One step after another, I headed for the new path, unaware if I was moving toward or away from the noise. When I reached the new opening, I cautiously peered around the corner, a shaky exhale releasing when I saw the path was empty—aside from the ancient souls caught in the bramble.
I should have found solace in the fact that I was alone, but my chest was still tight with anticipation.
Where the fuck was the noise coming from? And what kind of monster was making it? Could anything be worse than the blood oak? My imagination went wild with the kind of horrors that could be wandering the maze, wanting to eat me.
I slipped around the corner, making my way down the next path as quietly as possibly, cursing my haggard breath for being so loud. Every move I made, every breath I took, felt like a smoke signal to whatever was creeping through the maze. A beacon that would draw it straight to me.
Other than my breathing, I was managing to stay quiet…until my boot came down on a twig, its snap scaring me so badly that I squeaked.
The noise that followed shook me to my core. It was a demonic hiss, like air escaping ancient lungs after being trapped for hundreds of years, followed by an unholy growl. My stomach somersaulted as my heart lurched, beating so hard I could feel it in my ears. I looked in every direction, trying to find the source.
There was no sign of it, but it was close.
I was terrified to move, afraid I would step around a corner and find the elusive beast laying in wait. But it would eventually find me if I stayed rooted to the spot. I needed to put distance between me and whatever it was, the quicker the better.
I took a right and then a left, praying to whatever god would listen in this hellhole that I wasn’t going in circles.
Maybe the only god to hear me was the one of this realm, because just then, I rounded the wrong corner and saw it. A serpentine monster, at least fifteen–maybe even twenty–feet long, made entirely of bones.
It had a wide, angular head connected to a chain of enormous vertebrae, but they were spiked with extra growth-like ridges shooting out at odd angles. It slithered, curling its way along the ground, its eye sockets filled with red flames. Suddenly, its head whipped in my direction, and it snapped its jaws full of razor-sharp teeth. It hissed, the sound hellishly unnatural.
Fuck. This was bad.
By the time I registered the need to run, the serpentine bone monster had sped up, whipping in my direction. I stumbled over my feet turning around, sprinting in the opposite direction and praying I was fast enough to outrun it.
I wasn’t.
The sound of it slithering along behind me, hissing and snapping its jaws as it drew nearer, rang out into the air and made my heart skip a painful beat.
I needed a plan, because I certainly couldn’t kill it in a straight fight. I doubted that creatures down here could die, since pretty much everything was already dead.
I couldn’t climb under the hedges. The roots were too thick, the brambles too dense, and the body parts caught up in their thorns too numerous to slip through. And finding the exit seemed less likely than me taking the serpent on in a fist fight and winning.
I banked left, my feet beating hard against the ground and my arms pumping furiously at my sides. I was more grateful than ever for my boots—I wouldn’t be able to run nearly this fast without them.
Precious seconds ticked by, the monster’s sounds drawing closer. I chanced a glance over my shoulder to see the beast gaining on me. A few more yards and it would catch up.
It had no digestive system to swallow me. Would its teeth rip me to shreds, leaving the Lord of Bones to piece me back together with his magic?
A scream was brewing in my chest, but I swallowed it down. What good would it do? No one could hear me out here but the trapped souls, and they were useless.
Another right and I found my path blocked by the River Styx.
There was a section of wall on the other side, creating a ledge that stretched several feet over the river. Hope lifted in my heart as I realized there had to be something above that wall. A higher level of the labyrinth maybe.
As soon as my heart soared with hope, it plummeted again as reality set in. I couldn’t swim across the river, and I couldn’t turn back. Any chance of escape existed in this singular path, and my odds were looking slimmer by the second.
As the ground between me and the Styx quickly disappeared, my thoughts spun. If I jumped, would I come close to clearing the river at all? It wasn’t very wide, but it seemed too risky. If I touched the water, my soul would never leave.
Maybe I could somehow climb across the bramble-covered ledge jutting out over the water. I’d climbed things before–wrought iron fences and rope ladders–so it wasn’t anything new to me.
It wasn’t a great plan, but I hadn’t come this far and fought this hard to die now.
I was so focused on my plan that I failed to notice the shift behind me, the subtle crescendo of noise as the monster closed the distance between us, until it was too late. Something slammed into my back, sending me flying. I skidded across the ground, rocks, sticks, and a thorn or two ripping the front of my dress. White-hot pain seared across my skin.
“Fuck,” I gritted out, rolling onto my back as the serpent monster reared up. I only had a second to prepare for its attack, tensing as the giant skeleton lunged at me with gaping jowls.
Thinking fast, I grabbed a handful of dirt and gravel and tossed it into the creature's eye sockets. The flames were extinguished for a moment, and sputtered, trying to flick to life. The snake roared in rage, its head lashing back and forth.
