The Fall of Candy Corn (7 page)

“Too gross?” Candace asked.

He shook his head. “No, actually it's kinda hot . . . in a disturbing sort of way.”

“Great, because that's what I need,” she sighed.

Kurt was wearing black jeans, a black turtleneck, and black shoes. Umpires had to fade completely into the background. “Aren't you going to get hot wearing that?” she asked.

He nodded. “Although it's not as bad as you might think. Umpires don't have to move around much, so it ends up being better than most of the costumes.”

“Too bad we're not working in the same maze,” she pouted.

He pulled her into his arms for a quick kiss and then let her go.

“Like I said, too bad we're not working in the same maze,” she said.

He winked at her. “You'll be okay. Just don't let any of the other umpires kiss you.”

“I wouldn't dream of it.”

“Yeah, but they certainly would,” he said, looking her over again.

She blushed. “Stop. You're embarrassing me.”

He laughed. “Come on, I have just enough time to walk you to your maze before I have to report at mine.”

They walked out into the park as the last light was leaving the sky. It was weird seeing the park practically deserted at that time of day, and Candace shivered as she recalled for a moment how it had felt the night she and Kurt got trapped in the park.

“You cold?” he asked.

“No, just nervous.”

“You're going to be great. After all, it is your maze. You are Candy.”

“That's what I'm afraid of,” she muttered.

The Candy Craze maze had been erected in the middle of the Holiday Zone. Some of the mazes in the park were created in existing buildings. The Mummy's Curse wound through the Tomb of the Pharaohs in the Egypt area, and the House of Wax took over the House of Cards in the Game Zone. Some mazes took over a cluster of buildings, like the Haunted Village, which took over the Seaside Village shops and buildings in the Splash Zone. Others, like the Last Draft, were constructed with sturdy plywood in the middle of open spaces.

The Candy Craze was one of the latter types — with a twist. It had been created in the open spaces in and around the Holiday Zone. Some of the normal rides had been incorporated into the maze to make it really feel like an abandoned amusement park. A huge sign over the entrance blazed the words Candy Craze in four-foot-tall neon letters. The sign was the only thing that didn't look decayed and dilapidated.

Candace hovered on the threshold, her fear of mazes gnawing at her mind. “I'm not sure I want to go in there,” she told Kurt.

“Of course you don't want to,” an unfamiliar female voice said.

Candace jumped and turned to see the speaker, a blonde woman in a gray business suit with a name tag that said Tish. She looked to be in her thirties. She held a clipboard in her left hand and was wearing a headset.

“It's dark in there,” the woman continued. “Dangerous too. Anyone can tell that. Everything inside you tells you not to venture into the abandoned amusement park where sinister things might be lurking. And yet you will. They all will, because they can't help themselves. They just have to know,” the woman finished, her voice fervent.

“Wow,” Candace said, not sure what else would be appropriate to say at the moment.

“Wow indeed. That's why they'll be lining up to walk through here. Thousands of them.”

“Who are you?” Candace asked finally.

The woman seemed to come out of whatever trance she was in, and she looked directly at Candace for the first time. “I'm Tish Morgan. I'm the Game Master in charge of developing this maze.” She held out her hand, and Candace shook it.

“I'm Candace.”

“Better known as Candy,” Kurt said, clearing his throat.

Tish's eyes widened. “It's you!” she squealed.

“Yeah, it's me,” Candace said.

“Well, of course it is,” Tish said, suddenly hugging her tight. “What a brave, brave girl you are. And if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have the most amazing new maze ever!”

“Yeah, but — ” Candace said, struggling to breathe.

“But nothing. It's you, all you. You're amazing. Why, if it had been me, I don't know if I could have done what you did.”

“I really didn't do anything,” Candace said.

Tish hushed her and was suddenly talking on her headset. “Get a photographer over to the Candy Craze maze stat! You'll never believe who we got to play Candy!”

She held up a finger to indicate that she'd be back with Candace in a minute and then moved a few feet away to continue her conversation. “I know, isn't it fabulous? We have to get some publicity photos.”

“I think I should call my lawyer,” Candace muttered.

“And by that you mean your dad, right?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah. I don't think I want them taking my picture.”

“Come off it,” Kurt said. “This is a big deal! Exciting! People want to fawn over you. Let them.”

“I'm not sure I'm comfortable — ”

Kurt waved a hand to cut her off. “Comfortable has nothing to do with it, Candace. If you wanted to be comfortable, you should have stayed home and never gotten a job in the first place. Live life or go hide, it's up to you.”

She felt like she'd just been slapped. A thousand angry retorts crowded her mind. Before she could give voice to any of them, though, Kurt glanced at his watch.

“I gotta run or I'm going to be late. See you,” he said, before turning and jogging off toward the History Zone.

“See you,” Candace said to his back. As the angry retorts faded, they were replaced with a sense of bewilderment. What could she have said to push Kurt's buttons like that?

She didn't have long to think about it because a photographer arrived. The photographer and Tish dragged Candace all over the maze, posing her this way and that as he took pictures. By the time they were finished, several of the referees playing the psycho killer had showed up. Then the photographer had a field day posing Candace with various ones.

At last the photographer retreated, and a couple other people wearing suits showed up along with all the umpires. Tish led them all through the maze first, pointing out where the various umpires would be stationed. Candace had to admit that the dark, empty rides and the general sense of decay were extra creepy. If The Zone had looked like this the night she was trapped in it, she probably would have been convinced killers were lurking around every corner.

