At the back of the main building, her search around the front and sides having come up empty, Lila stood at the entrance to another walled-off section of the grounds, though these walls were natural, standing almost fifteen feet high. The hedge maze entrance was still open, though the maze itself was overgrown and had several larger trees growing out of its walls. She’d not heard back from Kori yet, and so far Releana hadn’t said a thing, so with a shrug, Lila slipped through the branches overhanging the entrance and started inside. With the ruins she’d explored in the past, finding the route through the hedge maze shouldn’t take her long at all.
The first intersection was only about twenty feet ahead, and Lila paused for a moment, looking both ways. To the left was a longer path, maybe fifty feet, and what looked like another two-way intersection, and to the right was a path that was maybe twenty feet long that made a sharp turn to the left.
Assuming the simpler path was likely not going to lead her to the center, Lila decided to head left. As she headed down the path, she noticed a subtle shift in the hedge wall to her right, and as she got closer, saw that there was a recessed alcove, about six feet long and tall. Inside the alcove was a surprisingly well preserved trimmed hedge sculpture. Despite being nestled into the unkempt larger wall, it looked pristine.
“That’s…weird…” she said, leaning closer to take in the details. It wasn’t something you’d expect to see in a hedge maze, for certain. The sculpture depicted two figures, one looking like a human nurse, pushing a gurney, though she had no eyes and seemed to be blindfolded. Upon the gurney was a less distinct figure, almost smooth looking, with bigger proportions. It took her a second, but Lila finally determined what the figure seemed to be: a person in a full-body cast. “Yeah, that’d calm the shit out of me in a place like this…” she said with a shake of her head. Aclaysians were a strange bunch, though they were apparently masters of hedge sculpture techniques, or maybe it was simply some lingering magic in place to have kept it so well detailed after all these years.
Lila looked over the sculpture a bit longer, especially around the edges, thinking it may have something else to it. It wasn’t out of the question that a shortcut through the maze was hidden in something like that, and a door behind it could be why it kept its shape so well. She stepped closer, peering around the framing of the alcove, touching a few spots, and giving a push to see if she could feel anything shift.
At first, her search turned up nothing, but once she had moved to the upper side of the alcove, she felt a little bump in the foliage that didn’t quite feel natural. Licking her lips, Lila pushed on the bump, and when that didn’t work, tried shifting it side to side. She felt it give, then slip to the right, and heard a faint click.
Lila suddenly found herself hopping backward as the hedge sculpture started moving in front of her. Coming to a rest a few feet back the way she came, Lila watched, intrigued as the sculpture detached itself from the alcove, turning toward the intersection in front of her. The figure upon the gurney didn’t move, but the nurse walked with an awkward, jerking gait, the wood creaking as it moved. Lila shifted her gaze downward, not sure exactly how the wheels of the gurney were actually rolling.
The sculpture turned the corner ahead quickly, heading to the right. “Well, if I have a helper to follow…” Lila said, hurrying to follow the strange plant-nurse and her patient.
As she followed the strange hedge sculpture, Lila took note of the hedge maze itself, the generally overgrown nature of the paths, the piles of old leaves piled up in some corners, the smaller trees that had sprouted up in others that now rivaled the height of the maze itself. The nurse seemed to know the path well, as it kept it’s pace quick. Lila lost sight of it a few times, but thanks to her keen hearing, managed to catch back up, though usually just in time to see it dart down another path.
As she followed the nurse, Lila kept a mental record of the turns she had made, though it was starting to seem like the maze was a lot larger than she had thought it was. There were plenty of twists and turns, but surely she had drifted outside the outer wall a couple of times by now. In her mind, the nurse had changed course and currently made its way back toward the inside of the maze. After a few longer stretches of green, overgrown pathways, Lila rounded a corner and saw a wider intersection up ahead with the nurse and her patient stopped dead in the center. Was this the center of the maze, or perhaps just a wider, more confusing crossway?
Lila stood still for a good minute, waiting for some further movement from the nurse and the gurney, but both remained completely still, not even a hint of movement. After a few more uneventful breaths, she started toward it, doing a slow circle of the pair, getting no reaction. She looked around the intersection, a four-way cross, but with beveled edges on the corners instead of sharp corners, hence the wider appearance.
