I attended the Spirit's Eve Festival on the second-to-last day of fall, completely perplexed as to why I'd skipped it the previous year.
…Oh, wait, hadn't my childhood cat been hurt around that time? Did I have to skip out on Spirit's Eve for him?
It was probably that, I went with. Even having been here for almost two years, this festival felt strikingly new to me.
I was first completely perplexed by the walking skeletons. I couldn't wrap my head around any sort of answer for how they were able to move. In fact, my soul was adamant that they were robots. The least robot-like robots I'd ever seen, but… there couldn't have been any other explanation, right?
Sebastian, who was also watching them walk about, said "I have no idea how these skeletons are walking. Creepy. It's pretty cool, though."
"So they're definitely not robots?" I asked.
"Really don't think so," he answered. "Do they look like robots to you?"
"I…" I said. "…How else…"
I couldn't think of a way to finish that statement, so it never got finished.
…This had to be related to the Junimos Abigail and I had seen, I decided. If Junimos could coerce us into performing in their symphony, skeletons could walk around for everyone to see.
Stardew Valley must have been a land filled with secrets that defied all known science. This place constantly felt like a dream.
If that was the case, I decided, I wanted to stay here until the day I died.
It made the maze a more exciting prospect, too. To be honest, I hadn't considered going in there when I'd arrived, but my sentiments had changed somehow. Maybe it was the realization that I hadn't done any sort of real-life maze in years.
It couldn't have been that dangerous if nobody… no grown-ups, at least… was being discouraged from entering it at their leisure. I hadn't heard any tales of anyone going missing or anything like that.
I'd regret not giving it a shot. And that's the thought that convinced me to walk through the entrance, into the Haunted Maze.
As soon as I stepped inside, I came to a fork in the road with four different paths.
I was quick to learn that the first two were dead ends. One led to an unlit Jack-o-Lantern that felt like it was mocking me, and the other led to a man I recognized as the town doctor, Harvey. Before I knew it was him, he'd jumped at the sound of my footsteps.
"…Oh, it's you," he said with relief afterward. "…The truth is, I got too scared, so I came here to hide. Don't tell anyone."
Returning to the fork and taking the third path led to two more paths. One glance to my right revealed the second of these as a dead end, and taking the first led to yet another.
After all that time, I finally returned to the very first fork and took the rightmost path, hoping the addition of the undead hands in the ground meant I was making headway. Actually, to be real, those things nearly gave me a heart attack before I remembered they were décor at a spooky festival. I wasn't ready for no zombie apocalypse. Once I got comfortable with them, I even stopped to observe how they were grasping at the air. It gave me goosebumps.
The next time the path branched off into two, I went to the left. The branch after that wasn't so much a branch as it was one path and a divot of space with a broken TV sitting on the ground. Well, maybe "disconnected" was a better word; it showed static, but was otherwise in good shape. I stared at it for a few seconds, and was able to catch some blips of a scary green monster.
I advanced along the path and ran into Alex.
"Oh, hey," he said. "There's something weird over there."
He seemed to be trying to look over the hedges to my right. I jumped as high as I could to get a look, but all I noticed was that the area was completely shrouded in darkness. Was that intentional, or someplace that wasn't involved in the maze?
"There's gotta be a secret passage around here somewhere," said Alex, before walking past me… back the way I'd come.
If I was any lighter-hearted, I would have offered to team up with him… but I just wasn't feeling teamwork tonight, at least not with him. I simply advanced down the path.
I felt a good bit of relief when I ran into a big area with a fountain. If this was a video game, this fountain would have been a checkpoint, I was sure.
I then noticed Abigail, though… who was sitting against the fountain and seemed pretty down and out.
"Hey," I said, walking over and kneeling next to her. "What's up?"
She looked at me. She was sheet-white.
"I-I…" she said. "…Spiders." She lifted her right arm and pointed at the path ahead of her. "I can't go in there."
"Actual spiders?" I asked.
"No, but…" she answered. "They're HUGE. Way too big. I can't."
"Would you feel better if someone else came with you?" I asked. "I might go down that path next. The spiders could serve as a good landmark."
Abigail didn't answer me for a good few seconds, but I could tell she was thinking.
She then took a real deep breath and said "That… That just might work."
"Alright," I smiled, standing back up. "Come on."
It took her a couple seconds to get up.
After that, though, she took on a whole new demeanor. Her face took on a look of determination.
"I'm just going to dash past them," she said, her voice confident but still a bit shaky.
"You sure?" I asked. "If you want, you can close your eyes, and I can guide you past them."
"That won't be needed, but thank you," she said, like some kind of superhero.
Before I knew it, she'd taken off on a run down the path. I followed her, and was soon just a foot or two behind her.
Spiders, indeed. They were stationary, but they were also big and hairy, with gleaming red eyes. They'd definitely prove a good checkpoint. Also, the hairs on the things creeped even me out a bit.
Once we got past them, Abigail came to a stop and took a moment to catch her breath.
After her breathing was normal again, she said "I… I did it! I finally got past the spiders!"
Before I knew it, she had me in a near-crushing hug.
"Thank you so much!" she said. "I don't know if I could have done that if not for you!"
"No," I countered. "That was all you. You held your breath and dove in there head-first, ready to tackle your fear. That's something I love to see. After all, all I said was that I'd go with you."
