Page 48 of Of Monsters and Mazes

My expression flattened.

Maybe I did have a bit of a soft spot for cute animals. That must have been the reason I’d helped the girl, too.

Definitely not telling the king about this.

Though it may be in my best interest to get a bit closer to this tribute. If I was going to be tied to her mind, body, and emotions, I needed to make sure that wouldn’t be overtly and observably obvious.

Chapter 24

The reflection of light off the yellow walls and the near metallic gold flooring of this new sector had me squinting. The mirror like surfaces were difficult to navigate, and my eyes hurt just trying to discern where one wall ended and the next began. We rounded a bend, only to come upon a two way fork in the distance. Alessi had stopped sniffing his way through the corridors once we switched sectors, and I didn’t know if he knew where he was going any more than I did. We both approached the split with a sense of caution.

The deviation in the road was more of a spacious room in the form of a ten-by-ten chamber that offered a path to the left and a path to the right. We both made it about five steps into the clearing, when three walls shot up from the floor, closing every exit. I jumped at the suddenness of it all, and Alessi was quick to comfort me with a hand on my shoulder.

“What’s happening now?” I asked in hopes of guidance.

“You’ll see.” He tipped his chin towards a far wall.

Words slowly started to appear across the surface, one at a time, like they were being slowly burned into the gold.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.

I followed the inscription as it continued wrapping around us, trying to figure out what the cryptic message might mean. The poem was familiar from my school days, but I knew the meaning would be far different here than it was in the classroom.

Sorry I could not travel both

I’d made a full rotation by the time the last phrase etched itself before us

I was but one traveler, long I stood, I looked down one as far as I could

“What do you think it means?” I barely got the words out before a loud ring, like the banging of a gong, reverberated through the chamber. A visible outline appeared in the wall in front of us, then a panel slid away, opening a small cubby in the wall.

Inside was a box. Two arrows burned themselves down the golden partition, each pointing at one side of the opening, making it pretty clear what I was supposed to do next.

I looked to Alessi, and he nodded subtly. With a deep breath, I approached the golden cubby, reached in, and removed what resembled a small treasure chest. With a very careful and nervous hand, I unlatched a gold closure, and I opened the lid. Inside there were two divided sets of objects. One compartment held a pair of syringes. The other had a clear pill bottle with two large pills.

I scrunched my nose at the options, not terribly excited about the potential uses of either one of them.

“Always an exciting new experience in this sector.” Alessi muttered under his breath, more with aggravation than excitement. Having someone who had been here before sounded like an advantage, but that statement had me questioning whether I should be more or less nervous than I already was.

“What am I supposed to do with these things?” I turned to show him the contents. I didn’t miss the very subtle twitch in his expression.

Yet Alessi spoke calmly as he explained: “In order to advance, we’re going to be given a set of options. All of them will offer different tasks, and completing those tasks will allow you to move forward, while refusal will send you back. It’s a ‘pick your poison’ kind of sector, but make no mistake: every option will be poison.” A low growl escaped his throat, and that spiked my stress levels even higher.

I stared at the contents of the box with growing dread, when a new message appeared on the wall.

Bonding with needles will keep a pair united. Down the pills, and your roads will diverge. Your choice, travelers.

“What’s in the syringe?” I asked in immediate and growing panic, as a clock appeared in front of me with ten minutes on display. The number lingered for only a second before it started counting down.

I’d rather swallow a pill if given the option, but if the difference was moving forward together versus being on my own in this godforsaken place, I was leaning towards the needle.

“I don’t know.” He didn’t hide the discomfort in his tone. “This puzzle and its options change every time. Last time I was here it was picking between poison fruits. The time before that involved stabbing myself with a knife to fill a bowl to its rim with my blood. In hindsight, I’m not sure why I’ve even been here that many times at this point, but I just know it could be absolutely anything in that tube.”

Well, at least I didn’t have to stab myself and bleed into a bowl, but stabbing myself with a needle and injecting an unknown drug into my bloodstream didn’t sound tremendously more pleasant. “I don’t think I can give myself a shot.” I stared at the box, still processing. “What if this kills me?”

“It won’t.” He shook his head, but his voice was still grave. “None of the options will kill you, but they may not make you want to keep living either.”

“Wow, that makes me feel way better.” I flattened my lips in deadpan irritation. “You’re a fox, right? So you must have strong animal senses. Can you tell what’s in it by sniffing it?” I tried next as the clock ticked past five minutes. I just wanted to hear that this wasn’t going to fuck me over and put a stop to my quest. Even if Alessi was confident he could ingest anything it might be, I wasn’t so sure my mortal human body would be okay.