Page 56 of A Better World

“It’s always okay. Everything’s always okay in paradise, didn’t you know?” Rachel asked.

“Someone spiked Rachel’s mocktail with about five shots of absinthe,” Daniella said, then they all looked at Jack, who was talking to some board members nearby. Wearing his usual tight black suit instead of a costume, his demeanor was excessively relaxed. Slothful, even.

“Who would do that?” Linda asked.

“There’s only one person,” Kai answered. “The better question is, she must have tasted that something was wrong with it. So why did she drink it?”

“Because I’m tough, that’s why,” Rachel said. “He has no idea what I come from. He needs to understand that whatever he throws at me doesn’t matter. I can handle it.”

Kai’s eyes watered, and Linda realized for the first time how deeply Kai Choi Johnson loved his troubled wife.

“Sorry if we kept you waiting,” Daniella said. “We were at the Parson Mansion for a little PV business.”

“They’re making their list and checking it twice,” Rachel said.

Daniella squeezed Rachel’s arm, hard, in a way that clearly meantstop talking.

“I need to get home to the kids,” Kai said.

“She’ll be okay. I have her,” Daniella said.

Their group of about twenty-five people amassed. Lloyd Bennett got out in front of them all. “Tallyho!” he called, and in a line, they entered the mouth.

Linda, Daniella, and Rachel lingered. “Do you want to do this?” Daniella asked.

“The top contender for CEO has to show her face at all these things,” Rachel answered. “Of course I’m doing this.” She straightened like the very model of sobriety, walked between security officers and down the stairs, into the maze.

Daniella turned to Linda. “That answers that.”

What Linda had neglected to tell Rachel on their call was that while she’d seen a lot in her life, and been through more, these experiences had not served as inoculation. She scared easily.

They got to the landing, where the Labyrinth began. It was cold and dark. Overhead speakers played spooky music. She heard they’d shortened the route to a single kilometer rather than the full three, and they’d locked the inner shelter as well, so no one could cheat or get lost.

The ceilings had been lit with ultraviolet lights, making teeth glow. Haystacks lined the walls, but these made narrower paths than she remembered. She had the idea that there was extra room on either side for volunteers to assist stragglers, or else jump out and scare people crapless.

By now they’d passed two intersections. Linda looked back, trying to remember from which way they’d come, but the walls were moving. She reminded herself that while this place was scary, it was also wondrous. Magic, even, in that human, awe-inspiring way that the ancient pyramids and modern medicine and functional governments feel like magic. Humans had made this awesome thing.

“What’s he do, the Beltane King?” Linda asked.

“Keith? He likes to grab people and shake them until they cry. Chances are, it won’t be you,” Daniella said. “But isn’t the risk a thrill?”

“Yes, he’s insane, and that makes it SO MUCH FUN!” Rachel shouted from up ahead.

Every fifty strides or so, they passed under a hyperfocused speaker. They heard creaking doors, singular and eerie, then at the next stop, a weeping, ghostly woman.

Linda tried to discern Russell in the pack ahead. But they were just a blur, drifting farther and faster. A wall moved and he was gone.

Deeper. The rows darkened. So did the music. They couldn’t talk. The music beat in her chest, loud. It pulled her out of time and made her feel trapped in her own skin. She had a brief, mad thought that there was something down these tunnels with all of them. Something amused by their pale imitations of horror—and insulted by them, too.

Something old that should never have been dug up.

“I amnota fraidy-cat,” she shouted.

“Oh, I think she is,” Rachel said. There was a hint of mean happening, here. Rachel could be mean.

“Are you scared?” Daniella asked, bellowing to be heard.

They turned, or maybe the maze curved. The crowd ahead and behind were gone. It was suddenly just the three of them. They came to a four-way intersection.

---