I have never seen a garden as amazing as the one before me right now. It is grand and beautiful, with flowers of different size and color. Their perfume wafts throughout the hedges, and into our noses. No one has died yet, and the day was so peaceful. It reminds me of what I had expected when I first came to the mansion, relaxing fun with other people. I can almost brush off the gore that has happened the few days before, almost. I want to just fall onto the freshly cut grass and sleep, because I am tired. The nightmares, the bodies are engraved in my mind. Which is why I will never be able to truly brush off the past few days and forget, even if I get out of here alive.

"Welcome guests to another round of my "killer" game. I have trapped your poor friends Sabrina, Nathaniel, and Alexander! They remain in the center of my maze. Your job is to search the maze and be the first to find them before it's too late...farewell guests, I know I'm dying to get this game started." Giles voice pierces into my peaceful thoughts. Shattering them instantly, like a rock through glass. I should've known, I am a fool for thinking that for once the killer would let me have my own time.

I am already off running, before anyone else. Nathaniel, my friend is in there. Cyril is already dead, I don't want to lose Nathaniel too. I'm lucky, that most people here are older than me, not as fit as a competitive gymnast. My legs take me farther and farther away as I abandoned Marie in the dust. Everyone else is trying to keep up, and although those my age or younger are in close proximity, I don't worry about them as we plunge into the maze.

The garden no longer feels magical as I thought is was. It's dark and horrifying, turn after turn I can feel my hopes slowly leaking out of me, like my stamina. I pause breathing heavily, by this time all of us left have scattered, I need to find them before like Giles said, it's too late. No more death. But running is obviously not working, there are too many turns and twists. Dead ends and confusion everywhere. I know I'm losing time thinking, but if I come up with a suitable strategy, I should make up with that time later. It hits me instantly, I know what to do.

Using my arm strength I pull myself up the edge, onto the top so I can see where I need to go. The gaps from hedge to hedge are wide, but not impossible to jump. "You can do this." I tell myself. "You've done leaps greater than that before." And then I jump. For a moment I feel like I'm flying, almost free before I slam into the hedge as reality hits. I grip tightly into the hedge feeling small thorns prick me and rip at my skin, as I struggle to stay atop the wall. And then I pull myself up, and jump again. A process I continue, no matter how bloody my hands get, or how much my legs scream. I see the center, I see them.

"I'm here, I'm here." I shout jumping one final time onto the ground. There is no response, and I turn around to find the bloody bodies of Sabrina, Nathaniel and Alexander. Nathaniel still gurgles, a slit on his throat obvious.

"Nathaniel, wait just a second...I'll go get-" I stop speaking. There is no way I can get help in time. Everyone is scattered around the maze and getting Giles from the beginning would take to long, so I do the only thing I can think, I try to prolong his life. I place my hands on his throat to try to stop the bleeding, there is nothing I can do at all. His life is rushing out of his body just as fast as his blood. The blood becomes slick on my hands, until I cannot keep a grasp on the cut. His gurgles stop shortly after.

I have just watched another person get killed.

Marie ditched her heels for flats. Another of the many mistakes she's made today.

Oh, she is also lost in a hedge maze. Giles had to tour the garden and Marie couldn't resist the opportunity to one-up her competitors by attending.

The walls around her are of unbroken green leaves, a blood rose poking out of the thick plant every step or two. The sky is cloudy and the clouds are a dull grey, the air hinting at an upcoming rainstorm. Above the seven foot tall hedges, Marie can see the crème-colored roof of the mansion, but none of the balconies can be seen. She already tried yelling for help - Marie am all alone.

So as you can tell, Marie is not having the best of days. Bad timing for it, too. Only six are left. Well, nine, but three have gone missing. Imbeciles. What idiot gets lost in a hedge maze... Oh yeah...

Marie turns another corner. Another green wall.

"Urg!" She shouts. "Where is the center of this maze?" She turns another corner and three dead bodies lie on the floor. Each one is unrecognizable, carved into by something sharp and deadly. Marie winces at the gruesome sight.

