Page 121 of Death is My BFF

Marcy edged away from Thomas in fear. I could see myself in her reaction as she rapidly tried to make sense of what she’d just seen. In that moment, Thomas had looked otherworldly. Demonic. She cast a frightful look in my direction, and I silently confirmed it.

“Please, don’t run,” Thomas panted once he regained his bearings. He spat dark liquid to the ground like it disgusted him. “I’m not going to hurt you, I swear.” When he looked up at us, oily black tears were leaking from his eyes, and my heart clenched.

“What do you need?” I asked softly.

“My mom, she’s not going to handle me being gone well,” he said, swiping under his eyes to erase any trace of emotion. “She’ll blame herself. I need you to tell her it’s not her fault. Can you do that for me?”

“Thomas, you’re scaring me,” Marcy whispered, hugging her arms to her chest. “Whatever’s going on, whatever trouble you’re in, let us help you.” She took a wavering step forward, reaching for him.

“I can talk to my father. He has connections, he can get you help.”

“You don’t understand!”Thomas exploded as his pupils expanded over the width of his eyes again. He’d lost enough control that his demon had slipped through, so I lunged forward to pull Marcy back. Thomas somehow remained in control and covered his face in shame. “I need you to give my mom that message. Please.

Please . . . ”

“I will.” I had to be strong and help him. “I’ll tell her.”

“Thank you.” When Thomas removed his hands from his face, his expression was pained, vulnerable, a ghost of his humanity still intact. “Marcy, I’m so sorry. For everything. I took advantage of you.”

He bowed his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “You deserve so much better than what I could give you. Which is why I’m letting you go. For good.”

There was a tightness at the back of my throat as Thomas retreated away from us. If only I hadn’t gone to Main Street that day, if only I’d gotten far, far away from Thomas the moment I had that vision of his death. Then, maybe, he wouldn’t have had to suffer this way.

“Thomas? Tommy, wait!” Marcy ran after him, but Thomas moved in a blur and vanished into the cornstalks. She stopped at the edge of the path, hyperventilating. “Tommy!”

“Marcy?” It was Nathan, Marcy’s date for tonight. He cut through the cornstalks and caught Marcy in his arms. There were bloody scratches all over his face.

“Thank God you’re okay,” Nathan said and hugged her tight.

“There’re thesethingsin the corn maze. Rabid dogs as big as wolves.

Everyone is freaking out. I was looking all over for you.”

Marcy swayed as he released her, a blank expression of shock on her face as Nathan encouraged her to leave with him. It killed me to leave her like this, without explaining everything I knew. The adrenaline shooting through my system told me it was time to keep moving. I had to separate myself from Marcy and Nathan. Thomas had said good-bye to protect the people he loved and now I had to do the same. My heart couldn’t bear anybody else dying tonight. Not after what had happened to Thomas.

As Nathan looped an arm around Marcy’s shoulders to help steer her down the path, I stepped deeper into the cornstalks and hid until they left. Marcy would be okay. She didn’t need me to protect her.

Once the coast was clear, I guardedly made my way back from which I came, to the beginning of the labyrinth. I had to find Death. If I could talk to him alone, I could convince him to spare my aunt.

Maybe I could appeal to him to see if there was anything he could do to save Thomas too.Yeah, as if Death would care.

Fear shackled my feet to the ground. The entrance to the maze was gone. In its place stood cornstalks I knew weren’t there before.

Freaking out at this point, I pushed through the wall of cornstalks to try to find the entrance of the maze, but the cornstalks never ended and became too tough to climb through. The stalks cut my skin and I smacked at the occasional sensation of a bug biting my arms, until I found my way back to the dirt path in the maze. The path of broken cornstalks seemed to go on forever.

With only the sounds of my breathing and a backdrop of crickets, I edged forward.

A train whistle blasted in my ears, and I jumped a foot into the air.

It was just a speaker in the haunted maze, but it was enough to get me going again. I sprinted down a narrow path to my left with the crazed effort of a madwoman, until my throat started to burn. There were no signs. No people jumping out to scare me. Just me, alone, in the corn maze, like some re-created nightmare. By the time I reached a fork in the path, I nearly fell to the ground from exhaustion.

“Have some hearts, my precious!” shouted a witch who leapt from the stalks. She held a rubber, bloody organ in her hands. I released a scream as another, taller person jumped into the path dressed as Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series. He waved around a chain saw without the blade, while the witch held the most ridiculous expression, refusing to let me past as she cackled.

“I get it, I get it!” I shouted. “I really don’t have time for this!”

I pushed her to the side and ducked beneath the guy’s chain saw, racing down the path. almost there! read a wooden sign attached to a pole on my right. Then I passed another one that read just kidding! and hit a dead end.

“This can’t be happening,” I gasped.

---