the capable guys of forty he had selected with Jake to begin the search for the missing campers and stood in front of them beside Jake who folded his arms quietly looking at him while resting his back on the counter. The female group had left them to the camp where they were busy cleaning up the mess made by Stanley, inside the store house leaving the agile males to organize themselves properly in order to ensure that they carry out the search perfectly.

"Yes, you, what do you wanna say?", Michael asked granting permission to a fair-skinned man with dark hair who had actually raised up his hands in order to asked a question.

"I think we should split up to make the search go faster", The man said peering at the leaders of the party in an awkward manner that felt strange to Michael. The other males acknowledge the idea to be a reasonable judgement since they really hard no actual idea of which direction the missing persons involved had taken and their trail would be way difficult for them to find.

"Okay, that's seems fair to everyone but before we split up, we need to decide who's gonna lead the search for both teams and we need importantly, a designated direction for each team", Michael replied squarely facing the crowd in front of him that array themselves ready to be deployed into the field for a weary search throughout the camp. Another hand was raised up which happens to be Max who was quite sipping a small glass of wine, he had taken from the

bar during the cleanup of the party.

"Yeah, Max , hurry up with whatever you wanna say", Michael replied beckoning on him to speak out so that he would be audible enough to be heard since he stood on the last row.

"Should we nominate or appoint ?", He inquired putting his dark hands down again and drank the last liquor inside his glass into his bulging stomach.

"Well..,. what do you think?", Michael ask staring at the onlookers who answered in a consecutive chorus stating a vote for nominations.

"Okay, since we all agree to nominate those who would be voted in as the leader of the two teams but if there's a common nominee, the individual automatically will be the leadership, agreed?!", Michael shouted vehemently trying increase the morale of the teenagers.

"So, let's hurry and nominate someone for the first team ", Jake said peering at the bystander who all nominated Michael to lead the first team of twenty guys automatically making the leader of the first team while Jake and a man named Fred, was nominated to lead the second team. A total number votes were rounded up which ended up in a tie leaving no clear winner of the election and to be fair, the others had to make a compromise for both men. Since Fred was older than Jake, he was asked to be the figure head of the team while the real orders were stated by Jake who would be the captain of the team.

"Okay, now that we have chosen our leaders, we need a direction to take for each team in order to make the faster and to ensure we sweep the area in search of them", Michael said standing close to a bonfire that was ignited inside a corrosive metal drum which was left open to allow the fire escape into the dark night and in front of the two teams while the others gaze at him from behind with part of their faces illuminated by the fire.

"I suggest we check out the far end of the beach which runs eastward from here and the forest in the opposite direction", Jake said breaking the long silence that had fell upon them immediately after Michael had stopped speaking. The others gently nodded their heads as a sign of approval to his idea which seems credible to the listeners especially Fred who was a bit delightful at his idea making look at Jake in a queer manner but Jake ignored his looks and placated the ecstatic crowd.

"Good one Jake . listen up people, Max and I would take the first party will scout the beach at the very far end including the northeastern area of the forestwhile Jake and Fred will go westward to begin the search from there. Then we'll meet at a rendezvous point which is the campsite that's where we stop", Michael explained slamming his hands on back a guy name Jonathan who felt the hard impact but wasn't painful enough to hurt him.

"But what about supplies for the hazardous journey especially when we venture into the dark forest?", rejoindar name Jonathan questioned Michael who stood beside him while the others deeply approved his vital question.

"Yeah, thanks for that kid", Michael replied fondling his crispt hair and continued, we all get supplies and equipment including flashlights with some stuff that is kept inside the store house right now. Both teams should send four guys to convey your equipments back to here before departure. So now let's begin", He said as he began to handpick four guys from his team and likewise the other team who carefully selected those guys going back to the camp to retrieve so essential equipments meant for the journey. The eight of them were told to inform Rose about it before taking whatever they need for the search and bringing it back here to their team. They left immediately to the camp leaving the others to get fully prepared for the search after placing themselves at the opposite direction which they had chosen for each team in awaitance of their team members who left them to the camp.

"Can you find a way in?", Stanley asked Kelvin while standing on the open field and peering at the odd structure of an abandoned building that stood tall beside the lake and the forest trees which had been covered by the huge building reaching over fifty feet tall with some dried vines laced around the huge column. The enormous structure wasn't there when Kelvin had come earlier and had appeared out of the ground which caused some rumblings which affects the area except for the far forest trees where the dark maze situated. Both guys was about to start arguing when they got up from the ground but was prevented from doing so by Stacy called to them after noticing a huge structure stood beside the lake at the far left corner of the opened field. Both of them immediately stopped quarrel and walked over to where she stood gazing at the remarkable sight

L "Woah, that wasn't there when I got there earlier", He muttered to himself and stepped forward but stopped halfway in front of Stacy and Stanley who was a bit awestruck as well as distracted by the fascinated scenery which made them not to hear his words. For a while, they peered at the structure from afar, savouring it's ancient looks which appeared covered with dry vines leaving a web scar in its old walls.

