“Welcome to the Haunted Maze. Go inside, if you dare. But don't blame us if you get scared to death. MUHUHAHAHA!” Betty's really into character.

It's Halloween night, and I still think about how lucky I am to have this position of manning the ticket booth at the entrance of the maze. I'm so happy I don't have to be inside there, scaring poor innocent people.

“AH!”

“OMG!”

“WTF!”

“$#@&!”

Yes, I hear your screams and I understand your pain. But you allowed yourself to give in to the pressure of your fellow “friends”.

“Stephen. It's your break time. 10 minutes.”

“Okay, thanks Betty.”
 

Finally. Now I can get some fresh air and get away from all the screaming.

“No! I don't want to go in. You guys can go. I'll wait for you on the other side.”

“Jen! You're 18, don't be such a baby. It's not going to be that scary. It's fake people inside. Nothing's going to happen.”

“Even if everything is fake, the scare is real! I don't like this kind of thing!”

“It's okay! We're there with you.”

“Just try it! It'll be fun.”

“Yeah! Come on. Let's go in.”

Ouch. 4 against 1. That's a lot of peer pressure. Looks like she's going to give in.

Oops, time flies. My 10 minutes are over, now it's time for work. Only 3 more hours to go!

Thinking back, that's why I went through this maze: peer pressure. I guess everyone goes through something like that at least one.

 

I went back to my spot at the ticket booth, but I found a different guy. He's not the one who usually covers for my spot while I'm on break...

“Hey, thanks for covering my spot.”

“Sure.” He responded, but I could see that he had no intention of moving.

“So yeah. You can leave now.” He laughed,

“Get lost. You snooze, you loose, buddy.” What the...

“Look buddy, how about you go back to scaring the people who pay for this kind of thing?”

“Screw off. You can have my spot inside. I'm tried of standing all night.” This little-

“Stephen! Why aren't you working? You're break ended 2 minutes ago.” Great! Maybe she can help.

“I'm trying to, but this guy won't let me.” I shot that little poop a smirk.

“Listen. There isn't enough patience in my body to watch two little kids fight for a seat on that chair. Since this guy's is already sitting on that seat, why don't you be mature about this and let him have it, huh? You've been hogging it all week, anyways.” What was I even expecting her to say.

I looked over at the fartsicle, “Fine, whatever. I hope your leg falls asleep. Oh, by the way,” I said pointing to an empty space beside him, “I suggest you become friends with 'them'.”

 

Haha! The look on his face. Happy Halloween, jerk.
Ugh, now I have to look for his position, which means I have to go through this maze.

I took a step inside and looked around. Yep, it's really dark. I continued to walk inside, “Hey, it's not so bad.”

“GRAH!”

“Oh hey Kyle. Do you know which position is left empty right now?”

“Grah.” He said, as he pointed further into the maze.

“Thanks. Keep up the good work.”

It's funny. Maybe it's because I know the layout to this place, which spot the scares appear, and I know who's inside these costumes, this isn't scary at all.

 

“Over there? Okay, thanks.” Here it is. Seems like I'm not too far from the end. I settled into position. I just need to jump out and say something. Oh, someone's coming. I positioned myself and waited. Hm, I'm feeling a little excited to scare the first person. “Gah!” Darn. I missed my timing on that one. But here comes another person, “GAH!” Ha. I startled that one. Hehe, you know what, this is actually kind of fun! “GAAAH!”

“Ah! Gosh! You scared me.” Haha! I got you!

Is it weird to feel happy when I scare them? I guess scaring people is completely different from getting scared.

 

As time passed by, I started to get the hang of it. I think I've developed a system. The timing, the volume, and the action all contribute to how scared I can make people.

“May I have your attention,” I could hear Betty from the speakers, “we have the last guests of this year entering the maze. Please take this chance to scare them to tears. Remember, special bonuses will be given to the one's that make them cry! MUHUHAHAHA. They are now entering in 3, 2, 1!”

