2446 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 found himself sitting at a large circular table with five equidistant seats. To his right was Lance, and after that was Doctor Feln, James, and Shawn, who had barely said a word the entire meal. Shawn was a young man, pretty-faced with a black mullet and blue eyes. He had been introduced to Avi and Lance as Feln’s “secretary,” though after being in their presence for a few minutes, Avi was starting to get the feeling that their relationship extended beyond the professional.

In front of Avi was a plate of pasta and meat sauce, with a salad and some bread on the side. Everyone at the table was wearing clothes. In a weird way, it almost felt like a normal meal.

“Everything I eat down here is grown or synthetically printed in-house,” said Feln. “I don’t scavenge out in the Labyrinth anymore. I leave that for the tribute.”

Avi politely took small bites, fighting off how hungry he was. “That’s quite a feat,” he said.

Feln smiled. “I can tell you’re still feeling a bit off. I can hardly blame you. Go on, ask away.”

“Who are you?” said Lance, who hadn’t touched his food. “And what are you doing here?”

“A bit interrogative, don’t you think?” replied Feln. This got a soft chuckle out of Shawn.

“I’m just curious,” said Lance.

“I know. Just messing with you. Well, like I said, I’m Leon Feln. Believe it or not, I’m a tribute, just like you. Though I’m definitely on the older end of men that Haltus selects.”

“So you just… happened upon all of this? This whole… facility?”

“Nope. I built it from scratch. Well, the chamber was already here. I just did a lot of remodelling.”

“How?”

“You’d be surprised what you can find out there in the Labyrinth. It’s not just stone and grey. See, I’m not just a doctor by name. I have a PhD in mechanical engineering.”

Avi stopped chewing. “You’re saying you built this entirely by yourself?”

“Yep. Pretty much. All the rooms, all the doors, the machinery, everything.”

“It must have taken forever,” said Lance. “There’s no way one man could have done this.”

“Well, fifty-odd years is a long time.”

Lance dropped his fork onto the floor.

“You’re kidding,” said Avi.

Feln took a sip of water, shaking his head. “Nah. I was born on December 12th, 1936.”

“Bullshit,” said Lance. “You look like you’re forty.”

“I’m 38, thank you very much.”

“But that’s impossible!” demanded Lance.

Feln sighed, continuing with his meal. “James, don’t you teach anything to these guys?”

James shrugged. “I assumed he’d figured that out by now. He sounded pretty confident in himself.”

“Tell me what?” Lance was getting frustrated.

“You don’t age in the Labyrinth,” said Shawn, speaking up suddenly. “No one is sure why. But your entire metabolism just kind of… slows down.”

“But only partly!” clarified Feln. “That’s one of the things that I’m researching. You see, Lance, I’m trying to understand the Labyrinth. To figure out its secrets. And maybe, just maybe, find a way to defeat it.”

Lance said nothing. He picked his fork up off the ground and wiped it with his napkin.

“Doctor,” said Avi, “there’s a reason we asked James to take us to you.”

“I could only assume so.”

Avi reached under his bag to grab his satchel. “We were hoping you could help us figure out what this is,” he said, pulling out the necklace and holding it in his outstretched hand.

Feln frowned, looking at the small pendant. “I mean… It just looks like a crude bit of jewelry.”

“See, that’s what I thought. But it’s not. Three times now, it’s started randomly glowing. The gemstone, anyway. And when it glows while I’m wearing it, it feels like I’m on steroids. I just feel a rush of strength, it’s like I’m superhuman.”

Feln stopped eating. He stopped moving. His jaw dropped.

“Where did you find it?” he said calmly.

“I didn’t find it. A friend of ours did… a late friend. It was in a library, it looked like it had been hidden there-”

Doctor Feln slammed his hand on the table, rattling the dinnerware. “My God.”

Shawn spoke up. “Doctor, you don’t think-”

“It’s an Emotion Stone!”

“A what?” asked James.

Feln stood up, quickly wiping his lips before abandoning his half-finished plate.

“Doctor Feln, wait!” said Avi. He scooped up his bag and chased the Doctor out of the dining room.

Feln was speed walking at a brisk pace down a corridor. “You have no idea what you’ve found,” he said.

“But I didn’t find it. Sebastian did.”

