Rhett | Labyrinth 2 |✔

Chapter 1

Ten girls shared this room with me. They ranged between the ages of three and fifteen. One of the girls had turned sixteen during the spring. She would be gone by the time I wake-up tomorrow, they always are.

Each young woman who came of age would vanish during the night. It would happen on the same night, every year. The last day of summer. In their place, Sister Mary Agnes would receive a large sum of gold.

Every single time.

As soon as the first-morning sunlight pooled in through the dormitory windows, I noticed the empty bed.

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Amara: Age Sixteen.

Another year has passed.

Another empty bed.

Another large sum of gold.

Yet, despite the vast amount of wealth that Sister Mary Agnes received each year, the orphanage saw none of it. The repair list grew longer and longer. Poor Petr could only manage to mend the most basic of things with little or no money at all. The church funds could only extend so far, and mostly we relied on charitable donations.

Petr and I should have been asked to leave already, but we were allowed to work here. In return, we had a roof over our heads and three square meals a day. Petr maintained the grounds and mended what he could, in and around the building. My duty was to cook, clean, and care for the children.

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Amara: Age Seventeen.

It was the same situation as always. I woke up to yet another empty bed. When I raised my concerns to the sisters, I was given the same answer: that the young girl had been betrothed to an eligible bachelor, and that her future husband had arranged for her to be transported to his family's estate. The excuse for the large sum of gold was that it was a dowry, paid by the husband and gifted to the convent.

It was the same old story, year after year. Doubt began to creep into my mind, poisoning my thoughts. I struggled to think of a single occasion where the girls had ever left the grounds of the convent to meet with such a suiter. I could think of none in all the time they had been here. Nor had we received any guests who requested their presence. I would have been expected to provide refreshments to any such visitors, and I recalled none. I knew something wasn't right, but I failed to unravel the mystery.

Surely in a place of God, nothing untoward could be happening here?

I placed all my faith in that being true.

Sister Mary Agnes wouldn't sell them to men to gain profit?

I hurried down the halls to where I knew Petr would be working. I usually found him busy mending things. There was an unsettling feeling deep inside me that something wasn't right. I burst open the door to his workroom, only to find him lying unconscious on the floor.

I rushed over to him, immediately falling to my knees at his side. My cries for help echoed down the halls and within moments, some of the sisters came to our assistance and helped me to carry Petr to bed. He was conscious and breathing unevenly, a clear sign that something wasn't right.