Beyond The Lost

9

I weaved my way through that maze for at least ten hours before I decided to take a break and sit against one of the walls. I grabbed one of the small red rocks on the ground and wrote my name in big letters on the brick. I stared at it for a while, sighing, before I got back up and continued on.

"This place goes on forever." My feet drag behind me, the amulet in my pocket jingling with every step. "I thought Victor would come after me by now."

If he was smart enough, he would know better than to come after me. The way spirits treat him, there's no way for him to be safe here.

"Are you lost?" A voice appeared at my backside, leaving me to flinch and spin in a full circle to see who it was. I expected Victor, but the voice was too different.

The man before me was tall like Victor, but his hair was long, fluffy, and pale blonde. His eyes are a bright blue, a large hole straight through his chest. I can't make sense of who he is or what he's doing talking to me. "No."

"You look lost." He frowned. "The living do not come here. What's brought you to me?"

"You can tell that I'm living?"

"The same way you can tell that I am not." He stuck a hand into the hole in his chest. "You shouldn't be here."

"So I've heard." I shook my head and gestured to the maze behind me. "I've been trying to get out but it just goes on forever."

"It only goes on forever because you believe it does."

I heard a loud scream from a voice I knew, looking up to see Victor falling from the sky. He couldn't have been more than a few halls away from me. "I-I'm sorry but I have to go." I shook the man's hand and ran off to find Victor, calling out for him as much as I could. He didn't respond.

"You're going the wrong way." The same man appeared at my side, running alongside me. "Trust in yourself and you'll get where you want to be."

"What does that even mean?" I panted, confused.

"Which way do you think you're going?"

"I don't know!"

"You don't have to know. Just imagine what you're headed toward is right in front of you. I'll show you." He grabbed my arm to stop me and took a deep breath. As he moved forward, Victor ran out in front of him, only stopping when he saw me. "I told you."

"How did you do that? I've been here for hours!"

"I don't blame you, the living don't always understand." He grabbed Victor and yanked him over to me. "Are you sure you'd like his company?"

Victor looked horrified.

"Yes."

"Enjoy your funeral, then." He tossed Victor to me, nearly knocking me over as his arm hit me in the chest.

"Go, go now!" Victor grabbed my hand and took off in the opposite direction. "Don't trip, watch your feet. We don't have time to waste."

That man stared me down as we continued forward, an inch closer each time I looked back.

"What are we running from?"

"Just don't look back and keep going." His hand is tight around my own, crushing my fingers and slicking my hand with sweat.

I looked back once more, finding that man only a few steps from me. His head was gaped open by a large shotgun wound, his eyes falling from his skull. Chunks of him had been left in his wake, his body falling apart.

"How do I use this amulet?"

"I don't know!" He pulled me off to the side and under a small opening in the base of the wall. As soon as we reached the other side, the walls shifted around us. The name I had written in red dust somehow managed to end up right beside me.