Mazeophobia

Mazeophobia, the fear of getting lost. Surely, you must not have such fear, for it can be very difficult to cope with once you get lost with your best friend during a field trip. Will they both make it out or will their minds hold them captive to the thought of being lost forever?

“Alrighty, class!” The field guide called, clapping. This field guide sounded quite odd, it was adenoidal and gruff. “Time’s up! Let’s head to the next exhibit shall we?”

A group of students made their way towards the exit of the exhibit. A girl with brown hair and shining onyx eyes poked her best friend.

“Cut it out, Clarisa!” Bryan complained. Black-haired and blue-eyed Bryan is a quiet person, while his friend was the complete opposite, but he didn’t mind it since he preferred to be with someone rather than with himself. Clarisa smirked and walked ahead of Bryan, who tottered through the crowd of Grade 8 students.

“This exhibit we were in is no fun.” His friend states. Suddenly, the teacher announced, “We’ll be entering the Aztec Exhibit. Please watch your step.” “Ooh, now that sounds interesting,” Clarisa declares.

Behind her, Bryan rolled his eyes. What makes the Aztec Region so special to her anyway? he thought, realizing that the flooring was no longer styled like sandstone, but mossy, old, crumbly stone brick instead. He looked up to see the area surrounded by greenery with leaves attached to vines drooping down to greet the travelers and statues covered in brown veins attached to the large trees lurking above them. The ceiling was glass now, and it had a nice silvery tone. Bryan heard Clarisa’s excitement and decided to be beside her rather than behind her.

“Okay, so as you can see in front of us, there lies a model of the Aztec Temples. Ancient ruins filled with...” The guide’s voice began to muffle out as Bryan heard Clarisa already stating her facts about the exhibit.

“I remember that there is a secret compartment inside that temple— it’s used for museum storage! Pretty smart, right?” Clarisa nudged Bryan as he nodded passively, but the girl’s face began twisting with frustration as she couldn’t get a response out of her friend.

Clarisa turned around to see the door to the Egyptian exhibit slowly shut, it’s Egyptian-themed style fitting in with the rest of the exhibit. Both friends turned around to see doors covered in vegetation closing behind them, and voices faded into the distance.

“Hey, why is there something super shiny on the doors?” Clarisa began to walk away from the group, towards the thickly covered gates that sealed the place shut. Bryan, who had no intention of straying away from the group, grudgingly decides to follow his buddy.

Clarisa walked up to the large doors that seemed to reach the ceiling and pulled out the shiny bejeweled box attached to the door. She wondered aloud, “It seems out of place—”

“YOU— NO, YOU DID NOT JUST VANDALIZE PROPERTY!” Bryan shouted, his voice shaky with puberty and fear. He was already imagining what detention would look like... Clarisa finally got a reaction out of him, but not in the way she wanted it.

“Oopsies, we can put it back,” Clarisa mumbled, shoving the box back in its spot, but she couldn’t put it back in its place. Her friend, upset at her attempts to upset him, grabbed the box and inspected it.

“Rude,” Clarisa said, crossing her arms while furrowing her eyebrows at her very tense and worried friend. As he inspected the box, the words Greek Temple appeared on the side.

“So, what did you find?” Clarisa asked.

“It says… Greek Temple,” he answered.

“See, out of place! This is the Aztec Exhibit.”

“Why would a box labeled Greek Temple be here, though? And attached to that door...” Bryan looked around, then realized…

Their field trip group wasn’t there.

The room shook, the ground beneath them split in half while a large wall spiked out of the gap, separating both of them from each other. Both were trapped in tight rooms with different environments: while Bryan was surrounded by tiny circles of flames, Clarisa was surrounded by greenery so dense to the point where she couldn't even distinguish which were the vines and the wall itself. Bryan, shivering, trying to cry out as loud as he could to get Clarisa’s attention.

Suddenly, a table with a set of tests appeared at Clarisa’s side. Oh, how tortured Clarisa was once she saw her failed exams from 3rd grade! Perplexed to have a table bring her things that should have been confidential. These papers brought back memories of her sorrow as she flipped page by page. Page by page she flipped, as tears have streamed down her eyes. Then, an arrow almost shot her in the head. She ducked, confused, then she stood up again and continued to cry about her failed exams. Again, an arrow tried to go for her leg! Sorrowfully realizing, Clarisa discovered that every tear that dropped caused an arrow to shoot towards her out of nowhere!