"I've to go check it out", Kelvin mumbled out in utter marvel of this great and was about to leave the duo behind when Stacy stop him from going any further.

"Hold on! Wait for me!", She ordered running up to him and gave him a slap on his face leaving him totally dumb struck while Stanley slightly chuckled after he had seen the hot slap. Kelvin was utterly dumbfounded looking aghast at her for having slap as a sign of total disapproval of his actions of luring her into the bush to somewhere else instead of the camp like he said earlier.

"You are full of lies. How can you lie to me again! You said that you would take me back to the camp but you brought me somewhere else!", she yelled at him in anger but she started crying soon after leaving hot tears to roll down on her cheek. Part of Stanley wanted to console her as he watched her crying before Kelvin who stood silent without uttering a word since he had expected this to happen sooner or later but Stanley didn't want add fuel to her rage and just stood there deriving pleasure from Kelvin's bitter anguish.

"You have finally achieved your goal!. Look at it. That desolate building over there is what you wanted so badly!", She screamed out in sheer pain of having lost her strength to continue walking into the dark bushes till the next morning. Kelvin gazed downwards moping at the green grass beneath his feet and kept on telling himself not to retaliate but to allow burn out her frustrations on him. Stanley walked over to them and stood beside Kelvin sneering at Stacy as he pointed his torch on her face to see hot tears fondling her cheek.

"I don't think he's done anything wrong because I recall that you were the one that persuaded him to tag along", Stanley said in Kelvin's defense which stunned him for he didn't expect that Stanley would have his back at that moment.

"Yes I did but I really wanted my hunch to be wrong that's why I decided to check out if he really wanted to secure the perimeter around the camp but he tricked me into believing that this was the way out of dark forest", She replied wiping off her tears with the back of her right palm and turned to leave but stopped in her tracks when she saw the dark maze. Her bleepers were still on but she can't find her way back through those maze and they had gotten out of the maze because of Kelvin's smart wits which had led them out the dark woods as well while Kelvin raised his buried head and look at her standing still in front of the tall grass they had just gotten out from.

"I'm very sorry for tricking you but I never wanted you to be involve from the very start. I know I made a promise not to do something like this again after what happened to Matty last winter. And I will fix this mess I promise you by giving up this wild life adventure thing after we spend the night at that abandoned building over there. It isn't safe out here so it would be just better if we spend the night there and go back to camp when it's dawn", Kelvin apologetically pleaded for her to refrain from venturing into the maze in the darkness and left the two behind plodding towards the huge building way far before him. Stanley wanted to go back but he wasn't smart enough to figure a way in the darkness beside he wasn't with the map either and then decided to follow but he wanted to persuade her to change her mind and come back with them.

"You heard him, I know I too broke your trust as well but we have no choice right now but oblige to what he said. So get yourselves back to that building where it's totally safe and secure",. He said and left her alone following behind Kelvin who still haven't reached the building yet leaving her behind to contemplate on going back to the dark woods or staying behind until sunrise where she will be able to find her way back to the camp without anyone's help. She stood there for some time thinking about going back but decided to stay behind at the building after swallowing the hard fact that she would have to spend the night with two guys who broke her heart the same night and turned back walking slowly on the grass heading towards the abandoned structure which seems to call to them as it stood motionless beside the lake.

"Here, take this one and hand it over to Kelly over there", Rose ordered a black curly haired female who took the boxes out of her hands and conveyed it to Kelly who was the last person in Jake's team to collect the supplies they need for the search.

"Thanks sweetheart,", Kelly appreciated and took the boxes away from her hands, then he winked at her and left the veranda of the door, and hastily headed towards the others leaving the camp behind.

"Is that the last box?", Rose asked another teen, looking at squarely at her without any expression on her face.

"Yeah, I think so", the girl replied and placed the box on the bottom shelf and strode outside leaving Rose alone to confirm if they have arranged everything else. She looked over the entire collection of boxes and found nothing amiss but a red bracelet on the floor caught her attention. She instantly recognized Stacy's bracelet which had fallen off on the ground earlier when she placed the small container inside the box that was kept a bit high above her head.

Rose picked it up from the ground and observed it for some time, then she left the storage after switching off the lights and bolted the door.