Free The Maze - the Lost Labyrinth by Jason Brannon Page B

knew that Barabbas was a physical embodiment of the sin nature that was present in every human. I also knew that one of the first steps to conquering the sinful streak which runs rampant in each of us was to be truly repentant. That meant feeling guilt and realizing that we’d done wrong.
    While Barabbas was busy choking the life out of me, I fumbled one of the little amber guilt pills out of my pocket and shoved it in his mouth. The result was instantaneous. Barabbas recoiled as if he’d been slapped. His face was a twisted mask of horrid self-loathing.
    “No,” he said softly. “No.”
    I scrambled to my feet, clutching at my abraded throat, gasping for air. Barabbas was just as frantic and disturbed, pacing the floor in circles, weeping, beating at his breast.
    “Make it stop!” The guilt washed over him in waves. “Please, make it stop!”
    He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, and gritted his teeth to fight against the memories of his past. But the past also had teeth and wouldn’t let him go.
    “Make it stop!”
    I knew exactly how to make it stop. Before Barabbas could defend himself, I grabbed him by the tunic and used all my weight to hurl him backward. The swinging razors rocked back and forth behind me, making loud swooshing sounds as they sliced through the air. Barabbas didn’t even have time to scream before they cut him down like wheat.
    Once I was sure he was dead, I turned my back to him, unwilling to look at the mess I’d made. Midnight limped toward me, favoring his left front leg slightly over the right. His movements were a little stiff; but otherwise, he seemed okay. We were both bruised and banged up, but alive.
    For the moment, that was enough.
     
     
     

 
    Chapter 13

    The latter half of the Hall of Barabbas was dark. It looked like some of the illuminated characters on the walls had burned out or dimmed. There was a portion of the corridor that looked almost completely unlit, and I resolved to move through that patch of darkness as quickly as possible. I was just about to enter the shadows when Midnight jumped in front of me, growling and snarling. The dog wore a certain, lop-eared goofy expression when he wasn’t mad. That changed in the blink of an eye. Saliva dripped from Midnight’s muzzle, and his eyes burned with an internal fire.
    What now?
    I glanced back once to make sure that Barabbas was truly dead. His body was right where I left it.
    I heard the flies buzzing nearby and smelled something that reeked of rot and sulfur and malice. I knew that smell.
    The minotaur stepped out of the shadows and made a deep lowing sound that caused the hair on my arms to stand at attention. Although the creature was fearsome, I couldn’t help noticing the deep gashes in its upper thigh and the scratches across its face. Midnight had held his own with the minotaur and jumped in front of me, preparing to do so again.
    The two creatures squared off against each other, baring teeth and snorting ferociously. The minotaur scraped its horns against one wall, delighting in the sparks it made. It repeated the ritual on the opposite wall to show how mighty it was. Midnight didn’t seem deterred or intimidated by the creature‘s show of bravado. Instead, he seemed ready to fight.
    “Be careful.”
    The dog turned and gave me a dubious expression that would have seemed almost comical under different circumstances. When he turned to face his opponent, he was all business again. The deep, menacing growls coming from the back of his throat were enough to scare me. The minotaur, however, didn’t react as I expected. Instead, he did something that surprised me.
    He spoke.
    “I have no quarrel with your dog. You are the one I’ve been sent here to deal with.”
    The creature struggled to form human words with a bovine tongue, but I understood it.
    “You speak?”
    “Among other things.” The minotaur’s voice was a low rumble. “I’m not sure how that dog found its way in here. It