The Fall of Candy Corn

by Debbie Viguié

  It was interesting to see the contrast between the two mazes. This maze was going for a sense of anticipation, relying on sudden sound and movement to finish what overactive imaginations started. The Candy Craze maze was going for confusion and heart-pumping adrenaline. The looks and sounds of both mazes were geared toward those goals. Players were expected to walk slowly, hesitantly forward in the Haunted Village, afraid of what might lurk around every corner. Players in the Candy Craze, on the other hand, were expected to run, terrified of what might catch them.

  Ten minutes later the first players arrived. They had been inside the maze only a few seconds when the screaming began. Candace couldn’t help but smile. At the end of the day, that was what Scare was all about.

  The second group of people out of the maze made a beeline for her cart. For the rest of the evening she discovered just how in demand candy corn was. She had suspected that it would be popular, but she’d had no idea how many people would come looking for the distinctly Halloween sugar rush.

  As she served up bag after bag, she enjoyed listening to them talking about where they were going, the scariest things they had seen so far, and what they were thinking about their experience. The more she listened, the more curious she became. She really was going to have to find a way to get enough time off so that she could check out all the mazes.

  She found she was actually enjoying herself. Then, about halfway through her shift, she heard something that gave her pause.

  “I was here last weekend, and that’s definitely a different girl in the Candy Craze maze. She’s so much better than the one from last weekend.”

  Candace flushed, realizing that he was talking about her and her replacement. She never heard who was going to be playing Candy in the maze since her unfortunate departure.

  “Yeah, the girl tonight was totally believable . . . and hot,” another guy said.

  Better . . . believable . . . Candace didn’t like the sound of either of those. She nearly miscounted the change that she gave back to the next customer in line. Get a grip! she told herself. They probably brought in some seasoned pro who’d been working Scare for years. Maybe she was even a professional actress. It seemed unlikely, but it at least made Candace feel better.

  Martha showed up to give her a quick break and to check up on her. Candace decided to make a beeline for Candy Craze to see for herself who the girl who had replaced her was. The person controlling the line recognized her and waved her into the maze at the end of a group.

  It was strange to be walking through the maze, observing it as a player. Being at the back of the line she didn’t get a good look at the girl playing Candy. She could, however, hear her whimpering and begging for her life instead of screaming.

  That’s lame. She’s making Candy seem like too much of a wimp, she thought. Each time Candy appeared, she seemed more pathetic than the last, sobbing louder each time.

  Finally the finale arrived, and the first thing Candace noticed was that the girl wasn’t struggling in her captor’s arms to try and free herself, she was hanging limp like a rag doll, defeated and pathetic. The second thing she noticed was the girl’s face.

  It was Lisa.

  The players ran to the exit, but Candace stood staring at Lisa who finally saw her and smiled smugly. Lisa! How could they pick Lisa!

  Lisa was Kurt’s ex-girlfriend. She had made Candace’s life miserable over the summer and even lied to try to get her fired. Candace was furious. Of all people to be replaced by, why did it have to be her?

  She made it back to the cart, and Martha took one look at her face and said, “Lisa was the only one they could move there in time.”

  “There had to be another choice,” Candace said.

  “I’m sorry,” Martha answered. The older woman then beat a hasty retreat.

  The fact that Martha knew somehow made it even worse. It was like a betrayal. As she handed out bag after bag of candy corn, Candace wondered how she could get Lisa out of the maze.

  Fifteen minutes later, as luck would have it, Candace spotted Tish walking toward the Haunted Village maze.

  “Tish!” Candace called.

  Tish looked at her as though she had no idea who she was. “Tish, it’s me, Candy,” Candace said, swallowing her pride and using the nickname.

  “Oh, Candy, what are you doing there?” Tish asked, walking over.

  “I got injured in the maze last weekend, and policy said that I had to be taken out for a while,” Candace explained.

  “I heard something about that,” Tish said. “I’m glad you’re okay. The irony is wonderful though. You survive the real thing only to be injured in the re-creation.”

  Candace gritted her teeth. She thought about trying to explain, again, that there had never been a psycho killer. She doubted Tish would listen, and Candace had a more pressing concern. “Yeah. Anyway, the girl that’s playing . . . me . . . in the maze right now . . . her name is Lisa, and she’s playing . . . me . . . really wimpy. It’s embarrassing. Could you please have her removed?”

  “Sorry. She’s getting good buzz, and the lines are longer than ever.”

  “But, it’s not right! I mean, that’s not who I am.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure! I was the one trapped in the park with the killer, I oughta know how it was!” Candace came to an abrupt stop, horrified. I’m buying into my own urban legend! “That’s not what I wanted to say,” she began, but Tish cut her off.

  “Sorry. Wish I could help. Enjoy Scare.” Tish moved away, leaving Candace standing there feeling like an idiot.

  Candace couldn’t believe how Tish had just blown her off. Last weekend she thought I was the best thing ever. Wow, is she fickle.

