Story: The Annual Maze

MIDNIGHT

All of the towns people are finally getting to rest. They all enjoyed, as much as they could, what could possibly be their last meal together. Mothers and Fathers tucked their little ones into bed and stayed up all night holding each other, crying, praying that their names weren't  called tomorrow. It was finally time for the Annual Maze that the town puts on, sounds kind of fun, right? Except that this is the most devastating day of the year, that is until your name isn't called. Then, you could celebrated.

The Annual Maze is simple. Every household in town is put into a giant bowl. It doesn't matter if you're the richest people or the poorest. The people in charge don't care if you could buy the whole town, or state for that matter, or if you are barely putting three meals on the table per day. Equality, am I right? The only people that can get out of the bowl is if the woman of the house is more than 7 months pregnant, or if you have a child under the age of 1 year old. If your household is pulled out, you enter the maze. If your household isn't pulled out, you're in the clear for another year. Although the maze sounds like something you would love to do with your family to any other town, here, the maze is an actual death trap. Like, no one has ever made it out alive. They always televise the event, but usually no one watches it. These are people from the community, children as young as 2, people who have their whole lives ahead of them. Normally the others don't like watching their gruesome end.

In school you always learn about the history of the Maze and all the good that comes out of it. It's all B.S. It started back years and years ago, because they needed to bring in jobs. So people came and built the Maze and it helped the town economically. They were going to use the Maze for actual fun like at a fair or Fall Festival, but instead some sick, twisted, weirdo thought it'd be put to better use if they send innocent people in to fend for their lives. That is the only reason why it started in the first place and the only reason it keeps happening is because everyone is too afraid to say anything because they think the system will be rigged and their families name will be called. No reason for it to start in the beginning and no reason it should be occurring in this day.

8 A.M.

At this time, all the families are lining up in the town square. This is usually where so many great and wonderful things happen in the town...concerts, graduations, proposals. Then there's this messed up thing. It's so weird because we know that tomorrow, everything will be back to normal, as long as your name isn't called in the next few minutes. And so the ceremony begins. The normal things are read, we sing a little, we hope this will bring brighter futures to us all, and then the name is pulled out. This year, it's the King family (remember how I said it doesn't matter if you're rich or dirt poor? Yeah well the Kings are easily the most wealthy family in the whole town). People looked around shocked. Obviously they were thrilled they didn't hear their name, but they couldn't show it. The Kings had five children, all boys. By the end of the night, we will be down seven people in our town.

Here is the best part about this whole event. After a families name is called and everyones fear and relief is set in, the whole town prays over the family who is about to lose their life. They act as if there is nothing they can do about the fact that people are intentionally dying.

10 P.M. 

The family usually enters the Maze around 1 p.m. and the whole thing is usually over by about 3 p.m. This year was different however. The Kings weren't giving up. They were fighting. When the whole town heard they weren't finished by 4 p.m., we all got to a T.V. as fast as we could and intensely watched what was happening. There were all sorts of things coming after them, but somehow they were managing to stay alive. They've been in there for 9 hours, running and hiding and fighting and clinging onto life and what awaits them if they come out alive.

Somehow, they were able to do it. At about 11:30 p.m., they ran through the finish line, all seven of them. They are the first ones to ever complete the Maze, and hopefully they will be the last to ever have to go through such a tragic and life-changing thing. This is fuel that the town needs to get rid of this thing. The Kings are the ones that the whole town has been waiting on.

Author's Note:

For this retelling, I decided to use the story of Kunti and her five sons who had to escape from the burning house. In the original story, they were intentionally targeted and when they escaped no one knew that they were still alive. In this retelling, I decided to make the house a giant death trap maze and for the choosing of them to be completely random. I gave this story a Hunger Games/The Lottery feel to it to portray the cruelty of Prince Duryodhana.

Bibliography
Public Domain Mahabharata, Online Source 
Photo of a Corn Maze, Web Source