25-Sept-2020
Welcome to this week’s Spooky Flash Fiction Friday!
Five more weeks of haunting fun to come!
Mrs. Doubtfire: Terrific or Terrifying?
Today’s Flash Fiction Friday is brought to you by:
Mrs. Doubtfire
An Open Bag of Candy Corn
And
A Corn Maze
“Oh dearies!”
I jumped at the screeching voice, and glanced behind me. It was too dark to see much beyond the previous bend of the corn maze.
“Who thought putting a creepy Mrs. Doubtfire in here was a good idea?” Carol asked. My had was numb from where she’d been squeezing it since they’d released the haunting characters into the maze. Just as twilight had faded into darkness.
“It’s a genius idea,” Brad said. Although I was pretty sure the laugh he let out was a disguise for a tremor in his voice.
The corn to our right rustled, and Brad’s date, Angela, let out a scream.
“Shhh!” we all said.
“Help is on the way, Dear!” Mrs. Doubtfire cried.
Another rustle came from our right.
Pounding footsteps sounded from behind use.
“Run!” Brad yelled.
He didn’t have to say it twice. Carol bolted, dragging me behind her. I could barely keep up. Maybe I should stick with asking out girls from the band, instead of a soccer player. She was making me look bad.
Brad went left.
“No!” I yelled. “Not that way!”
He didn’t listen. Carol had me around the corner and to the next junction before I got another word out.
“Stop! This is the wrong way.”
Carol slowed to a walk, but kept moving. “Are you sure? I can see the light.”
I glanced around. Clouds had rolled in, obscuring the moon and stars from above. Dark clung to the path around us and nestled in the cornstalks that lined the way. A little light came from the street lamp that stood at the beginning and end of the maze. “We’re going to have to go further in before we can get out,” I said.
She gave me a skeptical look.
“Trust me. I’ve played a lot of D&D. I know my way around a maze.”
A chorus of screams sounded from the direction Brad and Angela had gone.
“Told you,” I said.
A moment later Brad and Angela reappeared, running hard.
“Go! Go!” Brad waved his arms frantically. “She’s right behind us.”
Angela kept screaming. I was impressed. She should join the choir.
“Which way?” Carol asked.
I considered, churning the problem in my mind. The thump of running footsteps coming toward us sped up my thinking process. “This way.”
Everyone followed as Carol once again dragged me forward.
We rounded a few corners, then stopped to catch our breath. I doubled over, not used to so much running, and Brad raised his hands above his head.
“We’ve already been this way,” Angela said.
“We have?” Carol asked.
Angela nodded and pointed at the ground. “I’ve been leaving candy corns at every corner.” Plastic wrinkled as she flashed us the open bag from her purse.
I squinted and found the single candy corn.
“Smart,” Carol said.”
“Then which way do we go now?” Brad asked.
They all looked at me.
I went through the parts of the maze we’d explored in my mind. The haunting creatures had us cornered in one section. I looked at Carol. “We’re going to have to get past Mrs. Doubtfire.”
“No way,” Angela said. “I’m not going anywhere near that crazy lady.”
“I think it’s a man,” Carol said helpfully.
“Why?” Brad asked me.
“I think they’ve got us trapped,” I said. “They’re not supposed to touch us, so we need to find a wide spot in the path, lure her to us, and then get around her.”
The snap of a corn stalk sounded from behind us, and we all froze. My heart, which had just gone back to normal, sped up again. Carol’s fingers squeezed mine.
“I hate this plan,” Brad said.
Angela tugged him back. “There was a wide spot over this way.”
I stared at her.
“What? You’re not the only one who plays D&D.”
Carol looked at me, and I shrugged. “Why not?”
She snorted. “Why not.”
We followed Angela, walking slowly, which allowed us to hear other sounds coming from the maze. Another group screamed from our right. Running footsteps seemed to circle us. A flash of white bolted across the path in front of us.
We all screamed.
“Dearies!” Mrs. Doubtfire cackled.
“I swear, I’m never going to watch her movie again,” Brad said.
I silently agreed.
Angela stopped and pointed. “There it is.”
We all peered ahead. The path was wide enough for three people. We should be able to get past Mrs. Doubtfire.
A high-pitched, fake laugh carried on the wind, and resolved as a man dressed as a nanny—complete with what looked like whipped cream all over his face—stepped out onto the path.
“There you are, dearies.”
“This is not right,” Brad muttered.
Angela shook her head and didn’t move.
I looked at Carol. “Coming?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
We passed Brad and Angela, and approached Mrs. Doubtfire, who clasped her hands together and waited.
“What is she going to do to us?” Carol asked.
“I have no idea, but we’re getting past her,” I said.
Mrs. Doubtfire’s smile got wider as we got closer.
We clung to the opposite side of the path, our shoulders rustling the corn stalks.
When we were ten feet away, Mrs. Doubtfire stepped into the middle of the path, which meant we would be really, really close when we went by.
I glanced back and found Brad and Angela following us. When I returned my gaze to Mrs. Doubtfire, I found her closing on us.
She laughed her high, fake laugh, and pulled something from her apron pockets. “It’s a run-by-fruiting!”
I yelled, and lost at least a year off my life, as she pelted us with something small and hard.
Carol screamed, then pushed me into a run.
I stumbled, but she kept me upright as we got around the next corner.
Brad and Angela appeared a moment later.
Angela held out a piece of candy. “Look, Apple Jolly Ranchers.”
