The men made of maize are your friends in the maze

The floral scent of musky rose and fragrant vanilla always wafts by with the breeze as our watercolor love runs like tears down the canvas of our life. To feel emptiness from the loss of your presence is an agony my heart could not hold, nor can my mind comprehend. I beg the universe to help me understand where our love broke off so I may try to go back and mend it once more, but the world leaves me with no answers and a cold silence. Now I pray for something bigger than renewed compassion. I reel on the line of life and death, unsure how I will survive to tell you my feelings can't end for you. I must survive to bear my heart and give you the adoration I have neglected for years. My thought process at the time telling me to leave seemed fit for the loss I was experiencing from you, and so I drove. You always told me to keep up with my clunker or it would fail me, and your words came true as my warped metal frame became unusable, with nowhere, at least twenty miles away, to get it towed or fixed.

That's when I had to choose: get out of the car and start walking or stay and hope somebody drives by my stranded back road. It was foreboding being stuck between stalks of corn and tall grass, but worse was the folklore from my hometown. You aren’t supposed to take this road unless you know you can make it through in one go, for if you get trapped, there's no seeing you again. My heart raced for you in those moments, and all I wanted was your heartbeat resting on my chest as you lay on me with your slumbering head around my neck. How could I leave something so precious or let it slip like sand through my fingers? I wondered what I was processing to allow you to leave and let myself let you go.

I got out of the car and began walking back toward town after trying to fix my motor, which was why my vehicle wasn’t running properly. I had driven miles down this road without thinking about how I would get through or how long it might take. I should have dug my own grave next to my car when I wasn’t even a quarter of the way back to town, for a wall of stalked corn blocked my way. It was as if the road ended with no way back to town or to you. I hated myself for this, and the shame of not fighting harder was in my bones, bringing me to my knees in frustration and turning into a cry of desperation and fear. I then walked back to my car but found it gone, having reached another dead end of stalked corn and tall grass, each at least fifteen feet tall.

I began to backtrack and walk the other way when I came to a corner twisting around the field and cutting through the crops as if just mowed down. I followed the squished stalks as my only road, for the asphalt had vanished along with the only way out of the maze I had entered. I cut corner after corner until I found my first crossroads, leading in five directions, not including the way back, which was being swallowed by stalks and grass sprouting back to life and flooding toward me. I followed my heart as you always told me and picked a direction before the storm of grains overwhelmed me. I felt the wind on my back as the area behind me closed up with reborn stalks and wheat.

I landed on a gravel road, which can only mean I’m near some kind of salvation. If so, my first stop is to you, for you are the strength to get me through any situation, and I know at the end of this, I will have you to fall into. I have walked straight down gravel for hours, and now my sore limbs beg me to stop and rest before going on pointlessly. My body fell as if gravity overtook me, and my limbs lost their will to continue. I lay on my back looking up at a breathtaking night sky. I wish you could see it out here, past the town lights, and gaze upon this starry universe where I can make out each gem without synthetic glare. It reminds me of you and how unique you are, with a glorious beauty any man would fall for, as I did. The only person in my life who mattered was you, and now I couldn’t let you go, at the worst time when I had no one else to run to.

I got up and followed the gravel to more squished stalks that led me to three different directions, so I turned the way where I thought the road might be and stomped through more corn and more wheat. I couldn't make out the sunrise, but I did get a glimpse of the swirling pink and orange that came along with the rising ball of light. Its beauty reminded me of you, and again I could smell you in the morning air after you got out of the shower, the aroma of rosemary scented with peach cream filling my senses, and I could taste you on my tongue. I kept walking for hours until night found me again, and I hated to do it, but I needed to stop, for my weariness was driving me to delusion. I lay down where I once stood and closed my eyes while my body lay on the stalk and grass, and I slept as little as I could, which turned into more hours than I intended. By the time I opened my eyes, it was the next day, and I had slept in far too long. 

I could see the light as a red dim glow through the eyelids as I hadn't opened my eyes fully yet, but I could feel there was something on top of me. When I did gaze upon what caused the weight, it was I who was startled first, making the creature afraid, and it ran back into the stalks of corn. I know you say that sometimes I have an overreactive imagination, and most of the time you are right, like you are about everything else in life, but I think you would agree with me when I say I saw a man made of stalks of corn looking at me with two black beady eyes and running away on bushes of stalks cut down to resemble little legs. I was horrified and ran as far away from the miniature corn man as I possibly could, until I was too winded to go any further. 

