Beyond the maze

Chapter 4: The Maze

The boys all agreed on one thing. Elliot was a strange guy. Although they couldn't be too harsh on him, he was a bit messed up in the head.

"What did he mean by the maze?" Theo inquired.

The other boys had no good answer, but they were both asking as many questions internally as everybody else likely was. The trio saw a large group of boys standing around a section of the wall and decided to walk over and push through the confused and timid crowd to see a section of the wall covered in names. Many of which were crossed out.

"We aren't the first people here!" Jasper yelled chaotically.

"Maybe they're still here..." Atticus offered, although the amount of scratched-out names was daunting.

"Not many of them are left, if any," Hugo replied harshly.

The boys started wandering over to the giant door a few meters down the wall.

Felix peered into the gloomy passageway before him, which stretched into darkness: a gaping mouth in the towering walls just waiting to swallow them. Vines coiled upwards, intertwining with the rough stone and creating the illusion of a dense jungle.

"So this must be the maze then?" A boy named August spoke for the first time.

Felix wondered how he had heard about the maze but it wasn't completely out of the question that Elliot had mentioned it to him and maybe even the others. A few of the boys who must have formed some kind of group, the clear leader being Atticus, nonchalantly began walking into the enormous hallway. Most of the other boys soon followed, and Felix, Hugo, and Theo jogged past the crowd to walk alongside Atticus.

"This seems like a bad idea" Felix declared.

"Yeah I think I'm going to have to take Felix's side on this one" asserted Theo.

Before Atticus could respond, the group turned a corner into a shadowy area of the maze, maybe fifteen meters from the entrance. Felix's eyes widened as he beheld the appalling sight before him, emerging from the darkness. There was a mass, an animal? Larger than a dog but smaller than a horse, standing eagerly in the darkened section. Its mouth hung open, its jaw open to an unnerving size, and several razor-sharp teeth filled the mouth of the creature. Its body seemed to be some monstrous mix of flesh, fur, and machine. On closer inspection, it was quite similar to a dog, but with scales and hair that refracted light in such a way that it looked as if its skin was constantly moving, pulsating, and it had what Felix guessed to be twelve small, blinking red lights down each side. Finally, the most disturbing feature of all:

The creature had no eyes. Dread filled Felix as the creature, startled, sniffed at the air whilst emitting a terrifying growl that sounded like nothing any of the boys had ever heard before. None of them needed any encouragement, they all instantly turned and ran the other way, all except for one boy. Jasper, the fool stood there, paralyzed with fear, muscles stiff just staring at the animal. Hugo didn't waste any time before grabbing the boy and bolting with the rest of the group. It was a miracle it didn't hear them. They got lucky.