Raising Hell

[Ash]

Ducking low and still holding onto the book, knife in other hand, Ash darted across the small space of yard between house and garden, the first bush wall of the maze was devoid of any flowers and still held its rich green color despite the lack of care of the interior. However, as soft as it looked it slightly scratched at her exposed back reminding her that it was in fact was not.

She rolled into the first layers of the maze. The walls were made of tall and dense bushes, planted uncomfortably close to increase the thickness of the bushes so it was difficult to see one way or the other. Visibility was not important to her, as she could just go through a bush if she thought it would get her out of here quicker.

She stood up to her full height after that and began to quickly use the rule of mazes where you put one hand on the wall and you keep going that way until you’ve reached the end. Because her book was in her right hand she chose that side and began to follow the rule of ‘right’.

Occasionally she heard the loud noises of the mansion behind her being destroyed from the inside out. Glass breaking erupted from the various rooms, and each time it happened she looked back to make sure she’d not been spotted. It was much too dark to see her just casually, but she still would like to avoid and unwanted circumstances before it became a problem.

The background that was her new adventure would have been more boring had there not been the random pops of color that were flowers in the bushes. She was careful not to touch, bright colors tended to mean poisonous in the world of the wild, or at least that’s what her science teachers tried to nail into her head before she just dropped out of high school.

The strangest part of the flowers, however, were how they seemed to follow her. Not just because they got more common the closer to the center of the maze she got, but because when she stared at a set before the center where the seeds were imbedded would follow her like an eyeball in a creepy painting. She thought this idea was ludicrous, that it just had to be the wind. Except it kept happening, and she never felt any wind.

The ground itself was just a shocking white colored gravel that she’d seen in some public places. It looked packed down - settled, but there was no footprints that she could follow, no clue to which way was the correct turn. In reality, she only assumed that the flowers collecting like that meant she was getting closer to the center as it was logical to five someone a visual cue, but there was nothing to suggest that was even a little bit true. She decided to ignore the flowers and just continue following the right side of her hand.

A few times she has had to turn around after hitting dead ends and such, she estimated that she has lost at least 20 minutes on this. It wasn’t the dead ends or the maze that alarmed her to how long she’d been working on it, but the lack of noises outside of herself. Either the creature that had brought her here to dance with it’s dead master had ran out of windows to break, or ran out of steam. The latter meant that it would be calming down and thinking.

Emory was clearly broken mentally, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t think logically just that something was different in their mind. She should work harder in getting out of this quickly, not smartly. Summoning her chainsword would be optimal, but maybe she should have summoned that instead of her dagger..

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rocks shifting, which were notable because they hadn’t made a single sound since she was stepping on them. Where exactly it was coming from she couldn’t pin, but if her cover has already been revealed she should do everything in her power to avoid whatever this was coming for her.

Ash focused on her legs, pooling her energy there as she bends her knees to jump. Releasing it she cleared the bush and the next ‘hallway’ after that. In mid-air, she twisted to be able to look behind her. She observed that the house was still very dark, still, and quiet. She could not see Emory in either form she’d seen him before in the maze either.

The morality mirrored humanoid landed on the gravel with a bit more force than she was expecting. Having to land as if she’d taken a tall fall and rolling afterwards. She bit her lip as she felt something scratch around her ankle, sure that it had gone into the bush. Up until she was dragged across the rocks and lifted up in the air by the ankle.

There was no sound of surprise or pain, but she felt something dig into her leg and then slide up her legs, swirling across her calf and tightening around her thigh, destroying her sock and skin on the way. Blue blood fell against the brilliant white rocks below and she moaned while arching her back.

When it stopped she jerked forward and swung back around to look down. She found a thick vine tentacle wrapped around her leg, her vibrant blue blood oozing over it. Following the single vine down she found it coming from the rock path she’d dropped down on. From that point another one began to sprout. Ash shouldn’t have enjoyed the idea, but a flash of tentacle hentai crossed her mind and she hoped it would be as good as that looked. Her face flushed with anticipation as she dropped her book and readied her blade.