Blackstone

The Labyrinth

Only darkness lay beyond. I motioned for my Razor Phone and shined a bright beam of light into the darkness. The light stabbed into the inky blackness and revealed tall dark walls.

            Carrie and Thomas activated the beams on their Razors. All three of our beams working together made a small difference in dispelling the all penetrating gloom.

            We gingerly stepped through the door and held our phones close to us, concentrating the light beams. We huddled close together like nervous sheep on a stormy night.

            Suddenly, the door behind us slammed shut with a loud bang. All three of us spun around. I ran back and searched for the door. It was gone, only smooth black walls remained.

            "Thomas, can you get a reading on where we are," I said.

            Thomas tapped at his phone. "I'm creating a search program right now."

            "Carrie, are you picking up anything," I asked.

            Carrie shook her head. "I'm not sensing anything nearby. There is a presence, a very distant one..."

            Suddenly, a distant roar echoed through the darkness. It sounded like a mixture of a lion and a bull. Whatever it was it sounded enraged and in pain.      

            Thomas looked up from his razor. "Carrie, if that's the presence you're talking about then I'm not looking to make its acquaintance."

            Carrie closed her eyes. She frowned and furrowed her brow. "It's in such pain. The consciousness isn't human but it isn't an animal either."

            "Can you communicate with it," I asked her.

            "I don't think so. It's in too much pain," Carrie said.

            The roar echoed through the darkness, full of rage and anger. Whatever this thing was, I wasn't looking forward to fighting it. I didn't even know if I could use the Dark Power in this confined space. The Wend needed room to breath and having Carrie and Thomas so close concerned me.

            "Got it!" Thomas sprang up. He shook his fist in the air and consulted the readout on his phone. "We're in a maze about half a mile wide and a mile long. I've plotted the exit point. Follow me." Thomas set off following his floating Razor Phone.

            We walked through the labyrinth, following Thomas who moved fearlessly through the darkness following his phone and taking us around a dozen twists and turns. Every once and a while, the loud angry bellow would resound through the darkness. As we rounded a turn, the enraged roar sounded closer.

            I ran my fingers over the smooth stone walls and thought of the ancient myths that my father used to read to me as bedtime stories.

            I snapped my fingers. "Guys, this is exactly like the myth of Theseus and the Labyrinth," I exclaimed, "That loud noise is probably –"

            "What a Minotaur? Great, that's just great. Why don't they just throw a bloody Hydra and a Basilisk at us while they're at it," Thomas said.

            "If this being is a Minotaur then we must proceed carefully. If I remember the legend correctly, the creature possesses incredible strength and is ferocious in combat," Carrie said.

            "It's all right, a few good photon blasts should put it down. And if I have to get in close, there's always the Etheric Knife," I said cheerfully.