Suddenly, Jenny's Alice in Wonderland comment didn't seem so stupid, after all.
Refusing to let Jenny sense her fear, she looked steadfastly in front of her and carried on walking. Then she heard the crack of a twig, which sounded as if it came from up ahead. Unfortunately, Jenny heard it too.
"W-What was that?" Jenny asked, clutching onto the back of Stephanie's coat.
In spite of all the layers of clothing she wore, Stephanie felt a shiver run down her spine, but forced herself to continue putting one foot in front of the other. Trying—and failing—to inject some normalcy into her voice, she replied, "P-Probably just someone else from the house. You can enter from either side of the maze, remember. They could have come in the opposite end. I expect we'll bump into them shortly."
They didn't, but the path broadened, and they soon emerged into the centre of the maze, much to Stephanie's relief. She knew they were far from home and dry, but at least, she wasn't feeling as if the walls were closing in on her anymore. Stopping for a few minutes, she looked into each of the paths leading off the centre to see if she could see anyone lurking there. She was reminded of the incident in the corridor outside the library the previous evening, and wondered if the same person was trying to scare them here too. She decided not to say anything to her girlfriend. There was no point. With Jenny's imagination, she'd be conjuring up ghosts and ghouls left, right and centre, and getting her out of the maze would be even more of a chore than it already was.
"Come on," Stephanie said loudly, as if trying to prove how perfectly fine she felt. "Let's get going."
She walked toward the potential exit paths and chose one, hoping against hope it was the right one. She didn't know how much longer her nerve would hold out. Jenny followed close behind, seemingly calmer now as the sound of the broken twig hadn't been followed by anything else. Walking steadily onward, Stephanie made quick decisions on their turns, thinking that even if she got them wrong, keeping this pace would mean she could easily correct any missteps they took, and get them the hell out of the maze.
Neither girl spoke. After a while, Stephanie wasn't sure how close they were to the exit, but she sensed they were almost there, since they hadn't hit a dead end in some time. Suddenly, she heard a noise from behind. Spinning, she grabbed Jenny and pushed in front of her, ready to face their foe head-on. She was terrified, but she sure as hell wasn't going to show it.
"Who's there?"
Nothing. Stephanie waited, her upper arms starting to hurt where Jenny gripped
them tightly.
"Hello? Are you lost?"
Still no response. If there were a genuine patron in the maze, they'd have replied
by now.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Stephanie yelled. "What are you, some kind of creepy pervert who likes scaring women? Well, it's not working!"
She lied through her teeth, of course, but she wasn't going to let their stalker
know that.
"We're going now, anyway. So you'll have to find someone else to try and scare, all right?"
This time, the response was the sudden approaching sounds of heavy footsteps.
As one, they spun round and ran in the direction they'd headed as fast as they could.
The noises she and Jenny were making masked out any their assailant might have produced, but she didn't care. She wanted out—now. She ran close behind Jenny, thanking her lucky stars when she finally saw an opening in the hedge, which would lead them back out of this godforsaken hole.
Jenny had obviously spotted it too, as she had a sudden burst of speed, taking her right to the exit. Her girlfriend was almost on the grass when she suddenly tripped—over nothing. Stephanie, having no time to react, ended up tripping over Jenny, and they both sprawled on the grass in a heap. They hurriedly disentangled, aware they were being followed, and about to come face-to-face with their pursuer.
Only they didn’t. Whoever it was, they didn't emerge. Puzzled, she got up and helped Jenny, glancing toward the gap in the hedge to see what it was her lover had fallen over. There was absolutely nothing there, but she'd gone over, almost as if someone had stuck their leg over to crop her up. But neither of them had seen anything.
The hairs on the back of Stephanie's neck stood up and a thought formed in her mind. She pushed it away forcefully, and after checking to see if Jenny was okay—physically, at least—she grabbed her hand and they made their way back to the house.
Once she'd safely installed Jenny in a comfy chair in the living room—or parlour, as she supposed the proper name was—Stephanie went in search of some help. She needed a first aid kit, but more importantly, alcohol. She quickly located a staff member on Reception and gave the woman a heavily edited version of events. The woman was suitably horrified and shooed her back into the parlour, promising to return with the requested items.
When she got back to Jenny, she saw that her girlfriend had rolled up her trouser legs to reveal mildly skinned knees. They looked sore, but her injuries didn’t appear to be serious. Taking a minute to examine herself, Stephanie discovered her knees were fine, except for a series of grass stains. She did, however, have a nasty scratch on her forearm—from the hedge, no doubt—and a tiny cut on one palm.
