The Carrow Chapter 7

                I drop the load in my hands and stand up on my aching legs, but because I was sitting in such an uncomfortable position for so long, I stagger and bump into an empty shelf. I watch it as it collides into the wall and flinch as it crashes loudly into a fragile glass mirror. I can only imagine what the Carrow would do to me now after that aftermath. Begrudgingly, I step out of the room and shut the door.

                I walk down the basement stairs and quietly approach the professor. He’s sitting in his large laboratory chair with his back facing toward me. He seems to be working on something very intently.

                “Oh there you are Syren! I’ve been waiting so long for you. Please, do come closer. I have something for you,” says the professor. He hastily beckons me toward him and I cautiously move forward. Suddenly his hand shoots out and grabs my arm. He holds onto my wrist tightly as he shoves something directly under my skin. I yelp in surprise.

                “What did you do?!” I exclaim. A large red welt is beginning to form over my broken skin. I press it with my fingers to staunch the stinging pain and the bleeding.

                “It’s a tracking device. I’m going to need if I’m ever going to find you in the maze.”

                “Maze?” My mind begins to work feverishly quick as I begin to process all of this in my head.

                “Yes. You have twenty-four hours to reach the end of it, but here’s the catch.” I wait for him to continue. “If you don’t make it out on time, the entire maze will be instantly set on fire, and you will burn to a crisp inside it.” He grins. I gulp. Fire was my worst enemy, and he knew it.

                “I suppose,” I say after I find my voice, “That the maze is littered with traps and weaponry that will attack me at any moment?” Please don’t be. Please just be a simple maze. But that wasn’t the case.

                The Carrow barks out a laugh. “Of course! What did you expect to find in it? Food? Nothing? Nonsense.” He seems to wave it off as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world; and to him, it was. “Now come Syren, we must begin at once, I can’t wait any longer for my fun to begin.” I glare at him. “Oh rest assured, it’ll be fun for you too!” He looks away as I simply gape at him. Obviously he has no idea what my anger is directed towards. It’s as if a switch in his mind went from normal to insane since my mother died.

                He takes me to his one elevator in the house, and we step inside. Before he presses any buttons though, he checks his watch and waits a few seconds before typing in a command on the rigged elevator keypad. Suddenly, I hear noises above us, as if there was a great earthquake happening. The Carrow is smiling. I wonder what he did.

                The elevator jerks up and without any warning, it jerks backwards and we’re suddenly lurched toward the front of the elevator, then left, right, right again, and on and on. I’m dizzy by the time we arrive at our destination. “We’re here,” the Carrow whispers while trying to contain his excitement. I’m panting, but not as much from the elevator ride as from my anticipation for this project. I’m scared. Really, really scared now. The tracking device begins to itch under my skin, but I don’t scratch it for fear of ripping my skin even more. We’re stepping onto a dark platform now. And what I’m looking at actually takes my breath away.

                The mansion has transformed into a magnificently huge maze. Despite all the death traps hidden inside, I couldn’t help but gape at its awesomeness. This is what he spent years building for me. This is what will probably be the worst hell I’ve ever imagined. And this is what will probably be the cause of my death. I try to read the greedy expression on the professor’s face, but he’s just grinning. Other than that, I couldn’t really understand it. I’m not sure if he intends to watch me die from this last game of his, or if he just doesn’t realize how dangerous the monster he created was.

                “I’m gonna die,” I whisper.

                “What was that?” He leans forward with his hand cupping his left year.

                “I’m going to die.” I say, louder this time, and very clearly. The Carrow’s grin faulters for a second, then the look on his face turns grim.

                “You won’t die. I’ll make sure of it.” And before I can respond, he’s pressing a button and I’m falling down. I'm sliding through a foul smelling chute. Despite what he said, I knew I was heading straight towards my death bed.

 

                I land face first in a heap of scratchy leaves. My body feels sore as I slowly pull myself up. Then I take in my surroundings. There are walls of wood, stone, and metal all around me. The tunnel I fell out of was gone and in its place, all I saw was sky. Other than that, I couldn’t see far, because the walls were so high. There are dark passageways and corners all around me. I realize I’m standing in an intersection. I have no idea what to do next. I clench my fists. If I don’t decide and move, I’ll never make it out of here. A bug makes its way out of my shirt and crawls up my neck. It’s presence pulls me out of my thoughts and I quickly swat it away. This place was filthy, disgusting, and dangerous. Suddenly I feel myself sinking into the ground. The place that I’m standing on is slowly moving towards the middle of my feet and the leaves that were just there were all spiraling into the center. Then it hits me, I’m standing on a kind of quick sand, but instead of sand, it’s mixed with mud, bugs, and other substances I can’t make out. Whatever it was, it smelled pretty bad. But this just means that I had to decide on my next move, and quick. I shut my eyes for a moment, then point to a random direction. I’m pointing to my right. And that’s where I decide to go.

