#fff27

Finding a door has never been so exciting. Just two squares ahead, the entrance to a beautiful old manor beginning to be reclaimed by nature. That’s got to be the centre of the maze, right? Or maybe it’s a red herring to get players more lost? Maybe it would be better to skirt around it rather than try to navigate the halls… A glance back at the never-ending autumn hedges turns my stomach. Lost in a building or lost in the plants? Neither were appealing. I might as well take a food break until I can move again. It might help me think.

Whoever dumped me here left my backpack. I guess it was lucky I forgot to eat at uni today. I don’t want to eat too much. Trying to navigate this stupid labyrinth while starving would be a nightmare. Although, waking up in a maze halfway through walking home was pretty much the nightmare scenario in itself.  

What was that? Shoot. I get up, throwing everything into my bag. No traces left. That was a scream. I’m sure of it.  A shaky breath. They’re closer than I thought. I palm the token. Please let their turn be over. My bracelet remains dull. Hurry up hurry up hurry up. Bouncing on my toes, it’s just me, the crows, and the feint sound of footsteps just beyond the bend. They stop. Shudders run up and down my spine uncontrollably. One more player gone.

My bracelet lights up. Four. Slowly, achingly slowly, I creep across the square. Feet ghosting the ground. Anything to avoid the leaf litter landmines. An eternity between me and the door. Every zipper jingle from my backpack, a clashing symbol. I make it. The handle clicks quietly as I slip out of the hedges. That is NOT laughter beyond the bend. They DIDN’T hear me. I’m okay. I’m okay. The entrance branches out. Hallways and doors. So many potential decisions. They don’t know how many squares I have. I have to be clever about this. My squares are almost up. I can’t make it out of the entranceway. Damn it. Think! Scanning the debris scattered about, I wrack my brain. I have to make a decision. There! A storage container. It’s tiny, maybe too small to be suspicious? I can only hope. I’m flexible. I’ll fit. There aren’t any better options.

It’s cramped. Light and dust filter through the thin gaps in the wood making it harder to breath the stuffy air. Tasting dirt is better than risking my nose whistling when I breathe. It tickles my throat. I don’t dare cough. The door clicks open. The boards press into my skin, joints creaking as awkwardly arranged bones grind against one another. Footsteps get closer. They don’t bother with silence, laughing and humming with each square they traverse. There’s a sticky noise with each step. I don’t want to think about it. I can see their shadow now, stretching over the dusty tiles.

“Here kitty kitty kitty, where aaare you~” A singsong voice as she draws closer. My guts drop. My cat-faced backpack smooshed into my face. Head spinning and eyes dilated, one thought stands alone in my mind. When did she see me? I can’t breathe. She hums, standing in my square. I can smell the blood on her shoes.

The box creaks as she sits on it, idly drumming her nails against the lid. Is she teasing me? Does she know? She sighs, settling down to wait. Her turn is up.

Seconds stretch on and on and on. I can’t breathe. I don’t want to breathe. Something drips onto my skin. I screw my eyes shut. Don’t think about it. Don’t listen. Don’t listen as she calls. Don’t listen to her teasing lilt while she promises she only wants to play. Tears burn but I hold them back. This is how I’m going to die. The game token cuts into my hand. I want to go home. We wait.

It’s inevitable, my turn comes first. One square. Cover it! Did she see? I stay still, cramped and tiny. She doesn’t change. Her humming poisoning the silence around us. She’s waiting for her turn. Hands shaking, I shift slowly, slowly. Don’t rustle the back. Don’t make a noise. I swipe my fingertip over the stones, I forfeit my turn.

Several minutes pass. She stands, a single fluid movement. She calls out again, wandering further into the maze. I stay still, waiting for my turn to run. I need to get out of here.

“I’m coming to get you kitty!”

----------

  “There’s no reason to remind me!” Her voice jumped an octave higher. “I just can’t see anything in this darkness. I am so lost”, she whined and gave in to the tears. But she wouldn’t break down. She might give in to tears but never to the evil soul that trapped her and her friend in there.

