The Outcast

Chapter 9

The labyrinth. The first thing that came to mind as Ayla observed her surroundings --- a dark, narrow place. Not a single soul seemed to have inhabited the place. A sense of familiarity washed over her yet she was still unable to recall where she had got this experience from. "Stick to the left." A voice reminded her. It belonged to Annabeth, her only hope of leaving this dreamland. Crack. Her senses heightened. Something was close by. Something unknown. Crack. She pulled out her dagger in defence. Crack. She stood still, looked stern at the ground. She did not dare make any movements. The noise approached her closer and closer every second. Five more steps. She thought. Five more steps and she would turn around and slash her blade at whatever it was that was behind her. And so she counted. Four. Three. Two. But the 'one' never came as all was silent at that moment. Certainly, something was off. She gripped her dagger tightly and with all her might swung it behind her as her legs moved and twisted her body. A hiss left the creature's mouth but it was not badly injured. Seeing as the creature was much bigger and stronger than she was, she dashed through the maze without looking back, always sticking to the left, just like Annabeth had said. As running away from the creature was the only thing on her mind, she had not noticed that she was approaching a door. Bang. "Shit, that hurts." She thought. She fumbled with the doorknob, trying to unlock it as the creature closed in. Its wings flapped furiously as it closed into her. No sharp tools. No hairpins. That leaves breaking the door. By the time she went through the door, she had only realised that this was a trap. The sharp edges of blades glowed in the dark. It hit her. The creature was leading her to death. Adrenaline rushed in and she whispered to herself, "It's not the end, you'll make it." With that said, Ayla plunged into the dark as the creature stretched its claws toward her.

Ayla woke up with a jolt. She pushed herself out of her sleeping bag and stood with caution. Her hands put at her dagger, ready to strike whatever comes near her. "Hey, we're not Gally. Calm down, shank," said Minho. Only then had she realised that she was in the glade with Newt and Minho beside her looking worried and terrified. "Someone heard you panting and fiddling in your sleep so they grabbed us. Are you okay?" Said Newt as gently as possible. She nodded. She trusted them with her life but she did not want to worry them with some stupid nightmare. After all, dreams only happen inside one's mind. Little did she know, or rather remember, that demigods' dreams were not just her imagination.

The three went back to sleep after that until they had to wake up to start the day. Ayla and Minho were both tired from the night but still managed to acquire enough energy from food. They refreshed themselves and briefed with the other runners. The two were scanning section seven this day, the last section that Ayla had to learn about. As usual, Newt sent them off at the entrance and another adventurous day in the maze had started again.

Once Ayla and Minho had entered the maze, another sequence of the route formed in Ayla's mind. Apart from memorizing the directions, something bothered her. The dream. It kept popping in and out of her mind. It was like the dream was trying to warn her. Something was about to happen but she had no clue what it was going to be. At noon, they stopped at a corner for rest. Even with a new pair of eyes, they had not found anything new or unique in the maze. Upon finishing their lunch, a cracking noise formed from afar. Though Minho was oblivious to the sound, Ayla was highly alerted. "Did you hear that?" She whispered. "Hear what?" Whoosh. It was a flap of wings. At this point, Ayla hoped that what she dreaded was a myth, a harmless imagination, a stupid, simple nightmare. Crack. Her hope was crashed as the noise got louder and closer. Minho, clueless as ever, felt the need to run back to the glade to warn the others about whatever Ayla started to worry about. His eyes met Ayla's and without a doubt, they started running towards the glade.

Although the two were running, the noise only got closer to them. Number one rule when you were in the maze: keep running and do not look back. The latter was broken by Ayla as she turned her head to glance at the source of the noise. Curiosity killed the cat. The noise was conjured by the same creature in her dream. The only difference was that she could see the creature clearly this time in daylight. It was fury. Its eyes filled with anger and determination. Ayla realised that she had seen or even known the fury. She slightly remembered that the furies acted on someone's command. While Minho was unable to spot the fury and began to think that the maze had made her nuts, which led him to the thought of making a snarling remark, he did not want to offend this new friend of his just yet. So instead, he kept running with her in silence, observing her actions and her expressions. The fury caught up with ease and plunged its arms toward Ayla. Instinctively, Ayla turned and punched the fury with immense force. "Go! I'll distract it." She shouted at Minho, who had sped impressively five feet away from her when she fought the fury. He had done that because he saw nothing but her thrashing her arms in the air. Yet, it looked convincingly realistic. Whatever "it" was, it was invisible to him, which made the situation even scarier. He wanted to stay behind to help her, like people said, "two heads are better than one." But he figured that he would not be of much use to her if he could not even see what was attacking. He wished her a stroke of good luck and continued on his journey back to the maze.

Ayla tried to resist the urge to run away as much as possible. With Minho gone, her self confidence level in facing the fury was basically at the bottom. "What's done is done. You can do this." She said. By the time Minho had disappeared into the corridors, the fury stopped attacking her. Odd. "You don't belong here."