Jessica heard screams from the bonfire.
She turned quickly, spilling her cider.
Beyond the houses she could see the glow of the blaze.
A thick swath of bats hovered over it.
Jessica gasped at the sight.
Hiking her skirt, she broke into a run.
There was a flash and she heard an explosion.
The glow beyond the houses flared brightly, then grew dim.
A thunderous roar rippled through the air
and suddenly the shadows around her came alive.
They swirled and stretched and sprang up from the ground,
surrounding her on all sides.
Dumbfounded and blind, she stopped,
entombed in darkness.
A wave of fear washed over her.
Her arms went numb and her head light.
She dropped the cider cup she still carried.
It made a soft clinking noise as it struck the ground.
The wind moved gently through the dark passages,
buckling the walls around her.
They made a noise like dry leaves being crushed.
Jessica realized then that it was not the walls making the sound,
but something further up the corridor, towards the bonfire.
Something was moving about in the darkness.
She could hear its heavy breathing now as it came closer.
Spreading her arms outward,
she stepped backwards and to one side,
her desperate fingers reaching for purchase.
She felt the smooth coolness of one of the walls
and stood flat against it.
The shuffling thing came closer.
Her eyes ached from trying to see in the blackness,
but she had become aware of a dim green light
emanating from somewhere further down the corridor.
She stood stock still as the creature moved closer.
She could see its movement now.
She held her breath, sweat dripped from her forehead.
It stopped right in front of her, looking around.
It was Thom.
His face was wrought with terror,
his eyes wide and darting.
So relieved she was to see him
that all their disagreements washed away
and she reached out to touch his shoulder.
He whirled around then, yelling,
plunging the knife he wielded deep into her chest.
Jessica screamed and coughed up blood,
falling against Thom as her chest poured.
He pulled his knife free and fled deeper into the darkness.
Thom moved quickly now,
fearful of what new terror might lurk before him.
He could hear children crying back towards the bonfire.
In the distance, someone began singing.
The lonely voice trailed off,
lost in some other portion of the maze.
The silence left in its wake chilled him.
He stopped and tried to cut one of the walls with his knife.
He was unsure of what had attacked him before,
but he was determined to find his way out of this trap.
He could not puncture the walls.
He tried to dig beneath it, but to no avail.
Behind him, there was a scream...
then silence.
He moved again, almost running,
turning corners blindly as he came to them.
He heard sobbing behind him again,
softly at first, but growing louder.
Some one cried out then,
"MURDER!"
"MURDER!!!"
He recognized the voice.
It was Richard.
The knife slipped from his hand.
His heart was pounding in his ears.
He ran again, slamming into one of the walls.
He placed his hands flat against it and followed the wall,
moving blindly almost at a run.
He saw light ahead, and rushed toward it.
Thom stepped into the clearing.
The few townsfolk present stared at him as if he were a ghost.
Their faces harshly accusing
in the dim orange of the dying bonfire.
Richard stood to one side, his face gaunt and stricken.
He carried Jessica's limp body.
She was pale and covered in blood.
Her chest sliced open.
He laid her gently at her father's feet,
and turned to face Thom.
Thom stared, dumbstruck,
at the body of his beloved
and touched his chest absently.
He looked at the wetness on his fingers
as if it were someone else's hand before him.
His head nodded slowly side to side,
the last of his vain denial slipping.
Richard gave him a severe look,
and spoke,
"We followed the stranger as he left Valleydown...
Only intending to scare him away,
but there was a struggle...
and he-" Richard swallowed hard,
tears welling up in his eyes.
"He had grabbed a scythe.
When Harold and Thom wrested it from him,
he was stabbed with it...
through the chest...
We hid the body beneath the wood of the bonfire
to burn away any guilt,
but it found us here on this night of revelry.
Now in this darkness,
this fair flower has been cut down by fear,
and all our hands are washed in blood.
To protect myself,
I abided the secret of this jealously,
and let this night of terror unfold.
I cannot undo this abomination good people,
but I can set you free..."
Richard turned to the darkness
and raised up his bloodied hands.
"HEAR ME SPIRIT!
I CALL YOU BY NAME!
I HAVE MET YOUR TERMS
AND I CLAIM THIS SHAME.
I CALL YOU STRANGER JACK
AND IN SUMMONS UNTO THEE,
I NAME YOUR PLACE OF DEATH
AND POINT TO KILLERS THREE.
