This choice: Spend the night outside the maze • Go Back... Laura knew Steve was gawping at her, probably wondering just who she really was. She swallowed, did her best to keep her gaze on the yawning entrance, seeing patterns in the moss and ivy that covered the walls. A memory was hidden around a dark corner in her mind; whenever she tried to grab it it slithered back into a darker corner. With all her being she knew the memory was going to split her and Steve up, but she also knew it would be the key to them getting through this monsterish-maze.
If only Steve wasn't staring at her like she was something to be wary about. Even if she was, maybe, possibly.... She drew in a deep breath and turned to Steve.
'We need to enter this maze, Steve,' Laura said, 'but I think our best option is to spend the night outside. You look exhausted and I'm sure I'll drop into a deep sleep the moment I close my eyes. We need to be on top form when we cross the threshold.'
Laura pointed at the ground and Steve noticed a huge piece of stone planted there, spanning at least ten foot. Grey, just like the of the walls, and clean but for one thing. Was that a footprint? He edged closer. 'Someone's been here,' he got out, surprised and wary. They hadn't been chased through the forest but... obviously someone was about.
'Steve, please... come back from there,' Laura said. 'I told you I sense something wrong, I told you the monster sucks souls. I know it does. Don't cross that threshold, don't even get close.'
'How do you know all this?' Steve asked. He did step back from the threshold and the footprint, spine tingling for a second as if he was being watched.
Laura hunched her shoulders, hugged herself. She shook her head.
''Whatever you know, you have to tell me!' Steve said. 'Whatever secret you're keeping, if it's about getting us through this maze, you have to reveal it. I have the most horrible feeling our lives are at stake!'
Of course they are, Laura thought. It's a monster's maze. She refrained from reminding Steve that. He was wound up. No need to make him worse. She was going to need him as much as he needed her. ‘Come,’ she said. ‘We might as well make ourselves comfortable. I’ll try to tell you things, Steve, but it’s all blocked in my mind. Maybe just sitting here will help.’ She moved a bit further from the entrance, where the pull to go inside wasn’t as strong.
Fortunately Steve came with her and sat down, leaning against the wall that prevented them from returning to the forest. ‘I know I’m nagging,’ he murmured, touching Laura’s hand briefly, ‘but… god Laura, I’m not the hero you think I am!’
At her brows shooting up, Steve felt a flush rise on his face. About the first warmth he’d felt all evening! ‘I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, I keep thinking about that darkness thing the man told me, and now this!’ He waved a hand down to the entrance. ‘And this.’ He tapped the wall behind him. He pulled a face and sighed. ‘You’re right, we should rest. We’ll both be better for it.’
Laura pecked his cheek. ‘You’re always a hero, Steve.’ Which was why she was a little worried about revealing her secrets. Heroes had certain morals and ethics, and she wasn’t sure her secret would stand in concert with them!! As much as she wanted to rest, she was going to have to dig for that memory, and reveal some of it – the bits that would still portray her as ‘normal’ to Steve. And, she thought, I need to take his mind off things for a while. As she shrugged off the knapsack, she said, ‘How about you try to get a fire started?’
There were bits of wood around, broken from the trees in the forest, somehow left this side of the wall. Wasn’t lighting fires something men loved doing?
‘Yeah, okay,’ Steve said, glancing around. ‘But I want to talk, Laura.’
Laura nodded. ‘When we’re warm and have full stomachs,’ she said. Well, maybe full stomachs… the knapsack was depressingly light in the food department. Pickled pork in greaseproof paper, some wizened mushrooms and a small block of cheese. Why had they not thought to stock up?
While Laura prepared the ‘meal’, Steve scavenged for wood and detritus and put together a decent pile. It wouldn’t burn through the night but it would help stave off the chill for a while.
The pair of them watched the flames, reds and oranges leaping about in the small breezes that would come and go. It provided some warmth and as twilight gave way to deep blue and then black, the fire became their little beacon of hope. Steve glanced up once, but the sky was without stars. Not cloudy… just without stars, as if the darkness had suffocated them.
Steve drew in a breath, tried to block what else the man had told him about the darkness. He turned to Laura, as she shifted slightly to lean her head on his shoulder, and opened his mouth.
Before he could speak, however, he heard an odd snuffling sound. A footfall? A rodent? The Monster????? ‘What’s that?’ he whispered.
‘What’s what?’
‘That noise, like something’s coming.’
‘I heard nothing,’ Laura said. ‘It’s just your imagination, Steve. Nothing’s here but us.’
‘What about what’s in the maze?’
‘It won’t come out here.’
‘How are you so sure?’
‘Well, why would it? Its power is in the maze, not outside it.’
Steve frowned. As good as that logic sounded, he didn’t like it. ‘Laura, what secret are you hiding from me?’
(word count: 967) 
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