At first glance, there was nothing special aside from that. There were a couple of trees growing up near the edges of the clearing, and there were a few overgrown lines of smaller stones arranged at the corners, making her think that they were perhaps flowerbeds at one time, now little more than unruly bushes and vines. “Well, you’re proving to be a disappointment,” Lila said, glancing back at the nurse and her patient, who still remained completely motionless.
Taking a moment to peer down the paths to the left and right of where she had come from, Lila saw more of the same type of paths as she had on the way through the maze. Maybe this really was the center…
However, the path straight ahead looked more favorable once she had directed her gaze that way. Lila saw a longer path, perhaps a hundred feet or more in length, with a trio of sunken areas along either side indicating more alcoves like the one she’d found near the entrance. Beyond those seemed to be another split in the path, though there might have been something on the hedge wall straight ahead of her, covered by the overgrowth; it was hard to say for certain, but there was definitely something that gave that area of hedge wall a squarish impression.
Curious, she started down the path. After making it about ten feet, her ears twitched upon hearing a crackling of wood. She turned and saw that the nurse had detached itself from the gurney and had started toward her. It still moved in that unsteady, jerky way, but moved faster without the burden of its patient, arms reaching toward her.
Surprised at just how close the nurse had gotten, Lila broke into a run, dashing down the path. She gained a little ground and suddenly dove to the right, into one of the alcoves, pressing her back up against the wall. Almost immediately the cracking wood sound that signified it moving ceased, leaving an unsettling quiet over the maze path.
Movement-based vision? Ironic perhaps given that it had been created as a blindfolded nurse, but if it was some kind of golem-like construct and not a true plant creature, that could very well be the case.
Lila looked into the alcove she had stepped into, feeling a bead of sweat on her brow as she found herself standing next to another nurse sculpture, though this one didn’t seem to be hostile. In fact, its back was to her, and it appeared to be pushing an empty wheelchair in front of her. This one had a more distinct face than the last one, with eyes, but had no ears, only a smooth stretch of greenery that circled its head vertically.
“Like bandages…” Lila whispered, thinking about how it compared to the nurse that had tried to chase her. There was still silence from the path, so it obviously hadn’t heard her comment. Test successful there.
Looking across the maze path to the opposite alcove, Lila saw a third nurse sculpture, this one standing next to a larger bed. There was a figure upon the bed, similarly cast as the original nurse’s gurney patient had been, but with limbs raised, with little vines holding to them where its wrists and ankles were, apparently in full traction. This nurse’s mouth was covered. “I’m sensing a theme here…”
Lila’s ears twitched nervously as wood creaked directly in front of her. Gulping, she looked back toward the “deaf” nurse, noticing that its head had turned completely around and was now staring at her. The vines attaching it to the alcove began to detach as the nurse and its wheelchair animated, twisting toward Lila.
“Shit!” Lila pushed herself off the wall and broke into a run. The first nurse began moving almost immediately as it caught sight of her. Daring a glance behind her, she saw both nurses barrelling down the path behind her, within thirty feet, the one with the wheelchair in the lead.
Lila snapped the slugthrower from its holster as she ran, turned, and popped off a volley of shots at the rapidly moving nurses. Her first two shots went wide, but the next three hit the lead nurse, leaves, and bits of wood exploding from its back, but it didn’t even seem to notice, let alone slow down.
They were almost on top of her as she fired another two shots and turned and ran, shoving the gun back into the holster.
“Too fast…” she panted, approaching the end of the pathway. She’d caught a glance into the other alcoves, seeing similar nurse sculptures with patients, but so far they hadn’t noticed her. At the end of the path, at the T intersection, she had but a moment to get a better look at what she had spotted from the far end before she wound up getting chased, and it appeared to be some kind of large plaque, overgrown and impossible to read through the accumulated vegetation. The only thing she could make out with any clarity was the large arrows, one pointing to the right, the other left.
With no real idea where she was going, and with the nurses right on her heels, Lila bolted down the left-hand path.
The pathway continued for maybe another hundred feet before it seemed to dead-end at a thick tree, grown up and standing in front of all but a tiny sliver of the path behind it.
Before she could utter a curse at her bad luck, Lila’s ears twitched, and she twisted her body to the right. Something that sounded like a whip had come from behind her, and she felt it tear across the back of her pants, close enough to leave a stinging line across her rump, and a wide tear in her pants. A glance showed her that it was some kind of vine coming out of one of the nurse’s arms, and in the next moment, there were three more slithering out to join it, all of them whipping toward her.
