Chapter Six: The Oblivious Bystander

I don’t know how long I stood there with my eyes closed, expecting to die. I must not have breathed the entire time because when I eventually opened my eyes and saw the figure before me, I didn’t have any air in my lungs to scream.

“Step right up,” a voice proclaimed with a broken, staticky sound. “You’ve won a ticket!”

The figure before me was not a scarecrow, no. It was Silas the Showman, the creepy fortune-telling animatronic we gotten our tickets from.

His lights had lit up, his arms were moving, and I could hear the whirs of motors making his mouth move. His flashlight clicked on and off, and the red button flashed.

I fell backward, almost falling through the row of corn behind me. I scooted forward in a rush, hoping not to accidentally break the wall of corn and get myself killed.

Benny had judged me to be worthy of living but I still think he would have killed me for breaking the rules.

I stood up and stared at the machine before me. Surely it couldn’t hurt to push the button and get another ticket, but my entire body was numb, and my brain wasn’t processing as quickly as I would like.

I reached out my hand, trembling, and pressed the button. A ticket dropped down into the receptacle, much like the original three had earlier that day. I reached and grabbed it. It was a player trope. This one was purple. I don’t remember any of my friends getting a purple ticket. It glowed brightly at first as I held it in my hand and read it.

The Oblivious Bystander

Player Trope

Equip to any Minor Archetype

Stat Used: Moxie

Often played up for comedy, the Oblivious Bystander survives not because of their wit or bravery, but because they simply did not perceive the danger at hand. They weren’t looking; they were busy on their phones or smoking a cigarette while their compatriots were silently murdered in the background.

If you can convincingly portray the oblivious bystander, monsters will not attack you. However, the moment you reveal that you’ve seen them, they will have no mercy.

The illustration on the card was of a man with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears, as a cloaked killer lurks in the background with an axe.

Silas the Showman, let out a laugh, “Hehehe,” and then said,

“You could have fought,

you could have ran,

but you stood by,

so, by you’ll stand.”

Then his electronics shut off, and he went dark. As his lights faded out, I blinked and he was gone.

I was being shamed for not intervening when Benny killed Janette. I guess I deserve it.

I tucked the Oblivious Bystander ticket into my pocket. I would have to process what it meant later.

The bodies of Janette and Bobby were gone. They were probably running around chasing after people clumsily, just as Dina’s had.

I didn’t know where I was going or if I’d ever get to leave the maze. I didn’t even bother running; there was no point. Then the punchline came: I found the exit within two minutes.

I suppose that whatever motive Benny had for keeping me there was now gone. He had judged me and decided to spare me and had no further use keeping me. I found the exit without trying. In fact, I was the first person out of the maze.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get over what I saw in the maze, but there was one silver lining. I now had a very good view of everything on the red wallpaper, including the plot cycle indicator at the top.

Previously, I had only seen the words Omen, Choice, Party, and First Blood. Now I saw the whole thing:

Omen

Choice

Party

First Blood

Rebirth

Second Blood

Finale

The End

The words were spread out with uneven spacing. I suppose that Party, Rebirth, and Finale were supposed to last longer than the rest.

It didn’t take long for me to realize what the Plot Cycle was. This was the structure of a horror movie.

The omen comes first, warning the main characters of what’s to come. They make the wrong choice and end up angering some scary creature or putting themselves in a terrifying situation. Things are quiet for a while during the Party. The story progresses. The first person dies or gets hurt, and then there’s a cycle of back and forth until eventually somebody wins, somebody loses, the end.

I had seen this cycle play out over hundreds of cheap slashers.

Now I was seeing it play out in real life.

The needle on the plot cycle was inching its way toward The End.

Of course, I had no idea what this storyline was actually about. Arthur, Todd, and Valerie were handling the actual plot. My friends and I were just side characters dying in the background.

As I exited the maze, I contemplated walking around to the old farm house where the rest of story must have been taking place. I looked that direction and saw that farmhouse was on fire. I decided to stay put. The sidelines were safer.

It didn’t take long for my friends to start filtering out of the maze. Kimberly was first. She had been crying. Her whole body was shaking. Her right hand was clenched tight around something, but I couldn’t see what.

She immediately came in for a hug.

The maze must have really got to her because we weren’t that close really. Still, I hugged her back.

“There was a scarecrow,” she said. She looked up at me like she wanted me to tell her she wasn’t crazy.

“I know,” I said. “I saw it too.”

She wiped a tear from her eye. Her mascara had already been running. Now, it smeared even worse. “He just stared at me for a long time.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said.

“He gave me these,” she said, holding out her right hand and unclenching it to reveal an assortment of seeds. Pumpkin and sunflower, among others.

I didn’t know what to make of it. I’m pretty sure that a handful of seeds is how Amish people propose marriage, but I didn’t want to tell her that.

“He only kills bad people,” I said. It was true enough. “He must have thought you were good.”

She must have been even better than me. I didn’t get any seeds.