Then, the bushes rattle and a dark body disappears back into the maze. Marie gasps and smirks. She races after the body into the maze. They are fast, she'll give them that. Marie turns corner after corner, but miraculously, the killer doesn't hit one dead end. Soon, she's lost him.

"God da-" A sharp pain shoots through her skull and Marie hits the ground, her last sight of the killer racing away to safety.

As the words in the killers notes reached my ears, this time I didn't feel fear- I felt relief. I wasn't the one to die. But, three other people might. I assembled yet again with my team and we started talking. There were three entrances, and three of us. "I'll go in the middle." I told them. "I'll go to the right." Osias then responded. "That leaves the left to me." Lillian said. We split up and lined up by our maze entrances. "Three...two..."Giles voice rang behind us. "One." Right as the word passed his lips, I bolted. I had to be the one to find them. The maze was narrow and the hedge was a thick dense green. I had slowed down now, confident with my beginning speed bolt. I now paced my way, making lefts and rights, using common sense. It was growing darker, it seemed to be about 2:00 or 3:00 now. There were a few birds chirping and all in all it actually seemed peaceful. I'm sure my parents would've been astounded by this place. Even if they were in a game where the object was not to die. As I was walking, I heard a rustle in the hedge to my right. I froze. I slowly turned my head and looked through it. It was- I gulped. It was.... A chipmunk. The cute chubby thing stared at me sweetly. I scoffed- nothing but a cute forest animal. I turned around and heard another rustle. This one was much bigger: not a chipmunk. I spun around and almost blacked out. The only thing I saw was a flash of a dark shadow disappear. Now I was freaking out. At least whoever- whatever it was had left, for now. I picked up my speed and started through the maze more frantically. The shadow reminded me that this isn't just a fun relaxing spring break. This is a game of life or death. That I didn't want to lose. As I made turns in random directions, the shrubbery seemed to start thinning out. After what seemed like an eternity of twists and turns, I finally reached what I hoped was the middle. I heard a muffled scream. Yep, I think I found it. I made a final turned and was face to face with Sabrina Laurence. I recognized her because of her blue eyes. Her blonde hair was dirt coated and she had a ragged appearance, like she had been here for days. She was still screaming with a gag in her mouth. I was struck out of my gaze and hurried over to help her. Her face was one of sheer terror which seemed contagious due to the fact that I was now scared out of my mind. Since Sabrina was here, the killer can't be to far as well. "Thank you- Charlotte is it?" She said. "Yah, but we gotta get you out of here. The killer must be close by." I said untying the knots that bound her arms and legs. "I know who it is!" She whispered in my ear. I stopped and stared at her. "Who! Who's the killer?!" I asked her surprised at how much I wanted to know. "It's-" her sentence was inturupted by the sound of a gun shot in my ear. I looked up at Sabrina and saw blood on her head. When I got up, there was more blood- lots of it. I traced my gaze up to a bullet hole in the center of her head. I was in shock and my jeans and green tee-shirt were now soaked in blood. I looked up at where the point of the bullet hit her head. You could see a partial view of the manor, and there was a balcony window at the perfect angle. That had to be where the killer was. I was still in shock at the dead body in front of me. I had examined the corpse of the man in the beginning of my arrival, but this was different. I had socialized with her, talked to her. I screamed out loud "Anyone there? I need help!" No response. I guess I was on my own. I tried to grab Sabrina, planning on taking her back with me: I couldn't just leave her there. I toppled over at her weight. She wasn't very heavy, but on the other hand, I'm not strong. I looked for a way that I could find my way back to her. I dug through my pockets and found an old pocket knife. I guess I could find something to do with this. Every few steps I took I made a specific pattern of leaves that I cut off from the hedge. Sometimes a circle, an arrow, maybe a square. I dragged myself around the maze, now thinking I looked as bad as Sabrina did. It was pretty late when I finally saw the dim glow of a lantern through the hedge. When I reached it, everyone was there waiting for me. I opened my mouth to speak, then everything went black and I collapsed.

