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Fallon

“S o...what happened ?” Kelly shut the door to her car.

We decided to go to the festival after all. I wanted to go and have fun despite the chaos swirling around. Dodging Alexander would be a challenge, though.

I bit my lip and played with my hands. “A lot happened.”

“Clearly,” she scoffed, “I see you getting dragged away by Garrett, and then come find you kissing Brent with a bunch of dudes in the background stomping each other out.”

Clicking the lock button on her key fob, we went to stand in line at the entrance booth for the festival.

“Things are a bit weird,” I admitted as the employee put on my wristband.

“At least he’s hot, right?” She chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and grasped her hand, swinging our arms as we walked through the gate.

The festival was beautiful. Cold air wrapped around me with the smell of smoke, cinnamon, and wood intermingling, making Halloween feel even closer. Traditional fall festival booths were scattered around, a corn maze boasted a few acres of confusion, and there were plenty of snacks to try.

“Step right up!” a voice called from a game booth. Rows of toys hung from the top, tempting everyone to try their luck at a rigged game. A guy tossed ring after ring with a girl at his side and a group of people around him, hoping for him to land the perfect shot. They cheered as he won a large teddy bear, handing it over to the ecstatic girl.

Other groups crowded around as some worked with determination in their brows with the miniature saws on pumpkin carving, working on the best designs to take home with them. Nearby, a squealing group of people gathered around barrels filled with water–apple bobbing. Each had someone bent over the edge, desperately trying to catch an apple with their teeth.

Looking around, I breathed a deep breath into my chest and released it. This was a normal fall festival with laughter and smiles around. The weight of everything in my life wouldn’t completely dissolve, but I could enjoy the views–even for just a moment.

“I totally want to get my palm read. Oh! Or some Tarot cards,” Kelly squealed, pointing to a sign depicting a hand. The festival psychic.

“With my luck,” I sighed, “they would tell me that I’m going to die tomorrow or something.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Or... they could tell you that Brent is going to bang you into next week.”

“Eww,” I playfully smacked at her.

The festival around me was a nice distraction, but I couldn’t help the plaguing thoughts that lingered in the back of my mind. Getting sent creepy texts and pictures of someone watching me? No, thank you. I couldn’t quite understand what the goal was—unless it was to unsettle me. If that was the case, mission accomplished.

And who knew how many pictures they had of me?

I kept looking over my shoulder, wondering when Alexander would strike and try to kidnap me. He was far too rich to worry about the consequences and I had a feeling he’d already gone too far with others before. His brazen confidence was startling, and I didn’t want to see what would happen if he got angry.

Kelly finally decided on getting her palm read, and I trailed behind her into the tent, brushing past layers of velvet curtains and soft cotton drapes.

The room was stunning—adorned with intricate tapestries, crystals, and antique brass trinkets that caught the flickering candlelight. It felt like stepping into another world.

Sitting at the table, a woman summoned us with a graceful wave. “Come darlings. Let Madame Dira see what your future holds. Who is first?”

“Me!” Kelly raised her hand.

“Tell me, are we doing palms or tarot?”

As if her question changed the entire ambiance of the room, the flickering candles cast shadows that danced across her face. The air was thick with the scent of incense, curling into tendrils around us.

Kelly plopped herself into the velvet chair and extended her hand, palm up. “Palm first for us, then we’d love to do a card reading.”

“Of course, my dear,” she whispered in the small space. Taking hold of Kelly’s hand with her own, weathered with age, and grazing her fingers across Kelly’s palm. “Oh yes. This line here? This is your lifeline...” she paused dramatically, eyes flicking up to Kelly’s. “How old are you dear?”

“Twenty...”

“Well, this line here has a shadow crossing it.” Her eyes flicked to each of us, crafting an aura of intrigue. It was a great party trick. “You’ve an important decision ahead that will determine the course of the rest of your life. I see great darkness in one of the paths. The other will be brighter despite it being fueled by great loss.”

The way she spoke sent a chill down my spine and Kelly shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Clearly, she wasn’t expecting that type of reading. “What about my love life?” She tried to put up a smile.

Madame Dina readjusted Kelly’s hand in hers and traced a delicate line with a pointed crystal. “This line here shows you’re bound to experience times of extreme loss and heartbreak. This chain pattern can mean many things—feeling trapped or desperate...” her gaze shifted from Kelly to me, her eyes dark. “Unless you choose the right path forward.”

This was Kelly’s idea, not mine. I pursed my lips and glanced around the room, focusing on the flickering candles and intricate tapestries instead of Madame Dina’s ominous words.

With a sudden bang, Madame Dina slapped her hands on the table, making both Kelly and me jump. “You, girl! Sit in this chair. Palms first.”

