#statment

switch to reader 1 pov:

Fuck, why am I here? As much as I hate it, or whatever the voice is, is right. I'm just going mad; I can't be trusted. I should just turn around, skip my appointment and forget about her. She just left. I know that my mind is just tricking me.

Ding, oh shit oh shit oh shit. I walked in the door fuck I'm here now fu-

"Hello, welcome to Mangus Institute I'm Sasha. May I have your name and reason for your visit?"

"Uh, I have an appointment to give a statement at 1:00," Oh my God, I'm insane I shouldn't be here the is voice right. Why. Am. I. He-

"Your ID, please," she - Sasha - requests.

I fish it out of my wallet and slide it across the desk. She looks at it, then me, smiles, and hands it back. "Perfect, take a seat and someone will come get you when they're ready for your statement."

"Umm, okay. Thanks," I speed-walk over to the chair, and sit down.

This whole place is so grey and cold. I look around, and there are some faded posters on the wall. One catches my eye. Looking for interns, apply today for a chance at scholarships and a letter of recommendation. Maybe I'll apply; I want to go to college for history, but I can't afford it without a scholarship.

"Uh, yeah I'm here to give a statement," I confirm, and my voice comes out more unsure than I wanted it to.

"The internship is hard work, but the scholarship is actually pretty good," I jumped at the sudden noise and turned my head so fast it might fallen off.

There stood a man in a Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and a cocky smile. "I'm Tim, you must be the one o'clock, right?"

I slowly nodded, not sure what to totally make of the person in front of me.

"Fabulous! Follow me," he turned on his heel and started to walk off to a door, opening it into another grey hallway waiting for me to enter.

I hesitated as I entered, glancing around to make sure everything was normal before entering.

"Now, usually the head archivist handles statements, but he's out sick today so I'm handling it."

"Oh, um, okay," I said as led me to a new room and pulled out a chair for me, and sat down across from me.

He put a tape recorder in the middle of the table.

"Our head archivist likes having everything recorded on these. So whenever you're ready I will introduce and you will give your statement," he said, waving a hand over the tape recorder.

I stiffly nodded, he started the recording and gave the introduction. I clenched my fist around the fabric of my pants and took a deep breath.

"You should leave. They have other things to worry about, you are just insane," the voice again.

It's not wrong, this is crazy! I shook my head. I shouldn't be doing this-

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," I mumbled quickly, and Tim gestured to take a deep breath.

"Hey, this when you start," Tim softly coaxed, but it still startled me.

I looked at him for second before shaking my head quickly.

"It happened about 2 years ago now," I begin, then I suddenly feel... almost compelled to continue. "I was thirteen at the time. Halloween was coming up, so my mum went to Davidson's pumpkin patch. Halloween was her favorite holiday so every year she went all out. Elaborate costumes and jack-o'-lanterns, turning our house into a haunted house, with king-size candy bars. Those kinds of things. Well, part of those activities was that she took me to the pumpkin patch every year for the haunted corn maze. We liked to time ourselves to see how fast we could do it, and to see if we got faster each year. Usually, they were fun and at least a little bit of a challenge. But that year it seemed... duller. The decorations were shit, quite frankly, and the maze was just so easy. It was just really disappointing - we finished the maze within ten minutes. Then my mum took me to the drink station to cheer me up. It was just in a barn-like thing, they had apple cider, hot chocolate, and pumpkin spice galore - they also had a topping station. As we were walking away, we saw this dude with a weird costume. Like he made his arms and legs too long, and his smile too big. It was just really good special effects makeup, I think. But he was standing in front of a... yellow door. He called out to us.

"That is because there are two mazes this year. One for kids, and one for older people" he answered, I don't know what it was but something was so off with him. I don't know if it was his face or stance or what. Whatever it was Mom didn't seem to notice she just kept talking to him like it was nothing.

"He told us he saw us exit the corn maze, and that he noticed the mazes were less interesting this year. My mom agreed, and he told us the mazes were targeted more towards kids this year,

"Oh! Really, do you know where the other maze is? I didn't see one around" Somehow his smile widened and step aside and opened the door behind him.

"right through here" we looked in. It looked weird, but my mom didn't notice. She was distracted by the decorations and the people walking around. I have to admit it looked cool and so real.

"OH MY GOD! That is so cool! Oh, sweetheart do want to do this one?" my mom might as well have squealed, she grabbed my hands, and her eyes just lit up. I really didn't want to it felt so off. But I just thought it was just my mind playing with me and she was so excited. I couldn't say no to her so, plastered a smile on my face and nodded excitedly. "Great! How much is entry?"

"Not even a single penny. Just enjoy yourself" My mom squeezed my hand walks through the door. I wanted to run, but something felt off. It couldn't be right, but she pulled me through. The moment we stepped through every cell in my body screamed for me to run. The people around us looked wrong like they were melting, the grass clung to our shoes with every step. Everything looked right but it was wrong and I couldn't tell why.

"Mom, I'm sorry I can't do this. Something is wrong here." it turned to exit but the door was gone. There was nothing there, not even the farm. My mom tightened her grip around and looked at her, she was pale.

"Sweetheart? Where is the door?" her voice shook. she was scared , my mother was scared.

I-I don't know, it was just there." I looked back at the corn maze and people were staring at us. Their smiles had grown, I looked behind me again and suddenly there were people there, approaching us. So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I held tight on my mother's hand and ran into the corn maze. It was the only place we could run and I didn't know what else to do.

As we ran that thing gave chase. The corn seemed to grab at us every time we got close and I could hear them running behind us. We couldn't stop if stopped we would have died. I think we only runny for 20 minutes before it happened, my mom got too close to corn and got pulled down letting go of my hand in the process. I went to help her I swear but by the time I turned around, they had her. They were tearing her up but she was still alive! She looked me and the eye and told me to run, run for my life, run to make it out.

I didn't know what to do so I ran and ran. I don't know how long I ran for could have been an hour or day or more. I don't know. All I knew eventually I found the exit to the maze and there it was a door on the farm wall. I have never run so fast in my life, everything burned so loud. The grass grabbed my foot and fell to the ground. I thought for sure that I would die they were right behind me. I felt one grab my leg and dig its fingers into my skin i felt blood so turned around and kicked it in the head.

For some strange reason it worked, it reeled back giving me just enough time to run through the door. I burst through and fell to the ground. But it was the farm... it was my room in my house. I thought it might have been a strange nightmare so I went to look for my mom."Mom! Mom are you here!" no one answered. So I called her, but she didn't pick up, so I called her friends no one saw her. I ended up reporting to the police and 2 years later nothing. There is no sign of her she just disappeared. That's everything, end of statement.

By the time finished giving my statement my body was shaking and I was almost in tears. " I know I'm probably just crazy but.." I couldn't hold back anymore I just balled, "Sorry, I'm so sorry"

-🦝