Lila dove and rolled, two of the whips striking the overgrowth where she had just been, another crashed into her backpack, and the last one snagged her left calf. Already feeling the vines pulling backward, Lila reacted by unclasping the straps on the backpack, letting it fly from her as she hauled on her leg, grasping the ground with her hands and pushing with her other leg.
Thankfully the vine hadn’t tightened as much as it could have, and it only succeeded in ripping her pant leg from the knee down and scraping over her skin.
Lila scampered forward, rolling aside as the whip-vines again tried to snatch her, causing a tear in her shirt. She hissed through gritted teeth as she forced herself to keep on a course toward the tree. “Give it a break already!” she spat, managing to twist herself between the next strikes from the vines.
Had the nurse with the wheelchair dropped it and sprouted vines of its own, she would have already been caught, but it held back, seemingly waiting to make use of that chair. Was that small, wiggling vines growing from the chair?
She didn’t dare waste another second to confirm it.
Putting it out of mind, Lila weaved back and forth down the pathway, making it almost halfway before one of the vine-whips landed again, this time around her waist. It went tight almost immediately and nearly knocked the breath from her as it brought her to the ground with a strong backward jerk.
Lila’s hands went to her belt, unbuckling it at her waist and thigh where the holster rode as she managed to kick herself to the side to avoid two other tendrils, the third snaking about her somewhere just out of sight. She wiggled her hips and pushed at the vine, pulling at it with everything she had in her arms and hands. It started to give, and she pushed downward, wincing as the rough strands of plant matter scraped along her skin down her hips, bringing her pants with it. She held the vine for dear life as she pulled her legs through the narrow opening.
The vine clamped down almost immediately as it came to her ankles, which were bound not only by it but by her pants. Somehow weaving out of the way of the other tendrils, flexing herself in ways that would make a human wince, Lila’s hands went to her boots through the insides of her pants and grasped at the strings, tugging desperately at the double-tied knots.
One of the other vines wrapped around her torso, right below her breasts.
“Damndamndamn!’
Lila grunted as she pulled with her legs, wincing as the boots slowly came free of her feet, her thick socks sticking to her feet as her pants finally slipped free with the boots. Her legs mercifully passed through the vine that held them, and she managed to fall backward just in time to see two other tendrils whipping over her, inches from where her neck had been a half heartbeat earlier.
Grabbing at the vine around her torso, Lila again pulled at it for all she was worth, rolling aside to avoid the other vines that still desperately tried to trap her. She got her fingers beneath the vine and raked at it with her nails. Though not the best cutting tool, their natural sharpness seemed to work in her favor. She felt the vine split around her nails, and a moment later it snapped. She fell away from the grasping tendril, minus her shirt, which had ripped free of her, stuck to the vine.
Lila scrambled on all fours, getting to her feet in the course of a couple of yards, and pushed herself for all she was worth, breaking into a full run, intent on reaching the tree. The vines continued whipping at her. She cried out as one slapped her thigh, stinging just like a leather whip, then again as one landed across her right buttock.
That one had snatched her panties, and tore then free when it recoiled back to the nurse.
Still, Lila ran, pumping her legs and weaving between cracks of the whip-like vines, which seemed more intent on hurting her now, as more struck at her limbs, her back, and somehow even managing to snake around just enough to strike the side of her breast, and had just struck the edge of her nipple.
“Ahh!” Her bra had done nothing to soften the blow, and it too was pulled away by the vine.
Then Lila was at the tree. She leaped, the claw-like nails on her fingers and toes digging into the bark, those on her toes shredding the ends of her socks. She pushed off, leaping a few feet at a time up the tree until she could snatch a branch, hauling herself up. She winced and cried out again as two more lashes from the vines landed on the soles of her feet, ripping away the rest of her socks, but then the whip-cracks of the vines were below her, out of reach. They snapped and cracked angrily for a few moments as she hauled herself over a bigger branch, finally daring to look down.
Both nurses waited at the bottom of the tree, looking up at her. For several moments they stared at her, then the vines slid back into the one nurse’s arms, and both seemed to shut down, becoming absolutely motionless, just another shrub in the maze.
Panting, Lila lay down atop the branch, wrapping her limbs around it so that there was no chance she’d fall off. Sweat covered her now-naked body and the places where the vines had struck her stung, especially the one on her breast.
