Chase leapt from wall to wall, looking down into the tunnels below, searching for a sign of her mysterious enemy. Melissa C.'s scythe was slung over her shoulder. Chase's mind raced. Who was this girl? What did she want? She passed a couple of mazegoers, warned them to evacuate, and moved on.

Then, in mid-jump, a hand closed around her ankle. The strange girl yanked Chase out of the air and threw her to the ground. Chase was in the heart of the Egyptian tomb area. An elaborately decorated sarcophagus, which Alicia would have been lying in if she was on-duty, was sitting in the middle of the room. Jars and glittering treasures, worldly possessions a dead pharaoh might bring with them to the afterlife, lined the walls.

The stranger twirled her sword around into a stabbing grip. She put her right hand on the pommel for extra thrusting force, and stabbed the blade down at Chase's stomach.

Chase rolled, causing the tip of the stranger's sword to stab into the dirt. Chase gave a rising slash with her scythe, forcing the girl to jump backwards to dodge, giving Chase some breathing room. The reach on the scythe outstripped that of the stranger's sword, but it was a bit more unwieldy. The stranger was able to keep a hand on her sword and wrest it from the ground before she jumped, but this allowed the scythe's swing to open a gash on her arm.

Ignoring the pain, she advanced and swung her blade at Chase without hesitation. Chase deflected with the scythe. Another swing, another deflection. Chase swung the scythe at the girl's head, and she ducked under it, swinging her sword horizontally at Chase's legs. A backflip carried Chase up and over the path of the blade, and landed her on the other side of the sarcophagus. Chase picked up the sarcophagus lid and chucked it at her foe.

The lid flew through the air face-first, the painted, stylized image of a pharaoh filling the stranger's field of vision. Her blade flashed, and the lid was split into two pieces, which fell to the ground on either side of her.

Chase had vanished.

Before Agent Han could so much as glance around, she felt the cold, curved blade pierce her from behind, sliding through her back and out her stomach. Her eyes widened. Her mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out.

When Chase slid the scythe out, Agent Han slumped backwards. Chase stepped out of the way and let her fall limply to the turf.

Chase stared at the girl for a moment, watched the blood pool beneath her. She rested the handle end of the scythe on the grass, almost as though it was a giant walking stick, and surveyed the gruesome results of her work. She was left with a lot of questions. Who was this girl? What did she want? Did it matter? Maybe it did. Maybe Chase should have tried harder to get an answer from her...

Agent Han coughed, giving Chase a start. Chase took the scythe up into both hands once again, and jumped back from her.

The girl slowly sat up, face twisted in pain. Blood oozed from her wound. Shaking, determined, she steeled her grip on her sword and picked herself up. Chase couldn't believe it. This girl was standing.

“You not dead!” Chase remarked, amazed.

“Don't act so surprised,” said Agent Han. There was pain and effort in her voice, but she was surprisingly calm. “I've seen you in action, Chase. Something like this wouldn't keep you down, either.”

Chase hadn't thought of that. This person had a point. Chase had incurred worse injuries since coming to Sunnycrest, and lived. But how would she know that?

“You're a lot like me, Chase,” said Agent Han. “That is why my boss has taken such an interest in you.”

“Boss?”

Agent Han nodded. “He's impressed by what you can do. To the untrained eye, I can see how your antics would be appealing. To eyes like mine, though...” she smiled, “I thought you looked a bit slow on the videos, and now that I'm fighting you face to face, I see that wasn't far from the truth.”

Chase was a bit floored that somebody could say that so confidently with a scythe wound through her stomach. Was she holding back before? Or did she just want Chase to think that?

Agent Han affected a fighting stance. “I am pleasantly surprised, though, by your ruthlessness,” she said mirthlessly. “I honestly didn't think you'd try to kill me so quick. I thought you might be going soft in this town, but no...you're still a killer at heart. Perhaps there's hope for you yet!”

She leapt at Chase with a surprising speed and tenacity. Apparently her talking had bought her enough time to collect herself for a renewed attack. Her blade flashed. Chase blocked with the handle of the scythe again, but only just. Another flash, and another narrow block.

The stranger WAS holding back before. She seemed much faster now, much less generous with the openings she left.

The girl's arm twitched as if to swing from the right. Chase moved the scythe up to block, but the blade didn't come. A feint! The stranger slung a hard kick into Chase's left kidney. A shot of pain blurred Chase's vision.

Then, the blade came again. At the side of Chase's head. Staggered, Chase brought the scythe up to block...a split second too late, but that was all it took. The blade found Chase's skull, and everything went dark.

For a moment, Chase thought she was dead. She should have been dead. But then the darkness lifted, and Chase opened her eyes.

She was lying on her stomach on the turf. She didn't die, she just blacked out for a second. Agent Han was walking toward her.

The scythe was still in reach. Chase grabbed it and swung it at Han's ankles. The girl jumped over it in surprise, and aimed a kick at Chase's back. Chase rolled out of the way and found her feet, bringing the scythe with her.

“Still awake, hmm?” asked Agent Han. She smirked. “I guess I underestimated how hard-headed you'd be.”

Chase looked at the sword in confusion. “You sword at head. Should be dead.”

Agent Han looked at her sword, then pointed at the flat of her blade. “My orders are to take you alive, Chase. I was trying to knock you out. Guess I'll have to hit you harder next time!”