Amaya went on, ignoring the raven’s hoarse laughter.

It was impossible to walk through the bushes, so tightly they had grown. It was impossible to climb over the walls that resembled old ruins, since they were covered with roses. And it was impossible for her to see any kind of regularity in the turns that laid before her.

Hastily she turned left as she way split into three, walking through a curtain of vines. Behind, there was light. A single lantern was standing on a table that was in the middle of that little room surrounded by walls.

Like a moth she was drawn to the single light source and even as she picked the lantern up, nothing happened.

  “I can do this”, she whispered to herself. She picked the way right in front of her as she walked back, the yellow light of the lantern illuminating the darkness.

At some point she started to run. Every corner looked the same to her, and she could’ve sworn that she crossed the same red rose multiple times.

Thunder rumbled high above her and only a few minutes later rain poured down on her.

  “There are two hours, thirty four minutes and exactly seven seconds left. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Two hours, thirty three minutes”, the raven mocked her and panic rose inside of Amaya.

  “Leave me be!”, she yelled and tried to hit the raven but it just flew away, as always.

Left, right, left, middle, left, left, middle, right, right. There was no thought behind her decisions, but since there were no clues either, she had to trust her intuition either way.

  “Simone! Simone”, she called her friend. It was ridiculous to expect an answer and she didn’t have to hear the raven laugh to know it. But she was so helpless. The labyrinth just swallowed her, ate her whole, piece by piece – and it had started with her heart.

The roses’ thorns ripped at her clothes and skin and the wind blew the twigs of bushes in her face. It wouldn’t stop her. She had to find the centre. She had to find Simone.

  “I’m so lost. I am so lost”,  she cried, gasping for air, shaking from the cold rain.

  “Well, now that’s really unfortunate. Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes to begin with. But now I am certain that you won’t make it”, the raven said, his voice sounding a little more human now.

  “Just tell me where she is, please”, Amaya begged but he only croaked. “At least tell me which direction!”

  “Well, since you won’t make it in time either way...” He flew away and Amaya had never run so fast in her life. She soon lost him in the darkness of the night but more determined than ever she followed the direction he had flown to.

It wasn’t even a close call. The sun was rising, the thunder storm was long over and in front of her, the bushes parted and opened up on a clearing where a giant mansion throned, covered in vines and roses like the rest of the labyrinth.

Amaya pulled up her dress’ skirt as she walked up the stairs, no strength left in her body, only moving out of spite.

In front of the old wooden doors stood a man, raven black hair, blue piercing eyes and an equally black long coat.

  “Welcome, Amaya. You finally found the centre of my stunning labyrinth”, he greeted her. It was the same voice that had mocked her all the way here. A flame of anger rose up inside of her.

  “I want to see Simone.”

  “Well, there’s no need to hurry now”, he replied, eyes rolling but making way inside the house. Before she entered, he cleared his throat, stopping her in her movement.

  “Just, one little notice. Once you walk in there, you will not be able to leave again. There is no reason to go inside any more, since your friend is dead. However, you may still feel doubts since you loved her so much. Hence, the warning.”

  “You’re a monster.” Amaya felt like choking on her tears.

  “Maybe. It’s your final choice. The last turn. Do you choose the way ahead or the one behind you?”

It was no choice. Amaya walked forward. As she stepped inside, close to a hundred girls like her greeted her, the same desperate look on their faces.

  “Simone?”, she asked, searching for her among their faces. She wasn’t there.

  “Oh, she isn’t here any more. But to be fair, I never said she was in the first place”, the raven laughed.

  “She must be among them!”

  “No, those are all the girls who chose to enter like you did.”

Amaya turned backwards. The doors were closed and so was her way out.

  “He turns them into roses”, one of the girls who stood close to her whispered.

  “I thought a nice deep red would suit Simone well!”, his voice echoed through the hall, accompanied by his laugher.

The realization came too late. She had found Simone. She just hadn’t recognized her.

~13.09.2019~