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The Labyrinth

A story of mad men and raging bulls

By Nessy WriterPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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The stone walls had that clammy quality that made them seem alive, sweating. This prison was like some living, breathing thing that had swallowed men whole. Rusty, metal bars, it’s rancid teeth. Tomas sat slumped in the corner, observing those around him with narrowed eyes. Every so often he’d scratch nervously at bristles emerging on a face once kept religiously smooth. He wondered what he’d expected when going into war. It seemed so long ago and so childishly ridiculous, the hopes and visions he’d had, that they’d melted clean out of his memory.

What a time to be a prisoner of war. Attica taken over, their general slain. A war started by a mad, old, king obsessed with Greek myth. ‘Why haven’t his own people dethroned him?’ thought Tomas. He knew the answer, fear. Why did the soldiers stand by him? Tradition, an antiquated belief in royal blood, a lust for the power those beliefs still held. It would have been better to die in battle. The mad king reserved a special end for them.

The Labyrinth. Another myth he’d obsessed over, another monster he’d created. No one actually knew what was down there, because no one had made it out. No merciful end by injection. Even a firing squad seemed kind in comparison to what awaited them. The rumour flying about the cells, pieced together from scraps of conversation between the guards, was that there was a mechanical bull down there.

“Yeah, it’s got bright red bulbs for eyes, this raging bull. Murder by animatronic,” whispered one old prisoner, wringing his hands nervously.

“I’ve heard”, another piped up, “that it’s not a robot at all, I’ve heard he took it one step further.” Silence followed, teaming with anticipation.

“How?” Tomas finally snapped, making the speaker jump.

“Well…Uh…He wanted an actual mino-whatever it’s called. Created a mutant by merging the DNA of a bull with a human.”

“You mean, there’s an actual monster down there?!” A younger man screeched, quickly covering his mouth. Everyone looked around nervously, silent again until they were sure that outburst hadn’t alerted the guards.

“I don’t know,” he continued, “just what I heard. Not sure what’s worse.”

“I think we know what’s worse.”

“At least the mutant could be killed somehow.”

“And then what? Starve to death wandering the labyrinth? No, I’d take the metal bull, at least then the end will be quick.”

“That’s assuming it has guns, what if it just has blades for horns and mauls you to death?”

“Can we pick something else to talk about?” Tomas’ voice rang out authoritatively. He didn’t know all of these men, but they knew he had been next in command. No one spoke anymore. Kept their nightmarish visions to themselves.

A storm had begun in the midst of this exchange and was now reaching its climax. Great flashes of lightning lit up the garish faces of the prisoners. Snapshots in the darkness. Rain spat in through the solitary, barred hole in the wall. Thunder shook their cores, empty stomachs rattling. Was the sky in protest with them? The king saw them as a sacrifice to the Gods. Were they happy? Tomas was glad for the light and sound, reminded him he was still alive.

“You!” Another flash of sky lit up the guard’s pug-like face. “You’re first.”

He’d known it was coming. They’d go in rank order. Tomas kept his face cold and still as he got up. He wouldn’t be dragged out; he had to set an example. Four guards accompanied him down a set of stone steps and through a narrow corridor. It seemed endless, but eventually, another wall came to meet them, no door in sight. Tomas looked around him in confusion. He was shoved roughly aside, as one of the guards knelt down to lift a rusted metal latch.

An immense trap door was lifted and a length of rope thrown in Tomas’ face. No explanation was needed. He wrapped it around himself and held on tight as the four men lowered him into the inky darkness below. He braced himself as he hit the dirt floor and managed to disentangle the rope before it was roughly snatched back up again. Before the door was lowered, they threw something down to him. An electric torch. How generous. The door creaked shut and his sight went with it.

He fumbled with the torch, sighing with relief when the circle of light appeared. Waving it about didn’t reveal much. There was no way of knowing where he was in the Labyrinth. What should he do? Well, he wouldn’t simply wait to be found. Perhaps he’d find some miraculous way out of this if he just kept moving. He saw that the path ahead split in two and picked a direction. Left. His footsteps echoed eerily about him. After a while, marching on in silence, Tomas began to wonder if the monsters were a lie, a psychological tool of torture. His foot hit something and he jumped. The torch revealed military uniform, but it shrouded a skeleton, no way of telling how he died. Tomas uttered a silent prayer for the fallen before moving on.

But then, there was a new sound in the distance. An eerie, groaning sound, mechanical, not human or animal. His heart dropped. No, he wasn’t alone, and quickened his pace silently. He’d noticed that at each junction of more than two passageways there was a light. He was approaching one such junction now, but could hear something moving in the darkness that lay beyond that small pool of illumination. He quickly shut off his own torch, almost dropping it and pressed himself flat against the wall, hoping he would blend into the darkness.