We spent a few minutes talking about school. Her major, classes, the homecoming game. Anything to distract us from Carousel.

Antoine, Camden, and Anna had found each other in the maze. They exited at the same time.

“What do you mean there was a flying scarecrow?” Camden asked. “I didn’t get to see that.”

“Next time stick with me; I saw him a ton,” I said.

Antoine was still pretty torn up about his brother, but he couldn’t hide how pumped he was about having fought off two headless bodies. “I dropped those pumpkin-headed freaks in a second,” he said.

“Those were the other people that were with us,” I explained. I told them about the Minion Maker trope Benny had made use of.

Antoine wasn’t as psyched to hear that.

“We found the booth attendant,” Anna chimed in. She was a little ruffled but had a brave face.

We talked for a little bit about what the plot of The Final Straw II must have been about. Truthfully, we didn’t have much to go on.

“Are you guys seeing red wallpaper with movie posters and stuff on it?” Camden asked.

Apparently, everyone had. We nodded.

“Yes!” Antoine said, “I thought I was going crazy.”

As we began sharing our visions, the needle on the Plot Cycle hit The End.

At that moment, we all took a deep breath. There was a reset. We were still pretty banged up psychologically, but physically, we were back to our factory settings, so to speak.

Kimberly’s makeup was fixed, her golden hair feathered and beautiful. Our shoes were clean, no more maze dirt.

Even the rind of sweat I had built up from running through the maze was gone. The story was over.

I saw myself on the red wallpaper. I took a moment to review my status. The list of statuses looked like the buttons on a fancy elevator. For now, the only button lit was Unscathed. I had seen glimpses of this panel, but now was the first time I really got to look at it.

Unscathed (Lit)

Hobbled

Mutilated

Dead

Written Off

Chase Scene

Planning

Unconscious

Infected

Incapacitated

Captured

Off Screen

Fight Scene

Exploring

Valerie, Arthur, and Todd walked around the maze from the smoldering farmhouse. They took stock of us.

“Only three shy,” Todd said, “That’s a good crop.”

I saw a poster in my mind. It was of Todd, dressed as a clown leaning against a train. The familiar axe murderer was hidden underneath the train waiting to strike. “Todd Corrigan is The Comedian.

”

That made sense.

Plot armor: 57. Now I was jealous.

I looked from Arthur to Valerie. Now that I could see the red wallpaper clearly, I was eager to learn as much as I could.

Arthur’s poster was of him with a crossbow facing off against the axe murderer. “Arthur Clayton is The Monster Hunter.”

Plot Armor: 64.

Valerie’s poster was similar to Anna’s. It was her with a flashlight. The axe was dropping into frame. “Valerie Choi is The Final Girl.”

Plot Armor: 58.

The first repeat archetype. I figured there must have been other Scholars, Athletes, Eye Candy, and Film Buffs out there somewhere.

~~~

“How do we get the other three back?” Anna asked.

“They’ll come around,” Arthur said.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, three very rattled, formerly dead people walked out of the maze, heads intact. Bobby and his wife, Jeanette, were hardly speaking. He wrapped his arm around her to comfort her, but it looked like he needed just as much comfort.

I suppose this wasn’t what he expected from the horror convention that he thought he was going to.

Dina, I swear, had the trace of a smile on her lips. Was she some sort of thrill seeker? Intentionally getting herself killed was beyond my understanding.

As soon as everyone had gathered together, Silas the Showman made an appearance beneath a tree next to the corn maze. It’s weird to say, I was almost getting used to him.

“Step right up and claim your prize!” he said.

“Everybody take turns,” Valerie said.

We lined up and each pressed the button. Most of us didn’t get a ticket. We just pressed the button and nothing came out.

“Maybe next time!” Silas said.

The only people who got tickets were Kimberly, Bobby, and Dina.

I didn’t see Bobby or Dina’s, but Kimberly showed me hers. It was colored orange:

Looks Don’t Last

Player Trope

Can be Equipped to the Eye Candy

Stat Used: Grit

Some killers in scary movies fixate on a pretty woman. With this ticket equipped, all of them will. When using this trope, the player will always be attacked during First Blood unless the script says otherwise.

The longer the Eye Candy survives, the weaker the enemy becomes, losing 1% of their Total Stats per minute (up to 15%).

After all, if a killer struggles with the cheerleader, how tough can they be?

Oh, shit.

I was worried that my low Plot Armor would get me killed early in every storyline. If I understood this trope correctly, Kimberly was now in the same boat.

Silas signed off with a lame joke, “I hope you didn’t get lost in the plot, I hear it was a real maze. Hehehe.”

The guides led us around the outside of the maze to collect our luggage.

Then they told us it was time to make the long trek across town. Apparently, we had to dodge a lot of omens on the way, so it would be a couple hour walk. I didn’t mind.

Arthur shepherded us forward. “Let’s go, it’s time to go meet the others.”

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