Kisses From Death | Book 1

S I X T E E N

S I X T E E N
Clownin' Around

THERE WAS A cloud of mist around the place, blocking my already very hazy vision as I squinted blindly into the dark. An eerie silence enveloped the maze-like arena once Death's message was broadcasted. It contrasted too heavily against the bouncy carnival music, and this fact alone made my hair stand with attention. The music was completely gone, wiped out as if the last few minutes were nothing but a simple part of my imagination. Then again, this current situation was not something in which one would see every single day on a norm.

No sounds, no anything. Death had already left me with the basic instructions of the game which was to find the center of the maze to retrieve the orb before time runs out. Or worse, one of the other 'participants' of the game finds me. This also meant that I would most likely be left alone without any more instructions to help me find my way.

He had not stated it in perfect black and white, but it was clear that this maze couldn't exactly be that easy to solve. This wasn't one of those mazes you can find at the back of the Sunday paper. This was real life, where making one wrong turn into the dead-end could add on hours to the time spent here in this hellhole before finding the end of the maze.

This was nothing more than a game to Death. I was the contestant, the only contestant, while he was the host, watching the game with quite obvious glee. A thought drifted into my mind as I began to walk blindly ahead, seeing that the road behind me led to a dead end. Had all the previous girls Death had targeted gone through this? Had they even lasted this long in his sadistic games?

Maybe, maybe not. The only way to find out would be to lose it myself, and that wasn't going to happen anytime soon if I had a say in it. Then again, he did mention that the carnival only happens every thirty or so years. Since these parties had only been going on for the last decade or so, there wasn't a high chance for the girls to have met their ends via this exact same maze.

That sounded like great news because that would mean that for now, as long I am in the maze, I will not run into rotting human corpses or a half-dead human like that woman back in the yacht.

The first fork in the road came and it split into two simple lanes that looked absolutely identical. By the rules of the maze, one should always go left and so it was left that I went with. I placed my hand on the wall, never letting it detach as I continued on. A wise friend once said that if you were to place one hand on one side of the maze, you'll always find your way no matter how long it takes.

The quiet area of the maze was different from the start of the carnival. There were no 'ooh's and 'aah's that could have either egged me on or annoyed me. There were no sly smiles that could have given me a clue as of to whether I was making the right decision or not. No music, no life, and definitely no friends to stay by my side and help me with my every decision.

I was all alone in this game, with no allies, no companion to help me.

The left lane was met with silence, and my grip on the pistol tightened. This stillness disturbed me in more ways than one as it could mean that a random killer can ever so easily come up from behind me to stick a knife in my throat when I wasn't looking.

When a rustle of the winds against the giant hedges resonated the small lane, I whipped my head around, eyes wide and scanning the area as I raised the gun to my cheek, the safety clicking off and ready to attack. I couldn't just blindly shoot.

I had a very limited number of bullets, and going by my guess, the bullets were the white diamonds on my bracelet. How fitting it was and how clueless of me to not figure it out immediately. Thirteen chances, meaning thirteen bullets in the pistol. I had thirteen crystal clear diamonds on my bracelet that changed color accordingly to the ghoul in which I successfully shot. Hence, one miscalculated shot, one wasted bullet could be the difference between life and death.