2572 WORDS

Warning: this is a work of homosexual erotic horror. It contains dark themes including but not limited to rape, torture, slavery, kidnapping, and some surreal kinks. It does not include any bestiality, piss or scat play, or underage content. Please read responsibly.

Avi and the orc had been negotiating back and forth for only about two minutes (with notable silence from the two he had risked everything to rescue), but Avi could feel his grip tiring. He didn’t have the upper body strength to hold on much longer.

“It over for you,” said the orc. “Last chance. Come with me or I drop you.”

Avi groaned, thinking fast. There must have been something he could bargain with, something to offer.

“Let us go and I’ll give you my journal,” said Avi. “It’s in my bag.”

“Why would I want stupid book?” demanded the orc.

“It has information in it. Useful information, on both the Incubi and the Andromeda. Your people can use it. But if you don’t let us go, I’ll toss it into the mud and destroy it forever.” Avi had no idea whether what he was saying was true, but that was something to worry about later.

Avi watched the orc ponder for a moment— using all six of his brain cells, he figured— until he came to a conclusion.

“Fine. I let prisoners go if you give book.”

“Deal,” said Avi quickly. He was sad to give away the journal he had sworn hours earlier to protect. But ultimately, it’s what Sebastian would have wanted. Avi had no interest in becoming an orc.

Slowly, the orc hauled up the chain, bringing the three of them to rest on the platform. The three of them got to their feet and retreated from the edge, reentering the relative safety of the corridor. The orc got to work undoing the chains.

“Give book,” said the monster.

Avi fumbled with his satchel. It looked like nothing had fallen out, barring the dagger that he had lost. Before he handed over the journal, he quickly snagged the pendant, balling it up in his hand. He wasn’t willing to hand over both of Sebastian’s prized possessions.

He handed the journal over as the orc unlocked the chains. Both the boys stepped out, and immediately ran for it.

“Wait!” called Avi. “Jaden or Lance? Do you know them?” he didn’t get a reply. They vanished into the darkness.

With a groan, Avi handed over the journal. So it had all been for nothing. Who the hell was he kidding? There was no way that they would ever have been of any use.

“Thank you,” said the orc, taking the book. Suddenly, he clasped a handcuff around Avi’s wrist, securing him to the chain.

“Hey!” said Avi, struggling. “We had a deal!”

“Yes. Deal to release prisoners. You were not prisoner. You coming with me.”

Avi’s heart sank. He had been played. All to let those two cowards run free at his expense. He stopped feeling disappointment or fear. All he could feel was an intense, rising sense of anger.

“No,” said Avi calmly.

The orc was busy chaining the boy’s ankles. “Shut up. You will become orc and replace orc you killed.”

“No,” he said again. He clenched his fists.

The orc stood up, easily towering over Avi in height. He wrapped his hand around the boy’s neck.

Avi couldn’t breathe. His chained hand scratched uselessly at the hand wrapped around him. The orc laughed at his struggle.

Closing his eyes, all that Avi could see was red. He was furious. Furious at the orc for tricking him. Furious at the tributes who abandoned him. Furious at Haltus for imprisoning him in this god awful place.

Without thinking, Avi winded back his one free hand, and threw a punch.

As he connected with the orc’s stomach, Avi felt a vibration in his hand, like his whole arm was a bell that had just been struck. The orc suddenly let go of Avi, and was knocked back almost two meters, dropping his shield and falling on his back. Dazed and winded, the orc lay motionless, groaning loudly.

Not wasting a second, Avi dragged his chain ankles over to where the orc lay. With his free hand, he lay one more punch into the naked orc’s head, knocking him unconscious with another blow that shook through his whole body. “FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, YOU BRAINLESS GREEN PIECE OF SHIT!” In a fit of rage, he tore the steel chain off of the cuff on his wrist, and with both hands, he broke the cuffs off of his ankles in one swift motion.

Wordlessly, he stormed over to his journal, picked it up, slipped it back into his satchel, and began to march down the corridor, back the way he came.

He made it about fifty meters before the fatigue hit him. His marching turned to a slow walk, and then to a slog, before he slumped himself down against the wall.

Avi burst into tears. He was exhausted, angry, hungry, lonely, and desperately lost. Not to mention the soreness of his arms, or the intense burning sensation in his hand.

