THE MAZE

Chapter Two

A tall, lanky man with horn-rimmed glasses and a wiry mustache gets out of the car. Professor James Eilers, an English professor at the local university. Seeing that he is the first one to have arrived, he slowly walks up the cast-iron gate, pressing his thin face up against the bars. He gazes at the enormous mansion that lays behind the gates, awed by how its walls seem to split and divide into endless depths.

Perhaps they do...

Just as he is about to open the gate himself, another car pulls up and out comes Miss Eleanor Rizby. An aspiring actress and model, she is in essence who you would expect to see on the cover of Vogue. Tall and thin, with luscious blonde curls and red, rosy lips, she instantly catches James's attention.

"Hello, my name is..."

But before James can finish his sentence, Eleanor cuts him off abruptly.

"Are you here for the 'Maze' thing or something?"

James nods vigorously, his dark eyes wide through his owl-like lenses.

"Do you know what this is about?" Eleanor asks tiredly, languidly examining her bright, pink nails.

"No, do you?" James asks, perspiring slightly in the warm sun.

Eleanor shakes her head, then replies, "The only reason I'm here is for the million dollars. Why are you here?"

"Same, I suppose."

"I wonder how many other people accepted the invitation."

"Me too."

There is a short silence between the two of them which is broken a few moments later by the sound of another car pulling up the drive. James and Eleanor both turn around to watch a young mother and a young boy exit from the backseat.

"Mommy, look how big the house is!" the boy exclaims, gripping his mother with one hand and pointing to The Maze with his other. He jumps up and down with the seemingly endless energy of a child, tugging his mother's sleeve over and over again.

"Yes, it is, Gavin," his mother, Anna, replies tiredly.

She gives a small, weary smile to James and Eleanor as she and her son approach the gate as well.

The time is 10:57 A.M.

Four down, four to go.

Within the next three minutes, four more sleek, black cars arrive, each letting out another candidate. First, there are Mr. and Mrs. Fitz, a newly married couple. Mr. Fitz is supposed to have a business call in two hours, and he thinks that this "Maze" nonsense his wife dragged him into won't take more than an hour. Mr. Fitz is not going to be able to make that call. Little does he know, he is not going to be back at work for a long, long time.

The next arrival is Mr. John Hightop, a hunched, elderly man nearing age eighty.

And finally, the last one to arrive is Miss Katie Bell, a 19-year old girl, who is starting to regret coming to The Maze when she sees that no one there is her age.

The time is 11:00 sharp.

I take one long, last gaze out the window at the eight guests, who are all crowded around the locked gates and craning their heads to try to see The Maze.

They all think that they are at some ritzy mansion for a challenge to win one million dollars.

I chuckle to myself.

They are all the same every time; ignorant and unaware of the stakes that lie ahead.

The time is 11:01 A.M.

I am behind schedule.

Time to go out and introduce myself.