The Maze The Lost Labyrinth - By Jason Brannon Page 0,25

time I owned up to my mistakes. It was time to start setting things right.

Midnight was just an ordinary dog by all outward appearances, but somehow I knew he was much more than that. He understood things in a way I wasn’t capable of explaining. He was a creature of the maze and knew the rules here. That made him valuable to me.

I had no doubt Midnight would jump in the fray to help me when the fighting got started, but I knew in my heart that I would have to take the first step. I had to prove that I wanted to atone. I had to prove that I was strong enough to face Barabbas.

He sneered at me. “What are you waiting for, boy?” I answered him with a running charge and a shout.

The Roman thug seemed genuinely surprised by my courage. He wasn’t any more shocked by it than I was. My nature was to avoid trouble at all costs, but once I started running toward the battle, I knew I couldn’t stop. I was in this until the death.

Barabbas headed toward me with his club held high. I had no weapon, other than my frustration at being caught in this kind of life-threatening predicament. He swung at me, and I raised my hand in front of my face to protect myself. The club glanced off my forearm, sending a shockwave of pain all the way up to my shoulder. I used my other arm to try and wrestle the club away, but Barabbas was too strong and experienced in hand-to-hand combat. He swept my feet out front under me and was on top of me before I knew it.

Midnight charged, distracting Barabbas long enough for me to gouge him in the eye, but I didn’t hurt him much. He shrugged the assault off quickly, swung his club and knocked Midnight across the room. I heard the dog whimper, but I couldn’t see how badly he was hurt.

Barabbas pushed the club against my throat, using both knees for leverage. I gasped for air, choking and coughing and flailing my arms wildly.

“You’re weak!” Barabbas spat the insult at me like something offensive to the tongue. My flaws, it seemed, were going to be the death of me after all. It wasn’t the outcome I’d wanted or expected.

I stretched both arms and tried to push Barabbas off of me, but he weighed too much and was far too strong. I wasn’t going to win this fight by brute force.

Dark shapes danced before my eyes, and the world around me swam in and out of focus. As my grip on reality loosened, I had one last-ditch idea. I knew that Barabbas was a physical embodiment of the sin nature that was present in every human. I also knew that one of the first steps to conquering the sinful streak which runs rampant in each of us was to be truly repentant. That meant feeling guilt and realizing that we’d done wrong.

While Barabbas was busy choking the life out of me, I fumbled one of the little amber guilt pills out of my pocket and shoved it in his mouth. The result was instantaneous. Barabbas recoiled as if he’d been slapped. His face was a twisted mask of horrid self-loathing.

“No,” he said softly. “No.”

I scrambled to my feet, clutching at my abraded throat, gasping for air. Barabbas was just as frantic and disturbed, pacing the floor in circles, weeping, beating at his breast.

“Make it stop!” The guilt washed over him in waves. “Please, make it stop!”

He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, and gritted his teeth to fight against the memories of his past. But the past also had teeth and wouldn’t let him go.

“Make it stop!”

I knew exactly how to make it stop. Before Barabbas could defend himself, I grabbed him by the tunic and used all my weight to hurl him backward. The swinging razors rocked back and forth behind me, making loud swooshing sounds as they sliced through the air. Barabbas didn’t even have time to scream before they cut him down like wheat.

Once I was sure he was dead, I turned my back to him, unwilling to look at the mess I’d made. Midnight limped toward me, favoring his left front leg slightly over the right. His movements were a little stiff; but otherwise, he seemed okay. We were both bruised and banged up, but alive.

For the moment, that was enough.

Chapter 13

The latter half of