The Maze The Lost Labyrinth

CHAPTER 36



Seeing the pool of blood was enough to make me panic, and I nearly charged through the sliding glass door right then and there. Knowing what I know now, that might have gotten everyone killed.

Thankfully, I waited just a fraction of a second longer and strained my neck to see where the blood was coming from. The moment I saw Carl Beckett lying there on the floor, bound with telephone wire, was the moment he saw me. His eyes went wide and so did mine. I wasn’t sure what Darrell Gene had done to him, but it didn’t look good. Carl had lost a lot of blood.

He rocked back and forth, making imprints of himself in the coagulating puddle. He was trying to get free. I weighed the risk of trying to help him versus the risk of leaving him and going after my family instead. I didn’t know how badly he was hurt and reasoned that he might not be much help to me. On the other hand, I knew that Darrell Gene was a formidable opponent and a much bigger man than I was. Two against one would provide better odds. Yet, somehow, I suspected that Carl wouldn’t remain on his feet long after standing up---if he was even able to do that.

I decided to leave him for the moment.

“Get away from me!” Amy screamed from the living room, followed by the sharp report of an open-handed slap. I heard Amy weeping, Peter screaming and Judith praying to God from the other room. I knew I had to hurry.

I ran to the garage, looking for something to use as a weapon. On instinct, I picked up the sledgehammer because it seemed strangely fitting somehow- having wielded one recently, it felt right in my hands. I would have actually preferred a gun of some sort, but Amy never felt comfortable with me owning one. I suspected she would change her tune once this was all over with.

Looking back now, what I did next seemed strangely illogical. But, after all I’d been through in the maze, the illogical was starting to feel like second nature to me. The only way I’d been able to escape the dangers of the labyrinth was to fall to my knees and pray. I had trusted in God and He had delivered me. I was going to trust Him again in this case.

My prayer was short but heartfelt. I asked Him to give me strength, to protect my loved ones inside that house, to triumph over my enemy. Then, armed with the sledgehammer and the conviction of my beliefs, I slid the glass door open and stepped inside the house.

“Aren’t we all just one big happy family?” Darrell Gene spoke from the other room.

“You’re psychotic!” Amy wept with each word.

“You’ll grow to love me in time.”

Carl watched me with wide eyes as I stepped over him. He grunted softly, trying to draw my attention. I knelt to untie the knots that bound him, then I saw the cell phone sticking out of his pants pocket. It gave me an idea.

“Trust me,” I whispered. He nodded weakly. I had no idea that the phones hadn’t been working up until this point. I didn’t realize that The Piper had seized control of all electronics and was using them to speak to his servant. Somehow, I think I would have tried to place a call anyway. I had seen and experienced too much not to believe that my prayers would work. I quickly dialed Carl’s number and stepped into the shadows.

Miraculously, his phone rang, sounding like an alarm clock bell. The shrill noise traveled through the house, and it wasn’t long before I heard footsteps approaching. I readied myself to swing the sledgehammer and waited for just the right moment. Darrell Gene walked toward Carl with a look of agitation on his face. That looked turned to surprise and even terror when he realized that he had stepped into a trap.

I swung the sledgehammer as hard as I could, but Darrell Gene was deceptively fast. He raised his forearm and deflected the blow. I heard something snap in his hand as he stopped my attack, and even as he defended himself, his other hand lashed out with the knife. I felt something rip across my abdomen. I didn’t know how deeply I’d been slashed, but I felt warm blood trickling down my stomach.

The thought of being attacked in my own home filled me with a sense of righteous anger that fueled my second offensive. I charged at Darrell Gene with the sledgehammer held out in front of me. The handle caught him under the chin; I pushed until he hit the wall and then I pushed some more, enjoying the way his face turned red as I cut off his oxygen supply.

I exerted all the force I could muster, hoping to make him pass out. However, Darrell Gene knew a thing or two about fights. Before he ran out of oxygen, he kneed me in the bread basket. I sucked wind and tried to stay on my feet.

Darrell Gene charged at me like an outraged bull, still holding on to the sledgehammer. I fell onto my back, and he fell on top of me. He managed to get the handle against my throat and put all of his weight on me. The handle pressed into my windpipe, cutting off my air. I gasped and struggled and flailed and thrashed, but Darrell Gene was too heavy for me to budge. As everything started to go black around me, I thought it was a shame that I’d endured all of the trials and tribulations of the maze only to die like this.

My regret quickly became surprise; Darrell Gene’s eyes bugged out in panic as Carl slipped up behind him and choked him with a strand of telephone wire. The big man flopped like a fish out of water, but Carl didn’t loosen his grip.

I seized the moment- and the knife from Darrell Gene’s hand- and stabbed him in the shoulder. I had aimed for the gut, but he was flailing too violently to give me a stationary target. The big man howled as I buried the blade in his flesh.

As I struggled to regain my breath, I noticed that Amy had been the one to cut Carl loose. She started toward me but I waved her away. I didn’t want her getting hurt in the fracas.

Carl didn’t let go of the telephone wire until Darrell Gene passed out. Seeing the big man’s strength go was like watching the water leech out of the hull of a capsized ship. Once the blood supply to his brain was cut off, he didn’t merely fall- he crashed to the ground so hard he rattled all of Amy‘s fine china in the kitchen. Satisfied that the danger had passed, Carl passed out right beside him.

“Call 911!” I tied Darrell Gene‘s hands and feet. The last thing I wanted to do was to fight this behemoth again. Truth be told, I was tired of fighting all my enemies, regardless of the faces they chose to wear.

Once I was sure he wasn’t going anywhere, I took a long, hard look at Amy and began to cry. “Are you okay?” It seemed surreal that I had finally made it back to her.

“I am now.” She couldn’t stop weeping either.

The two of us held each other for the longest time, interrupted only by the sound of Judith clearing her throat.

“I’ve got a little man that’s been missing his daddy.”

Sobbing like a baby now, I grabbed Peter and hugged him tightly to me, loving the way his hands explored my hair and his soft lips brushed against my stubbled cheek.

“I guess I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

“It can wait.” Amy gingerly touched the wound on my head. “I know what Darrell Gene did. Whatever he wasn’t responsible for, we can talk about later. For now, I want to enjoy my family again.”

“I can live with that.” I pulled Judith into the group hug.

“Praise God!”

I couldn’t have said it any better.

Although I was completely focused on my family, I couldn’t help noticing the way Darrell Gene’s blood pooled beneath him. It reminded me of what had happened at Karen’s apartment complex after I’d been shot. I looked at that maroon puddle and gasped to see the reflection of a new maze materialize. It was much darker and more menacing than mine had been, but it was a labyrinth nonetheless.

I wondered if Darrell Gene realized what had happened to him yet.

If not, I knew it wouldn’t take long.

Asterion would find him.

What happened after that was up to him.