Page 54 of A Mastery of Monsters

I run into the maze, and my head rushes and swims. For a moment, I’m sure I’ll throw up, but then I recover.

The darkness obscures the corn, making it feel like I’m in a crowd of swaying people instead of crops.

The leaves press me in on the already narrow path.

The wind is crisp, making me wish I had gone for a sweatshirt instead of the T-shirt.

I remind myself of Corey’s advice and slow down enough that I can think a bit more. There are supposed to be stations. I can’t grab tokens until I have the bag, but if I note any that I pass, I can backtrack later. If there are at least five on the way to the center, I’m golden.

When I find the first station, which is little more than a patio stone on the ground with a swirl symbol on it, I grin.

Though my smile shrinks as I get deeper into the maze without finding any more.

I stop and shut my eyes, ignoring the rustling of the corn and the thumping sound of candidates running so I can try to cobble together this mental map.

I entered on the left side of the maze, so I ran forward and was trying to stay straight to get to the center of the maze. I have to eventually reach it.

“Trust the process,” I say to myself and keep moving forward and glancing down intermittently for any more patio stones.

This place has to be huge, because the sounds of running have died off now, like we’ve all gotten farther away from each other. Even though, if we’re each heading to the center, we should be getting closer.

Overhead, drones whir as they broadcast our progress.

I make another turn to the left and stumble into a clearing.

I did it! I actually did it.

A horn blares, signaling that half the time has passed.

There’s a wooden table in the middle, and when I run to get my pouch, six are missing. Shit. Meaning that out of fifteen, I’m currently in seventh place, and there’s only thirty minutes left. I grab the blue bag with my name and a water drop symbol embroidered on it.

The problem is that I didn’t pass by five stations on my way here, only one. I have to go a different way to get more.

With a sigh, I run down the next path over, hoping that maybe it’ll end up close to my exit. Logically, I know I’ll have to map my way down this path and come back to the center. But that wastes time. Ideally, I would find a way to connect back to mine if I want that bonus.

I can’t think about any of that right now.

I race down one path, trying to keep the pattern in my mind and find one of the patio stones. I crouch and lift it, revealing a dug-out bit of earth with an open wooden box inside, filled with small circular tokens. I find one with my matching water drop and put it in my bag.

I get lucky, and down the same stretch, I spot another patio stone. This one is almost right in front of what I can see is an exit. But now, the exit has a small wooden box in front of it.

That must be our final task to do before we leave. But I know this isn’t my exit, or… I think it isn’t?

I abandon the patio stone momentarily and approach the box, which has a picture of a girl on it.

I have no idea who she is, but then I pause—no…

wait, I do. She was in the room when we heard about the first cut.

But she’s not a candidate, meaning she must be a monster.

Then my box probably has Virgil’s face on it.

That’ll be handy for confirming which exit is mine. I go back to the patio stone, but when I search for my token, it’s not there.

I stare at the pieces, looking through them again, and then checking the dirt in case it fell or something.

Do not all the boxes hold everyone’s tokens? But no. There are fourteen tokens in there. Only one is missing—mine.

Perez said we could only take one token at each station…. He never said we had to take our own.

That’s why we only need five to pass. And anyone who gets to the center early enough would be able to see the matching symbol with someone’s name.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I try to think back and remember if I saw Caden’s bag there. But I know I didn’t. I would have noticed it whether I wanted to or not, since that shit stain asserts himself in my life so often.

He and his cronies are likely running around, fine with risking first place so they can sabotage me.

I shove the patio stone into its original position and sprint back toward the middle. I don’t have any time to waste now. I need to go.

When the five minutes left horn goes, I’m on my knees, panting. I’ve gone to seven different stones and only have four tokens to show for it.

I need to go for the bonus. It’s the only guarantee. Forget the score; if I don’t manage five, I’ll get disqualified.

I sprint back to the middle and wind my way down the original path I started on. The single benefit of having to search more often is that it’s given me a more detailed mental map to work with. So I’m able to find my way back faster.

Dropping to my knees, I flip over that first patio stone I found. But there isn’t a water drop token inside. I grit my teeth.

All I have is the bonus. I sprint to my exit, where I find a box with Virgil’s face on it.

Inside, there are more photos of Virgil, each with a different series of four numbers on the back, and an even smaller box with a lock code on it. Okay, I guess one of these opens the lock and the token is inside.

I peer at the photos. As I line them up, I notice that some are off. In one, his nose is oddly narrow. In another, there’s a scar on his chin that I don’t remember seeing. Even the one on the cover of the box itself doesn’t look right.

I start eliminating the obvious ones and I’m left with three. I stare at them, trying to recall.

The horn sounds again.

One minute.

I looked at Virgil’s face before I came in here. Just that brief glance as he turned away after wishing me luck.

I don’t know why I tricked myself into thinking that me screwing up only ruined things for me and Jules.

I promised Virgil I would think of him when I did shit.

And Corey is my friend. A better one than any of those people from high school who called themselves my friends.

Both of them were committed to helping me.

And I spent most of that time planning to betray them.

I look at one of the photos, and just then, I know it.

That’s him.

I know that Virgil. The same one who promised to help with Jules, who defended me when people were shitty even if it meant going up against Margot, and who came to help Mia clean just because he said he would.

With his ridiculous outfits and that little grin that lights up his eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses.

I flip the photo over and enter the code.

When I open the box, it’s empty.

The final long horn blares.