“I have to learn how to accept my mistakes, huh?” she said to herself, feeling slight embarrassment that someone or something was watching her every teardrop. Her grip on the exam papers tightened, her thoughts racing back and forth on how, if she didn’t get distracted playing that new game called Genshin Impact or whatever, she would’ve had better grades.

Meanwhile, Bryan lost his voice from screaming. He had wailed things like, “CLARISA, PLEASE I REGRET SPILLING THE MILKSHAKE ON YOU IN SECOND GRADE COME BAAAAAAAACK!” and, “I SWEAR I WILL GET YOU THE NEW JAMES CHARLES PALETTE AND NEW CLOTHES!”.

The rings of fire were small enough to fit only a golden retriever. He started rolling himself up in a ball to cry, doing nothing to progress as his friend was. Then, Bryan’s shoe caught fire “Oh no, my Nike’s!” he cried, shocked. He stood up, trying to scream, but he couldn’t be heard at all. He rolled up again in another ring of fire and cried, which later burned his shirt. Trying to slap the fire from his sleeve, he slowly realized that every time he complained, the rings of fire got smaller and smaller. Helpless, he imagined that he’d soon burn into a crisp.

Clarisa wanted to test if she cracked the code. On her first attempt, she screamed out loud, “I make mistakes! That’s alright!” Immediately, the vines shrank, shriveling up. Noticing this, she thought, Should I say some motivational quotes from Pinterest or something?

With little choice, she yelled, “Um, oh yeah, History class! Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself’!”Again, the vines shrank back. Clarisa slowly, but surely, gained confidence in herself.

Clarisa recalled all the motivational quotes she got from Pinterest and remembered all the mistakes she made, major and minor, but she managed to get through each of them. These curtains of green slowly unfolded, and behold... a door! Relieved, Clarisa sighed at the sight of it.

Bryan, who had been very focused on his new Nike’s rather than his own life, noticed that the room was now filled with fire. He tried to scream, but the thick smoke choked his scream into a cough. He then collapsed on the floor. In his head, he could hear a woman’s voice, “Bryan, wake up!”

The woman’s voice was unfamiliar, but it comforted him. Bryan looked like he was on his bed from 2015. He was crying. The unknown voice continued, “Do you remember when you fixed dad’s car engine all by yourself when you were seven? Do you remember in third grade, when you actually studied by yourself and you were the only one who got a perfect score in class? In fifth grade, do you remember when your groupmates left you but you managed to work all roles at once and passed the group test? Alone, you did so much. Be proud of yourself. You always gave your all, no matter how small or big the task. Do it again, just this once. Do it for mom”

Bryan woke up. He never got to meet his mom. He doesn’t even know how his mom knew any of this. Adrenaline and motivation just rushed through his veins. He gathered his Nike’s, wiped his sweat, and walked proudly. He came upon a pathway. The fire then slowly got smaller and he made his way outside.

The doors were shut behind their backs. The rooms merged and on opposite sides, they saw each other, and they ran to each other’s arms.

“You did it? You did it by yourself?” Clarisa said, thoroughly surprised.

“Yup!” Bryan replied, “I received a little help from someone.” “Who?”

“James Charles.”

Clarisa shrugged the joke off her and chose not to dwell on it. All that mattered is that they were both okay.

The kids found their way back to their museum group. Of course, nobody noticed their disappearance. Although, they experienced such a strange and scary ordeal… both of them felt much more confident than they were before.

As they huddled back into the group, one of their supervising teachers disrupted the strange field trip guide.“I am so sorry to interrupt you, but take a look at this poster I found, everyone!”

Their teacher lifted a poster about fears. Clarisa and Bryan both shook their heads, feeling as if they lost all their fears, so there was no need for them to bother taking a look.

“What a boring poster...” Clarisa murmured.

“Wait, look at the top fears!” Bryan said, poking Clarisa to attention.

Aytchiphobia, the fear of failure.

Autophobia, the fear of being alone.

The words struck them in the gut, describing the fears that they thought they just lost. Bryan shrugged off the memories while Clarisa felt as if something was already foreshadowing their capture inside the Aztec Region. Bryan then pointed towards a title beneath the two that seemed to relate to them: Mazeophobia, the fear of getting lost.

Clarisa chuckled “Funny how we almost died, am I right?”

Bryan smiled and lowered his arm. The teacher began to talk about the poster and how she thought the class might have some of the fears written on it. Clarisa and Bryan both knew they had none.