"For fuck's sake," Stephanie muttered. "When I find out who that idiot is, I'm going to kill him."
Jenny looked up, her eyebrows raised. "I think you might have a problem there."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, isn't it obvious?"
When she didn't reply, Jenny continued, "We're in a property well-known for its hauntings on the creepiest day of the year. Steph, it was a ghost."
"You're very matter-of-fact all of a sudden."
"Well, I've had a few minutes to think. And it makes sense. Plus, I saw—that."
Raising an arm, Jenny pointed at something on the wall behind where Stephanie sat.
Standing, she turned to look at what Jenny had indicated. It was a photograph. A very old one, in black and white. It depicted a man, standing just inside the entrance to the maze. He wore gardening clothes and a scowl. In his hands was a hefty set of hedge clippers.
She turned back to face Jenny and sat heavily. "Well," she said, "look on the bright side. At least, we didn't see those clippers. I think I'd have wet myself—or
worse—there and then."
"Hmm," said Jenny, "me too. It's still weird, though. Why did he appear to us?"
Stephanie didn't get a chance to reply as the woman she’d spoken to earlier—her
name tag read “Ann”—entered the room with a tray. It was laden with several medical supplies, and most importantly, a pot of tea and its various accompaniments.
"Well!" Ann exclaimed, catching sight of Jenny's knees. "Whatever did you two do out there?"
Jenny gave a wry grin. "We had a little accident coming out of the maze."
"The maze? Whatever were you doing in there, you silly girls?"
Even Stephanie was lost for words. "Umm…whatever one usually does in mazes.
Trying to find our way out, I suppose."
Shaking her head, the woman said, "Didn't anyone tell you?"
"Tell us what?" they replied, simultaneously.
Ann sighed. Then she poured each of them a cup of tea, added milk and sugar as per their requirements and handed them over. Only then did she take a seat beside
Stephanie and recount a tale.
"So," Stephanie said some time later when the story was told, and she'd had time
for it to sink in, "what you're saying is this place is full of ghosts, mostly harmless, except for the one in the maze who gets seriously grumpy right about this time of year and materializes?"
"That's it in a nutshell," Ann replied. "But we make sure we warn all patrons. I can't understand why you weren’t told. It's usually mentioned in the evening briefing before the murder mystery events."
Stephanie felt a blush threatening to overtake her cheeks. That had been round about when she'd completely stop
ped taking notice of what was going on, so desperate was she to get to sleuthing. And if anyone had mentioned it later in the evening, neither of them would’ve heard about it, as she had dragged Jenny upstairs for her special brand of “punishment.”
"Ah, well," she said, eager to steer away from that line of inquiry, "no real harm done. We'll live, won't we?"
Jenny nodded and took a sip of her tea, which to Stephanie was an obvious technique to avoid actually saying anything. "We'll be fine. We'll get cleaned up and bring what we don't use back down to you, is that okay?"
The woman gave a small frown, but conceded. "Well, if you're sure. You know where to find one of us if you need anything." Ann smiled and took her leave. They watched her go, then turned back to one another. Stephanie got in first.
"Don't say it."
"What?"
"You were going to say, 'I told you so.'"
"Hmm, well. I did. I told you this place was haunted."
Stephanie groaned. She'd never hear the end of this.
"Come on," she said tiredly, getting up. "Let's go back upstairs and get cleaned up. Then we can chill out for a bit before we get ready for tonight's party."
"What, you still want to go?"
"Why shouldn't I? You heard what she said. The only ghost that does anything more than creep people out is in the maze. And I'm sure as hell not going out there in the dark. Or at all, for that matter."
She grabbed a handful of the plasters and antiseptic wipes off the tea tray and headed back up to their room. For once, Jenny didn't even attempt to have the last word.
* * *
Several hours later, the girls were over their fright. In fact, they were now the ones doing the scaring. In an entirely more overt manner, of course. They revelled in showing their bloodied fangs to people, their cackles becoming more and more inane the greater quantity of champagne they quaffed. The brides of Dracula were most certainly on form tonight. Stephanie had no idea whether the other guests had put two and two together. In most tales of the popular story, the brides liked one another as much as they did their victims, and to be truthful, Stephanie didn't care. She was just glad to have a little fun after their unpleasant morning.