  It wasn’t right. If Candace was the Game Master in charge of a maze, she would certainly care about authenticity. And if the maze was loosely based on a real person, she would most certainly want that person’s input and want to keep her happy.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a seriously shrill scream from the maze followed by someone shouting. Candace turned her eyes toward the maze. She’d been outside of the maze for nearly four hours and hadn’t heard anything like that before. Something felt wrong.

  A minute later security showed up on the scene, and she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Ten minutes later they had sealed off the area, set up a barricade, and escorted players out of the Splash Zone.

  A security officer hurried by Candace, and she hailed him. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Somebody attacked one of the girls working in the maze,” he said before moving on.

  Candace sat down on the ground, heart racing. She had known something was wrong. She watched the referees coming out of the maze and being questioned one by one by security. Paramedics arrived with a stretcher, and she could see them put a girl on it. They carried her right past Candace on their way out, and she saw with horror that there was blood oozing through the bandages covering her chest. Her eyes were open, and she looked terrified.

  Candace closed her eyes and prayed for the girl, the paramedics, the referees who had been inside, and the players. She also prayed that security would find whoever had done it quickly so they could all rest easy.

  Finally a security officer approached her. “You were out here when it happened, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you see or hear anything?”

  “I heard a really loud scream and then some shouting. It sounded like there was something wrong. That was all though. What happened?”

  “Apparently, some guy slashed Vicki, one of the referees, across the chest with a hook. Unfortunately, the only referee with a hook is that guy sitting over there,” he said pointing. “And his hook is made of rubber.”

  Candace looked and saw the guy in question. He was dressed like a naval captain.

  “What about the fisherman?” Candace asked.

  “What fisherman?”

  “I saw a fisherman go int
o the maze before the others. He had a hook on his hand.”

  “We haven’t seen anyone like that.” He spoke into his walkie-talkie. “Sweep the maze again, check every corner. We’re looking for a fisherman with a hook hand.”

  It was so surreal that Candace wanted to laugh, but she remembered the frightened eyes of the girl as they carried her past, and she couldn’t laugh. Something awful had happened.

  “Would you recognize him if you saw him?”

  “I might,” Candace said. “I mean, I would certainly recognize his clothes, and I might recognize him.”

  “Tell you what, show me where you were standing and how far away he was from you.”

  Candace showed him.

  “I’m going to have everyone walk by, and you tell me if any of them looks familiar.”

  “Okay.”

  Five minutes later the last referee walked past Candace’s cart. She shook her head in frustration. None of them were dressed as the fisherman had been. Worse, she was pretty sure none of the people she saw could have been him.

  She spent another half hour answering questions before she was finally released for the evening. She used the intercom on the cart to report in, and a signal was sent to the cart to bring it back to base.

  As she turned in the cart, she gave Martha a weak smile. It wasn’t her fault Candace had gotten hurt. Besides, worrying about Lisa in the Candy Craze maze seemed petty in comparison to what had just happened in the other maze.

  “You okay, sweetie?”

  Candace nodded. “If they catch the guy, could you let me know? I’d sleep better.”

  “We all would,” Martha said with a sigh. “There’s no way to keep a lid on this thing. Management’s trying to decide if they want to shut down the park early tonight. I’m hoping they don’t. It’ll cause a panic, and that’s one thing we don’t need on our hands.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Candace said.

  Once in her car, she checked the backseat and made sure all her doors were locked. Then she stopped and prayed again. She didn’t like to think that such things happened in the world, even though she knew they did. It was just hard to confront them, though, especially at her place of work.

  11

  Josh called her in the morning, waking her out of a sound slumber. “What is it?” she asked sleepily.

  “They’re pretty sure they know who the guy was who hurt Vicki.”

  “Did they catch him?” she asked, sitting up straight.

  “Not yet. It turns out that Vicki just broke up with her boyfriend, a real piece of work.”

  “Eeww. That’s almost worse than it just being some psycho,” Candace said.

  “Yeah, but the police are looking for him, and it looks like we won’t have a rogue slasher on our hands.”

  “That is good news. Is she going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, she got lucky. She was wearing several layers of clothing, and it turned out to be more of a scratch. Only needed a few stitches from what I hear.”

  “That’s a relief,” Candace said. Thank you, God!

  “Yeah. I heard about Lisa playing you by the way. Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Last night’s incident gave me some perspective.”

  “Gotcha. Well, have a good day at school, and I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Okay,” she said, closing her cell. She glanced at the clock. The alarm would be going off in about fifteen minutes. She briefly contemplated trying to fall back asleep but visions of hitting the snooze alarm until noon filled her head. With a sigh she turned off the alarm and got up.

  By the time the school day was over, she was wishing she had stayed in bed. Four of her teachers had just assigned papers all to be due in about two weeks. By the time she made it home, she was feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

  She walked in the door and upstairs to her bedroom where she decided the only way she was going to make it through the weekend was if she took a nap right there and then. Two hours later when she awoke, she felt much better and ready to tackle just about anything.

