By Joseph C. Collins
I was standing in the kitchen one day eating a ham sandwich when
all of a sudden there was a flash of light.
“Where am I? What is this place?” I said to myself.
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It was almost dark yet it was very quiet. As I stood there stunned, wondering what had happened to me; a menacing voice suddenly spoke to me and said, “You are now in the maze of doom.”
“The maze of what?” I replied.
“The Maze of Doom,” the voice repeated.
“What’s the Maze of Doom?”
“The very thing you are standing in.”
“What thing?” I asked.
“The Maze of Doom,” the voice replied. “Don’t you see it?”
“See what?”
I looked around. I realized that I was now standing in a big circular room and all around me were several big doorways.
“Oh by the way you have twenty minutes to get to the other side,” the menacing voice said.
“WHAT!!!! TWENTY MINUTES! THIS PLACE IS HUGE!!!!” I shouted.
“Hope you have fun then,” the voice replied. And then there was silence.
It was dark and it was cold and I had no idea what I was doing so I stood, asking myself which way to go.
There were too many doors to choose from. I looked to my right and to my left and all around me. As I was standing there thinking about it I put my hand on my head to make my decision.
“Left,” I said. “I think I will go left.”
As I made my way through the maze I was annoyed at the fact that all the
walls looked just the same.
They all were made of very rough stone and they were not more than ten feet tall.
“This is impossible,” I said to myself as I kept on getting lost time and time again. “I will never find my way out.”
I looked at my watch, five minutes had passed and I was nowhere closer to the end. Frustrated I all but gave up hope.
“What’s that?” I said to myself.
There was this bright light coming from around the corner. Baffled and confused, I walked closer to the edge of the wall to see what kind of light it could be. As I peeked around the corner, I saw what could only be described as a pillar of fire hovering over the ground.
With my back towards the wall I cautiously moved closer towards the pillar of fire, not knowing its intention. Standing there I noticed that it was just hovering; it was not attacking me nor was it scared of me.
“How odd,” I thought to myself.
Then again all of this was quite odd.
“Hello,” I said, but it did not answer.
“Now what?” I thought.
“I guess I will just go the other way then, well, if I can find it.”
I was just about to walk away when I noticed that the pillar of fire was blazing a trail.
“Do you know the way out?” I asked.
A minute went by and then the pillar of fire flashed.
“Do you understand me?” I asked.
Once again it flashed.
“How do I know you understand me?” I asked.
It did nothing.
“Wait a minute I have seen this before,” I said.
“Does one flash mean yes and two mean no?” I asked.
And again it flashed.
“Yes!” I shouted. “Then lead the way!”
Before I followed the pillar of fire I looked to my right and saw some writing on the wall.
“What this?” I said.
I walked closer to the wall and I started to read.
“It knows you are here, it can hear you, it can smell you, it will catch you, you can’t outrun it. You can’t outrun the Verloc!”
“What is a Verloc?” I said.
But suddenly I could hear a monstrous sound come from the darkness.
“Right.”
I started to run with the pillar of fire leading the way. As my heart beat faster and faster, I could hear its footsteps getting louder. It was the dreaded Verloc closing in on my heels.
The flame that was leading me suddenly vanished around the corner. I quickly made the turn and saw the pillar of fire hovering over an open door.
“It is the end!” I shouted.
As I looked at my watch I had two minutes left. I heard a sound. I looked behind me and saw it: it had a head of a horse with a chest of a lizard and a back covered with hair like that of a lion.
Terrified, I made a mad dash towards the door.
I glanced back to see the Verloc gaining on me.
It was almost on me when suddenly the flame swooped down over me and started attacking the Verloc.
As I stood up I saw the flame shape itself into the image of a man with a shield and a sword. It started fighting the great beast.
Knowing that my time was running out I continued racing even faster. I was almost to the end when suddenly the door in front of me started to close.
“I will not lose,” I screamed.
Determined, I made a last effort slide for the door. As it closed behind me, I found myself standing in a big room on the other side.
“I made it,” I shouted.
There was silence but not for long. The menacing voice that had haunted me came back.
“How…how did you make it?”
Before I could respond, another blinding light flashed.
I found myself back in my kitchen. As I stood there, stunned about what had just happened to me, I quickly remembered how much I hate ham sandwiches.
