Listen closely, heed each word,
Though temptation bids you stray.
Every order must be heard?—
Or the hunters win their prey.
Failure brings the prize you crave,
Punishment you long to feel.
Play the victim, play the brave,
All your fantasies made real.
Maze of pleasure, maze of play,
Rules you wrote, brought to life.
Valentine's most thrilling day,
Caught between surrender's strife.
Master waits at journey's end,
Knowing well your heart's desire.
Every capture, twist and bend,
Feeds your body's growing fire.
I stop breathing.
The card trembles in my fingers as I read the poem twice, three times. I blink. Swallow. My throat clicks audibly in the humid jungle air.
I know this story.
Not justknowit—Iwroteit. Every word. Every scene. Every brutal, unforgivable moment.
The Call of the Labyrinth.
Lyra and Helix.
My hands are shaking so badly now that the card blurs in front of my eyes. I read it again, confirming what I already know, what my body recognized before my brain caught up.
Lyra was a human woman kidnapped from her world. Dragged into darkness by Helix, a horned monster-man from a cursed underground realm. He claimed she was his destined mate, but first she had to prove herself worthy through the Labyrinth—an ancient trial that would determine if she deserved to stand beside him.
He told her a portal waited at the maze's center. That if she reached it, she could go home.
It was a lie.
There was no portal. There was never any escape. She was trapped in his world permanently, and the trial existed only to break her down until she accepted her captivity as salvation.
The maze wasn't empty. Three animalistic monsters hunted her through the twisting corridors—Helix's enemies who viewed human females as breeding stock. If they caught her, she faced violation, captivity, repeated assault as a slave-breeder until her body gave out.
Helix's voice guided her through telepathic bond. Shortcuts. Portal-jumps. Instructions she had to follow blindly even when every survival instinct screamed to run the other way.
She was captured three times.