“I, uh, okay.” I scrambled to exchange spots with Kelly, both of us looking like nervous wrecks.

She grabbed my hand with a bit of force and dragged my hand under the light. “Both of you have many challenges you must face. Your lifeline shows many paths forward, but they are all clouded in darkness. You are twenty as well?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying not to let my facial expressions give away my anxiety. “Yes, Madame.”

“Good. Good. And this love line...” she traced it with her crystal, sending shivers down my spine. “...is very strange. It starts here,” she pointed to the beginning of the line,” and breaks into parts here.”

“W-what does that mean?”

“Truly, I don’t know. You have many difficult choices ahead.”

She released my hand and clapped twice. “Now! Tarot cards. Both of you sit.”

What I assumed was hocus pocus, she laid out cards on the table with practiced precision, telling us of our strong bond of friendship in the past. That could have been easily guessed by looking at the two of us. We operated like sisters.

She flipped over the card that was supposed to tell of our present slowly. The dramatics were freaking me out.

“You two have secrets held back from one another.” She clicked her tongue and looked at each of us, feeling like she was staring into our souls. “Depending on how you handle this, your future card may change.”

She waited to flip the last card—more dramatic effect maybe?

I looked at Kelly. “Are we supposed to tell our secrets now? Or do we—”

“Hush, girl. Madame is speaking with the spirits.” Her eyes were tightly closed before flipping over the last card. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Kelly and I echoed in unison, leaning forward to get a better look.

I looked at the card. Why was there a death card? Oh, no. I’m going to die tomorrow for real. My mind raced with every way I could die.

I tried to remind myself that this was a party trick of a card game. Madame Dina was probably just playing up the drama for entertainment. But as I sat there, staring at that skeletal figure on the Death card , I couldn't shake the feeling that something big was coming. Something that would change everything.

“Ah, the Death card,” she murmured, her fingers lightly brushing the corner. “Do not fear it, my dears. This is not necessarily a harbinger of doom, but a powerful symbol of transformation and rebirth. To move forward, you must let go of the past.”

That sounded like code for I'm going to die . I glanced at Kelly, but her expression was unreadable. I, on the other hand, was ready to bolt from the tent and never look back. Forget the festival! I needed to invest a lot of money in bubble wrap and hazmat suits.

“For you, this card suggests a time of great transition. Seems like you two should settle up on your secrets if you’d like to keep each other.” She shuffled the cards back into the deck and shooed us away. “Go now, I must rest. You two have a lot to discuss with one another.”

Almost stumbling out of the tent, Kelly and I shared uneasy glances.

“Maybe that wasn’t a good idea,” she said, rubbing her arm nervously.

“No shit. I’m already freaked out enough as is.” I mimicked her movements, feeling the goosebumps that formed on my arm. “That lady gave me the heebie jeebies.”

A hand grabbed me from behind and I pulled back, yelping.

“Woah, it’s just me!” Brent exclaimed, looking startled along with me and Kelly. He searched our faces for what had freaked us out.

“Brent!” Sloane sauntered over, purring at Brent in her typical sultry voice with her swaying hips. She demanded attention and an audience wherever she went.

Good God, would she ever leave us alone for more than two seconds? She was always somewhere lurking.

She didn’t seem to have a giant posse with her this time around and changed into more appropriate attire for the festival. Kelly and I had the same idea with stopping at home before driving over. While it covered more, appropriate may not have been the best term. A mini skirt with a cropped sweater didn’t look warm enough for the ever-cooling evening.

I choked back a laugh thinking about if she’d find one of her minions later and steal their clothes.

Brent didn’t look like he was having any of it. “Sloane, I’m busy. I already told you I don’t want to see you anymore.” He turned back to us, ignoring her pleading eyes.

She stuck out her bottom lip, pouting in a particular manner that felt a little devious. Good plot, I’d admit. “Baby, I told you I was sorry. What business do you have with Fallon anyway?” A look of curiosity crept onto her face

“Business that is none of yours. It’s between our families, not yours.” His voice was cut and harsh, but I could only guess how many times he told her to get off his back.

She stamped her foot, furrowing her brows like a toddler. “Don’t be rude. Can we all go to the corn maze? I’ll invite Alexander too.” She pulled out her phone and zoomed through it with her thumbs before any of us could stop her.

God dammit.

“Not necessary,” Brent clicked the power button on her phone to turn the screen off. “I was just leaving.”

Her face lit up. “Then I’ll go with you.”

“ You could go into the maze with Alexander,” Kelly muttered under her breath.

I didn’t want anyone to go into the maze with me. Actually, I preferred not going at all. Kelly and I didn’t officially plan to take up the corn maze and take a chance on getting lost forever.

