The Maze

The Maze [19]

[20]

Water started to wet me and I twisted the handle and tipped my head back. The water was very hot and I closed my eyes to make these minutes of my life much more enjoyable.

"Oh, this is heaven" I said to myself as the shower cubical steamed up. There were 10 rooms in the air ship, one for each person but we only used 6 of them. You were allowed 10 minutes in the showers and 30 minutes to get ready so that meant a full 40 minutes to myself. I squeezed the shampoo bottle and a silky violet liquid came out in my hand. I rubbed it into my hair and then tipped my head back again. I could stay in here all day. I wished I could stay in here all day. Sooner or later I would have to jump down into the dark, horrible and savage maze again. I shook the maze out of my head because I didn't want to think about it while I was trying to relax.

"Heaven"

I pulled the perfectly folded towel off the radiator rack and wrapped myself in it. I pulled another towel off the rack and wrapped it around my head while stumbling over to a large mirror on the back wall. I peered into it holding my towel tightly at the sides and backed away in disgust. I glanced at the make-up on the side and then looked into the mirror again and touched my bruised and battered face. The door flung open and I fell backwards into a cabinet nearly letting go of my grip on the towel and revealing all to this stranger standing in the doorway.

"Hello Grace, I'm your stylist" The young looking man stepped towards me. His face was glowing and his grin was as wide as the doorway. Well, not quite. His waistcoat was a very bright pink and his jeans were very tight and fitted making him look sort of camp. His hair was deep red with blonde highlights in and it was very neatly hair sprayed up into an Elvis Presley hair do which looked pretty amazing.

"My stylist?" I said after much hesitation.

"Yes honey, your stylist" He sat me down on a big red puffy chair and told me to relax, so I did. He started to brush my hair which wasn't easy since I hadn't brushed, washed or cared about it in however many days we've been in the maze. I forgot because it's not the most important thing in the world when you're fighting for your lives and no one can blame you for that, not even your personal stylist.

"You have got a good deal of knotted hair miss" The man spoke very formerly and proper so I felt like I had to also speak in this manner.

"Ah, yes that's because I have been in a ghastly maze fighting kids and unimaginable and horrific creatures to save myself from death. Sorry"

The man gave me an uneasy chuckle and then told me not to apologize so I smiled in a polite way and let him get on with my beautification project. I didn't see the point in this because the second we stepped into the maze would be the second all of this make-up would get scratched off. He messed about with my face for a bit and then showed me to a mirror.

"Whoa, wow" I said realizing It was me I was looking at in the mirror.

The man grinned and pointed me to a new pair of clothes and I gracefully thanked him as he left the room. I drove my fingers through my hair before picking up the pile of recently ironed clothes. Somebody knocked on my door and told me I had 10 minutes left, so I swiftly changed clothes and then looked at them in the mirror. I wore a nice pair of dark blue skinny jeans that fitted me perfectly around the waist giving me a little room to breath and a pink long-sleeved top underneath a new hoodie which was furry inside making me warm and comfortable. This was all finished off with a pair of sensible running trainers and a pair of gloves. I looked at myself one last time before being called out into the hallway with the death red walls and the comfy chairs.

Arran and Rowan were sitting down talking and checking the bags. They looked wonderful, so clean and healthy.

"Hi" I said and they turned and watched me sit down.