I'd never had wine before. There was one time at the orphanage, when I was twelve, that one of the big girls snuck some in from a trip into town. There was a huge clamor to get some. Everyone piling all over each other. I've always been smaller and timid, so by the time I got to the bottle, it was shards of glass spread over the floor.

My adoptive mother drank wine occasionally. If she'd had a good day, if there was company, the bottles would be out and the glasses overflowing. She never let me have some. Ever. She said it was bad for me. I would say I was old enough. She would say no. I would say yes ma'am. She would tell me to call her Meredith or mom. I didn't like either of them. They were too informal. We settled on Miss Meredith or Miss Mer.

She'd come to the orphanage two years ago. I was seventeen, well over the normal adoption age. I'd seen babies and toddlers and occasionally young children get adopted. But once you hit ten or eleven, there's no chance left. You're no longer "cute" or "adorable." Couples come up with the craziest reasons to not adopt the older children.

I was in the sitting room when she came in. I was with ten other girls, all around my age. None of us looked up from our books. The younger girls were trying to act calm and normal, but it wasn't hard to tell they were all hoping to get picked. I had been the same way at one point. I had kept it up longer than most of the rest of the girls, but it died eventually.

Mistress called my name. Mistress owned and ran the orphanage. I dropped my book in surprise.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Lilah, I'd like to introduce you to Ms. Garner. She's adopting you." I froze. The older girls froze. The younger girls froze. You would have been able to hear a pin drop, had Ms. Garner stayed quiet.

"Hello Lilah. I'm Meredith." She held her hand out. I shook it tentatively. 

"Lilah? Could you please gather your things?" Mistress shocked me from my stupor. I ran off to the bedroom, leaving Miss Meredith a little confused.

My stuff was never unorganized. I kept it all in a small dresser by my bed. My five changes of clothes, two pairs of pajamas, the seven books from my parents, before they died, and a small music box. It was quiet and somewhat jumpy, but I kept it anyway. A suitcase was under my bed, waiting for the day I turned eighteen, the day I could leave. I never thought it would be used before then. 

The rest of the day was a blur. I remember a blue Jaguar, and Miss Meredith talking to me the whole way to her place. It took nearly an hour. Half of that was city driving. The other half was in the middle of nowhere. We passed trees and fields and small mountains. I'm pretty sure we backtracked a couple of times. After nearly forty five minutes, the countryside was replaced with tall green hedges lining the road. I asked Miss Meredith about them. She told me it was a maze. I asked it I could go in it. She told me to never ever step foot in the maze. The rest of her garden was open season. But I could never go into the maze.

Two years later, I forgot.

Well, forgot isn't technically the right word. Selectively chose not to remember for a small period of time is more accurate. I think the wine also had something to do with it. I only had a glass or two, but it was my first alcohol ever. I was not ready, and then continued to selectively chose not to remember the one rule of the house.

I had three of my friends over for a movie night. They were all from the orphanage, and we had met when we were fifteen. Sierra was the tallest. Tara was the nerdiest. Kaylee was a model now. We were all envious of her.

