Gavin had no idea how it was possible, but there could be no doubt about it. He had been snared by the hedge maze. He felt sure he'd followed his steps perfectly, had kept a solid record in his head of every twist and turn he'd taken. Yet when it had come time to retrace his steps, he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way.
Either that, or there was more to this maze than anyone had imagined.
Standing in the little respite, his senses alert, he heard it again. The sound. It was like something was moving through the walls of the maze. Or... and he hated to think what this meant... like the walls of the maze themselves were moving.
That would explain why I'm lost, he thought. That would explain why everyone gets lost in here.
But if that were true, it created another mystery, namely, WHO was moving the walls of the maze?
Unless there was some very sophisticated machinery involved that could sense when a person walked through the maze, someone had to be controlling it. To what end, Gavin wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about a lot of things at that particular moment.
Thinking on this a bit further, he tried to figure out if it would even be possible to find the way out. If someone was controlling the shifting maze, then they could just ensure that the paths never led out. For that matter, this could be the case even if the movement was automatic. Step one could simply be cutting off any chance of escape.
He thought back to the suspicious, unknown student who had led him here in the first place. That kid, whoever he was, hadn't bothered with the entrance to the maze, but had been investigating the outer wall. Almost as if...
As if looking for a secret entrance.
Gavin gave himself a face palm. It made sense. The actual entrance to this hedge maze was a decoy. The real entrance to whatever lay hidden within was somewhere else. Gavin had just wasted his time and gotten trapped for his effort. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was not going to just walk out of here, no matter how long he tried.
Which meant he was going to have to get creative.
He turned to look at the ivy walls surrounding him. They were thick and heavily tangled up with vines. Approaching the wall, he shoved his hand into the foliage but quickly drew it back out upon suffering a serious scrape. Looking at the back of his hand, he saw a trickle of blood ooze out of a long scratch along his knuckles. He sighed and wiped the blood on his shirt. He wasn't going to be forcing his way through the walls, that was for sure.
His attention was drawn once again to the fountain in the center of this little respite. It was tall, a bit over his head, with three streams of water bubbling up from the top and pouring down into a bowl that stood waist high. It looked thin, but if it was made of cement it should hold him. He carefully climbed up until he was standing on the rim of the bowl, one of the streams of water pouring out onto his chest. Rising himself up on his tiptoes, he tried to see over the walls of the maze, but he wasn't high enough. He considered trying to climb to the top, but there really was nothing to hold onto and he'd fall in an instant.
He jumped down and took stock of the situation. He supposed he could just keep walking through the maze, but he knew that wouldn't bring him anywhere. The only other way out he could think of was to wait until someone rescued him. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but he simply couldn't come up with any other option. He wondered how long it would take for people to notice he was missing. He hadn't told anyone where he was going, but if push came to shove and the staff asked around, they'd eventually ask his friends who would mention Gavin's obsession with the hedge maze. He figured that would take a couple of hours, at least.
With a groan, he sat down and leaned back against the fountain to wait. At least he had a source of water.
After a few minutes, he heard the sound again, this time recognising it for what it had to be--the walls of the maze shifting places. Since he hadn't moved, he assumed it was on some sort of timer. He wondered how long it would go on shifting. Probably until he was rescued and someone reset the system.
He could just imagine what Mitchell and his gang would say after Gavin was marched out of the hedge maze by a teacher, or maybe Mr. Unger. He'd never hear the end of it. The thought depressed him, and he slid down until he was almost lying on the ground, with only his head propped up against the base of the fountain.
That was when he noticed the gap at the bottom of the walls. It wasn't large, only a couple of inches, but it ran along the entire maze as far as he could see. Thinking more about it, it made sense. The walls of the maze weren't moving by magic, they were on some sort of mechanical gizmo that shuttled them left and right as needed. That meant they couldn't be rooted into the ground, not if they moved around all the time. He rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled over to the gap. It was cleverly hidden, and no one would see it unless they looked at it from the ground. The builders of the maze had probably figured it didn't matter even if someone did find it because it was only a couple of inches high. Not nearly high enough for anyone to squeeze through.
Unless they had a squishy face. Unless they were Rubber Skull.
Concentrating, Gavin lay on the ground and tried to will his head to flatten. Back at the library, he'd done the trick by shoving his head against the book slot until it fit. He hoped he wouldn't have to do that here because that would mean shoving his head into the thorns, which would hurt a lot.