“Anyway,” I took a step backward, pulling Kelly with me, “thanks for the business update, Brent. I’ll see you in the boardroom.”

It looked like we were sprinting to the corn maze after all. Without extra people. Getting lost in the dark was bad enough without cutthroat assholes following along with us. I wanted to be far enough away from them so I could breathe.

“Let’s get in there before anyone sees where the hell we went,” Kelly whispered.

The employee handed us two glow sticks and a guide to make it out. How would we make it out with only a couple of glow sticks? He had to be kidding.

“Just glow sticks?” I asked, holding up my pathetic excuse for a light.

He didn’t look entertained, glaring at me. “That’s it. Either go in, or don’t.”

Kelly tugged me along into the entrance. We stepped into the dark, tall cornfield. The leaves and debris crunched under our feet as we slowly moved deeper into the first corridor, away from the noise of the festival goers. It felt colder away from everyone, an eerie silence slowly overtook us with each step away from the grounds. We cracked our shitty glow sticks and held them up to the guide.

"Step one, 'Find your footing with the crows'," Kelly whispered. "Does that mean we have to find something crow related?"

I kept my voice as low as possible as I whispered, “I think it means we should find a scarecrow. I could be wrong, but the first checkpoint has to be close. Does it say anything else?”

She held the glow stick, squinting at the paper. “Yeah, step two,” she giggled.

“Let’s look for a scarecrow first.”

We slowly crunched our way to a fork in the road. The first decision to be made. One would lead us ahead, and the other would bring us to the scarecrow.

The only sounds I could hear were our footsteps, the whisper of the wind, and distantly, the rumblings of the festival. If there were other people in the maze, they were eerily silent.

I didn’t know if that was comforting or scary.

“Which way do we go?” I asked Kelly.

She looked around, pointed left, and we continued to find out if the direction was correct. We only had a flimsy piece of paper, and the faint glow of our cracked glow sticks to get us through.

A gust of wind picked up, shaking the leaves around us. I jumped slightly at the noise and grabbed onto Kelly’s arm. She pulled out her phone in a fuck it moment—the glow sticks didn’t really do anything for visibility.

“I think I see something,” she pulled at my hand to get me to move faster with her. “Is that a scarecrow?”

Looked like one. “I think so. What is step two?”

Kelly fumbled with the paper, shaking it out and holding it under her phone’s light. “Step two says, ‘Follow the lantern.’”

I looked around, not seeing anything around us but cornstalks and the sad, slumped figure of the scarecrow. “What does that mean?”

“Is he pointing anywhere?”

I pointed her flashlight up at him and sure enough there was an extended arm pointing vaguely into the darkness. “That way,” I said, pointing in the same direction.

While we trekked in the direction the scarecrow pointed, I didn’t know whether to ask about what Madame Dina said or not. She clearly had a reaction to the ‘secrets are being held back from one another’ line. We already discussed some secrets on Kelly’s end, but was that the full extent of them?

“That reading sounded like a bunch of hocus pocus,” she whispered as if she was on the same train of thought as me. Her voice sounded on edge as if the thought had been plaguing her more than it did me.

“I told you,” I giggled.

The quiet rustling was interrupted by the sounds of stomping somewhere in the maze. I clapped a hand over my mouth and exchanged a worried look with Kelly. Those footsteps didn't sound like they belonged to someone enjoying a fun night out in a corn maze game.

Time to find the lantern and quickly . She grabbed my hand and clicked off her flashlight bringing us back to the glow stick only approach. It wasn’t my first choice, but keeping low visibility meant we had less chance of being seen.

I brought my voice as low as it could go. “I think I see light shining through over there. We could cut through.”

As quietly as possible, we pushed our way through the corn, taking a shortcut to reach the lantern. When it came into view, we knelt to use its light to read the guide.

"It says 'avoid the...' as step three," Kelly murmured, squinting at the paper under the lantern’s glow.

“Avoid the what?” I leaned in to get a better look at the guide. It didn’t tell us what to avoid at all. Well, that’s super helpful . “What’s after that?”

“‘Enter the ring of stone.’”

Great. We were officially lost forever.

“Whatever let’s take the most logical path forward. There are three paths here. One of them takes us back and the other takes us forward.”

We stood with only our glow sticks as our only weapons and only hope. The stomping had stopped, but whoever it was had to still be out there, lurking. Maybe they were just pissed they got lost? That thought brought little comfort to my nerves.

“Baby girl...” A man’s voice called out, low and taunting.

My stomach dropped. Alexander .

"Pick one and run," I hissed to Kelly.

She chose the center path after I grabbed her hand and we sprinted in, feet crunching the fallen leaves in rapid succession. My breath came fast and shallow, my heartbeat pounding so loud it drowned out everything else. Alexander was in the maze, and he was looking for me.