“Hope Kori and Rel are doing better than I am…” she muttered, breathing deeply to calm her racing heart. She also silently hoped they didn’t come running for the maze looking for her only to get caught by those damn nurses.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and after a few moments, she dared to look toward the horizon and saw the dark clouds. Looking back down at the path she’d been on, she saw her pack’s contents scattered around the overgrowth, along with the shreds of her clothes. There was no way she was risking going down there again, not even for her comm, which lay near her shredded pants.
Resting a few more minutes, Lila finally picked herself up and sat atop the branch, next to the tree trunk, and took in the maze. She frowned as she looked at the top of the rows, and beyond it.
It was too big! She’d been right earlier; there was no way this was the maze she’d saw from the outside, no way it could have fit within the outer wall of the property! She saw the buildings, which appeared roughly the size they should have, but once she looked at the maze, the perspective was all wrong. Was it just her perceptions that were being manipulated, or was there some spatial anomaly at work? Had the shots from her slugthrower even made it beyond the boundary of the maze?
Luckily, she did spot something of interest, not too far away. There was a structure in the center of the maze, and though it put her in mind of a mausoleum, it was only a couple hundred yards from her…if she went over the top of the hedge walls.
Peering along the various pathways, and the walls that made them, Lila weighed her options. She brought a hand to her naked breast, massaging the lingering pain from the vine’s strike away as she did. She could try to make her way along the top of the maze, sure, but there was no way the overgrown hedges could support her weight, and the thought of the hedges raking over her skin as she fell through them didn’t fill her with enthusiasm.
From her position on the tree, she could likewise hop over the nearest hedge wall, to the next path over, and hope that there weren’t any more plant-nurses waiting for her. The problem with that was finding her way out of the maze before she ran across something else that would try to snatch her.
So, that left the mausoleum-like building in the center. She shifted on the limb, turning to look behind her. She hopped up, easily balancing on the limb, and turned fully around, sinking her claws into the bark again to lean out. There was another tree fairly close to the one she perched on now; not close enough to be a simple hop, but maybe if she climbed a little higher and jumped… Her eyes looked beyond that tree, and found another one closer to the mausoleum, though this one was broken and laying through one of the hedge walls. She bit her lower lip as she considered the distance; it looked way too far to jump, but given her other choices, she might be willing to chance it. Especially since the shortcut was only one turn of a corner away from the clearing with the curious building.
Of course, there could just as easily be more nurses waiting just out of sight, or something worse. The only sound in her ears was her own breathing and the growing wind coming in from the storm; it was just too quiet otherwise.
“Guess I could just hang out up here in the buff and hope I don’t get struck by lightning…” Lila muttered, adding a little something to the quiet, just for her own sake. She turned a full circle, looking for the shortest possible route to the edge of the maze, but it was much further than she felt comfortable with. Something about the stillness of the shrouded pathways didn’t sit well with her.
“You’re an explorer, damn it, explore!” she said a few seconds later, turning back to the structure that held her attention. There was something there…she had that feeling again, all of a sudden. Her nose twitched, and though she could only smell the woodsy aroma of the maze mixed with her own sweat, she swore she smelled something valuable in that direction. Though she couldn’t recall having been in a similar situation before, the feeling of being naked in a tree looking out at something she wanted was definitely familiar.
Having made up her mind, Lila climbed a little higher on the tree, feeling it swaying as the trunk narrowed. She inched her way around the trunk to the other side and set her feet on a narrow branch, which quivered under her weight. The tree she had aimed herself at was just as narrow up high, maybe fifteen to twenty feet away; she had to get as much distance in her jump as possible. There were branches she could grab if they were strong enough to hold her, but failing that, she’d have to try to get a grip on the trunk.
Deciding not to mull it over much longer for fear of talking herself out of it, Lila took hold of the tree she was perched upon and started rocking herself, causing the tree to start swaying with her. It wouldn’t be much, but any help she could get to bridge the gap…
Lila let the tree build up momentum with a few more pitches forward and back, and when she felt the moment was right, leaped toward the other tree. For a few seconds, she was in open air, a sudden gust of wind whipping about her naked form as she fell toward the other tree.