You can do this, Gavin, he thought, willing himself to succeed. He closed his eyes and imagined having a flat head, imagined what that would feel like. If his head became a disc, it would be a rather wide disc to make up for the loss of depth. His ears would stretch out, his nose would smush up into his face, his chin would tuck into his chest. He would be a large, flat coin. He concentrated on this thought, on this image--holding it in his mind.
Finally, he dared to open his eyes. The view that welcomed him was unlike anything he'd ever seen. He was staring straight up into the sky, and he had a massive, 180 degrees of vision all around him. Looking to the left (if he could call it left), he saw the wall of the hedge maze. It seemed taller now, and he realized that must have meant that his trick had worked!
He was now flat-headed!
Not wanting to waste any time, he scooted the rest of his body toward the wall. It was difficult to move his head, as all the muscles in his neck had flattened as well, but his head moved with his body and his body remained normal. In no time he was at the edge of the wall. His head easily slid underneath, coming out on the other side.
It was another corridor in the maze.
Was this corridor better than the one in which the rest of his body lay? Was it outside the shifting walls? Or was it just another corridor in which he'd be totally lost? He didn't know.
But he was determined to find out.
With a grunt, he began pulling the rest of his body under the wall. Unfortunately, the rest of his body did not flatten, and his shoulders were stuck amongst the ivy. There was no substitute for it, he'd have to just yank them through and let his body get butchered by the thorns. He strained forward with his arms and legs, ramming his shoulders into the wall. The vicious vines took their toll and his shoulders became covered in scrapes, many of which drew blood. The pain was immense, but Gavin refused to give up.
Somewhere along the line, his head reinflated back to normal, but he barely noticed. By now, his shoulders and upper chest were through and the thorns were tearing into his stomach. Agony lanced up and down his spine as Gavin struggled over the next few minutes to pull his entire body under the wall. When at last his left leg cleared the wall and he was through, he lay on the ground and wept from the pain. Dribbles of blood pooled around him. Looking over, he saw the underside of the wall visibly torn and damaged. It was not going to be possible to hide the fact that someone had been in here.
And worst of all, he didn't even know if he'd improved his situation.
He closed his eyes and let the tears flow unchecked. They dripped to the ground and mingled with the blood already there. That had been a stupid, stupid idea. He hurt everywhere, and for what?
Then he heard the sound again. A shifting of the walls coming from somewhere up ahead on the path. He shivered at the sudden thought of what would have happened if the wall had shifted while he'd been tearing himself through it.
And then a new sound came to his ears from the other direction. Footsteps. And a voice.
"Gavin, are you in here?"
It was Jupiter. Gavin opened his mouth to call out, but broke into a cough instead. The effect was the same as the footsteps increased in intensity and Jupiter came running around the corner. She gasped upon seeing him and quickly ran to his side.
"Good God, Gavin! What happened? Were you attacked?"
Gavin shook his head, the act turning him slightly dizzy. "Must... get out," he breathed, not strong enough to put any force behind his words.
"Gee, you think? Can you stand?"
He didn't think so, but he gave it a try nonetheless, rolling over onto his side and then slowly getting to his feet. He instantly began to wobble but Jupiter caught him and put his arm around her shoulder.
"Lean on me," she said. He gladly complied.
With her help, Gavin slowly walked down the corridor. A panic rose in his chest as he realized that she may well be trapped in here with him, but the first turn in the path revealed the entrance. His crawl under the wall had been worth it after all.
Soon enough, they were out of the maze and in the relative safety of the grove. Jupiter sat Gavin down next to a tree without a word.
"Thank... you," he whispered.
"I would punch you in the face if I didn't know it wouldn't bother you," she said, flying into a rage. "What were you thinking?"
"Wanted to.... Explore..."
"Explore the death trap? You idiot! You are so lucky I came to talk to you before dinner and discovered from Stanford that you'd never returned to your room. After that, it wasn't hard to put two and two together and realize where you were. If the teachers found out, you'd be in huge trouble! They suspended Magda Helena Fierro for three weeks when she got lost in there."
Gavin nodded, unable to reply. It had been stupid, he knew. But also enlightening. He now knew the secret to the hedge maze. The entrance wasn't the entrance.
He'd be back.