“C’mon, it’ll be fun,” said Tiffany.
Ellie just looked at her. “A corn maze? A stupid corn maze? Halloween and instead of going to the party, you want to go there?”
“Not just any corn maze,” replied Tiffany. “This is Farmer Brown’s Ultimate Corn Maze. It’s supposed to be the biggest and best. Almost impossible to solve within an hour’s time limit.”
“Wasting my time for an hour.”
“Everybody else is in for it.”
“Everyone…Including Gavin?”
“Yep. So, I’ll tell you what. You come with us and after the maze we’ll go to Max’s in Wilmington. There is a killer band there tonight…and I know the doorman.”
Ellie looked at Tiffany. “You could have started out with that, you know.”
That night the six university students drove to Farmer Brown’s. The drive took about an hour and Ellie was still grumpy about having to navigate a stupid maze in the cold October air. The road was dark but there was a full moon lighting the way.
Once at Farmer Brown’s they paid the entry fee to an old man who was shivering from the cold.
“You need something warm?” asked Tiffany.
“I got something right here,” said the old man, who opened a pint of whiskey and took a swig. “Now just enter over there.” He pointed to the cornfield.
Ellie saw six entrances. “Which one?” she asked.
“Any one of them.” Answered the old man.
Tiffany walked to the first entry. “I think we should each take one.”
Gavin shrugged his shoulders and walked through the second entry. The other three took their own separate way into the corn maze.
Finally, Ellie reached the sixth.
“Just make sure you avoid the Pig Man!” shouted the old man.
“What did you say? “Ellie shouted back.
“The Pig Man,” the old man answered. “You don’t want to meet up with him.”
“Oh shit!” Ellie said to herself. “Some guy in a pig costume is in there to scare the crap out of us. Tiffany I’m going to kill you for making me go through this stupid thing.” She made sure her coat was zipped up tight and walked into the maze.
So far it was just another corn maze. As she walked further in, the pathways turned left, then right. Dead ends popped up and she had to reverse course and start over.
“Hey!” came Gavin’s voice. “Anybody find the exit, yet?”
Ellie shouted “No. I think I have to go back and start over.”
Then there was a sound: “OINK OINK”.
“What the fuck is that?” Gavin shouted.
“It’s the Pig Man.” replied Ellie.
“The WHAT?”
“The Pig Man. Some asshole dressed like a pig trying to scare us.” Ellie shouted. “Now do you think this is fun?”
There was silence.
“Did you hear me?” Ellie shouted louder.
Still there was silence.
“Not fucking funny. C’mon somebody say something.”
“OINK OINK”
“Jesus man, get a life.” Ellie said to the disembodied voice.
“OINK OINK! LITTLE PIGGY. OINK OINK!”
“Fuck off and let me get out of this place. “Tif! Gavin! Say something.”
No reply.
“Maggie! Jack! Pete. Stop being jerks. Say something!”
“OINK OINK! LITTLE PIGGY. OINK OINK!”
Ellie raced through the maze. Up and down the paths. She couldn’t see over the stalks and the corn was so thick she couldn’t push past them.
Path after path. Dead ends and what seemed like she was running one way but only to return to a place she had started.
“Alright Farmer Brown! You win!” she shouted. Of course, there was silence. She found another path which looked a little different and within a few yards there was a clearing.
Inside the clearing was a scarecrow mounted to a wooden cross. She looked at it and her mouth dropped.
Her reaction to coming upon this figure was understandable. It was disturbing...no ... horrifying. A perverse rendition of a scarecrow. A pig's head mask had been placed on the scarecrow. It was holding a leather harness. Heavy and formidable.
“This is sick,” she muttered.
An owl cried out and she turned her head away from the scarecrow. The owl had caught a mouse and was flying away with it. Then there was nothing. Dead silence. Just the full moon illuminating the clearing.
She turned back to the scarecrow and it was now inches from her face. She screamed and quickly backed up, turned and started to run away.
"OINK! OINK!" comes the sound from the scarecrow as the leather dropped over her head and quickly took hold of her throat. It cinched tight and any further attempts to scream are met with an even tighter grip. She began to get light-headed and things began to spin around.
The rest of the harness wrapped around her body, pulling tight. Arms bound. Legs bound. She started to lose balance and began to fall but the scarecrow took hold of her and lowered her to the ground.
She writhed as the leather tightened even more, immobilizing. The scarecrow rolled her onto her back and Ellie looked up at it. From a sheath it produced a large knife. She tried to mouth 'Please...please'. She said to herself that this was it.
Instead, the scarecrow begins to cut off her clothes with the knife until the only thing Ellie was wearing was the harness.
The scarecrow tightened the harness once more. Then taking hold of the harness it began to drag her through the field. Several minutes passed until they reached the center of the corn maze.
On the ground was another cross and a large, deep hole. The scarecrow pulled her to the cross and attached the harness to it. Then it took the top of the cross, lifted it up and dropped it into the hole. It shoveled dirt into the hole, straightening the cross and ensured that the dirt will keep the cross upright. It tamped down the dirt to make sure it was solid.
The leather strains against her and the wooden cross. The scarecrow then takes something from a bag. A mask? No..
It is a real pig's head, torn from the animal and hollowed out. The scarecrow pulls it over Ellie’s head and laces it closed. The smell of the dead pig is overwhelming and before she passed out she heard the scarecrow walk away, leaving her mounted on the cross. Shivering from the air which was getting colder every minute.
Through the eyeholes in the pig’s head Ellie looked around. Inside the clearing were five other crosses. Five other ‘scarecrows’ with pig heads mounted on them. Tiffany, Gavin and the others. All nude and tightly bound.
From out of the dark she heard the Pig Man call out:
"OINK...OINK! ...LITTLE PIGGY...OINK ...OINK!"