  In the Locker Room at work she was stowing her stuff when Josh stalked in wearing his full vampire costume. “Please,” he said, trying to sound like Dracula, “I am looking for a quick bite.”

  “Look somewhere else!” she laughed.

  “These modern women, they do not understand Dracula,” he moaned.

  She rolled her eyes at him. He chose a locker and started stashing his street clothes. Candace walked over to the bulletin board to see if there were any notices she needed to be aware of.

  An announcement on the board caught her eye. Needed! Volunteers to help organize Sugar Shock event. See Martha.

  “Hey, Josh.”

  “Yeah?”

  “What’s Sugar Shock?” Candace asked, pointing toward the flyer.

  “Sugar Shock is the event for all the younger kids during the day on Halloween. There’s trick-or-treating and costume contests, and Freddie McFly and Mr. Nine Lives do a show.”

  “That’s so cool,” she said. “I wish I’d known about that when I was young enough to go.”

  “It is cool,” Josh agreed.

  “So, why do they need volunteers for it?” she asked.

  “Because it’s on Halloween. Most people are gearing up for the biggest night of Scare and are getting as much rest as they possibly can. No one wants to help run Sugar Shock, because they’ll be worn out by the time Scare starts.”

  “But somebody has to run it,” Candace said.

  “Yeah. The supervisors usually draw straws, and this year it looks like Martha got the short one. They usually spend most of their time trying to bully, bribe, or beg people to do stuff for Sugar Shock.”

  For some reason that just seemed sad to Candace. She thought the whole event sounded cool, and she bet it was fun to see all the kids in their costumes. Every Halloween since she had stopped trick-or-treating, she had been the one to answer the door and pass out candy.

  “You thinking of volunteering?” Josh asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Good for you! I know Martha would be relieved to have the help.”

  Candace nodded. She headed for the cart storage area to pick up her cart, hoping to find Martha running things over there. She was in luck. Martha looked like it had already been a rough time, and Scare hadn’t even started for the evening.

  “Hey, Candace. Cart five’s all ready for you. You’re a few minutes early though.”

  “I was hoping to talk to you for a second.”

  “Shoot,” the older woman said.

  “I wanted to help with Sugar Shock.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny. Did Gib put you up to this?”

  “No,” Candace said, surprised at Martha’s reaction. “I saw the flyer and I want to help.”

  Martha stared at her hard for a moment, and then a glimmer of what looked like relief showed in her eyes. “Really?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You know it’s during the day on Halloween, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’ll still work Scare?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you do this, there’s no changing your mind. No ‘I’m sorry, Martha, I just can’t handle it.’ No backing out or calling in sick or quitting.”

  “No, of course not,” Candace said. Martha was starting to scare her.

  “Bless you!” Martha cried, suddenly throwing her arms around Candace.

  “Okay, Martha, now you’re really scaring me,” Candace said.

  The older woman pulled away and wiped her eyes on the back of her hands. “You have no idea how hard it is to get help running that event,” she said.

  “I don’t get what the big deal is,” Candace admitted.

  “It’s probably better that way,” Martha said.

  Candace was about to ask her what she meant by that when Martha’s radio squawked to life. “Thank you,” Martha said before reaching for it.

  Candace nodded and move
d toward cart five. This was her second night back on the cart, and in many ways it was like she had never left. Martha’s reaction made Candace wonder if volunteering had been a bad idea, especially given all the homework her teachers were assigning. It would probably look really good on her college applications though. Also, she felt bad that no one wanted to help with the kids’ event. It seemed like it would be fun.

  The cart headed for the History Zone, which was just fine by Candace. She was hoping she’d get a chance to talk to Kurt. The next few weeks were going to be hectic, and there wasn’t going to be much chance to see each other.

  The cart parked outside the castle. Josh waved to her a few minutes later when he walked inside. Finally Candace saw several umpires head into the area, and she waved to Kurt. He broke off from the group and jogged over.

  “Kiss break,” he declared before kissing her.

  “I like kiss break,” she said. “I think I need more of them.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said. “Things are getting crazy. I have a ton of homework for school.”

  “Me too. I was hoping, though, we could do something early next week.”

  “Unless you want to meet me on campus for dinner, I’m not sure when or how,” he said.

  “I could meet you on campus.”

  “You’d do that?” he asked.

  “Of course. Just tell me when and where.”

  “Cool. Tuesday at five?”

  “Works for me.”

  “Great, I’ll text you and tell you where to meet me,” he said.

  “Hey, Kurt, hurry up!” one of the other guys shouted.

  “That’s my cue,” Kurt said, giving her another quick kiss before running off.

  Tuesday at five, Candace checked the text Kurt had sent her cell just to make sure she was in the right place. She was on the bench facing the main doors of Davis Hall, and it didn’t seem like there could be any mistaking the location. The campus was a little rundown, and the buildings were cramped together, but there were some lovely green lawn areas and old trees that offered shade.

  The doors to Davis Hall opened, and people came streaming out. They ranged in age from sixteen to sixty from the looks of it. She spotted Kurt as he made his way for her.