Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (parable of the sower read online txt) 📗

half expected to see it open like it had last time, the Minotaur waiting for them when they had chased Jenny here last week. However, the gate remained sealed. Nearly thirty feet high and made of iron, it was decorated with interlocking rings.

“So how do we open it?” Mike asked.

“Like this!” Jenny moved closer to the gate and stepped onto a decorative slab that Mike hadn’t noticed before. It was emblazoned with an identical ring pattern to the gate. “I solemnly swear I am up to no good!”

The gate rumbled, swinging slowly open before them.

Mouth agape, Mike stared at Jenny. “Seriously? That’s the secret password to get in?”

“No. You just have to step on the slab. The Labyrinth is happy to have your bones.” Jenny stepped off. Standing next to Mike, she took his hand in her own, clutching his fingers tightly.

“Holy shit,” Mike whispered, waiting for the massive gate to finish opening, his free hand clutching the dagger.

Tink had told him that the Minotaur had a large ax. Would it come at him, swinging from above? Or would it charge him, horns aiming for his gut? Should he step to the side and stab it, confront it head on, or maybe even hide in the shadows and take the stealthy approach? His mouth suddenly dry, Mike realized that he was staring into the Labyrinth proper. Long stone corridors covered in bioluminescent moss branched off in several different directions. Mike and Jenny stepped inside, looking around.

“Which way from here?” Mike looked around. “Any ideas?”

“Straight, right, right, left, jump.” Jenny cocked her head. “But the maze changes, like a woman’s mind or a rainbow in July.”

“Well. I guess that settles it.” Mike walked forward. In the distance, he heard the call of the Minotaur, a challenge cried across the wall. “I think you should go back, let Beth have her body back.”

“No take backs,” Jenny informed him.

Mike spun on his heels, his teeth clenched. “We had a deal! You would use Beth to help me get here and go back.”

“No take backs,” Jenny repeated, staring back the way they had come.

The giant gate had disappeared, leaving behind a wall of stone. Mike’s jaw dropped, and he ran to the wall and placed his hands on the stone. “How is this possible?” he asked.

In answer, the Minotaur called out again, this time much closer.

“Straight.” Jenny walked past Mike, then started skipping. “Straight, straight, away from the gate! The Minotaur is coming; he wants a date!”

“Aw, shit,” Mike muttered, jogging behind to keep up.

Jenny’s arms swung wide, and each time she skipped, she covered an impossibly long distance. The hard brick path created sharp footfalls, echoes that chased him.

“Right!” Jenny made a sharp right, disappearing.

Mike tripped, barely keeping his feet beneath him. Stumbling to a halt, he saw a small recess in the wall that he would have missed. Walking into it, he found himself in a circular corridor.

Behind him, the Minotaur called out.

Mike ran to catch up to Jenny. She was still skipping but was now doing it backward, her hair bouncing against her breasts. They did this for almost a quarter of a mile, Mike’s legs burning with the exertion, sweat beading along his brow. Jenny didn’t seem to be having any issues. Mike wondered if her control over Beth’s body allowed her to avoid fatigue.

“Right, right, stop at the light!” Jenny came to a sudden halt, arms outstretched. Mike nearly ran her over, stepping to the side at the last second. Jenny grabbed Mike’s wrist and pulled, swinging him in a large circle. They both collapsed to the ground just as the path ahead erupted in flames, streams of fire spraying from nozzles hidden in the wall.

“Holy shit!” Mike watched as the glowing moss was torched away. “This place has booby traps?!”

“It’s not just a maze,” Jenny told him.

Her body was pressed against his, with Mike on top. He was suddenly aware of her legs wrapped around his waist. Looking down into her darkened eyes, he flinched when she kissed his nose.

“It’s also a giant trap,” she added.

“A trap for what?” Mike asked.

“For the curious, the brave, the daring!” Jenny turned her head. “The center is that way. If the others are alive, they will be that way.”

“What makes you so sure?” Mike asked, standing and pulling Jenny to her feet.

“They say that flowing water creates a gateway to the spirit world, and I can feel the river flowing. The Minotaur is scared of the water.” Jenny walked over to the wall. “He is not, however, scared of fire.”

“That’s good to know.” Mike watched Jenny step into the stone. This time, it was like looking at a fucked-up Magic Eye painting—she appeared to be touching the stone, and then it moved back several feet to allow her entry. Following her, he saw that the stones were slightly larger than the closer stones, giving the illusion that they were the same distance away. This time, they could go left or right.

“Which way?” Mike asked.

“Right, of course!” Jenny took off again, and Mike followed.

Kali closed her eyes this time, letting her magic surge along the crack she had found. The last time she’d tried to peel it open, the ensuing flash had blinded her. Each time she struck the flaw in the geas’s boundary, it gave just a little bit more.

Elation flooded her. No spell on Earth was perfect, and she was very surprised that some sort of countermeasure hadn’t been enabled yet. Clearly, the geas had been cast from roughly where she stood; that was part of the magic. A large crack had formed across the sky, a crack that emitted sparks and fire every time she struck.

However, she was tiring. She was using a combination of six different spells to reach into that gap and had discovered that the geas was trying to repair the damage she was causing. That meant she needed not only total concentration but to dip into some of her magical reserves. She didn’t