For a harrowing moment, she felt like she was falling too fast, then the tree’s limbs slapped at her. Her hands grasped wildly at the branches. The first one slipped free, but she dug her nails in with her toes, slowing her descent, and managed to grab the next one.
Coming to a stop, Lila blew out her breath, looking down, and saw that she was still a good twenty feet above the maze floor. Again, not wanting to talk herself out of her plan, she scurried up a little higher and turned toward the downed tree that would get her close to the mausoleum. Repeating her last tactic, getting less sway due to being lower on the tree, she readied herself to jump.
She was in the air, and in the next moment, she landed on the downed tree trunk feet first, rolling down its length about halfway before she managed to stop herself. “Ohhh…that might’ve been a little stupid…” she said in a pained whisper, wincing at the throbbing shock in her legs from the landing. She felt some fresh scrapes from the landing, too, and felt them with her fingers. She brought her hand back, saw only a little blood there, and blew out her breath. She’d had worse.
Glad that she could hear nor see any more of the nurses, she pushed through the pain and made her way down the trunk, then hopped off and staggered around the corner.
The circular clearing in the maze once might have been a lovely garden; she saw several stone benches scattered around, along with a quartet of fountains. Stone pathways crisscrossed the yard, but like everything else, it was overgrown with vines, tangles of brush, and sizable trees.
At least there weren’t any shrubs that looked like nurses.
Lila headed for the structure, and was convinced more and more as she neared that it was indeed a mausoleum; the structure was very similar to such buildings she’d seen on countless human worlds over the years, though it wasn’t a very large example. Following the stone pathway, she hurried over the least overgrown path she could find, and soon came to the base of the building, and had to circle it halfway to find the entrance.
A set of steps led upward about six feet, and the doorway of the place was flanked by a pair of rusted lanterns, the cracked glass on the outside yellowed with age. A wrought-iron gate had once been set in place over the entrance, but now lay on the landing in front of the door, covered in rust. Despite the decay on the metal fixtures, the building itself was mostly free of the overgrowth, with only a few stray vines reaching the base stones.
Stepping lightly, Lila made her way up the steps and to the doorway, peering into the gloomy interior; the only light came from the doorway, but it was more than enough for her to see properly on the inside. There was a quartet of old wooden chairs to either side of the doorway, two mostly collapsed, and neither of the other two looked reliable enough to dare sitting in. Old, decayed plant-matter that may have once been flowers were scattered about as well, along with shattered vases and some broken stonework that may have been some kind of statue.
The largest feature of the room was the sarcophagus, which rested in the center, upon a raised platform. There was a slanted stone slab in front of it, about half as high, and set with a plaque. Lila approached and crouched, looking over the text.
It wasn’t written in Common, though the symbols were familiar, the particular arrangement of lines and shapes that made up an ancient Aclaysian script. It was somewhat similar to the Kerryn script but was more blocky and less elegant. She rested her elbows on her knees and studied the text, sorting through all the various languages she had floating around in her head to remember what rules this particular language followed. If she recalled correctly, Aclaysia only used their older scripts for certain official documents and historical sites in modern times.
As she pondered the symbols, Lila’s ears twitched, and she whipped her head around toward the door. There was nothing there. She watched the opening for a moment, her eyes shifting from one side to the other.
She felt eyes on her.
But there was nobody there, only a bit of dust on the breeze that had picked up due to the oncoming storm. She waited a few seconds longer, then turned her eyes back to the plaque. “Probably just a ghost,” she said aloud, though she kept her ears alert for anything that would hint otherwise.
After a couple more minutes, the feeling of being watched remaining constant throughout, Lila had figured out the writing in front of her:
Sella Shaong
Founder and First Chief Administrator
Castlewood Hospital for the Mentally Insane
‘Lost in darkness are those who suffer instability of the mind. The Four Pillars can offer a path through the darkness to those with the will to persevere and the fortitude to rise above, to riches unimagined, for a more pure existence.’
“Hmmm…okay…” Lila rose from her crouch, still looking down at the plaque, though her mind was working on that quote. She was sure she’d translated it correctly, but she wasn’t sure of the meaning. Were the Four Pillars something the hospital had as some kind of treatment philosophy? She crossed her arms and rubbed a finger over her chin. Was it more literal than that? The phrase had put an image in her mind, and her curiosity was further piqued.
