task two. the pacific northwest is the end of the frontier, and you can feel it.
what is it about the rain?
daniel had to keep moving. if he stayed still for too long he thought he might lose his mind thinking about what exactly happened last night. there were too many variables, too many possibilities --- but if he was certain about one thing, it was that it wasn’t just some random kill. or maybe that was purely his mind creating patterns where there weren’t any. maybe gina’s death just coincidentally had ties to them. he didn’t know, and he didn’t care.
an innocent girl was dead.
their friend. hell, it didn’t matter that she was their friend because this wasn’t about them. the tragedy in and of itself was that a girl with so much ambition and vitality to her, lost her life. and a good guy was arrested for a crime he damn well didn’t commit. daniel didn’t know much, but he knew that. and it didn’t take the medical examiner declaring MURDER for them all to know it.
the misty rain fogged the lenses of his glasses as he exited his apartment and jogged towards his car.
is there something in that gloomy, beautiful emerald darkness?
it didn’t take long for him to reach headquarters. he could have driven the route blindfolded by now, really. while it went without saying that they were foregoing the usual work plan done on sundays, daniel needed the consistency. hq always made him feel more at ease; something they all clearly needed. the redhead slung his backpack over his shoulder, locking the car as he ducked out and moved towards the door. though there was this nagging in the pit of his stomach that made him feel like he wasn’t quite alone.
he proceeded to ignore that feeling. shocker.
though it wasn’t long before a voice sliced through the deadly still 8am silence as he was fumbling for his keys. “ DANIEL ? ” so he did have company. for once he had been hoping that was the paranoia talking. despite how he just wanted to unlock the door and get inside, he turned towards the voice --- to be met with a girl who he’d had god knows how many classes with over the past four years. “ i’m kelly, from the daily a. i was hoping i could ask you a few questions in regards to last night’s events? ”
something that brings out the worst in us?
his stomach rolled at the thought of the questions she might have in mind ( though whether it was nerves or the hangover was to be determined ). his eyes were dull, humorless, a stark contrast from the usual shining energy as he offered her a dry smile. “ it was mrs. peacock in the billiards room with the candlestick. ” a joke. a weak one, but a joke nonetheless. the drizzle had stopped, though the gray clouds overhead promised a downpour.
daniel nodded her on, though the key to the front door was grasped in his hand, digging sharply into his palm. just in case he needed an out. “ let me guess, you all are asking all of us questions today? insensitive, if ya ask me, but i’d probably be doing the same thing if it weren’t my friends who found another one of our friends dead. but neither here nor there, right? ” his tone was a little sharper than intended and he cringed in the slightest as kelly recoiled. yikes, he needed to cool down.
“ is there any chance you could tell me where you were last night when gina fletcher was killed? ”
even kelly’s voice seemed to waver slightly, though she got straight to the point. the worst part wasn’t that she was asking at all, but that he couldn’t REMEMBER. not anything certain, at least. “ i was, ah --- outside. by the bonfire, playing boom cup or something stupid like that. that’s where i was when they found her, at least. ” for a boy who so frequently talked too much, he found himself with a lack of words.
does the pacific northwest actually create serial killers? or are they drawn here?
“ right. and do you think isaiah maxwell committed this crime? ”
he understood journalists, he did. after all, he’d spent the last four years of his life taking classes on the job. but that didn’t mean he liked being on the opposite end. daniel felt nausea rise, creeping up his chest --- for gina, isaiah, ashley and lana who found her . . . he swallowed it down, shaking his head repeatedly. “ hell no. isaiah’s a good guy, he wouldn’t hurt anyone like that. ever. he was just an easy out for the cops who didn’t know shit when they got to the house. we were all panicked and stressed, but isaiah would never kill anyone. ” he was talking too much, too fast, getting worked up ---
“ but you might. ”
he froze, shocked into silence for a beat. he must have heard her wrong. “ excuse me? ”
“ i said, do you have any theories on who might have done it? ”
that was better. “ instead of running some investigative piece, why don’t you all do something that actually honors gina? i’m done answering questions, sorry for wasting your time coming out here. ” he was already turned, unlocking the door. once it was open he offered little more over his shoulder than ‘see you in class’ before knocking it shut with his hip.