Wait, why was his hand burning?

Avi opened up his right hand, the one that hadn’t been restrained by the chains. Clenched in his hand was the pendant, right where Avi had concealed it. It retained its red hue, but it was glowing; the gemstone had gone bright pink, and was hot to the touch.

Avi held the necklace by the cord, letting the gemstone dangle. Slowly, the glowing began to fade, and the rough-cut stone returned to its previous crimson shade. As it did, Avi felt his exhaustion intensify, his eyelids becoming heavier. “What the fuck?” he whispered. Somehow, he had just beaten up an orc and broken steel chains. By himself.

Oh, right, thought Avi. The orc. He’ll probably wake up sooner or later. Avi was entirely running on empty, but he didn’t have much choice. He brought himself to his feet and kept walking. For safekeeping, he put the pendant around his neck.

He needed somewhere to rest. Quickly. He walked for what felt like forever, searching for a bedroom like Sebastian’s. How had he gotten so lucky in finding one?

His hand went to the gemstone again. By now, it had gone back completely to its original colour, and was no longer warm against his skin. Avi knew that this stone was something powerful, something that he had been very lucky to come into ownership of. But why hadn’t Sebastian told him about it?

Avi spotted something on his right hand side. It was a door; a large steel vault door, like something out of an old bank. It had a single wheel on the front, as well as a handle. To an exhausted Avi, it seemed as good of a place as any to try and hole up for a few hours.

After fruitlessly tugging on the handle a couple of times, Avi spun the wheel around counter-clockwise and pulled once more to open the door. Inside was a large square room, some twenty meters on each side, with a floor of polished stone tiles. All of the tiles were grey, save for a few golden ones near the entrance forming the number “3”. In the center of the room was a large stone slab, the size and height of a dinner table. Most striking, though, was the walls. They were lined with dozens and dozens of locked hatches that resembled bank safe deposit boxes. Each of them had a name affixed on the outside, as well as a mechanical counter displaying a number of days.

Did the Labyrinth have some sort of banking service? Avi pondered this for a matter of seconds before he once again remembered how drained he was. With no more energy whatsoever, he lay down on the cold tile floor behind the marble table, and fell asleep within seconds.

He didn’t dream of much. Vague images of orcs, Haltus, and high school math exams flashed through Avi’s mind, but he had awoken far before he could process any of it.

Avi woke up feeling very rested. He had no idea how long he had slept, but he knew he was hungry. Very hungry. Sitting up with his back against the table, he began to munch on what was left of his first loaf of stale bread.

While he ate, he scanned the room. He guessed there were about a thousand or so safes, seemingly ordered from oldest to newest. The newest one seemed to only be two days old.

Suddenly, Avi stopped chewing. His eyes snapped to one of the safes.

Lance Lee 000007 Days

He couldn’t believe his eyes. That had to be Lance’s safe. How many Lances could there be in the maze? Certainly not many named Lee. Wait, was that his name? Had Sebastian even mentioned it? Lee is a Korean name, right? He’s storing things in the bank? Sebastian never told him that.

Avi walked over to the safe. After a quick scan of the wall, he couldn’t immediately see one with Jaden’s name. He considered his options. He could try to get into the safe, though Lance probably wouldn’t appreciate that. Or, he could wait for Lance to show up. Avi wasn’t incredibly keen on sitting in one spot in the maze, but maybe it would be okay just for a few hours.

Surely there was no harm checking inside the safe, thought Avi. Surely if he were just to peek, it would be okay? He gave the handle a tug. It was heavy, but he felt it move slightly.

He pulled harder, half expecting the stone around his neck to heat up, but he was forced to use his own raw strength as he pulled on the safe. It slid out slowly. It wasn’t a door at all, it was more like a drawer.

When the drawer was half open, and Avi peered inside, he suddenly stopped pulling.

“Holy shit.”

Inside the drawer was a mummy— a humanoid figure wrapped up in white bandages from head to toe. It was half immersed in a white fluid. It had a distinct fishy smell.

Semen.

Gross. Was this thing dead? Slowly, cautiously, Avi moved his hand to the mummy, placing it on the shoulder.

