Page 13 of Of Monsters and Mazes

A branch whipped past my face, which I only knew because I saw it happen. I didn’t feel it. If it cut me, I had no way of knowing. I touched my cheek to check for some sign of blood, but I couldn’t feel my face or my fingers. If not for having visual verification, I couldn’t have said for sure that I was moving at all. I could no longer feel my clothing on my body, or my hair moving as I ran. Everything was numb, as if I didn’t exist in a physical body.

Without my sense of touch or hearing, I latched onto sight, smell, and taste just to reassure myself that I was still alive. I was now thankful for the lack of obstacles on this pathway, as I would no longer be able to feel if I tripped over something and hurt myself. The forest smelled sweetly of pine, and the air was fresh and crisp on my tongue as I drew in each breath.

My taste receptors dulled next, which felt like my last physical proof of existence. I willed my body to run faster, though it was hard to tell if my legs had listened when receiving no feedback from my lungs, my heart, or my muscles. If I was to lose all sense of being, I hoped my eyes would hold out until I got to the other side of these accursed woods. I was certain I’d get it all back once I made it out. This had to be the challenge of the segment and not permanent damage. I had to believe that.

I glanced down to watch my legs propel me forward, like I needed that visual confirmation to know for sure it was happening. All I had left was the scent of pine and a soundless shaky cam translating through my pupils to my brain. The orange light added warmth to the forest floor that otherwise felt terrifying and uninviting now.

At least I couldn’t feel the physical discomfort of running anymore. I never needed to slow my pace, because I was no longer restricted by the misery of wheezing for air or overheating from my rapidly pumping heart. My body was limitless without my physical distress cues. One might even say it was freeing to lose my nerves. That was what I told myself.

Desperate words from a scared, uncertain girl, but it was better than admitting defeat.

I kept at my pace, always searching for the exit and still hoping I had enough time left. I focused on the only senses that remained, taking in that strong scent of moist dirt on the forest floor. It was pleasant at first: welcoming and refreshing and exotic, like standing in a far off rain forest during a downpour.

Then the smell was punctuated by something sharp. An unrecognizable odor that was akin to shrimp that had been left in the sun for three days. I only knew my body physically wretched because I saw myself stumble. I thanked whatever reflexes found balance without face planting.

I scanned the area while still moving forward, finding no obvious source of that stench. All I could see was a mix of leaves and pine needles and sticks and bushes, but there weren’t any animals or rotting carcasses to blame. The smell was absolutely putrid, and the loss of my other senses only made it more powerful. I saw my body buckle, and I watched myself drop to my hands and knees to heave up the little coffee in my stomach. It took all of my focus to will my numb body to get up again and resume the charge.

The reddish hue of the overhead light started to fade, until my entire point of view was tinted with green. The yellows melted away next, and my vision was awash in cold blue.

I think I whimpered. I may have even cried. It was hard to say what I was doing as my mind screamed with desperation for my legs to outrun my failing sight. I was losing one color at a time, and I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to navigate the world at all.

It was then that the vile stench of death overwhelmed me, fractions of a second before plump, hideous larvae started raining down from the trees. If I shrieked, I couldn’t hear it, but I watched myself flailing through my now colorless vision, as segmented worms the size of a small dog landed on my arms and my legs. I stared into the rounded mouths lined with teeth, as each parasite opened wide to feast on my flesh.

I fought and swung about, trying to throw them off, but a thick goo glued them to my skin, giving me a close and personal visual of the black holes of their mouths. The smell of rot mixed with blood as the first worm latched onto my bicep. Its body pulsed as it sucked, and I clawed at it with another worm covered hand.

Darkness crept into my vision, spreading in tightening swirls that spun blindness through my last real defense. The last thing I saw was the tandem image of one massive worm sinking its fangs into my chest, right before another landed on my head, and covered my right eye with its fat, wriggling body.

It was just enough to throw my mind into total abject horror as the world disappeared in a sudden burst of black.

All that was left now was the odor of rotting worms mixed with the increasing presence of the sharp iron scent of my own blood.

I couldn’t have distinguished if I was dead or simply dying, being eaten alive or fighting off the monsters through flailing. I wished now that I’d gone blind sooner. That my mind didn’t know what was happening. That I could have any thought other than terror as the last of my sense of smell slipped away into nothingness.

It was quiet torture that my consciousness remained. But something told me that once that was gone, so was I.

Chapter 6

I tugged at the leather collar on my neck like a nervous tick, attempting to loosen the uncomfortable tightness around my throat for the thousandth time today. The slight restriction on my breathing was just enough to be burdensome when I was out for a run .That was all part of Master’s need for control. To allow me freedom even on my own time was a lot to ask of the King.

I rolled my shoulders in my leather vest, cracked my neck, and stretched my arms over my head. Then I ran my fingers along the length of my long horns and pricked myself on the sharp tip, just to remind myself that I was more powerful and deadly than my slave collar implied. The Senseless Forest laid ahead of me, just on the outskirt of my Labyrinth. A place that robbed a man of all of his senses would be harrowing if not for the fact that I could navigate any of these treacherous places without nerves, sight, or sound and never fear stumbling.

Not that the magic in these trees affected me anymore. I’d built a resistance to the Tree Sprites’ poison long ago.

Enough thought. It was time for a hunt.

I sniffed the air as I started through the forest, and I listened closely for the rustle of leaves and the squish of mud in the distance. A goblin was my usual prey, but the forest was quiet today.

Though it was rare to hear anything at all in this place, even when fully aware. The pests had been learning to better hide themselves.

Deeper still, I picked up on careless rustling. Something foreign thrashing about, I’d wager. Perhaps it was a stray that had slipped in from the human world. Master had been out for a while, and he often neglected to close the portal when he ventured through to other realms.

So careless.

If not for all of us who served him, I didn’t know how he would manage Tartarus. I appreciated the portals he scattered through the Labyrinth for faster transport, but I’d come across the corpses of too many feral humans who accidentally stumbled upon the door to our realm over the years. I didn’t understand why he never took the initiative to close the pathway during his increasingly drawn out selection processes. Cleaning up the scattered gunk of half eaten mortals was the worst part of my hunts.

If he was going to be so careless, maybe I’d slip through one day and see what it was Master kept going back for. He was always in such a good mood during the yearly tribute selection, and I’d always wanted to see some of the other realms. I’d heard so much about Earth from the king, and I couldn’t help but be curious about a place that produced such weak and simple creatures. He could have chosen any number of worlds ruled by Olympus to pluck his tributes from, but something about Earth, specifically, seemed to call to him time and again.

Though I was expressly forbidden from entering the portal, what Master didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him.