The chick flick we'd been watching was cheesy and bad, but we all loved it. After it finished, Tara left. She had school to study for. Sierra and Kaylee stayed. Sierra got out some of Miss Meredith's wine and glasses. I didn't hesitate. I was with my girl friends for the first time in weeks and we were going to have some fun.

~~~

"Catch me if you can Kaylee!" Sierra shouted from behind a rosebush. I was at the entrance to the maze, behind a hedge. 

"I can!" Kaylee shouted back. She dove around the rosebush, and Sierra yelped playfully. A scuffle ensued, which I couldn't see. "Got you!"

"Damn, Kaylee. Now, let's go find Lilah." We were all a little tipsy. 

I took off into the maze, selectively choosing to not remember the rule. I heard them chasing after me, both laughing. I started laughing as I got hopelessly lost among the towering bushes and hedges. I ran for what felt like hours. Eventually, I couldn't hear Kaylee or Sierra. I paused near a corner, expecting them to be around it. It was so quiet I was sure they were.

Instead, there was a house. Or, rather, a cottage. It was small, maybe ten feet by ten feet. The roof was steeply sloped and thatched. A man was outside, sitting on a windowsill, reading. He looked up when I came around the corner.

"Hello, stranger. How are you?" The man asked cheerfully. I stared at him a uncomprehendingly. "Don't be shy. I'm Jackson. What's your name?"

"I'm Lilah," I respond.

"Well, Lilah, it's very nice to meet you. How old are you?" Without thinking, I answer.

"I'm nineteen. How old are you?"

"I'm twenty five. Do you want to come inside?" I didn't answer, but just walked to the door. He opened it for me, and I walked in.

The inside of the cottage is smaller than the outside looks. There's a small bed in the corner, a chair on the opposite wall. Books are piled on the floor, on the bed, on the chair, everywhere. There also seem to be a number of other people around the tiny room. Jackson closes the door behind me.

"Welcome to my home, Lilah."

"It's kinda small," I blurt out. Jackson chuckles.

"Yes, that it is."

"There are a lot of people here."

"Yes, there are. They don't talk much though. And many of them are never awake when I am."

"They don't seem like very nice housemates," I mutter, and burst into giggles. Jackson doesn't respond. Instead he glides over to the window. "Jackson?"

"How about we take a walk?"

"Sure! Maybe you can show me back to the house. I think I'm lost."

Jackson looks at me, something scary in his eyes. "I'd be happy to help you get back," He replies, plastering a smile on his face and sounding fake.

~~~

The maze is long and winding. I wonder where Kaylee and Sierra are. I hope they didn't get lost like I did. Jackson meanders in front of me. We come around a turn, and the house appears, much more imposing and large than I'd thought before. Jackson stops in front of the door. I almost run in to him, not seeing him stop.

"Thank you Jackson. I'm gonna go back home now." I try to move around him, but he won't move. "Jackson? I gotta get in. Jackson?" He doesn't respond. I try to push him out of the way, and stumble over. My hands, my body, all of me goes through him as if he's nothing. 

"Seventeen years. Seventeen years of adopted children. Seventeen years trying to pretend I never existed." He mutters to himself. I stare at his abnormally pale form, and try to think. "Seventeen years of taking and growing. Seventeen years of wanting to go back." He turns to me, and I swear, I see him flicker, like light bulbs in a storm. "And now, I can. There have been eight of them. All eight of them found me, and I took all eight. All eight, that is, and the two other girls." My mind flicks to Kaylee and Sierra, right before I ran into the maze. They were laughing and joking.

"Kaylee? Sierra?"

"Those were there names!" Jackson sounds excited. "I forgot what they were. They said they were looking for you. I left them at the cottage." I stared at him, shocked.

"Can you take me back to them?" Jackson glared at me, and flickered a little again.

"Why would you want to do that? You're here! Right where you want to be!"

"They're my friends. We have to go back for them."

Jackson turned back to the house. "In just a second. Just a second and then we can go back and get them." And with that, he disappeared. It wasn't like he ran away. He simply dropped out of existence. I screamed, and felt a rushing cold.

The world had started to go fuzzy. I felt like I was trapped in something. The fuzziness became an opaque ball of what felt like cold marble. I could have sworn I heard Jackson laughing, as the ball started to crush inwards. I pounded on the marble, shouting. It kept closing in. Just as it was about to crush me,  it became softer and translucent. I started to cry, and it rushed into me.

It went through my skin, burning every where. I screamed and screamed. And then it stopped, and I was on the ground, shivering. I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. I tried to curl into a ball, but my muscles wouldn't respond. Suddenly, I was climbing to my feet, and I was laughing. But it wasn't me. It was a different laugh. I was crying. He was laughing. I was shoved to the back, like a thought you want to forget, but just can't make yourself. He was front and center, like the driver.

I was no more than a memory and Jackson had control of my body. 

He flexed my fingers, curling them into a fist, bending my elbow in. He bent over, cracking my back. He blinked, and opened my mouth and cracked my neck. Except none of it was mine anymore. It was all his. Every last drop of blood, every last hair, every last patch of skin was his. And he was still laughing. 

"Now now, my lovely Lilah. Let's go visit your friends."