                I try to lift my feet out of the mess, but it won’t budge. Panicking, I search around me. I see a stray root sticking out of the ground and I pull on it now. I heave myself up as hard as I can, and it’s just barely enough. I kick my legs out of the muck and throw myself onto the ground, gasping for air. I can already feel myself sweating. At least that was over, but really, I knew that that little thing was only the beginning.

                I slowly make my way through the maze, familiarizing myself with my surroundings. I know it’s no use trying to remember every corner and turn I meet though, so I just let my instincts take over. For a while everything is quiet, but I’m always scanning the area, waiting for something to spring up and grab me, waiting for the thing that would finally kill me. I try to tell myself that it’s a good thing, that I could finally rid myself of the Carrow once and for all, but I know that it’s not how I want to end things. Deep inside, I know I still want to see the world beyond the barb-wired gates. I want to get to know the world where the mailmen come from. I want to know the world my mother once knew. Even though dying would be the easy way out of this life of torture. I’m suddenly feeling more confident about escaping. Something actually seemed to be inspiring me to beat his maze, and to prove to the Carrow that…

                Suddenly, I hear a tiny click, but I’m not sure if it was just my imagination, or a nearby weapon. Either way I freeze. I’m standing in the middle of two walls, stock still, and still listening for another click. My ears are met with an eerie silence. There’s nothing here, I tell myself. Despite knowing that, I feel like there’s something different about the atmosphere. I blink a few times, trying to figure out if my eyes were just tricking me.

                But it’s not my eyes that see the difference. It’s my nose. I can smell something in the air. Something...thick. It smells like…gas. And it is gas; I know that now. It couldn't be poisonous gas though, because that would kill me, right? Anyway, it smelled more like the gas that comes out of the kitchen stove. But I know that even breathing in too much of that can clog my lungs and suffocate me. I clamp my hand over my nose and attempt to use it to filter out the gas, but it’s useless. Already my head is starting to grow heavy and my vision is fogging. Now what? My eyes are darting all over the place. I knew that if I went any deeper, the cloud of gas around me would probably grow thicker. I start to head back the way I came from, but I’m stopped by a wall. It’s a dead end. The Carrow has me trapped. I have no choice but to plunge forward into the darkness ahead of me. Fighting to hold my breath, I dash through the fog, which I could see was starting to yellow, unless my eyes really were playing tricks on me. I’m running down random corners now, with no idea where I was going. At this point I have lost my sense of direction.

                I can’t hold my breath any longer, and I begin to gasp. My lungs are fighting for air. I clamp my mouth and nose shut once again, but then I notice that what I’m breathing isn’t gas anymore. It’s clean air. I start to wonder what was the point in making me go through all that gas. Then, with a sick feeling, I can feel large lumps growing on my skin. The gas was poisonous, and I couldn't help but inhale part of it earlier. I watch the bumps all over my body grow larger and turn purple. It’s frightening, watching it all grow so fast. Suddenly, a huge one pops and puss explodes out of it, stinging my vulnerable eyes. I claw at them now, trying to get the stinging puss out, but I only make it worse by popping the welts on my palms and smearing more puss all over my face. Finally, my mind fails me, and panic takes over. I scream at the top of my lungs because I think that doing anything is better than watching bubbles of skin pop before my tainted eyes. I step forward a little, staggeringly. Then my legs fail me too and I slip on a small piece of hard packed dirt and roll down a hill I hadn't noticed before. I’m toppling face first, heels over my head, down…down the small gully that has suddenly appeared before me.

                The ground begins to even out, but I’m still moving from the momentum of my fall, and my head suddenly smacks into a wall of stone. 

Reviews

[Myrmidon]

Simply put, amazing.

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing chapter. I like the description given to Syren.. Carrow had this maze planned for many years. Thank you for sharing the powerful and scary tale of control. No weakness in the outstanding story.
Coyote

[Lizzy]

So jealous!! you're an awesome storywriter!

[_]

OH MY GOD! THIS IS SATAN'S LABYRINTH!!!! Horrfiying but really good i couldn't take my eyes off the page! this was ana awesome write! can't wait for chapter 8!

[Ice Girl]

I LOVED IT!!! GREAT CHAPTER!!!