Page 173

There’s someone in the corn ahead of me. I think it’s Candy. She’s back to her old self. No Chihiro glamour. Leather jacket and Chuck Taylors over black jeans. It’s wonderful to see her again. I run to catch up, but my legs don’t want to cooperate.

If I had the Room of Thirteen Doors back, I wouldn’t be lost in this Kansas weed patch. I’d be me again and everything would be all right. I’ve got to get it back. No matter what. All right. Start a list. First action item, get the Room back. What’s the second thing I need to do? Get home. Maybe that should be first? I don’t know. I just work here. You’ll have to ask the manager.

I turn a corner and I’m home. There’s L.A. spread out before me. The Hollywood sign on the hills. Capitol Records building over there. The Chinese Theatre there. Musso’s in between. I should catch up with Candy. See if she wants to go for chicken and waffles.

Thinking about food wasn’t smart.

I fall on my knees and vomit. It’s full of thorns and bugs. I get back up and head for L.A.

And bump into another goddamn row of corn.

I’m starting to think I’m lost.

I look up.

Mr. Muninn’s floodlights are overhead. That means I’m back in the cavern. Have I been here the whole time? I don’t want to be in the cavern. I want to go home. The maze took me to Hell. Why won’t it take me back to Max Overdrive?

Maybe I’m going in circles. Let’s stop and think.

I’m in a maze. Candy and I walked through it in a few hours. The maze fits in Muninn’s cavern, so it can’t be that big. Of course, it’s magic, so maybe it’s bigger on the inside than the outside. Still. If I go in one direction long enough, I have to come out or to a wall or something. Right? There’s no such thing as an infinite maze, is there?

Only one way to find out.

I reach back for the na’at, but have to use my Kissi arm because my right isn’t working too well. Extend the na’at into a sword. Then hack at a row of corn.

It comes down exactly like dead cornstalks should. I step through into the next row and hack again. And again. The dry corn falls in heaps before me. This is such a good idea. I’m really smart. I’ll be home in no time.

The only downside is that each time I cut through a row, it sends dust and pieces of corn into the air. After a few rows, I’m in a corn snowstorm. And I’m pissing off all the bugs. Wait. Are the bugs even real? I can’t remember. A lot of this has been real and some hasn’t. Or the other way around. Fuck it. Keep cutting.

I plow through row after row after row, looking back every now and then to see if I’m moving in a straight line. It gets harder as I go and the corn dust gets thicker. After a while I stop looking. There are too many insects and it’s starting to freak me out a little. Also, the corn is growing thorns. It cuts my hands and arms as I slice through the rows. The corn keeps changing and the light grows dim. I’m hacking through the woods leading up to the Wormwood mansion in Griffith Park. Only now I know it’s a hallucination. I’m in the corn maze. Just keep cutting. Just keep going.

How long have I been in here? I take out my phone. It’s dead. No chargers in Hell.

Man, I’m thirsty.

I look back the way I’ve come.

Centipedes. Spiders with Nick’s face. A tentacle thing sprouts heads as it moves. Burgess. Quay. Charlie Anpu. Their teeth are little hatpins that the insects cling to like the cornstalks.

My legs get weak. I’m hot. Then cold. The insects mass around my feet.

I smash headfirst through the next couple of corn rows. Get up the na’at and slice through the rest. But I’m not going fast enough.

The insects are on my legs. I feel them crawl inside my leg where I cut myself. They’re moving thr

ough my veins and arteries.

I run.

Someone is up ahead.

If it’s my father, I’m going to punch him in his fucking face.

It isn’t my father.

Hesediel slits her throat and falls into the tank.

I jump for her.