….......

Oblivious to the life and death struggle taking place nearby, Torey and Maxine walked leisurely through the maze, taking it all in.

“Haha, wow, that looks sooo fake,” analyzed Maxine, criticizing a blood splatter on a wall. “So not scary.”

Torey shrugged. “I think it looks fine. It's not like they have a blood splatter forensics expert on their squad.”

“Why don't we go back to the theater? I think we can still catch the end of Tiger or Treat,” persuaded Maxine. “Do you really want to waste Halloween here? This maze is lame.”

“I dunno, I think they did a good job. I like haunted houses,” said Torey. “Besides, we still have to find Chase.”

Maxine frowned, as they kept walking. After a moment, she spoke again. “Hey, Torey? What is it you like about Chase, anyway?”

Torey thought about it. “Hmm...I'm not really sure. There's a lot of things.” He cocked a bemused eyebrow. “And why do you wanna know?”

“I mean, don't get...don't get the wrong idea or anything!” Maxine quickly added, embarrassed. As they walked past a wall of inverted crosses, she thought about how she wanted to phrase it. She sighed, then said, “I'm just, I'm kind of...disillusioned? You're the coolest guy I know, dude. I look up to you in a lot of ways. I'm disillusioned that you would want to date a cheerleader.”

Torey looked surprised. He laughed. “Well, maybe I'm not as cool as you thought.” Maxine rolled her eyes, not satisfied with this glib response, so he said, “Chase is a lot more than what she wears or what she does after school.”

“Like what? I thought you were the kind of guy who would look for something deep in a relationship, somebody you had something in common with. Somebody you could relate to. But Chase is nothing like you. She barely speaks English. You can't even hold a real conversation with her! I don't know what she's giving you aside from being the...you know. The hot blonde cheerleader. And I don't like the idea of that being enough for you, because I know you're better than that.”

Torey listened. When he replied, he was neither offended, nor annoyed. Maxine was his friend. It was neither out of line nor out of character for her to be so blunt with him. “Well...you'd be surprised. I'm surprised every time we hang out. There's a lot to her. She's open and unfiltered, she'll always tell you what's on her mind, but she's also kind of enigmatic. Kind of mysterious. I don't really know what her life was like before she came here. I still don't really know much about her at all. But I'm having a lot of fun learning about her, and it turns out that's worth a lot to me.”

Maxine considered this. She gave a crooked, puzzled frown. “Hmm.”

.......

“See?” asked Alicia, as she and Kirk walked down a foggy corridor. “This isn't really that bad.”

“Yeah, it's not,” agreed Kirk. He had been a bit nervous when they entered, but now he seemed fairly calm. “I guess this kind of thing isn't that scary to me. It's really just horror movies.”

“What is it about horror movies?”

“I dunno. Something about the creepy music and all that...and how they try to surprise you with a loud sound effect? You know what I mean. It's just different.”

“Huh. Yeah, I guess that's true,” said Alicia. She hadn't really thought about that before.

Kirk smiled and glanced at a decorative skeleton, hanging on the wall. “You're probably not going to get scared in here, either. You helped build it.”

“Hmm, yeah,” admitted Alicia. “You're probably right about th-OH MY GOD! A big SCARY skeleton!” She threw herself into Kirk's arms, smushing her bandaged body against him. “C-comfort me!”

“It's okay, Alicia! I think it's fake!” Kirk assured her, deathly serious. Then, he understood. “Oh.” Alicia tilted her head up at him, and they started making out.

“Uh, ahem...” came a female voice. The couple quickly separated. Alicia wiped her mouth with a cough and looked in the direction of the voice. It was Maxine and Torey.

“Oh! H-hey, guys!” greeted Alicia, embarrassed. Maxine eyed her skimpy outfit with distaste, thinking cynically to herself how inadequate it would be to preserve a real mummy.

“S-sup, dude,” said Kirk awkwardly to Torey.

“Uh, yeah, hey,” said Torey. “Sorry to interrupt...”

“No, no, you're not interrupting!” said Alicia, trying to gather herself. “What, uh, how do you like the maze?”

“It's awesome! I wouldn't have thought you cheerleaders would get in the Halloween spirit so much,” Torey answered.

“Well, we have a lot of spirit in general!” beamed Alicia. Maxine rolled her eyes.

Torey scratched his head. “Do you know where Chase is? I'm trying to find her.”

So that was it. Alicia smiled at the thought of him coming just to visit Chase at work. “She's probably over in the haunted church area. I can lead you th-”

But as it turned out, that wouldn't be necessary. Chase came to them. Or rather, she was delivered. The mountain girl fell to Earth with a mighty crash, landing on her back at the group's feet.

“Chase!” cried Alicia. She and Torey were at her side in an instant. Chase was bruised and bloodied. Her right eye was blackened, and her dress was torn. She was weeping blood from thin, expert sword wounds on her arms and legs, and one on her cheek.

“Holy shit, are you okay?!” asked Torey. “Chase!”

Chase looked at them in surprise. “Leash! Tor!” She jumped up to her feet. “And Kirk and Max!” She grabbed the group and hurried them off through the maze. “Must hide! Must hide!”

“What's going on, Chase?” asked Alicia fearfully.

“Not talk! Must hide!”