That's when I began to hear the skittering around me coming from the stalks of corn and high-rising wheat, and there was a clicking sound as if someone were flicking their tongue against the roof of their mouth. I didn't just feel at this point, but I knew I was in some kind of maze, and this death trap, which ran on its own accord, had something else living within it, and I believe it had just found me. I felt the chase as I bolted around corners and flew around bends, and the corn beside me shifted, moving with me like a wave moves with water. There was no way I could outrun this thing. In a small clearing, I stopped running when I felt like I was surrounded by the grass, which shimmered in every direction I gazed. I think I miss the warmth of your skin the most right now, the way the soft exterior wraps around the roughness of my own flesh and makes me feel the desire for you as you have for me.  

The stalk men came out, all standing up to my hip, each one looking at me with a set of black beady eyes, and I watched as their bushy limbs twitched and moved just like arms and legs would. The creatures circled me, each looking unique from the others, as if they had a gender of some kind, for the corn kernels on some of the creatures were exposed longer than on others, where only a bit of corn kernels stuck out. It seemed like they were just curious about me as they intensely studied my human form with mere fascination, and I sensed no hostility at all from them until we all heard a call that came from deep within the stalks. It was a yell that could be heard for miles at the end. The little corn men all began to run in different directions as I stood there dumbfounded and ignorant of what was happening now after the suspicious bellowing. The stalks around me began to move more visibly as something bigger was coming from the tall wheat grass, and it was enough to scare away the little corn people that were just curious about me. Now I felt hunted. 

I was about to run when a beast like no other sprouted through the wall of stalks and wheat and looked at me with large, gaping eyes that swallowed in nothing but darkness. I couldn't breathe as I looked upon its elongated face, which was woven from the stalks themselves to resemble a more human-like figure. A thin membrane of skin wrapped around the monster’s extended, woven limbs, which ended with two clawed hands and large, fleshy feet. Flashes of you ran through my mind as I felt like I knew I was about to die at that moment, but I decided to try to run instead, and it worked in my favor, for the beast could only move so fast, for its mechanisms were sluggish and slow. As I ran, I couldn't help but wonder how many of these creatures I would encounter trying to leave this maze? 

I kept going even after my body wanted to stop, just for you, for just thinking about your embrace pushes me on to find an exit so I can feel your hug around my neck once more, and I can breathe in that musky sweet smell that always covers you and follows your every movement. I fell finally in the middle of the night, exhausted and jaded, on my knees, heaving up the last bit of water I had in my belly for running myself for too long at such a high speed. I yearned for you once more as I lay my head on the cold ground, thinking of the pillow that used to be next to yours and how I wished more than anything I was tangled beside you once more. You were what kept me going, and the thought of you kept me sane throughout this endeavor. I don't know if I would keep going if I didn't have your love to look forward to. The passion that you once held for me is too strong for me to just ignore, for I am coming to you with more than I can give, and with time, I will make up for my negligence and abandonment, and we will fall in love once more. 

I woke up to something coarse and rough rubbing against my face as I tried to fling it away. It continued in a rubbing way, leaving burn marks up and down my cheek as I finally woke up to what was trying to stir me away from my thoughts of you. It was the little corn men, and one was trying to get me to my feet as I could now make out the call of the beast, and it was far too close for comfort. When I was steady and up the little stalked corn, people ran away in all directions, and I was left to sprint the path that was laid out for me with little stones of gravel that made the ground almost too slick for my boots to grip onto. I thought I had run a good distance away from that call before I felt something from the stalks of corn reach out and grab my ankle. I looked back and saw a hand with long, bony fingers grab hold of me and begin to pull me back. I reached out and began to tear a part of the membrane covering the woven stalk, which I presumed was their flesh. 