There was labored breathing, the mechanical sound again and a grunt. Then something stepped into the light, a sharp outline. Two monstrous horns on a shaggy, bull’s head, the body of a man beneath, one hand clutching what appeared to be a sword. Tomas tried to edge away, it seemed he hadn’t been spotted yet. And… Crunch. He’d stepped on something. Another body? The monster’s head shot in his direction. He didn’t stop to look down or switch on his torch but sprinted in the opposite direction. He heard the bellows behind him as he ran, the hot breath of his pursuer. But he couldn’t possibly keep up this pace for long. He skidded round a corner and braced himself. The bellows he’d heard though, they were replaced with something else. As the monster came nearer, his shouts articulated themselves.

“Wait! Waaaait! I mean no harm!” It called out after him. Tomas waited, holding still.

“Please, we don’t have much time!”

There was something that rung like urgent sincerity in his plea. Tomas took a deep breath, switched his torch back on and rounded the corner. The monster raised his hands up over his big head, that’s when Tomas saw its eyes. They were no bull’s eyes, they were… The bull’s head fell to the ground in one fluid movement, revealing a man. A haggard looking man, well-built but with sores on his shoulders, presumably from the head they had carried.

“Yes, I’m no monster, I’m a prisoner just like you.” Tomas stared at him stupidly. “Just follow me and I’ll explain.” Seemed he had no choice but to obey. If the bull man wanted to kill him, he was holding the weapon, he would have done it already. When they came back to the lit junction, he wondered how he’d missed it. A mechanical bull, shining, bronze, with, as anticipated, blades for horns and yet more blades on its front legs.

“Father knew leaving all the killing to a mere mortal like me, however trained, was risky.”

“Yes,” he chuckled at the disbelief on Tomas’s face, “his own son, to match the myth somewhat.”

“So,” he continued, “he brought in this thing, to protect me and help dispatch the prisoners, fulfill his sordid fantasies. I had no choice; he was always watching…until now.”

“Now?” Tomas spoke up for the first time.

“We have a chance here.”

“A chance for what?”

“The storm, there was an electrical surge, cut the power. I realized when the other lights went out and the cameras,” he pointed up, “stopped following me. Only the junction lights stayed on.”

There was only stunned silence.

“He doesn’t know what I’m doing or saying, the alarms won’t be set off if me and the bull wander outside the central perimeter of the Labyrinth. We have a chance to get out and save Ariadne.”

“Who-?”

“My sister.”

“What’s your name?”

“Aster.”

“Aster, why would you help me?”

“Because I need you to help me take this thing,” he motioned to the robot, “with us, so it won’t set off the alarms when the power comes back on and I’m no longer with it.”

“You know where to go?”

“I don’t,” his face dropped and then twitched back again, “but I think Ariadne knew. She passed through this exact spot. I heard her voice. She wanted me to hear it. I didn’t go after her because the cameras follow me. I think she’d realized that. That she couldn’t get to me without being caught. But she managed to get one of the prisoners out, so there must be another way in.”

“That’s why she’s in danger, saving someone and trying to save me,” he gruffly wiped his eyes and shook his head. “He’ll kill her, she’s of no use to him. It’s now or never.”

Tomas nodded in agreement, knowing there was no time for questions only thought and action.

“She must have had a way to navigate and find her way out again, maybe like something from the myth?” Tomas scoured the area around him wildly as he spoke. In his frantic search for, he wasn’t sure what, he tripped, over what had crunched earlier, turning quickly from the hollow-eyed skull now facing him. That’s when he saw it. No. Surely it couldn’t be that simple? The faintest glint in the dirt. He crawled over to it and gave it a firm but gentle tug. Gold. A tiny, gold chain rose up through the dirt. Aster looked at him, open mouthed with wonder. After exchanging looks of elated disbelief, they pulled themselves together.

“Right, so how do we move that thing then?”

“The backup lights have given it just enough charge that it will move itself with a push from us.”

“Do you think that will last the whole way?”

“It has to.”

They moved in silence. As Tomas stopped every few metres to gently raise more of the chain, Aster kept the torch up. Turn after turn. Down one dark passageway and then another. It seemed endless. They wouldn’t make it. Until…

“I see it!” exclaimed Tomas breathlessly, “A door!” At that point, the torch sputtered out. But a red glow rose ahead.

“Oh no….”

“What?”

“The power is starting to come back on, that’s the bull’s eyes. We need to get through that door before he realises I’m missing and the electric lock on that door re-engages. Stand back!”

“What for-?”

“ATTACK! Cut through!” Aster bellowed over him. The bull was coming to life, from some dead weight into something terrifying. Blades span and reached out ahead of us. Tomas could hear it cutting through the door, could see the light starting to come through where the handle should be.

“Come on, come ooon,” Aster muttered under his breath. More light shone through. Finally, the door swung inwards with a crash.

“Halt!” Aster called out. The bull slowly shut down and the two men jumped over it into the room. A woman ran up to the bars surrounding her bed. The light of dawn glinted off her golden hair and her gentle face, glazed in tears. Tomas knew then, he would follow her anywhere.

Adventure
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About the Creator

Nessy Writer

A freelance writer of all sorts sharing it out with the world. Poetry, prose and advice.

If you want to show your support and see more please follow me on Twitter: Nessywriter

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