It was a beautiful day. The weather was gorgeous; there was a slight breeze, and the sun shining made my skin warm - in a good way. After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, the remaining contestants and I toured the garden with Giles. The only thing off was that Sabrina, Nathaniel, and Alexander were missing from the group, but I shrugged it off. It probably wasn't too important; they were most likely just in the parlor or something.

For some reason, we didn't go near the hedge maze in the center of the garden, but I hardly noticed; the parts that we were exploring were too pretty to be ignored.

Tulips, dandelions, roses, petunias, and hibiscuses blossomed all around us, and the grass was well-kept and appeared to be very freshly cut. The hedges were well-trimmed, as well as plentifully watered.

"Alright, everyone! Let's take a break here." Giles stopped us at a garden table near the entrance to the hedge maze.

I milled about the area, chatting lightly with Osias and Charlotte, and exchanging quick banter with Marie.

"Excuse me, everyone, may I have your attention?" Giles got the six of us to gather around him, anxious and nervous about what was to be said. "There has been some communication from the killer via this note here," he held up a small piece of card stock, elegant, loopy writing marking its surface. "It reads 'Welcome guests to another round of my "killer" game. I have trapped your poor friends, Nathaniel, Sabrina, and Alexander! They remain in the center of my maze. Your job is to search the maze and find them before it's too late... Farewell, guests. I know I'm dying to get this game started.' "

We were all silent, the only sound the noise of the breeze rustling through the leaves. So that's where they all were... I just had to get them out of there before something drastic happened.

"Well then, get going! Good luck, everyone." With that, we all left and entered the maze, one by one.

My first instinct was to follow one of my alliance members, probably Osias, but I realized that I had to do this alone.

As I followed the wall of hedges, turning left, then right, then right again, I noticed it was slowly getting darker. 'I need to get to the center...'

I jogged for roughly twenty more minutes, getting nowhere. Stopping, I sat down against the wall of greens, exhausted and sweating. 'What am I going to do?' I thought and thought, trying to find a possible solution. Maybe... Maybe if I could somehow climb the vines and hedges, I could see over the top of the walls and make it to the center to save them!

I got to it, attempting to scale the tangled leaves. It was very difficult at first, but I eventually figured out a functioning system. Left foot, left hand, right foot, right hand. I continued to rhythmically climb, nearing the top. The sweat was accumulating on my brow, and legs were starting to shake. 'Just a bit farther, Lillian.'

I finally reached the top, pushing myself well above the leaves. As I gazed about the layout of the maze, I realized that I was actually just a few turns away from the center!

After memorizing the ways I had to turn, I immediately scrambled down, landing on the ground with a big 'oomf', then taking off down the way.

When I reached the center, I entered to see Alexander, Sabrina, and Nathaniel, wide-eyed, shot in the back with arrows that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"No!" I screamed, rushing over to their now-limp bodies and holding them up. "No, please don't die..." I held Alexander's head up as his eyes when blank and his body slacked. Memories of that first night, my stupid love-sick rambling, his dazzling smile played across his face. Now, here, dead, his face was slack and sickly, his eyes wide and scared.

I cried then; cried for Alexander, for Nathaniel, for Sabrina; cried for this awful, grotesque situation; cried just for the sake of crying.

After having an embarrassing snot session, I got up, leaving their bodies there, and headed to climb one of the hedges again so that I could make my way back out of that awful place.

As I ran, I cleared my mind of the worries that this competition brought me. I wasn't here to have mental breakdowns, I was here to win. I couldn't be worrying myself over every death... As much as I hated that these people were dying, I also had to worry about myself. I could be next; it was very likely. I could be dead soon... I shuddered at the thought.

The lights of Rue Manor brought me out of my faze, snapping me back to reality and making me realize that the other contestants were waiting outside the maze. I was the last one left out.

"Alright everyone, I'm afraid no one was saved in the maze. Alexander, Nathaniel, and Sabrina are dead. Let's go back inside and sleep; I know you all need it."