do the deep green forests and perennial rain draw something out?
something dark and elemental?
with a huff, micah flipped the redhead off, following him to the right. as much as he hated to admit it, there was little he wouldn’t do, if daniel asked. as much as he threatened to stop, he doubted anyone believed it. ❛ i was going to make you pay, anyway. you got us chased by LEATHERFACE, daniel. just because you decided to take a short cut through a corn maze. when has that ever worked out? in any movie, ever? ❜
the gesture was returned without hesitation, daniel’s eyes shining in bemusement. he was thankful for the sense of normalcy between them that this interaction was providing --- it had been too long since he and micah just . . .
he wasn’t sure how to finish that thought.
“ some people get off on the fake danger, man. ” daniel waved off the concern with a loose shrug. “ you gotta admit, it was better than that vampire ride, though. and good thing we’re not in a movie then, yeah? ”
the second the two had walked into the maze, ashley attached herself to daniel’s side. and since then she had let him drag her through the maze blindly while she hid her face in his side. she wasn’t really one to say no to anything, especially when it was her friends giving suggestions, but she was still wondering why she had agreed to going to the park in the first place. “don’t remind me, he’s still somewhere out here. he can probably hear you and he’s just waiting to take revenge.” it felt like all they were doing was hitting dead ends, but that was probably just because of how desperate ashley was to get out of the maze and away from the distant rev of a chainsaw. she knew she was better off following daniel than trying to figure it out on her own.
“ shit, you’re right. how could i forget, the bad guy’s never really gone, ” he mocked, finger jabbing into her side with a light laugh. “ the corn does have ears after all. ” dusk had given way to darkness at this point, leaving the maze cloaked in shadows --- it would have been all but impossible to keep going were it not for the spotlights lighting the way. daniel kept an arm relaxed around the blonde latched onto his side as he took a right, seeing a straight shot ahead of them. paths branched off of the corridor ( or corn-idor, ha ) every so often, a children of the corn-worthy set up. “ your turn to pick the way, ash, it’s the blind leading the blind at this point. ”
“… a haunted hospital where patients were tortured for decades by deranged doctors and nurses,” she finished reading, finally, crumpling up the paper that had been rudely thrust into her hands at the gate and throwing it in the ( general ) direction of the trashcan with an incensed grumble of, “insensitive.” it was an unusual word for damaris to choose - but not SABRINA, to whom the story of malicious staff almost worse than the patients they treated was far too familiar. she possessed ( ha ) no desire to go through a show that was seemingly inspired, quick to turn back and add, “not that. or any of the shows. they all seem so…- boring.” or as the case might have been; on the nose.
“ insensitive? i mean, maybe hitting a little too close to home, but that’s also the plot of at least fifty different horror movies. ‘tis the season. ” he was a little surprised by her seemingly firm stance on the attraction, but brushed it off --- damaris had every right to be annoyed by it considering what they’d dealt with themselves. he couldn’t say he was the most inclined to see that particular attraction either. daniel ripped a piece off of the funnel cake he’d been lusting over since they arrived, the powdered sugar falling off and dusting the ground at his feet. he continued to stare at the park map plastered on the stand before them, head canted the slightest in concentration. “ boring, okay, then what sounds good t’you? i mean, nothing like a classic zombie quarantine on the other end of the park. ”
initially, blair had agreed to the maze only because she didn’t have anything better to offer and because she was promised funnel cakes. if she knew that this was the price she had to pay, she would’ve bought the damn funnel cakes herself considering she wasn’t suffering any shortage of money. daniel stops abruptly in front of her and begins to go back the way they just came. with a huff, blair continues to follow along. “and yet, we are here, still lost in a maze, and i am still without my promised funnel cakes. i can’t even remember why i agreed anymore, i’ve got no patience for this kind of stuff.”