"Yeah, but it really helped," she insisted. "Having someone there… you know?"
"…Yeah," I agreed. "…Welp, let's see what else this maze has for us, huh?"
"Yeah," Abigail nodded. She looked happier than I think I'd ever seen her, and she totally deserved it.
We, now a team, advanced down the path until we came across the next peculiar area: a graveyard, but instead of dirt, there was sand. There were also bones and skulls everywhere, which made me hope desperately that there wasn't any real graveyard out there kept this messily.
Oh, and Sam was also standing there.
"Sam!" Abigail called to him.
Noticing we were there, he smiled and responded "Oh, hey, guys!"
"How's your search going?" asked Abigail.
"I thought it was going well," said Sam. "Until, oddly, I ran into a dead end up ahead."
I temporarily felt defeated. We'd come all this way, and Abigail had just faced her fear of spiders head-on, just for another dead end?
"I feel like it means something, though," he continued. "There was a sign with a big red question mark on it. We were clearly meant to see that."
"A-Are there any spiders ahead?" asked Abigail.
"Oh, no, there's not," Sam assured her, seeming to know about her fear. "Don't worry."
"Good," Abigail said, sighing in relief.
"…Maybe there's a puzzle in there we have to solve?" I suggested.
"There could be," said Sam.
"I want a look," I said, forging ahead.
It wasn't until I got to the "dead end" in question that I realized both Abigail and Sam had followed me, making us a team of three.
There it was, the sign in question. We all began looking around, Abigail going to one corner and kneeling to look at the ground.
"Where could this puzzle be?" Sam asked, a little frustrated.
"I don't know," was Abigail's simple answer.
I looked at the ground around the sign. Nothing of note. I tried lifting the sign out of the ground. It wouldn't budge.
For some reason, it didn't occur to any of us that the answer may not have involved the ground.
Finally, after a good few minutes, something caught my eye. Was there something different about the hedge leaves I was looking at? Something felt different, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I tried backing up a bit, looking at the leaves I'd already looked at.
It hit me. The way the environment was lit hid this very well, so that you could only see it if you looked closely.
The hedges were a different color in a spot. Their leaves were a darker green. We hadn't noticed it before, but now that I realized it, I couldn't unsee it.
I walked over to the darker hedges and put my hand on them. They moved forward a little bit. Well, maybe "swung" was a better word. I continued to push, and in seconds, we'd found our answer.
The darker hedge leaves weren't those of real hedges, but placed to cover up a door. The sound it made indicated it as a metal door.
I looked behind me to see that both Sam and Abigail had shocked looks on their face.
"Woah…" said Sam.
"Well, there's our answer," said Abigail. "It feels like we're getting closer to the golden pumpkin! Let's go!"
So we proceeded. It wasn't long until we reached the mountainside… and an entrance that led to complete darkness.
"Anyone bring a flashlight?" asked Abigail.
"Oops," I said. "I didn't think we'd be going into the damn mountain."
"We're just gonna have to feel our way around, then," said Sam. "Let's hope the path doesn't branch off anymore."
"I second that," I sighed, being the first to step foot inside.
Fortunately, while very dim, an orange light glowed in from the other side, at least enough to indicate that our exit would be on the right.
The path was also fortunately straight, for the most part. I would have freaked the fuck out if I had to risk getting lost in the dark, and I was confident Abigail and Sam felt the same way.
We eventually emerged from the mountain, but only got a small area of dim orange light before what lied ahead, a hedged-in area of almost complete darkness.
The only things that could be seen within it were little red eyes in the ground… and a treasure chest.
"I'll go in," Sam said all seriously, before walking up to the treasure chest. Abigail didn't seem to have any objections to that. I, meanwhile, was just hoping the chest wouldn't be some prank, like a "sike" kinda deal.
Before I knew it, though, Sam had the chest open.
Then, in just seconds, he had a golden pumpkin in his arms.
"We found it!" he cheered. "We found the golden pumpkin!"
We all took a good few seconds to cheer. I hadn't expected to achieve this today at all, let alone with two of my best friends ever, and Abigail… I hoped her burst of confidence with the spiders would prove to be a good step in the process of overcoming her fear.
Once we stopped cheering, Sam asked "So… what do we do with it?"
We thought on that for a good bit. We'd all gotten here together. If I was being honest, though, Abigail and I were the ones who put in the real legwork; she'd saved us time by leading me down the right path, and I'd discovered the secret door.
"I think Rachael deserves it," said Abigail.
"Me?" I responded.
"Yeah," she nodded. "You gave me the confidence to get past those spiders, and you discovered the secret door."
"Aw, but you led me down the right path," I responded. "I could've gotten lost if not for you."
"Take it," Abigail insisted.
I looked at Sam, knowing he hadn't said anything on the matter… but he just handed it out to me, seeming to completely agree with Abigail.
"Well… thanks," I said, taking the pumpkin and blushing a bit. "…What do you want me to do? Sell it so we can split the funds, or-"
"I dunno," said Abigail. "This is the first time any of us have completed this maze. The pumpkin's a bit sentimental to me."
"She's right," Sam agreed. "Keep it. It can serve as a symbol of our friendship… or something like that."
"Yeah," I smiled. "…I like that idea a lot."