She was also glad of the excuse to stay by Jenny's side. Their outfits were long,
floaty affairs, but that didn't stop Stephanie from having a cheeky grope of her girlfriend's ass every now and again. On one particularly brazen occasion, she even slipped her hand inside Jenny's gaping neckline and gave her nipple a pinch.
"Ooh," Jenny squealed, the sound barely noticed due to the pounding music filling the room, "are you getting frisky with me again, young lady?"
"Would you like me to be?" Stephanie replied, really hoping the answer was yes.
"What do you think?" Jenny asked. Putting her champagne glass to her lips, she drained the remainder of the golden liquid and put it down on a table. Stephanie had
discarded hers some time ago, so after taking a surreptitious look around the room to make sure nobody was taking notice of them, the two of them slipped out.
When they were about halfway up the corridor, Stephanie let out an exasperated sigh. "Hang on!" she said, putting a hand against the wall to prop her up while she used the other to remove her shoes. "I'm not cut out for heels, let alone running in them!"
Her lover did the same, yanking off her strappy shoes and dangling them from one hand. Then Jenny yelled, "Last one to the room is a rotten egg!"
Both of them ran down the hallways and up the carpeted stairs, giggling inanely. A creaky floorboard and an obvious cold spot on the landing made them hesitate slightly, but then, her girlfriend piped up. "Not now, ghosty!" Jenny yelled, her slight inebriation making her brave and mouthy. "We got places to be…fuckin' to do!"
The race forgotten, Stephanie howled with laughter, the blatant statement coming out of Jenny's mouth really tickling her funny bone for some reason. They scurried up the corridor and she got the room key out of her clutch bag, fumbling slightly as she tried to put it in the lock. Finally, the door swung open and they piled in, slamming it behind them and dropping all their belongings on the floor.
Then an unspoken command had them both undressing and tugging out their fake fangs. Stephanie's lust burned through her alcohol-induced haze, meaning she was naked in seconds and clambering eagerly up onto the four-poster. Jenny was there slightly quicker, and her lover flopped onto her back, her arms open wide. She wasted no time straddling Jenny and leaning down to kiss her, crushing their breasts and tummies together. Bearing down with her hips, Stephanie pressed her pubic bone into Jenny's, stimulating both their pussies as their tongues slipped and slid together.
"Fuck," said Jenny, pulling away from their kiss and gasping for air. "That feels good. I reckon I could come just from you doing that, I'm so horny."
"That might be true, my darling, but it's not going to happen. I want to taste your sweet pussy on my face."
"Well, I'm not going to argue with that!" As the words left her mouth, Stephanie had already shifted around into their favourite sixty-nine position. She felt Jenny tense as her mouth crept closer to her pussy. Feeling like a tease, Stephanie grabbed her lover and rolled them both over so Jenny was on top.
"Fancied a change of scenery, did you, honey?" Jenny asked, her playful comment quickly cut off as Stephanie delved her agile tongue into Jenny's dewy pout.
Gasping, Jenny then quickly dipped her head to Stephanie's pussy, returning the favour. Stephanie was so wrapped up in Jenny and her pleasure she didn't notice the clock in the hallway chime midnight. Nor did she realise right away they were being watched. The barely-there figure in the corner of the room remained mostly unnoticed, looking like something from a costume party, her hand shoved up her skirt and moving in a telltale fashion.
Only when they eventually fell apart, dropping onto their backs with exhaustion, did Stephanie give any thought to the figure she spotted out of the corner of her eye.
She snapped her head in that direction, but now, there was nothing there. And, in all honesty, as she pulled the heavy duvet over herself and an exhausted Jenny, she really couldn't care less. Halloween or not, nothing was going to stop her from making love to her beautiful girl.
They were asleep in seconds and stayed that way until morning.
* * *
The first of November dawned bright and sunny, and Stephanie and Jenny packed their cases, scrambling around the room checking for stray underwear and sex toys. The last thing Stephanie wanted was a telephone call from Wilderhope Manor to collect some rather embarrassing lost property.
As the Fiesta made the return journey down the gravel drive, Jenny twisted in
her seat to look back at the beautiful building. Then, as they rounded the bend, which rendered the manor out of sight, she faced forward again. Opening her mouth, she summed up their weekend in four short words. "Well. That was interesting."
Lucy Felthouse, Weekend at Wilderhope Manor
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