Unholy Trinity: The Corn Maze by Melody E. McIntyre

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

Fight

Mary regretted coming here. She hated being lost in this corn maze. It was yet another one of Julie’s ridiculous–and annoying–ideas. The labyrinthine twists were never ending. Mary pushed through the stalks, ignoring the proper path.

Mud squelched underfoot and splashed her pants. The stain shone red in the moonlight. 

Blood. 

A lot of blood.

A black figure with a dripping machete stepped into view. Mary readied a pen from her purse like a knife. It was tiny next to her enemy’s weapon, but she refused to go easy. 

She hoped her friends would have time to escape.

Flight

Pity drove Linda into the corn maze. Her friends were always so mean to Julie. Linda did little to stop them. The complexity of Julie’s maze impressed her  and soon Linda was lost and alone. 

A scream tore through the air around her.

“Just a cow,” she lied to herself.

A black figure blocked her path. Moonlight glinted off a long, silver machete in its hand.

Linda tore through the winding rows, only to round a bend directly into her hunter’s path. 

Blood welled up into her mouth as the blade pierced her lungs. 

Linda pitched forward into the dirt.

Fright

Julie wiped the machete against her black robes. The plan progressed perfectly. Well, almost perfectly. The gouge in her arm from Mary burned. Wielding the machete in her left instead of right hand made her clumsy, but Julie still had the advantage. This was her family farm. No one would escape her corn maze or her rage.

Her friends no longer invited her to their parties, so she invited them to her own. 

  Five out of six already hung on their crosses. Julie crept through the maze after the last one. 

Time to complete her collection of scarecrows.