The Maze The Lost Labyrinth - By Jason Brannon Page 0,42

calling of God? No, it just meant they were scared. Like I was now.

Midnight barked as if trying to tell me something. I wasn’t listening.

He barked again, and this time I gave him my full attention. The dog stared at me quizzically. The look seemed to ask the question, 'Don’t you remember what you were doing when I showed up on the scene?’

And I did remember.

I was praying. Frantically. Asterion was on the other side of the door, ramming the walls with enough force to knock jars off the wall, and I asked God for help.

God answered my prayer, and He did it in the form of this dog.

“You’re a reply from God.” I felt a wave of understanding. You’re proof that He’s here with me in this place, aren’t you?”

Midnight barked again and panted.

“Do you know how to get past this?”

Midnight shook his head from side to side as if trying to dislodge a thought from his brain.

“Maybe I should pray again? It worked last time.”

The flowers cut me in so many places as I knelt down to pray. I welcomed the pain because it reminded me of what I’d done, of my intended sin. It reminded me of the lust in my heart that was there even now. It reminded me of the kind of dangers that lurked around every corner, sometimes disguised as something as innocuous as a flower.

As I closed my eyes and asked for help, I experienced a very different kind of hurt. This time the pain didn’t come in the form of a heartache or in a pill of guilt. I knew this pain would be much different than the other I had experienced. I needed to see cause and effect. I needed to see very real consequences for the things I had done.

I pulled the worn note out of my pocket, searching for instructions on how to get through this test. The message had changed again.

“The man who wants proof that he‘s still alive needs only to suffer.”

Even without thinking too deeply on this mystery, I knew what the clue meant. Thus far I hadn’t truly seen any consequences for the things I had done. I had hurt others but not been hurt in return. This place was created to remedy that. The flowers in this hallway were beautiful, stunning, and filled with color. They were pleasing to the eye, yet deadly. It was all a deception, just like my infatuation with Karen. The moment I laid eyes on her again, I was taken aback by how gorgeous she still was after all these years. Yet, I didn’t take the time to realize that enjoying her beauty would be dangerous to me in so many ways. I realized it now.

I wasn’t going to make it out of this place without suffering. The note all but told me that. This was a classroom where Karma was the teacher. I was about to get what was coming to me, and I wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself for what I was about to do. If I was wrong, it would cost me my life. Of course, Asterion had already told me that I was going to die in here anyway. At least this way, I might find absolution through death.

I summoned a thought of Amy and Peter, and I held onto it in much the same way that a drowning man clings to a life preserver. I thought about all of the good memories we had made, all of the love we had shared; and I realized that I had single-handedly wagered everything we had on a selfish carnal curiosity. I had rolled the dice and lost it all, and now other people were paying for my mistake.

I wondered what Peter must be thinking, if he missed me at all. The thought of what I might have done to my son was enough to make me want to hurt. I deserved it.

I screamed as I ran through the foliage. Razor-leaves sliced me in a thousand different places, cutting my face, my arms, my legs, my feet. There wasn’t an inch of me that wasn’t bleeding or crying out in agony.

The pain made me feel alive. I had been numb for a very long time.

Miraculously I made it to the end of the hallway and collapsed in a bloody heap. I waited for something to happen, for Asterion to tell me that I’d failed this test, but