They passed a number of doors, including one labelled clearly in red to KEEP OUT, before arriving at a door at the end. It opened as they approached, to reveal a huge table, some five meters on each side. The entire tabletop was one big screen, with a mass of criss-crossing lines.

“This is a map of the Labyrinth,” said Feln nonchalantly. “Well, the map so far, at least. I pay tributes to chart it for me.” He walked to a digital screen mounted on a wall on the far end of the room.

“Okay?” said a puzzled Avi. “What’s that got to do with anything? What’s an Emotion Stone?”

“It’s not related. Just saving you a question.” He pressed a couple buttons on the screen on the wall.

He brought up an image of five lumpy objects, brightly coloured: red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. “Not many things are valued in the Labyrinth. Sure, orcs hoard gold, and tributes scramble for theriac, but there are no real treasures. Except for these, the Emotion Stones.”

Avi heard the door swish open behind him. He turned his head around to see Lance, James, and Shawn, before turning back to Feln.

“Each of them is an incredibly powerful object. But together, they can do something much greater; they can open a portal.”

“A portal?” said Avi. “Like, a portal out of the Labyrinth?”

Feln nodded. “It hasn’t been done since my time. Not since the war.”

“What war?”

“The Apollo War. The last great war in the Labyrinth. Humans, orcs, and incubi fought for control of the stones, and for dominance of the maze.”

Avi cocked his head. “I don’t understand. How could the human tributes possibly organize themselves to fight a war?”

“They were led by the Apollo Tribe. Their leader, the Apollo, united the people under him and led them against the monsters of the Labyrinth. The humans were a force to be reckoned with.”

“Why haven’t I heard about the Apollo Tribe?”

“Because we lost,” said the doctor solemnly. “The humans lost. I mean, I wasn’t there. It was years before I came here. But the orcs and incubi formed an alliance against us. The Apollo Tribe was carved up, its members captured, its leader executed, and its emotion stones scattered across the Labyrinth.”

“Where are they?” said Lance, stepping into the room. “I mean, we found one. Surely we can find the rest?”

“You got lucky. Extremely lucky. That one, the Stone of Anger, was thought to be lost for over two hundred years.”

Avi gasped. Had the necklace really been in the library for that long?

“At the end of the war, one of them was stolen from the Apollo by a human. No one knows where that one is, either. Two others are more secure: the orcs were given one, as were the incubi. And the last one was destroyed. Fragmented.”

Avi looked at the necklace in his hand. He couldn’t believe people had fought and died over this little rock. “You take it,” said Avi.

Doctor Feln raised his hands. “No. No way. I can’t.”

“It’s safer with you. Please. You’ll use it better than me.”

“Avi,” said Feln, “it’s out of my hands. You’re the one who found it.”

“But I don’t know anything about this place! If you have the stone, you have more resources to help tributes.”

“Yeah. And it also puts a bigger target on my head.”

Avi lowered his voice. “Target?”

Feln nodded. “The discovery of the Stone of Anger is big news. Word is going to spread that a human found a Stone.”

“Oh.” Avi took a deep breath.

“Listen… we have a lot to talk about. You need some rest for now. Tomorrow, we can go over everything.”

Avi opened his mouth to speak, but could find no words as Feln pushed his way past the others and exited the map room.

That night, Avi lay awake in his bed, dressed in a pair of plaid pyjamas. He kept the Stone firmly clutched in his hand, the comparatively worthless cord wrapped around his neck. Why him? Why did he have to be the one burdened with this treasure? It was so unlike him, Avi thought. He was used to just being a face in the crowd. The more he had learned about the Labyrinth, the less confidence he had that he would ever survive. And now he was closer to escaping than any other tribute had been for centuries.

A knock on Avi’s door interrupted his thoughts. “Come in,” he said, sitting up.

The door creaked open, revealing James. “Trouble sleeping?” he asked.

“You could say that,” said Avi. He lay back down.

James stepped into the room. “Me as well. Avi, I’m sorry I put you in this situation. Genuinely, I had no idea this was going to happen.”

“I mean, you’re the one who was making a big fuss about how important the necklace was.”

“Let me rephrase: I didn’t know I was going to put such a burden on your shoulders.”

Avi sighed. “It’s alright. It’s just fate, I guess.”