Once they had walked the maze once, including the exits that were only to be used by referees, the umpires took up their positions. Tish and two of the men with her positioned the psychos throughout the maze, giving them props and directions. They saved Candace for last.

“Okay. This maze is all about you, dear Candy,” Tish said. “We want the players to experience your fear as if it were their own. We also want them to be able to watch you running in terror from the killer.”

“Okay.”

“You're good at screaming?”

“It's what got me the job,” Candace said with a smile.

“Good, good. Now, let me walk you through this.”

Together they entered the maze again. The hall went straight for twenty feet and then turned sharply to the left. On the right-hand side was a small alcove where one of the psychos was already waiting.

“Unlike most of our mazes, we're only going to send guests through in groups of ten to fifteen. This will increase the wait times, but we felt it was worth it if we could replicate for the players your sense of isolation,” Tish said.

“Each group will come down this hall. Before they get to the corner, you're going to run, screaming across their path, and he's going to chase you,” Tish said, indicating the psycho.

“Now, instead of going straight, you'll duck behind this curtain on your left,” Tish said, showing it to her. “When the players come around this corner, they'll be startled because they won't see you. However, once they pass the curtain, your pursuer will jump out and chase them down this next hallway.”

“And what do I do?” Candace asked.

“You're going to move on to another scene a quarter of the way through the maze,” Tish said, guiding her through the parts of the maze the players wouldn't see. “You can watch from here using this angled mirror, then you'll run past them again.”

Candace nodded, checking the mirror.

“See, the idea is that each group will see you five times, including the finale where the psycho catches you.”

“He catches me?”

“Yes. The players escape, but you are not so lucky.”

Tish walked her through the maze, showing her where to run, hide, wait, and watch. At last they came to a scene with part of a crashed Ferris wheel on the ground. The final psycho was there, and they rehearsed him catching Candace and standing behind her with an arm around the upper part of her chest and shoulders as she screamed and struggled.

Candace was a little nervous, but the guy inside the suit — whose name was Ray — was really nice and gentle. They practiced the catch a dozen times until she felt comfortable with it.

“Okay, you think you have it?” Tish asked.

“I think so,” Candace said.

“Great.” Tish looked at her watch. “It's just about time for us to run through it all for our test audience. Take your place back at the front of the maze and get ready to go live.”

Candace made her way fairly easily back to the beginning and waited there with psycho number one, whose name turned out to be Reggie. They had been in place for about three minutes when there was a sudden hissing and the hall started filling with fake fog.

Candace coughed as she breathed in her first lungful.

“It takes some getting use to,” Reggie said.

Candace coughed again. Her lungs were trying to convince her that they didn't want to stick around long enough to get used to it. A minute after the fog started, the music kicked on. The beat was loud and pounding. Candace could swear that she could feel the walls vibrating. The song sounded familiar, but the pacing and the voice of the singer did not. Then in one horrific moment it hit her.

“Oh, please no,” she groaned.

It was an acid rock version of “I Want Candy.” It was the song that had driven her crazy all summer, every time she heard it in the Kids Zone. It worked though. For just a moment she was standing back there, summer sun plastering her hair to her forehead, the name tag Candy — that she could never get changed to Candace — pinned in place, and people lining up wanting nothing but sticky cotton candy.

Five minutes later Tish reappeared. She leaned in close and shouted to be heard over the music. “Okay, we've got our execs who are going to be the test audience outside and ready to go. We'll be sending them through in a minute, so get ready.”

Candace gave her a thumbs-up. Tish disappeared back toward the exit, and Candace stood, heart pounding, fists clenching. It was the moment of truth. From where she was standing, she could see the hallway, but people coming down it couldn't see her.

She could feel Reggie tensing behind her. Then she saw the executives enter the maze. She waited until they were a few feet from the corner before springing out from her hiding space and running across their path. She was screaming, and Reggie was on her heels.

She almost missed the curtain they were supposed to duck behind, but Reggie grabbed her arm, which made Candace scream for real. The two ducked behind the curtain. Candace moved toward her next position while Reggie waited for the group to pass. He jumped out behind them and chased them down the hall.

Candace's next three dashes across the group's path went well, which just left the finale. By the time she got there, she was panting from stress and excitement. Ray caught her right on cue and spun her around, arm wrapped around her.

And that was when Candace got a good look at the test group. It was a mixed group of men and women, but it was the man in front who drew her eyes. It was none other than John Hanson, owner of the park.

For a moment Candace forgot to struggle, but then Ray nudged her, and she started kicking and screaming again. In response, the group started applauding. When they finished, they exited the maze and Ray released her.

“I think that went well,” he said.

“How do you know?”

“They almost never applaud.”

Candace ran back toward the front of the maze, not sure if there was another group that was going to be coming through. Fortunately, they had set up the maze so the entrance and the exit were right next to each other.

She made it back to her starting alcove. A minute later the music and the fog stopped. Tish walked through. “Great job, guys. See you on Friday,” she told Candace and Reggie.

“So, we can go?” Candace asked.

“Yup. Get out of here.”

6

Candace walked slowly out of the maze. She was exhausted. This worried her since she'd only been at work for an hour instead of seven. All she really wanted was to call Tamara to pick her up so she could crash. She didn't like the way Kurt had left things though.