The Maze The Lost Labyrinth

CHAPTER 4



The air was filled with mournful strains of malevolent music. The Piper had spent many long years honing his craft, perfecting his dark tunes, devising just the right sounds to lead the pure-hearted astray. He’d had nothing but time since The Fall to play his pipes and to plot the demise of humanity.

He roamed like a nomad from town to town, wreaking havoc with the noises he manufactured. Suicides and murders followed in his wake. Families fell apart, torn to shreds by the disruptive power of his flute. Entire towns went bankrupt. Churches sat empty.

He delighted in symphonies of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Operas of agony were his music of choice. Nothing sounded any sweeter to The Piper than the hopeless weeping of the lost.

As he looked down on the town of Fairpointe, he stretched his wings and took a deep breath of cool, crisp air. He felt the juices of creation flowing through his veins. The music thrummed in his muscles, vibrated in every fiber of his being as it waited to be released into an unsuspecting world. He saw the tremendous potential for agony and delighted in it. He heard the delicate beating of each heart and knew which strings could be plucked to make dismal music. As he peered down at each and every house in Fairpointe, two stood out immediately.

One contained a family that deserved nothing less than destruction. The other contained a man who could potentially be trained to rain down that destruction without the first bit of remorse.

Of course, The Piper knew he wasn’t the only principality lurking nearby. There were other forces that had their sights set on these two.

The Piper had gotten here first, and that should have been enough to give him claim on the sleepy town of Fairpointe. That was little reassurance, however, when he heard the clang and clamor of hammers nearby. From the sound of it, a maze was being constructed, and he knew what that meant: someone stood at a moral crossroads, about to make a life-changing decision. The Piper had to act quickly.

He took to the air and swooped down to perch on the roof of Adam's Ribs. The Piper smiled a black-toothed grin as he saw the lust that smoldered there, hotter than anything in the barbecue pit. Two lovers from long ago had found each other after so many years. In celebration, The Piper decided to play a love song. As he placed the flute to his cancerous lips, he saw feelings stirring inside a defenseless man's heart that had nothing to do with his unsuspecting wife.

It wouldn't be long now.

Satisfied with a job well done, The Piper left his perch on top of the restaurant and moved to the house on Pinecrest Street to implement the second part of his plan.