labyrinth (a halloween story)

Despite the warnings that something wicked was there, I had to enter the gap between the shrubbery. I know… too curious for my own good. Or maybe a dark spirit chaser. Both?
There were many unproven stories about this place. It had been around for centuries, so not really surprising. Human nature being what it is. But all you had, that they might have occurred, was neighbourhood gossip. Nobody had gone checking the records. But they weren’t making claims of minotaurs or Pan come to wander their greenery. Just restless spirits. Once human. So, maybe they were true? I wonder though, if you were dead, why would you stay where your pain was caused? Wouldn’t you check on family? Or go tease a lover? Maybe that’s just me?
The stories usually began with a cheating wife, who was, along with her lover, shot and buried in the grounds… somewhere. It might be true. Things were often settled that way, when a man came home early.
Or the story where a business partner found out the lord of the manor had embezzled funds from the business and had come to collect them or their partner’s head. And had taken the head, because the money was gone. Spent on a new wife, a new car (or horse carriage, depending on the era), home decorations, a hell of a party… whatever. Just used. Not for the business, obviously. Well yeah, you can see why he’d be upset. But chopping heads off might be OTT. Dontcha think? Dead people can’t repay you. Ever! A sad fact many bill collectors for drug dealers, pimps, speak easys and gambling halls have found thru time. It’s not like they can sue the estate, or take insurance out on the amount they had to cover.
But it’s the head chopping that has me stuck. Who does that??
There was a story about a group of drunk youth who came, marauding, and didn’t know the wife was home. But since she was there… she ended up gangraped and took her own life. Husband came home and went on a rampage. Having found out where and who these youth were. Their bodies ended up in a plot that had never been sanctified by the church. And they howled their displeasure on anniversaries of the rape and their deaths.
There was a maid of olden days who was used by the lord and found herself to be pregnant and jumped off the roof. She wandered the grounds. So it’s said.
And the OG landowner had to wander about and see the locks were set at night. And the lights were all out. The place was HIS after all.
Though the indigenous people might query his claim…
Ok so the house might have bad juju. It had been there thru generations. Shit happens, ya know?
But why would it collect together in the labyrinth? Just when people were about? A portal maybe? IDK, but I was going to look for myself!
I wasn’t the first either. Ghost hunters and clergy had been thru.
I often wonder though. If a ghost isn’t a good church goer, or even a Christian. Why would they toddle off to the Christian afterlife, cuzz a guy in a collar came by one day and said some words? Nope! Not working for me.
So this is why I’m standing at the opening of the labyrinth. I have to know!
One.step.at.a.time…
Round.each.corner…
Till I was in the center of the maze.
I called out. Something stupid. Like, “I’m here. Is anyone else? Anything else?” Did I get a howl or a hoot from some dark being, the second it came out of my mouth? Nope. I stayed a few days. With snacks and a camper’s staples: sleeping bag. pillow, foam, drop sheet. I was glad the weather wasn’t too hor or cold. I was glad I’d brought wet wipes and a change of clothes, or I wouldn’t have been able to stand myself.
Finally, I heard a noise and whipped around! There! OMG it was there! The portal had opened and evil reached out and took me to the eternal damned’s hidden palace. ..
NOOOO!! I’m still alive!!