Abruptly, the mummy began to wiggle around in its wrappings. Avi screamed, leaping backwards and falling onto the ground. He made ready to stand up and run for it, but after a few seconds the mummy was hardly squirming at all. It wasn’t acting like a cheap monster from a horror film. It was barely moving at all.

Avi got back up to his feet, and approached the mummy once more. “Hello?” he asked softly. The mummy squirmed again. “C-can you hear me?”

A noise came from inside the bandages. A muffled voice. Good god, thought Avi. Someone is alive in there!

He knew what he had to do. Wishing he still had his dagger, Avi tore into the bandages around the face, ripping the fabric off. He got through several layers before he finally reached something. A pair of pink lips.

“Hey!” said Avi. “Speak to me!”

The lips twitched. Nothing came out but a quiet groan.

Avi made quick work of the bandages. “This place keeps getting weirder,” he said, eventually managing to free the entire head. He saw fair skin, a set of dark brown eyes as they flickered open and shut, and a head of black hair dyed green at the ends.

“Lance!” said Avi excitedly.

He groaned again. “Yeah…”

“Oh my god, am I glad to see you! Haha!” He laughed triumphantly.

“You found me…” Lance was barely audible, speaking at a whisper.

“Yes! What the hell were you doing in there? Here, let me help you out,” said Avi as he began to unwrap the bandages from Lance’s body.

“Help me…” he said softly. His voice was froggy and cracking from disuse. With his arms free, Lance began to help Jaden get the rest of the bandages off. “Fucking get me out of this box. This is disgusting.”

“Right. Yeah. Let me help you. Give me your arm.”

Lance was very weak, so it took their combined strength to lift the naked, cum-soaked man out of the drawer and onto the floor. He lay there for a moment, breathing heavily.

“How long was I in there?” asked Lance.

“I don’t know,” said Avi. “Your name says seven days.”

Lance shut his eyes. “Wow. I thought it was months.”

“You still haven’t told me what the hell happened to you?”

“And you haven’t told me who you are,” said Lance, trying to get to his feet. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

“What? Why?”

“Are you stupid? In case the people who put me here come back.” With a bit of exercise, Lance’s voice was slowly healing itself. He staggered to the door, pushing it open. “Let’s go.”

With a sigh, Avi followed. He forced himself to remember that Lance knew the maze better than he did.

Lance was able to limp for about ten meters before he began to stumble. Still grossed out by the cum, Avi took a deep breath and wrapped Lance’s arm around his shoulder, helping him walk. “Okay,” said Avi, “tell me what happened to you.”

“I was on my own. I was lost. These three guys cornered me, they called themselves the Magi. They sort of looked like incubi, but they were taller. And they had these spears.”

“What about- I mean, weren’t you with anyone?” Avi didn’t want to come across as a stalker by name-dropping Jaden or Sebastian.

“I was with my friend before. But we got separated while we were looking for someone. Anyway, the Magi took me to their Archive- that’s what they kept calling it, ‘Archive 3’, and put me on the table. They wrapped me up in bandages and shoved me in a drawer.”

“But why?”

“They say they do it to everyone they find. I’m surprised you were able to get inside.”

“I mean… it wasn’t locked. I slept behind the table for a few hours.”

Lance looked at Avi with amazement. “Are you stupid or something? You could have ended up in a box like me!”

Avi looked at the floor as he walked. He had to be more careful. “Okay. Thank you for telling me. Lance… were you, y’know…”

“Awake? Yeah. The entire time.”

Avi was stunned. Those counters had six digits. That was millenia.

“Now it’s my turn to ask a question,” said Lance. “Who are you?”

“My name is Avi. I ran into Sebastian. He got kissed. I’m sorry.”

Lance stopped walking, looking down at the ground. He said nothing.

“He was brave. He told me everything he knew. He didn’t want to go without a fight,” said Avi.

Lance looked at Avi. “Did he say anything about Jaden?”

“Just for me to find him, as well as you. I’m guessing he’s the friend you got separated from?”

“Yeah.”

Avi sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

“It’s okay. People die in the Labyrinth.” Lance’s face was blank, like he had already processed the information and Avi was merely repeating it. He must have had plenty of time to speculate about Sebastian over the last week.

All Avi could do was nod. “Do you want to come with me, then?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Okay. Give me your arm back.”

Lance took Avi’s side once more, and together they continued on into the eerie fake darkness of the maze.