James sat down on the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. Restless.”

“Same here. I can’t believe there’s actually a chance of us escaping.”

“You’re not helping,” groaned Avi.

“Sorry.” James turned to Avi, looking him in the eye. “Avi, I like you. I want to help you. You have the stone, and I have knowledge of the Labyrinth. Maybe we should work together.”

“Are we not already working together?” asked a tired Avi.

“We sort of are. But there are other ways we could be.”

“What ways?”

James answered Avi’s question with another kiss. Avi semi-reluctantly accepted it, enjoying the pleasant softness of the boy’s lips but feeling slightly uncomfortable with the suddenness of it.

James leaned into Avi, eventually climbing on top of him, with nothing but the comforter on the bed separating the two of them, their lips interwoven in a deep kiss. James’ hands were in Avi’s hair, just as they had been earlier. Avi passively kissed back, his hands migrating to James’ sides, until he felt James pulling at the bedsheets to pull the two of them closer together.

Avi broke off the kiss. “Is this happening?” he asked.

“Only if you want,” said James.

Avi nodded. He felt no particular attachment to James, but he honestly just wanted some relaxation. James went back to his passionate kiss, and he felt James’ warm hands grabbing at his hips, tugging his pyjamas off and leaving them by his ankles.

Still making out with James, he gasped softly as James’ hand moved to his dick. He expected his touch to be rough, but it was smooth and soft. James knew what he was doing.

This time it was James who ended the kiss. He kissed James lower and lower on his body, going to his chest, his stomach, and then to the base of his shaven crotch. Avi gripped the bottomsheet of his bed.

More noise escaped Avi’s lips; all in one motion, James slid his mouth over Avi’s cock, causing him to moan with enjoyment. He grabbed at James’ hair, but not too hard as to mess with his rhythm.

It was obvious to Avi that James had done this before, despite everyone coming into the Labyrinth as a virgin. Slowly, and almost tantalizingly, he moved his head up and down over his shaft, keeping a tight suction with his lips.

“Oh, James…” said Avi softly, closing his eyes. He heard a slight chuckle from James, but he didn’t break his rhythm whatsoever.

Avi lay practically limp on the bed, able to concentrate on nothing but James’ touch. After only about a minute, Avi was aching to finish. But James suddenly stopped, much to Avi’s dismay, before slipping his own pants off and climbing up on top of Avi.

By this point, Avi was rock hard. He could tell what James was going to do. “Are… are you sure?” he asked.

James nodded with a smirk, faintly visible in the darkness. “Don’t worry. I do it a lot.”

Avi’s body racked with pleasure as James lowered his hips into Avi’s cock, allowing him to penetrate James as far as he could. He moaned, louder this time, and he heard James make a similar noise, with a bit of a quivering to it.

“You okay?” asked Avi, resting his hand on James’ hip as he sat all the way down on his dick.

“Y-yeah.”

“You sure?”

“I’m okay.” James began to lift himself up and down, riding Avi’s cock. He simultaneously stroked himself gently, putting most of his weight onto only one of his hands.

Avi grabbed James’ hips, again, not interrupting his movement but just holding on for support. His fingernails dug into his lover’s skin.

“James…” panted Avi, “I’m… I’m gonna…”

Suddenly, James orgasmed. He threw his head back, cumming all over Avi’s chest. That was too much for Avi, and only a few moments later did he finish inside James.

The two of them stayed still for a moment, trying to catch their breaths. After a minute, James leaned down towards Avi, kissing his sweat-covered forehead.

“Just a second,” said James.

Avi lay still while James toweled the two of them off. As his arousal faded into fatigue, he felt a certain emptiness that he wasn’t expecting to feel after having sex for the first time. Before he knew it, James was tucked up in bed next to him, laying on his side totally naked, his arm wrapped around Avi’s chest.

“Everything alright?” whispered James, giving Avi a kiss on the cheek.

His eyes heavy, Avi nodded dispassionately. “Yeah. Everything’s just fine.”

Fading into sleep, Avi had a nightmare. It was immemorable, but it had something to do with emotion stones, stone hallways, and suffocation. As he drifted in and out of consciousness over the long, restless night, Avi couldn’t help but dread what the next morning would bring.