“ because i’m just so irresistibly charming, ” daniel quips with ease. he shoves a couple leaves out of the way and presses on, led by no more than just whatever turn his gut said felt right. “ we’ll get there, b. all roads lead out eventually, right? and you’ll get your funnel cakes, don’t stress. think freddy krueger would help us out if we asked nicely? ”
it wasn’t the FIRST time micah wondered why they chose to follow daniel. he was a great leader, depending on who you asked, but some of his ideas? RIDICULOUS. case in point: the two of them, running through a fucking corn maze for their lives. while micah was sure the only thing they had to worry about was the actor who would laugh at them later, the running did not soothe his nerves. when daniel spoke again, micah glared, shoving him with one arm. ❛ that is the last time i decide to do something with you. ❜ he’d said something like that before, of course. since the two of them became friends, micah had said those words hundreds of times, but never really meant them. ❛ we could’ve skipped to the funnel cakes an hour ago. ❜
daniel laughed, allowing the momentum of the shove to lead him further down the path to the right. the sounds of a makeshift windstorm could be heard again somewhere five minutes back, muffled by the layers of corn between them and it. “ that lost its meaning the second ‘last time’ you went somewhere with me, ” he joked lightly, a grin curving at his lips before he continued, “ if it makes y’feel better, i’ll buy whenever we finally get to the end. ”
“man, why are we even here?” isaiah couldn’t help sighing. he hated feeling LOST, and this maze had that feeling down pat. he was more annoyed, and frustrated then anything else. a trip to cali was meant to be FUN, and so far all that had happened was being chased by some dumb asses in crappy halloween costumes. as well as the entire group basically splitting up. isaiah felt like he was the father of a bunch of way-too-energetic kids. he was tired. and hungry. “i agree on the funnel cakes bit. and maybe some candy apples. that’d be good. and maybe a pie or two, you know what i’m saying?” he continued to think. “maybe even throw in a few hot dogs too. some slices of pizza. god. yeah. that’d be amazing right about now.”
“ because the attraction guide promised heart-stopping scares, ” he quoted offhandedly, amusement flickering briefly in his eyes. daniel rounded another corner and felt the paranoia rise of whether or not the scarecrow ahead of him was human or just a decoration ( though after a few moments he came to the conclusion it was the latter ). the audio being fed into the maze seemed to return to the beginning, the now-familiar sounds of crows drifting through the stalks. as the path tightened, forcing them to go single-file, daniel couldn’t help but wonder where the rest of the team had gone in their dash to avoid one of the park’s cast members. at isaiah’s mention of food, his stomach rumbled. “ cotton candy. one of those pizza burgers...come on, man, we definitely have to get out of here soon. ”
“how long has it been?” julian was now resting his forehead against a stalk of corn, feeling defeated ( quite pathetically so ) after running into the dead-end he previously thought would lead them out. “when is it okay to start cheating? because, i think, if we stack up high, one on top of each other, we might be able to see a way out.” julian turned around and caught up to his friend, using his hands to explain what he was thinking. “do you think anyone has died in a corn maze?” daniel’s imagination always impressed julian–he was thankful to have such a guy with him in the winding endeavor of a maze.
" eh, maybe an hour. give or take. ” truthfully, daniel had long since lost track of time, and considering how his phone had died when he was waiting in line for a ride earlier, he couldn’t exactly double check to be sure. still, he felt the pang of a future apology in his chest for how much time they were about to lose. “ like the three kids creating one big kid in a trench coat trope? ” daniel grinned over at julian, shaking his head as he paused to let him catch up. “ no cheating, we die by killer clowns like men. ” daniel nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around and found himself mere yards away from two girls being chased by a flannel-clad zombie. it’s fine, you’re fine. he finally started continuing on. “ in this place? shit, maybe from a heart attack. ”
the corn maze seemed promising in theory, but the deeper daniel got into the maze with little more than one teammate at his side, the more lost he found himself getting. the sun could be seen dipping below the horizon ahead of them ( the stalks casting leering shadows as they continued to follow the disorienting turns ), but the california air refused to cool. daniel proceeded to make another turn and --- HALT. dead end. the boy turned to face the other, addressing them as he paced backwards and began retracing their steps. “ if it weren’t for leatherface chasing us for five minutes, i guarantee we would have been out of here and chowing down on funnel cakes by now. ”
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