If Matt had had his way, he’d never have gone on this stupid vacation to Piney Island. Piney Island was an absolutely boring village, and lacked internet, TV, radio, and cellphone reception. He might have been able to entertain himself if his parents had chosen another time to come. But no, they just had to arrive smack in the middle of blizzard season, and there was so much snow outside that the windows were masses of white. Mom had refused to let him go outside, saying that she didn’t want him to get sick. So now Matt was stuck indoors with nothing to do.

“Matt, don’t just lie there! There’s better stuff for you to do,” Mom shouted from across the room.

Matt sighed and yelled, “There’s nothing to do.” He got off of the couch and stomped into his room. Then he flopped onto the bed. What was he supposed to do, meditate in here?

Something beneath him crinkled, and Matt jumped off of the bed. He turned to inspect the object, and snorted in disgust. What type of vacation home had old, dusty books on the bed? He picked one up and tossed it on the floor to make room for himself.

“Matt? What are you doing in there?” Mom asked. Matt heard footsteps coming towards his room and sighed. He didn’t want to be subjected to more nagging. He hurriedly picked up the book and pretended to read. Hopefully this would divert her attention.

Mom flung the door open and said, “Oh, you’ve found a book! How wonderful.”
Yay. Hopefully this would keep her distracted for a while.

“Oh honey, don’t let me bother you,” she said, “Just keep on reading.” Matt’s mom left the room, leaving the door wide open. She took a seat just outside of the doorway and motioned for him to read.
Great. Now he had to pretend to read this stupid thing. Matt flipped to the first page.

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Sky High Tower
You wake up in a room, feeling dizzy. Your head throbs painfully and a blindfold covers your eyes. You are tied to a hard wooden chair. Where are you? How did this happen? These thoughts race through your head as you try to remember what happened. For a few moments, you struggle to find anything of meaning. Then, you remember falling down a hole into a cunning booby-trap that left you unconscious.

You struggle against the chair, but the ropes are too tight.
Matt quickly peeked at Mom, who was watching him expectantly. He sighed and continued reading. How long would he have to keep this up?

You shift your weight back and forth, and the chair tips backwards. You hit the floor with a dull thud, and the wind is knocked out of your lungs. For a moment, you lie there, recovering your breath. These ropes are tied more tightly than you had originally thought.

Matt snuck another look at Mom. She was still watching him, and he suspected that if she thought that he wasn’t reading, she would force him to do something worse. In this case, reading was probably the lesser of two evils. Matt sighed and continued reading. He would be glad when this so-called vacation was over.

You kick your feet awkwardly. Although your torso is bound to the chair, your legs aren’t, so you think that getting the ropes off of your feet will be easiest. However, your legs are tingling. The blood flow to them has been cut off! This makes your escape much more urgent. You flail and wiggle your legs as much as possible.
You still haven’t gotten out yet. You pause and take a few deep breaths. Newly energized, you continue wiggling your legs until you start panting. You lean over to breathe more easily and realize that all of your moving has loosened the ropes tying your torso to the chair. Encouraged, you flail your arms around until you find a knot, and try your best to untangle it. After a few minutes, you are able to fumble your way out of the ropes.
Go to page 86.

Now that you are free, you rip off your blindfold and survey your surroundings. You are in a room with glass walls and a solid stone floor. Below is a dizzying view of the ground about 100 meters away. Just seeing the drop makes you dizzy and you close your eyes. The room is bare of furnishing, except for a drawer. Opposite of the drawer is a balcony, but it has no railings to stop you from falling. You back away. Obviously, attempting to jump would be fatal.

You decide to rummage through the drawer. Hopefully you will find some useful things. When you reach the drawer, you are relieved to have something to take your mind off of the rocky ground below. You wrench the door open with a grunt. It’s so heavy that you wouldn’t be surprised if it was made of solid gold. Inside are bedsheets, food, drinks, and clothes just your size.

You frown. You’ve heard that some people can make ropes out of cloth and use it to escape from seemingly impossible situations. But then… you have things enough here to live a while in the tower. Do you want to stay or get out?

If you choose to stay in the tower, go to page 10. If you choose to try to escape, go to page 91.

Matt snorted. Of course he had to escape! Games weren’t meant to be played with the main character lying around doing nothing. Then again, this was a book. Maybe it was different.

You pause for a minute to form a plan. After thinking for a while, you take the bedsheets and tie the corners together, making a long rope of sheets. You hope that none of the knots will come undone, or that the bedsheets won’t just be ripped in half by your weight. After a while, the rope is ready. You tie one end of the ropes to the drawer, and toss the other end off of the balcony. You peer down the drop. As far as you can see, you have enough rope.

You hold the rope in one hand, and run off of the balcony. Your momentum carries you forward and you scream. You slide down the rope for two sheets, and then you are able to slow yourself down. You heave a sigh of relief and half slide, half climb down the rope. Finally, you are at the bottom. The rope ends just above the ground, and you hop off easily. Free at last!

Matt snuck a look at Mom. She was still watching him, but with less intensity than before. If he could keep this up for long enough, eventually she would go away.

You look around. The ground under your feet is grassy, but just to your left is a slab of hard stone. Hedges box you in on all four sides, except for one opening to your right. On the bottom of the tower, there is an open door and a sign saying: to the tower. It looks cozy and inviting. For a moment, you are tempted. Then, you slam the door shut. You just put all of your effort into escaping that tower, so going back is not an option.

Immediately, you discover that you are in a maze. You have a choice of two paths: One is where the leaves on the hedges look like they need pruning and have cobwebs. The overgrown hedges grow up and over, forming a roof that blocks out the sky. The other is an immaculately maintained path where the leaves are bright green and you can still see the sky.