We came to another decision—left or right. Kelly didn’t hesitate as she led us to the right, keeping her steps as light as possible while we made a run for it. I scrambled to keep up without stomping the hell out of the ground behind her.

“Baby girl,” he called out at a distance, “I know you’re in here. Come out, come out wherever you are.”

We hit a dead end. “Fuck,” I whispered.

Kelly didn’t miss a beat. “Let’s go through it.”

We heard him steadily walking around at that point, so the only option was to cheat the maze. A quick push through the corn led us to a corridor going left or right. We’d cut through the maze twice already and there was no time to try to figure out which way was right or wrong.

All we could do was move.

Rushing down the left part of the corridor, we came to a massive pumpkin in the way. “Is that in the guide at all?”

She looked down with her pathetic glow stick, scanning the guide quickly to find anything about a pumpkin. “Step six says ‘Leave me on your doorstep and I will guide the way.’”

“That sounds good enough to me.” I held up the glow stick to see if our pumpkin friend was carved. His face stared back at us, its jagged grin pointing to the right. “Score, his face points that way. Let’s go.”

We froze, holding our breath at the sound of the rustling of corn. Soft footsteps sounded like they were right on the other side of the corridor wall.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

No voice came along with the footsteps. I pointed in the direction we needed to go, and we set off slowly, trying to match our footsteps to the sound of the wind picking up leaves and shaking the corn to mask them.

Once we rounded a corner, she held up the guide to try to figure out where we would go next. “‘There must be a sacrifice’ is what it says,” she whispered.

I looked at the paper to verify. What kind of sacrifice? If that meant splitting up, I would die.

I took a deep breath before concluding it meant splitting up. “So, we split up and meet back up here when we find out which way leads us forward,” I said, steeling myself to prepare for an even worse end to the night.

“Count to one hundred and then make your way back here. It should give us enough time to figure it out before he finds us.”

I nodded, heading down the path to the left.

One, two, three...

With only my fading glow stick, I hope I had enough time to attempt to figure out what a sacrifice meant and get back to Kelly in time. The path I took was zany, multiple turns with only one path forward. It felt like a good sign that it led on for so long, but when I came to another break in the path, I wasn’t sure.

I chose the path to the left first, looking back to make sure I’d remember which one I came from.

Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two...

Dead end after three turns.

I recounted my steps to try the path to the right. This one felt just as long as the path that I took to get in here. Trying to keep on the balls of my feet to make minimal noise, I heard more steps and the shaking of the cornstalks. Was he also cutting through?

Holding my breath, I tried to time my steps with his to mask my movements. It was hard to hear with my heart rate thumping in my brain and across my entire body. Sounds started to feel distorted.

I’m going to get caught and he’s going to kill me or something.

Seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven...

The countdown in my head felt like a ticking time bomb.

“Baby girl, I know you’re in here. I saw you come in.” He meandered around a bit more, crunching as he went, wondering where I’d gone.

I didn’t think I had time to try to figure out the maze, but there was no place to hide from him. He sounded a little way off from me, but one wrong move and he would cut through to come find me. And if he found me, I wouldn’t be able to get away this time.

“Over here!” Kelly called, making a distraction.

He made his way over in her direction while I tried to match my footsteps with his toward the other path to see if it was a dead end. I chanced pulling out my phone and using the light to look around, scanning the entire area for a clue that it was the right direction. What does sacrifice mean?

Oh. A ritual circle.

Duh.

If I was going to make it out of here with Kelly, I’d need to think quickly to get her over here. I set my glow stick on the circle to mark the spot and looked around to find a few rocks to throw for distractions.

“Where is she?” Alexander's voice came from a closer distance this time.

“She was right here... we split up, but this maze is, well, a maze.” I heard a touch of humor in her voice. Ever the expert liar to get herself out of trouble.

I found two decent-sized rocks and chucked them over the corn, praying I wouldn't accidentally hit anyone. The first landed with a loud thud, and Alexander shifted towards the sound. “I think I heard her. You go that way.” Good, good.

I threw the second just a little bit off from the first and he stopped to listen and cut through some of the corn to try to find me, moving away from me.

Ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two...

With my feet trained on his step pattern I quickly retraced my steps and peeked around the corner to see Kelly standing still, holding her chest. I motioned for her to come, and we quickly made our way back to my glow stick, Alexander walking around in the distance still calling for me. If I would have known this would have been a horror maze, I wouldn’t have come in.

I dared a whisper. “Next step?”

We looked over the guide. The final step read 'don't mind the ghosts'. We exchanged a shrug and tiptoed to the next stage of the maze, desperate to get the hell out of there.