2114 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.

Doctor Feln strode back and forth in the small dining room. Shawn had left after breakfast, leaving only Avi, Lance, and James sitting together as the Doctor paced in silence.

“Well,” he declared finally, “you can’t stay here. I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean?” said Lance. “What happened to the big target on our backs?”

“I’m not able to keep the Stone here. I have obligations.”

Avi cocked his head. “What kind of obligations?”

“We can talk about that later. For now, we need to face reality. Soon, you’re going to have to go back out in the Labyrinth. But you’ll have a few advantages. For one, you’re the only humans out there in possession of an Emotion Stone. As you saw, its own inherent power even without the others.”

Avi nodded. “Right. But I can’t control it.”

“You sort of can,” said Feln. “I’m sure you’ve noticed it has some strange properties when you get angry?”

Avi’s eyes widened. He smacked himself on the forehead. Of course! The orc tricking him, his frustration with Lance, his outrage at Father Arlo’s crimes. It all made perfect sense.

“It’s self-sustaining,” explained Doctor Feln. “Once you’re angry and you start drawing power from the Stone, you’ll find yourself artificially angry. It takes a lot of willpower to break out of the Stone’s influence.”

The cord still wrapped around his neck, Avi palmed the Stone. He had to make sure that he controlled it more than it controlled him.

“Now,” said Feln, reaching under the desk, “I can’t go with you. But I can help you.” The Doctor pulled up a small wooden crate. “I have a lot of random gear kicking around from over the years. Stuff that you might want to make use of.”

He opened the lid of the crate and gestured for the three of them to gather around. James rushed forward eagerly, and Avi followed.

The first thing he shared with them was a small vial, some fifty milliliters, filled with a green liquid. “Charna poison,” said Feln. “It’ll kill anyone in seconds once it’s ingested or enters the bloodstream. You can put it on weapons. It only takes a drop.”

Avi accepted the bottle, ensuring the lid was well sealed.

“This is a special thing, a project that I abandoned a few years ago.” Feln revealed a large black cylinder, with a soft pink opening on one end.

“Is that a fucking fleshlight?” asked Lance, frowning.

“Well, it’s not just any fleshlight,” replied Feln ingenuously. “It’s a mind controlling device.”

“I’m confused,” said James.

Feln sighed. “It attaches to the penis. It seems weird, but think about it: everyone here is naked the vast majority of the time. Even the monsters.”

“So what does it do exactly?” asked Lance.

“Mind control. Once it’s on the penis, the victim- er, user- will do anything it’s told for a few minutes.”

“How long is a few minutes?” asked Avi.

“Three or four. I’ve seen five, really seldom goes beyond that, though.”

Avi thought about it. It probably wasn’t enough to do anything elaborate, but maybe it could save them in a pinch.

“There’s one more thing I wanted to share,” said Feln. From his pocket, he pulled out a silver necklace with five clasps on it, each of which were roughly the shape and size of the Stone of Anger. “Your little necklace probably isn’t going to last forever.”

Approaching Feln, Avi smiled. “Thanks, Doctor Feln.” He took the necklace from him, and sat down to untie the old necklace and place the precious Stone in a clasp.

“Of course. I want you guys to succeed. Really.” Feln set the other gadgets down on the table.

“I have some things to take care of,” continued the Doctor as James and Lance pored over the poison and the fleshlight.

After some time spent making the necessary adjustments, Avi placed the necklace over his head. It was slightly cold on the back of his neck. “I feel good,” said Avi. “Lance, didn’t I tell you that we could trust Feln?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah,” he said with a smile, “I guess so.”

“What did he mean when he said had ‘obligations’ not to keep us here?” said James. “With the Stones and stuff.”

“Actually, I was kind of hoping you knew,” said Avi. “I mean, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“How are you sure of that?” said James. “We don’t know what he means.”

“Whoa,” said Lance, putting his hands on the table, “you’re the one who brought us here. Why is your trust flaking all of a sudden?”

“My trust isn’t flaking,” said James, exasperated. “I’m just confused, that’s all. He’s usually a pretty transparent guy.”

“I mean, he didn’t tell you anything about the Emotion Stones before,” said Avi. “Maybe he’s just not the type to talk about stuff unless he’s explicitly asked.”

“It’s fine,” says Lance. “Let’s just go ask him, then we can get on with it and think of a plan to get the rest of the Stones.”

James and Avi agreed. The three of them left the dining room and set out to find Doctor Feln.

They quickly found themselves in the same hallway they had been led down the night before. Avi stepped back into the map room.

For the first time he was able to get a close look at the map. In the center was a red marker, indicating Feln’s home, and branching outwards on the large map was a clock-like series of sections, each of which were numbered one to twelve.

“Those are the sectors,” said James, standing close to Avi as they pored over the table. “He pays tributes to take down notes for his map.”

“He told me,” said Avi, studying it.

James nodded. He began to point out features on the map. “There’s the Incubus lair, it’s a big cave in Sector 1. In Sector 6, over here, is the Orc’s fortress. I think they call it Castle Klarg?”

Avi tapped his finger on a small area on the outskirts of Sector 9. “What’s that place?”

“That’s the old Apollo Tribe town. Sorry, it’s pretty much been looted clean.”

“They had a whole town?”