As I snapped at it, it let me go before it could take me too far away from the road that I knew at any moment was going to disappear, and I would be stuck and suffocating in the midst of this crop's land. I ran with a twisted ankle as far and as fast as I could, even as the sun rose, and fatigue was the only feeling in my body. I went on for survival, I went on for you. I finally collapsed on the ground as I tripped over my own feet and landed on my face, caking it with mud and covering it with scrapes. I didn't want to get up, and it didn't matter how hard I forced my body to rise; the will in my carcass had disappeared, and now I was left as dead as a corpse ready for anything to take me as prey. The little stalked men came back to me and tried to get me to my feet, but the attempt came to no avail as my body was just not willing to cooperate. The little corn people could only leave me and run when the sound of that howl rang out through the entire maze. It was close to me as I could even feel its base vibrate the ground with its mighty call. 

I could see the stalks of corn move as I lay still in the gravel and mud and thinking of you in this moment was something I really wish I hadn't done because the end of my thoughts for you only landed me in misery and I didn't want to feel misery before i died but it was inevitably so that i finish off thinking of the last moments with you when you had told me that you had moved on and you were seeing someone else. Having everything inside me break all at once was what made me get up and run away in the first place. If I had just done something different, if I had just done something more right in your eyes, maybe I would have another chance, but now we will never know, as the creature’s face is right beside my own. The thin membrane had little veins that coursed through it, and under the translucent barrier, I could see woven flesh that looked like corn stalks from afar. Looking now into the emptiness of the monster’s wide eyes, I realized how empty my life was and how easy it would be to just let go. 

I didn't just lie there, though, even with agony now, a new thump in my heart, I leaped up and ran away as fast as I could. At this point, the beast behind me sluggishly began to take long strides to get to where I was positioned. I prayed for my will to live to get me through this hell I was trapped in, but my body could push no further as I fell down on the stalks of squished corn and heaved roughly, burning the back of my throat. The beast was so long that when it got on top of me, its flesh under the membrane looked as if the weave in its flesh was slithering around, making it look like the interlaced meat was moving. The empty sockets got close to my face as I realized this beast has yet to reveal its maw. The monster got up, its spine hunched, revealing a long vertebra of membrane along its back as it turned from me and grabbed handfuls of corn stalks. I tried to get up and run, but another creature revealed itself from the depths of the maze and blocked my exit as my first assailant came back to me and pinned me down. 

The monster began to stuff me with the corn stalks, shoving them down my throat until I couldn't breathe, and I could feel their claws cutting me open as they pushed more and more wheat into my body. One of the monster’s pulsating bald heads got really close to my face before it began to slice off the top of my head. I couldn't scream as the two monsters now ripped away my limbs and replaced them with more corn stalks and more tall wheat. When my body gave in to the misery, I fell still, and my world went black. I don't know if I was dying, dead, or in the afterlife, but I could still hear things happening around me. I opened my eyes to nothing but shifting dirt as little corn stalk arms reached down for me in the hole that I was buried in. I tried to reach up to them, but I could not move any part of my body as the corn people laid me down on top of the surface of the ground and hovered over me with sad, beady, black eyes. 

I began to shift and move about a little bit, and that’s when I noticed the real stiffness in my body, and it was hard to move around my arms or legs, and as I tried to look down at my body, my neck stood rigid against my pull, and I lay helpless until I could lift my arms all the way up and look at them for the first time. I was a corn stalk; I noticed it was every part of me. The corn popped out on top of my head in a short cut, and my face was tall stalks of maize. I couldn't speak because I had no mouth, but my brain still functioned the same as when I got up onto my feet for the first time and learned how to walk with the plank-like limbs. The ones around me tried to greet me the best that they could, and I could feel their pity, but it did not last as we heard the calls from the monsters in the tall grass. I followed as the maize people all sprinted away, not knowing why we should still be scared of the beasts, but we were, and I didn't want to find out why. So, for now, I am a man of the maize, and I live with the rest of my kind, the corn people, and the stalkers out there always give us a warning before their attacks.

I should not have left you, and I hate myself that I am still alive to feel that pain, but now that doesn't matter; nothing matters but survival from the stalkers. Who knows what happens next when they get hold of you again, but I suggest you stay away from the back roads if you decide to just run off. Just take the highway and waste the time, it's much better than being in my situation. The corn men were the ones trying to save me against the stalkers, and if you are ever trapped in this maze, find them as fast as you can.