She looked up and turned in a circle. Sure enough, the inside of the mausoleum had four stone pillars, one in each corner. It couldn’t be that easy… Feeling a distinct chill fill the room as the wind picked up outside, Lila approached one of the pillars and gave it a closer look. It seemed rather plain, just white-gray granite with specks of black throughout, smooth surface, and a bent sconce for a lighting fixture that was missing; a couple of wires jutted out from the metal where it used to rest. A glance at the other pillars revealed the same missing lights.
Lila reached up for the sconce, gave it an experimental tug, then a twist. It was a little loose but felt strong enough that she wouldn’t easily be able to dislodge it. She pushed at it, then pulled straight out, lifted it up, but got nothing notable changed. She leaned closer, looking for any symbols or scratches that would be a clue to a hidden function, but couldn’t see anything.
“Ah!” Lila jumped as a chill ran up her spine, whipping around to find nothing but the empty mausoleum, a few dried leaves blowing in from outside. She touched her back, feeling goosebumps, but saw nothing on her hand when she brought it back. She shook her head and grinned. “Okay, okay, you got me; good job, hope you really enjoyed that.” She’d suspected a ghost lurked around her, and that spectral touch, feeling just like a cold hand sliding up her back, had confirmed it.
After another half minute, with no further activity, she went back to studying the pillar, walking around it to the backside that was closest to the wall, a few inches away. She kept herself readied for another touch, but wasn’t too worried about it. At first, she saw nothing particularly out of place, just some cobwebs and gathered dust on the floor. Then she considered the line about rising above and looked up the pillar. It was only about ten feet high, but that left a lot of space for something to be hidden.
Bracing herself against the chilly wall and the pillar, Lila scooted upward, getting near the top of the column. The stone was smooth as the rest of it. With the hand that wasn’t keeping her steady, she felt the surface, probing for subtle imperfections that didn’t belong on the smooth granite. After a few moments, she felt something, just a tiny bump, almost imperceptible. It could have been an imperfection in the stone, but as she probed around it, she felt a distinct shape forming, a thin line that formed a square, with rounded corners.
Grinning, Lila probed that spot with her fingers, and a moment later the stone panel slid backward, just a half-inch, and dropped. Peering into the opening, she saw a small lever, currently raised. Without hesitation, she flipped it down, dropping from the pillar as some kind of mechanical grinding rumbled from below her. Hurrying to the next pillar, she scurried up and found a matching panel, and likewise flipped the lever, hearing more of the grinding below her. The panels were about seven feet up, so it wasn’t out of the question that a very tall person could manipulate them without assistance, but there were four chairs in the room for a reason.
As soon as she had flipped the last switch, a rumble filled the room and dust flew from the sarcophagus. Lila stepped back toward the door, peeking outside for signs of nurses, but couldn’t spot that anything had changed. In front of her, the stone lid slid back, and the long front side dropped into the floor. A wave of stale air blew out toward her, filling her nose with the familiar scent of a long-sealed tomb.
Once the rumbling had stopped, Lila stepped lightly toward the opening. Before her was a set of stairs descending into the gloom, the first thirty feet that she could see the same granite as the mausoleum, and the second half before it became too dark for her eyes much older, darker stone, worn smooth from use. It was the same kind of stone as the foundations of the buildings she had seen before.
Licking her lips, Lila’s instincts told her that what she had come here for was right in front of her, somewhere in that darkness. She heard a faint roar down there, that ominous kind of sound that signaled a larger space. Certain that whatever was down there had to connect back to the main buildings, she weighed her options. She had nothing for a light source, nor any other tools she might need for digging or for dealing with locks. Plus she really should try to get a signal or something to Kori and Rel to let them know what she’d found.
She felt the chill on her back again, a hand lightly pressing against her back, just above her tail. The chill passed through her, making her gasp, her nipples hardening in the cold. In front of her, a swirl of dust parted in front of the opening, and a faint, ethereal glow appeared, an indistinct blob of ghostly energy that floated down the stairs. As it disappeared into the darkness, the click of electric lights hit Lila’s ears, and a line of lights came on from down in the passage, illuminating the way, though the sound of bulbs popping came from somewhere out of sight.
“Well…what kind of guest would I be to refuse an invitation like that?” Lila took a final glance behind her, into the darkening garden, then started toward the stairs.
Adventure and spooky hedge mazes and puzzle solving, oh my! Nice work!
Thank you!