“Yeah. At least, that’s what I hear. It’s just in ruins now.”

Lance had been meandering out in the hall the entire time, still looking for Feln. Avi called over to him. “Any luck?”

No response. Avi left the table and walked out to the hallway. He found Lance staring in one of the doors. Notably, it was the one door labelled for them to “keep out”.

Avi walked behind Lance. He opened his mouth to lecture him, but then it slammed shut again.

Inside was something akin to a horror film. Inside the small room, there were three naked figures mounted to the walls. On the left hand wall was an incubus, and on the right and the far walls were two humans in their twenties.

In the center of the room was a metal table, with open drawers of various metal tools. Red and blue stains covered the table and the floor.

Lance began to breathe heavily. Avi put a hand on his back. “Lance? Just breathe. I’m sure there’s a logical-”

“We have to get out of here. We have to get the fuck out of here, now.”

James walked up to join them and eyed the room, he also appeared shocked. Lance grabbed James by the shoulder.

“For fuck’s sake, James,” cried Lance, “what the hell is this?”

Avi ignored their conversation, stepping inside the dimly lit room. He reached out and touched the shin of one of the boys on the wall.

“It’s warm,” said Avi. “He’s alive.”

“Alive?” said James, looking up at them.

“Shut the fuck up, James,” said Lance, turning James’ head back towards him. “Now, are you going to tell us what the fuck is going on here? Or am I going to have to beat it out of you, you little bitch?”

“That’s enough,” said Avi. “Let’s just think rationally here, guys.” He inspected the body. It had numerous cuts in it, namely near the shoulder and thighs, as well as just below the belly button. The man was shaven across his whole body, with little more than a buzz cut on his hair. His skin was pale, almost yellow in colour.

“Avi, the rational thing to do is to go,” said Lance.

“We don’t know the full story!” yelled Avi. “I know it looks bad. But we need Feln. We can’t just make a split second decision. We have to figure out from him what’s going on.”

“And what happens when we ask him?” asked James. “Is he just gonna string us up like these guys? For all we know, he’s-”

“Hey, guys?” called a voice from somewhat far away. It was Shawn. “Are you down here?”

Avi stepped out of the door, forcing Lance and James out with him, and watched the door close behind him. Just as it did, Shawn came around the corner.

“Hey,” said Shawn, “Feln wanted to talk to you quickly. He has something to show you.”

“W-what does he want to show us?” asked James.

“You’ll see. Trust me, you’ll want to see it.”

Under the circumstances, Avi didn’t like that. But he didn’t see how he could reasonably refuse.

“Sounds good,” said Avi suddenly.

As Shawn led the three of them up the stairs in the main area, Avi clutched his necklace for security. He tried to think of how upset he was with Feln for concealing the truth, how angry he was with him for doing those horrible things to those tributes.

Doctor Feln greeted the four of them at an isolated door in the corner. It was a large door, made of steel, with a keypad on the outside.

“Afternoon, gents,” he said. “Okay. I should have been more clear with you earlier. The reason I couldn’t take the Stone from you or keep you here is a bit complex. I have an arrangement with the orcs and the incubi.”

Avi watched Lance raise an eyebrow.

“Can you elaborate?” asked Avi.

“At the end of the war,” started Feln, typing something into the keypad, “there was one final battle where the last of the Apollo surrendered. Something happened that day; the Stone of Love was destroyed.”

Avi frowned. “So… how do we escape then?”

“By repairing it.”

The door slowly opened up, revealing a dark room with a single light in the ceiling. On a podium in the middle of the room sat a purple slab, roughly shaped and semi-spherical.

“This is half of the Stone of Love,” said Feln. “It’s been entrusted to me to keep until someone finds the other half.”

“Right,” said Avi, “so… why are you collaborating with the monsters, exactly?”

“Neutrality,” said Feln. “They have an agreement never to attack me, and in return I’ll keep this safe and never give it to anyone.”

“Are you going to give it to us?” asked Lance.

“Not yet. They have a charm on this room, if anyone goes inside they’ll be notified. No, I can’t give it to you until you have the rest of the stones, and the other half.”

“I feel like we’re not answering a major question, here,” said Avi. “How are we going to repair it?”

“Leave that to me,” said Feln. “I know what to do. I just need you to find the other half for me.”

“No small feat,” said Avi.

“Well, no. But you already found a whole one by chance. Surely you can find another?”

Avi sighed. “Yeah. Surely.”

Lance, James, and Avi couldn’t help but eye each other nervously as Feln sealed the door shut. “Right,” he said as it closed, “I’m back to it. I’ll see you guys for lunch? The least I can do is treat you to a few more hot meals before you set back out.”

“That sounds great,” said Avi. “We’ll be there.”

Feln headed back down the stairs, leaving the three men alone with Shawn. A bit of awkward silence ensued as they all looked at each other in the Doctor’s absence.

“Well,” said Shawn. “Seems like you guys have a leg up on things. Did you want me to get you anything-”

“We know about the bodies,” Lance blurted out. Avi whipped his head around to stare with panic at the green haired man.

“I’m sorry, what?” said Shawn. But Lance was already approaching Shawn, and shoved him against the wall.

“Lance, no!” hissed Avi.

“Let me rephrase,” said Lance. “You’re going to tell us everything you know about the bodies.”