Blood Among the Stalks

I saw a long corn maze in the neighborhood park. We had just stepped in when I noticed a little red splatter on the wall, and a shiver ran down my spine. I showed it to Caitlyn, but she assured me it‘s just a part of the decor. I tried to brush it off, but I had a horrible feeling about it. The sky slowly darkened as the sun cast a blood red hue around it. We kept walking forward and then we saw a horrific sight! “IT’S A DEAD BODY!” Caitlyn screamed in terror. “Maybe it’s fake?” Caitlyn touched the person’s wrists and realized this is not a joke or a scare. “AHHHHHH” We both screamed simultaneously and run as fast as we could, navigating through the maze. Once we made it out, we looked at each other’s eyes. “Oh My God” we said in sync. I don’t know how long we stood there for, but after what seemed like forever, we started to head to the police station.

However, just as I’m about to push open the doors, I realize, “they won’t believe us,” I tell Caitlyn, and we agree that it would be better to investigate on our own. As the cool wind brushed up the ends of my hair, a bright yellow leaf smacked into my face. I picked up the leaf and then… “Oh my god” I screamed. Caitlyn jumped inches off the ground as I turned the leaf to reveal the bloody stain. “It might be paint, right?” Caitlyn said voice shaking like crazy. I reached in my candy bag and pulled out a Ziplock bag full of candy, I dumped it out and slid the leaf in the bag. I put the bag in my pocket and said, “better safe than sorry if we’re really investigating.” “True…” she said. “Look Maddie, if we want to solve this mystery we’re going to have to start from the beginning and work backwards!” Caitlyn says with determination. How is Caitlyn not scared? “Ok” I say, still shaken.

We start walking back to the maze, but when we get back to the location of the dead body……it’s gone!  We said, panicked, “The only clue we have now is the leaf with blood on it” I think to myself. At this moment we see a gold bracelet on the ground. “Wait Caitlyn, that gold bracelet looks familiar. I feel like I’ve seen it at school,” I told her. “We can investigate tomorrow,” Caitlyn says. We put the gold bracelet in our other plastic bag and started walking home. “Mom said to be home by 9:00. I’m late!” This is when we start full on sprinting back to my house, but we run into a senior who goes to our school.” “Watch where you’re going little kids.” She speaks. “Something feels off about her,” I say suspiciously. I take out the plastic bag with the bracelet. Suddenly I realized something we hadn’t heard before. “Caitlyn, there are initials on the bracelet!” I say with excitement. “What do they say!” Caitlyn says with hope. “A….L?” I say with confusion. “THAT’S AVA LILAC! THE GIRL WE JUST PASSED,” she says with excitement.  She’s known for holding grudges. “We can figure this out tomorrow!” I say with excitement.

The next day at school, we confront Ava Lilac, but she dismisses us like we were trash. “Wait… we saw Ava trick or treating near the leaf pile…” I said tentatively. “The leaf” Caitlyn screeched. The leaf pile was right where we found the body, and so were the security cameras. When we check the cameras, we finally found what we needed “Caitlyn we finally solved the mystery and caught Ava Lilac!” I say with excitement. We were thrilled that we solved our first mystery and succeeded! However, we were still wondering one thing…

“Why would she do this, and where did the body go?”