FEARFUL HAROLD,
JEALOUS THOMAS,
AND ME.
'TWAS BY THE ROADSIDE
AND TO THE SOUTH OF TOWN
BY A WAGON NEAR THE RIVER
WHERE WE DRAGGED YOU DOWN."
The bonfire blazed then,
spitting up smoke and sparks.
From out of the haze the spirit came,
his dreadful pumpkin head glowing.
He walked up to Richard and gently
brushed the man's face with his skeletal hand.
Richard visibly shook, but said nothing.
The spirit turned to Thom then
and gestured with his scythe.
Thom screamed and howled as the shadowy walls of the maze
spread like bat wings and enfolded him.
There was a flash of fire and green,
and he was gone.
The spirit turned towards the crowd then,
and they separated themselves from Harold.
He broke into a run,
desperate to escape.
The spirit turned and pointed his scythe once more.
A bolt of flame shot across the clearing and engulfed Harold.
He writhed and screamed,
finally falling into the ashes of the bonfire.
The spirit turned finally to Richard,
whose face had gone white as bone.
It approached him slowly,
and spread its cloak about him.
Richard made no sound
but stared deeply into the eyes of the spirit.
The spirit stepped away.
Richard's hair was now white,
and his skin wrinkled and spotted.
The spirit nodded to him
stepping over Harold's corpse and into the bonfire.
It waved its scythe in an arc
and the shadow walls of the maze
were swallowed into darkness once more.
"PEOPLE OF VALLEYDOWN...
MY TIME WITH YOU IS DONE.
EXPECT NO REPROACH FROM ME FURTHER,
BUT INSTEAD HEED MY WARNING:
EACH YEAR, HENCEFORTH,
SHOULD THE NEED PRESENT,
THIS LABYRINTH WILL GROW
FROM SHADOWS HELL SENT.
ON ALL HALLOW'S EVE
IN SOME FAR COUNTRY OR TOWN
THE PLAYERS WILL REINACT
THE LEGEND OF VALLEYDOWN.
FINDING IN THEIR OWN DARKNESS,
JUDGMENT OR PENITENCE
OR SWEET RELEASE FROM COIL AND TOIL
WILL BE THEIR ONLY SENTENCE.
AS ALWAYS THERE ARE THOSE
LEFT TO TELL THE TALE.
SUCH IS YOUR BURDEN, VALLEYDOWN,
WHILST I RETURN TO HELL."
He raised his cloak, and the bonfire blazed one last time,
and he was gone.
Richard fell to his knees and wept.
Richard fell to his knees and wept.
Thus ends
THE LEGEND OF THE MAZE.
The first image is the poster side of the flyer for the 2001 party. The other side was lots of directions and party rules and not nearly exciting enough to share. :-P This is one of the images that was lost to the hunger of Zip disks. I recently discovered I had a physical copy of the flyer and scanned this image from that. It isn't as crisp as the original would have been, but it is at least present and viewable.
I drew all the Jack and the trees and scanned all the parts into Photoshop. I layered them and made it all into the foggy forest of fear you see here. I wish I still had that crazy font I used, but I was working on a PC at the time and now that I have switched to Mac...I haven't found a Mac version of the font. :-(
{Pen & Ink manipulated in Photoshop}
{Pen & Ink manipulated in Photoshop}
The second image is the drawing I did for the 2002 flyer. I did the typesetting for that flyer as well, but could not find the file for it. It looks much better without any text anyway. :-) I can't remember why Jack is without his scythe in this one. Perhaps a Freudian symbol (or lack of one) of the group disillusionment with the Maze parties. Also I just realized his pumpkin head is missing its characteristic flame. The dying of the fire...but everything has its season. Also the revelation of Jacks ribs showing from beneath his robes. That is the first we've seen of his body except for his arms. His cloak has gone all tattered...I guess that's what you get for living under a graveyard. :-P
{Pen & Ink}
{Pen & Ink}
The last bit at the end there was Jack's face from the Maze website. I tweaked it a little for this, giving it the red overcast that is has here. Before, the background was completely black, but when I previewed it here, it dropped into nothingness, so I gave it the red to give a bit more 'punch'.
{Pen & Ink manipulated in Photoshop}
{Pen & Ink manipulated in Photoshop}
There is more Maze Art in my previous posts:
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