If you go on the wilder path, go to page 27. If you go on the well-maintained path, go to page 19.
Of course Matt wanted to go on the well-maintained path! The gardener or whoever took care of the maze probably chose not to take care of the wild path because it was booby-trapped or led to death. He went to page 19.
You walk forwards, looking at the path around you. It is perfectly symmetrical, and it doesn’t have a single imperfection marring its beauty. After a while, you see a bunch of wildflowers. Even those look perfect. They are evenly spaced in the cracks between the flagstones that you walk on, and all look the same. After another 10 steps, you see more flowers, arranged exactly like the ones that you just saw. You walk forwards 10 steps and see even more flowers that are arranged perfectly. However, you start feeling unnerved by the perfect arrangements. Because of the sameness in this path, you have no idea where you are, or how long you have walked for.
You come to a left turn in the path, and follow it. Suddenly you stop, mystified. The path in front of you is wildly overgrown, and the perfect symmetry is gone. Weeds grow in between the flagstones, and the hedges box you in. Is it a trap? You cautiously step through the floor, trying to walk in an unpredictable motion. Finally, you reach an intersection. You can go either forwards, or on a cleverly hidden path to the left. They both look clear. Where will you go?
If you go to the left, go to page 40. If you go forwards, go to page 5.
Matt decided that the path to the left was probably the best option. Maybe it was a secret shortcut that would lead right to the exit.
“Matt! It’s dinnertime,” shouted Mom.
Out of habit, Matt yelled, “Just wait a moment, okay?” How was it dinnertime already? He looked at a clock on his bedroom wall. It said 7:00 pm, 17 minutes later than when he had started. How had time passed so quickly?
“Matt, hurry up or we’ll eat everything,” said Mom.
Matt sighed. “Fine.” He flipped the book upside down and left it that way on his bed so he could find his page again.
Dinner was quieter than usual. Matt’s parents talked about the stock market, and world politics, but nothing that Matt really paid attention to. He shoveled food into his mouth as fast as he could, trying to finish quickly. He even ate his vegetables without extra prodding. Mom looked like she wanted to ask about Matt’s newfound love of vegetables, but Dad silenced her with a look. Then she glanced at Matt with a knowing look, although he couldn’t tell what all the fuss was about.
Once he was done, Matt rushed back into his room. Although he hadn’t really thought of this, it it felt wrong to leave the book while he was still trapped in the maze, the way it would be wrong to leave a video game right in the middle.
You walk into the path on the left. The hedges are uncomfortably close, and you feel as if they are closing in on you. You walk forwards, until you come to what seems like a dead end. You look around and realize that the path makes a sharp right, almost turning completely around. You have to turn to your side to fit through, and even then it is a tight squeeze.

For the next few minutes, you go through what feels like hundreds of turns. You lose track of which way you are going, and you have absolutely no idea where you are in the maze. For all you know, you could be traveling in giant circles. The hedges seem to get closer and closer together, and you are afraid that you will reach a dead end. You mutter reassurance to yourself, but it doesn’t help.

Finally, you can’t bear it anymore. You are about to turn around and go the other way when the hedges around you suddenly widen. You run forwards. Freedom at last! You have reached a more open space and look around. The path you just took is cunningly disguised and you almost can’t see it.

You have a choice of two paths: One is where the leaves on the hedges look like they need pruning and have cobwebs. The overgrown hedges grow up and over, forming a roof that blocks out the sky. The other is an immaculately maintained path where the leaves are bright green and you can still see the sky.

If you go on the wilder path, go to page 27. If you go on the well-maintained path, go to page 19.

Matt frowned. This part seemed familiar. In fact, wasn’t this exactly the same description for the beginning of the maze? He’d already been on the nicer-looking path and didn’t want to go through it again, so he had to go on the wilder path now. He sighed. This was almost like navigating a real maze.

You go on the wild path, feeling nervous. The leaves overhead swallow up the sky, and there is barely enough light for you to see the path. You know that you should feel comforted by the occasional patches of sunlight, but instead they make you feel even uneasier. You look ahead. There is no light at the end, only darkness.

You force yourself to walk into the inky blackness. Your fingers brush against the thorny hedges, and you instantly jerk away. Your breathing is unusually loud and ragged. Step. Step. Breath. Step. Step. Breath.
Suddenly, you hear a small pebble clattering against the stone path. Did you move that? Step. Step. Breath. Step. Breath. Step. Breath. This is too much. You can’t take it anymore.

Suddenly, your nose hits something clothlike, and you back away. You stare into the blackness, but there’s nothing there. You hear breathing, but it isn’t coming from you. Or is it? You will die alone in here, alone.

You fall forwards, and suddenly the world is flooded with light. You throw out your hands to protect yourself, and discover that they are wrapped around a black cloth. You look back at the path you just left. It turns out that it was only about 15 meters long, and the black cloth was to block the fact that the path was so short. If only you had known that in the beginning.

You look around you, half-blinded by the sun. Finally, freedom! You sink to your knees and look at the tunnel. Who knew that freedom could feel so liberating? You take a look at the terrifying tower behind you, and the maze surrounding it. Then you turn around to look at the peaceful plain in front of you. You will never return to the tower and its maze.

The end.

Well, that was a nice ending. Matt closed the book and laid down, but images of mazes made of hedges and grim, dark towers danced in his mind. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. To his left was another Choose Your Own Adventure book. Matt looked at it, and smiled. Maybe being here in Piney Island wouldn’t be so bad after all.