Random Stories and Stuff From Over the Years

The Maze

   The confines twisting and twirling. The walls made with the bones of those who were stupid enough to try for freedom.

   This was a place for criminals who had a choice; either they could be killed on the spot or try and brave the maze.

   If you could get out of the maze alive then you were free and your crimes were dropped. The problem was that no one ever got out of the maze. Now it was my turn.

   My crime?

   Speaking against the royal family. For that I was faced with either a slow painful hanging or the maze. I was being the idiot that I was born as and picked the maze. 

   The door opened to the vast confines of my execution grounds and I was shoved forward with only a knife and some rope.

   The doors swiftly shut behind me and I felt eyes on me all around. I had to get out of there fast or I was certain to die.

   Rushing through the open doorway I leapt over the roots that were there to trip me up and cut away stray branches in my way.

   Behind me a monstrous howling erupted. Heavy foot falls were racing after me and I heard the gasps as the monster inhaled air to keep it going.

   This thing was coming after me fast. I didn’t know if I could make it to safety. This was troubling. I took in the molten air that was wafting up from the now volcanic ground and nearly choked.

   Behind me the monster screamed with rage.

   I was running when I heard a hissing sound. I immediately registered that as bad. I had heard of these dangers from stories.

   I heard it mostly to my left and veered away. Right next to my left arm a fiery blast of steam shot up. I hissed slightly as I smelled burning hair. Looking down I saw all of the hair had been seared off of my poor singed arm.

   I put that aside though as I heard the pounding foot falls behind me. ‘I have two options.

   Either I can die by these ruptures or I can die by the monster who will undoubtedly use me for a chew toy… yeah no brainer.

   I hauled butt through the field trying to dodge the various spouts of steam and after a few minutes of running I heard the loud foot falls begin to slow until they were gone.

   I stopped at the edge of the field breathing hard. My lungs were on fire and I thought that they were about to burst from all of the air that was now rushing into them.

   This was painful beyond belief as clean air came through. Straightening up after a few seconds I looked out over the field and saw the monster in the distance.

   Its horrible decrepit figure retreating through the other side. Snorting I walked off toward the trees on my side. I needed to make a shelter and get some base necessities ready before the night time came.

   I had just finished building a platform above the trees when night set in. It was a whole other world now. Many things screeched in the distance and menacing eyes looked at me through the underbrush. I was too freaked to sleep so for now all I did was hunker down to wait out the darkness. That was all that I could really do.

   I guess I managed to fall asleep some time since when I woke up I saw that it was still completely dark. I tried to move but found that impossible. Something had hold of my limbs. I thrashed around and it seemed to get me nowhere. The grip on my limbs began to get tighter and tighter until I began to scream out in pain. This was killing me oh why had I even said that I wanted the maze?

   Then in the very next second whatever was holding me was gone and the dark night was suddenly illuminated. “Are you alright?”A man asked. His face was very boyish but his voice was older than how he looked. He was very tall too, in his arms was a torch that cast a calming glow.

   “Yes, thank you.”I said. He nodded to me and then motioned me to follow him. I nodded and as he set a fast pace I tried to match it with my short legs. We went through the jungle and came to a cliff.

   A little way up was a cave and the guy began to climb. We made it to the cave and he walked in fearlessly and light suddenly exploded out of the cave. I walked in and saw him sitting around a huge fire that was built in the middle of the cave.

   “Food?”He asked while he held up a chunk of meat. I gratefully took it and began to dig in.

   By the time that we were finished eating I was stuffed to max capacity. The guy motioned to the bed of leaves in the back of the cave and I gratefully nodded to him. I went in there and laid down there where sleep soon consumed me. The last thing I saw was the guy with bangs over his eyes and a creepy smile plastered onto his face.

   When I awoke the thing that I first realized was something breathing on the back of my neck. I shivered slightly but just stayed there in hopes that whatever it was would go away. However I guess that it wasn’t since I felt teeth scrape against my neck. Opening my eyes quickly I whipped around and came face to face with the monster. Its horrible yellow eyes were watching me and daring me to move again. I stood there completely still, there was something about this monster.

   Then it hit me. Where was the guy that led me here? I looked around my peripherals and saw that there were bones scattered all over the floor and some were embedded in the walls. It then clicked. He would have something trap people in the maze and then he’d come and rescue them if he didn’t catch them before they got across from the geyser field. He’d take them to his special home on a cliff and make them comfortable. Then suddenly without warning he would change back into his monstrous form and kill them.

   “You’re that guy that save me aren’t you?”I asked him.

The beast looked at me and seemed to gargle a reply at me. He then began to circle around.

   I looked for any means of escape as he continued to circle but it seemed that there was just one way in and one way out.

   The beast lunged for me and all I could do was just throw myself to the cave wall. I felt my shoulder pop somewhat and resisted the urge to cry out. The beast was fast for such a large creature, it’s arms, however were very weak since I broke its grip quickly.

   Racing over to the mouth of the cave I ran out and then began to climb back down the cliff. The monster was right on my tail however as he came after me.

   Once my feet hit the ground I was off running once more.

   Unfortunately my stomach was in knots and that was making it hard to move very  fast. However I pushed that to the back of my mind and then focused on keeping myself alive.

   We came to the end of the forest and I looked around for which way to go. Hearing the monster come up behind quickly I chose the left path.

   Huge twisted trees jutted up from the ground and grew up into the air. The sky was still quite dark and I saw up ahead a portal. That was it, it had to be!

   That was the portal that would set me free. I just had to make it to that portal alive.

   The monster roared behind me and was dangerously close now. I ran up the hill and felt relieved as the portal grew ever nearer. I had just come a few feet away from the portal when there was a huge tug on the back of my shirt. A ripping noise sounded and I felt a huge gash on my back rip open.

   It was too late though. I jumped into the portal and began to laugh happily. Here I was, free. There was truly no greater feeling.

   The portal deposited me out into the open air and I stopped cold. No, no this couldn’t be happening to me. This wasn’t right! There right in front of me, was the beginning of the maze.