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Adventure Fantasy Fiction

I planted my hands on my knees as I bent over and heaved for breath. Sweat dripped down my face and pooled in the hollow of my collar-bone or dripped off of my nose. I felt sick. Almost as if I needed to heave. I had been running down every corridor that I came upon ever since I had appeared in this place. Well, appeared is a strong word. More like stuffed into.

The labyrinth was endless and seemed to go on forever. I am pretty sure that I ended up where I started more than once in the past five hours. Which, wasn't surprising. But I had to keep on moving so it wasn't like I had time to contemplate where I was going.

I listened as I attempted to steady my breath for the heavy trod of the Minotaur. That was the only way that I knew whether it was close or not. Its roars didn't do much seeing as everything echoed in this place, but it's steps were slightly more distinct when it was near. It was either that or its stench that alerted me. It was dead silent. Not a voice, not a whisper, not a sound echoed through the cavernous room except for the sound of my rasping breathing. My blood chilled as I listened. It was quiet. Way too quiet.

My eyes flitted from wall to wall rapidly. My heart thundered in my chest and my breathing began to quicken, despite my attempts to quiet it. I cursed underneath my breath. Not once in the whole entire time that I had been in here had it been so quiet. I squeezed my eyes shut again.

I startled when the sound of Minotaur came through the corridors once again, and the sound of screaming followed. Screaming of a human. My eyes flew open and I turned around to look at the hall behind me. The screams grew in terror until they suddenly fell silent. And I knew why.

I bent over and retched. Bile burned my throat as the contents of my stomach were flung onto the sand in front of me. Tears blurred my vision as I straightened and ran again. I couldn't stay here any longer. I had already stayed in one place for far too long. Not to mention, the beast had probably picked up the sent of pile on the floor behind me by now.

The thing was frenzied. It appeared everywhere. It was as if there were more than one scouring the labyrinth in search for its prey. A string of curses flew from my mouth.

Twelve of us were sent in here. That was the first one that I know of that had been found, and I had no intention of being the next. Every corridor was the same. There was exactly one door on each wall and two torches were placed on either side at the same exact height and in the same exact place. It was monotonous. I had gone through almost every door, switching between the left and right one frequently, but nothing came of it. Nothing changed. It was as if they were merely placed there as if for inducing false hope. Well, they kind of were.

I felt bad for the others that were placed in here. If I ran into one of them, I would have stuck with them, but that was almost impossible. I had no doubt that one of them had already made it out. Maybe one of the first ones?

Every hour, someone was placed in here. I was the seventh. One person would be placed in here every hour for one day, then the people would leave them to their doom. Because, apparently, that was just something that people did now-a-days!

I flung open another door and was greeted by a new sight. It was a room. Not a corridor or a hallway, but an actual room. The only rooms that I knew of were the three mentioned to us when we were thrust in here. The one where we were let in, the one where the Minotaur resided, and the one that we had to make our way too in order to get out.

I stare in wonder at my new surroundings. Everything was made of the same materials, but there were four torches on each wall, and there were two doors at one end. My heart lifted at seeing them. I attempted to remember everything about the rooms that I could.

The old crone that came in to "comfort" us before we were thrust in here had said a few words of advice.

One: Don't stop moving.

Two: Don't make too much noise.

Three: Don't choose the wrong door.

I had no idea what the last one meant until now. Part of me wanted to open them both and find out what he could possibly have been talking about, but the other part of me told me that it was time to shut-up and go. I bent down near them and felt the cracks to see if there was any change in temperature. They were both nearly identical, only one was slightly cooler.

Another scream rent the air. I winced. Terror flooded my senses, pounding in my head as if it were a drum. I needed to leave. Now! The Minotaur, it would seem had begun a rampage. It hadn't been able to find us in five hours, then, suddenly, it had found two of us in fifteen minutes. My heart pounded and a vein in my head pulsed. I chose the one with the cooler air and wrenched the door open, practically throwing myself inside.

Immediately, the simulation melted away to reveal two doctors wearing lab coats. The sand melted into the cracks of the tile in the floor.the sconces in the walls turned into beeping monitors, and the brick turned into ordinary, bleach white walls.

"Well done, Mr. Murphy," said one as she jotted something down, "You were the only one to escape. Unfortunately for a few of your friends, they will have to be taken to an asylum. Congratulations."

May 23, 2021 19:38

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