They've entered in our lair. Tis' their fault for stepping foot inside and disturbing our peace. They deserve what's coming their way. HUHUHAHAHA, Oh man, I might be getting too into this thing.

“AH! OMG!” Oh, they're nearby. Now I'll just use this system to use on the final victims. Heh, I hope I get the bonus. “AH! GO AWAY! STOP!! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“LOL! Calm down, we're almost done.”

“Haha! This is better than I thought it'd be.”

“BLAH BLAH BLAH. BLOOP BLOOP BAAH”

They're almost here. Seems like a group. That means the timing is really important here. I should aim for the person in the middle, since groups keep their weakest person there.

“I hope this ends soon...” Here they are. A few more seconds.... 2.... 1!

“GRAAAAAH!”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” 
Haha! That's the loudest scream I've gotten tonight. “Ugh! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?” Huh? “I HATE THIS PLACE! I HATE YOU, YOUR COSTUME, YOUR FACE!” Ouch... “I never wanted to do this! Uwaaaaaa,”

“Oh man. Jen, are you okay?” I hope so.

“Don't cry we're almost finished.” Yeah. Listen to her.

“THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID 5 MINUTES AGO!” Oh no, she's crying... “I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!” Oh man, she's really crying. I don't think I can cope with this guilt...

“It's okay. Calm down. The exit is up ahead.”

“AH! DON'T COME NEAR ME!” This might be difficult... I wiped off the makeup with my sleeve. The sweat helped it come off pretty easily.

“Don't worry. I'm just a regular guy working here.” I put my hand on her shoulder. She was shaking. “Can you give me a couple of deep breaths?”

“Wha-?”

“It'll help.” I could see her eyes somewhat close.

“Hoo. Ha. Hoo. Ha.” And then they opened.

“Great. Now can you stand?”

“I think so... Yeah, I can. But I don't think I can- I don't want to keep walking.” Heh, she's cute.

“It's okay, I'll help you with that. I'm going to walk in front of you, okay? I'll lead the way, so you just need to close your eyes and follow me. Don't open them until I tell you.”

“Oh- okay.” She said as she closed her eyes. As I was facing her, I wiped her tears with the back of my hands and turned them over to cover her ears. I started to walk backwards slowly, one step at a time, still facing her. Already knowing the layout of the building helped me walk backwards in the dark.

As we slowly made our way through the maze, I watched her face periodically glow as the red lights flickered on and off, revealing her face. I couldn't take my eyes off her. While I watched her expressions, I felt as though my surroundings were blocked out, my focus completely on her. With this thought in mind, I saw her face twitch as Brad and Nick jumped out, but like she was told, she kept her eyes closed. She then raised her shaking hands to cup over my hands, that remained covering her ears. She seemed more comfortable when she had felt the warmth of my hands.

When I realized which part of the maze we were, I knew that the distance to the exit was getting smaller and smaller, but the feeling of not wanting to let her go; grew larger and larger. I caught myself thinking that I wanted this moment to last a while longer. But obviously, this is a one-sided thing.

Once we had exited the maze, I slowly removed my hands from her ears. “You made it out,” I said. “Now you can open your eyes.” And with my words, she did just that. Her eyes began to open slowly, and she looked around her, looking like she couldn't believe she was out. And then she looked up at me, a smile forming on her face.

“Thank you so much!” She said, before she turned around and ran towards her group of friends. She showed them a face that expressed how upset she was, but it quickly faded and they all laughed it off. A happy ending.

And with that, I went back into the maze. It was time to gather together before the clean up.

“Is it true that you made someone cry?” Kyle came up behind me and asked.

“Uh, yeah. I did.”

“Wow! Good for you, bro. You're gonna feel rad when you get that bonus!”

“Hm,” just thinking back to the moment that we had made me smile, “I think I'll be happy even without the bonus.”