The Maze of Nightmares

Ten: David

David

After wandering for what could have been hours in a black stone maze, David found himself in a huge room. The ceiling was out of sight and the room was the size of two football fields. He crept along, on the lookout for his next test. Just as he was about to relax, a dragon flew down in front of him. David's heart pounded with fear. The more scared he felt, the larger the dragon seemed. The dragon opened its giant jaws, saliva dripping from the uneven rows of serrated teeth. David's heart pounded harder. His life flashed before his eyes. He wished he had made more friends. He wished he had done more with his life. At least he'd see his father again...

His father! No, he needed to use logic! He needed to do more, make his father proud! He opened his eyes and appraised the dragon, temporarily banishing his fear.

Its black scales shined in the golden light from the veins in the walls. It extended its wings and flew up above him, circling. The undersides of its wings were sky blue, a very nice contrast to the black.

David shook himself and looked closer. The wingspan of the dragon was nowhere near wide enough to support it.

"Hey!" He called up to the dragon. "You flying is not logical! Your wings shouldn't be strong enough to support you!"

Poof! The dragon's wings disappeared and it was back on the ground. It spewed fire at him. David's heart began to pound again and he released a shaky breath. "H-hey, you shouldn't be able to do that either! You'll burn your throat!" No more fire. David's legs were shaking so much he wanted to collapse.

The dragon opened its jaws again and revealed rows of sharp, pointed teeth, so many they shouldn't fit in its mouth. Now, David felt like fainting. "Ooh, I really hope you don't shred the inside of your mouth with all those teeth!" David winced. No more teeth.

David raked his eyes over the no-longer-a-dragon. He raised an eyebrow. "Okay, one more question: how do you not crush yourself with your body mass?"

Poof! The dragon was now the size of a poodle and much less bulky. It was now really cute. It had changed to being a somewhat small lizard with black scales and blue accents. It had no teeth and it flicked it's forked tongue and licked David. He sighed in relief and sank to the floor. "Phew! That was much scarier than falling to my death!" He flopped back until he was lying down. The little lizard jumped onto David and curled up on him.

"Hey, you want to come with me?" He asked it. The dragon-lizard licked David. After David had recovered from the fright of almost being killed by a dragon, he got up and walked out of the room with the lizard on his heels.

They wandered the halls, looking for the center. Somehow, they ended up in a blank room with no way out. That was strange. There was nothing suspicious, no nightmare. What was the maze playing at?

David looked around at the room. There was nothing illogical to use logic on. Suddenly, exhausted, David sat down. He was really tired. How long had they been in the maze? David closed his eyes and when he opened his eyes his father was standing in front of him.

David leapt to his feet and scanned his eyes over his father. He was transparent and was smiling at David.

"Hey, David, have you played any chess recently?" He asked.

"Dad..." David said, shellshocked. "Oh, Dad, I missed you so much!"

"I know, Son." Ben Greenglass smiled.

"Dad, I've been using logic like you said. I've been trying to make you proud." David said.

His father frowned. "How did you end up here? You should have never ended up here."

"Wh-what?" David stuttered.

"You failed me, David." Those words pierced David's soul, dropping him to his knees. "You should have used your logic to never end up here. You're a disgrace! You didn't listen to me! You weren't smart enough! You never helped your mother! You don't honor me! You are a stain on my family! You're a mistake!" He finished. The words hit David like a sword to the heart.

David curled in on himself, trying to hide from his emotional pain. Trapped by his own mind, David for the first time succumbed. He had failed...