Insatiable (Inferno Games #3)

22. Back In The Labyrinth

22

BACK IN THE LABYRINTH

QUINN

A claxon blares through the air, its sharp, jarring sound igniting a surge of adrenaline within me. Instinct kicks in, and I spring into motion, my heart pounding as I survey the labyrinth unfolding before me—a tangled web of stone walls that seem to tighten with each frantic breath.

Panic surges within me as I realize the urgency of the moment. The shouts and hurried footsteps of others reverberate around me, a cacophony of desperation as they dash in various directions, their choices echoing against the cold stone. I can almost taste the tension in the air, thick and suffocating. My heart hurts knowing I’ll never se Dade again and I never got to say goodbye to him. He’ll probably be watching all this upstairs. I take in a deep breath. I will not put him through the agony of watching me die. I will survive this. I have to.

Which way to go? The long path ahead offers no comfort; its darkness feels alive, ready to swallow any flicker of hope I cling to. The left seems too constricted, an uncertain alley that might offer safety or ensnare me in its grasp. The right, with its beckoning light, calls out, yet I can’t shake the feeling that it could lead to even greater peril.

Every instinct screams at me to act, to make a choice, but the weight of indecision bears down on me. I can’t afford to hesitate. My heart races as I make a split-second decision and dart toward the right, praying that the flicker of light signals hope rather than another cruel twist in this treacherous maze. The walls seem to shift around me, closing in as I plunge into the darkness, forcing me to confront the dread lurking in every shadow.

The light at the end of the pathway grows brighter as I race forward, my footsteps echoing against the stone walls. The vines seem to reach out, grasping at my ankles, trying to slow my progress. I push onward, my lungs burning with each labored breath, the claxon's blare fading behind me.

Suddenly, the passage opens into a vast chamber; the light revealing a scene that stops me dead in my tracks. In the center of the room stands a towering stone altar. Surrounding the altar are dozens of hooded figures, their faces obscured by shadows, their chanting rising in a haunting crescendo.

I freeze, realizing too late that I've stumbled into something far more sinister than a mere maze. The figures turn towards me, their chanting ceasing abruptly. As they start moving toward me, I see what it was they were guarding. A massive cake stands in the centre of the altar.

All this for cake?

I stand paralyzed at the bizarre scene for only half a second before the hooded figures slowly pull back their hoods. My heart lurches. Their faces are grotesque—like melted wax, distorted and oozing, with long, jagged teeth that gleam under the dim light. A wave of revulsion sweeps over me, every instinct screaming run. I don’t wait to find out the whys or wherefores. In an instant, I spin on my heel and bolt back the way I came, my pulse thundering in my ears. Footsteps echo around me, but to my relief, they don't follow. As the Earthery can conjure up just about anything, I guess I can count on rooms like this throughout, with varying degrees of horrifying things. I remember the massive wolf like creatures in Hades Labyrinth and how I was able to beat one. I can do this! But as I turn yet another corner, I realize that I’m alone. Even though in reality the other contestants are somewhere in the warehouse sized Earthery, I can no longer hear them. I’m completely alone.

The eerie silence is punctuated only by my ragged breaths and the thud of my footsteps reverberating off the stone walls. Doubts begin to creep in as I wonder if I'll ever escape this twisted maze, or if I'm doomed to wander these nightmarish passages for eternity. At least in the original Labyrinth, I could see the light of the exits. Here, every passageway blends into the next, indistinguishable and oppressive.

I glance up at the towering walls that stretch into the darkness above. They’re not real, I remind myself; there’s no point in trying to climb them. Hours slip by in silence, and just as despair threatens to engulf me, I round a corner and nearly collide with Orlin. Relief washes over me at the sight of a familiar face, even one as emotionless as his. “Thank god,” I gasp. “Are you ok? What have you seen so far?”

He shrugs, his indifference palpable. “Not much.” He doesn’t even stop, and I hastily run after him.

“That way is a room with these weird hooded people guarding a cake,” I say, pointing back the way I came. “I got out of there quickly, but I thought you should know.”

“Okay,” he replies, barely acknowledging my words.

Once again, I’m left to ponder if he truly understands the gravity of our situation. When he turns back down the passage I just mentioned, frustration bubbles within me. Spending time alone feels preferable to choosing Orlin as an ally, so I take the opposite passage and head in the opposite direction, hoping to bump into someone else. Anyone. I should have thought of forming a team of allies before we came in here, but there wasn’t time. I didn’t even get chance to say goodbye to Dade. Pain fills my chest, almost suffocating me. I have to push it down if I want to get through this. There will be time for grief later. Instead of thinking about Dade, I pull a picture of Jenny laughing from the depths of my mind and concentrate on it. Jenny is why I’m here. Jenny is the reason I have to survive this.

Ten minutes later, my energy begins to wane, and I flop down against one of the cold, unyielding walls. Hours have passed, and apart from that bizarre cake room, all I’ve seen are walls. Surely, something should have happened by now? The Inferno Games have always been about entertaining the demons of each circle, never truly about us humans. I realized that long ago, so why does this trial feel so dreadfully monotonous? The hooded figures didn’t even put up a fight.

As I ponder this, half-hoping a giant monster will leap out to break the tedium, my stomach grumbles, cutting through the silence. I'm accustomed to hunger after spending the last two weeks in Gluttony, but this time it feels different—more insistent.

My stomach grumbles again, louder this time, and I clutch at it with both hands. The hunger gnaws at my insides, twisting and churning like a living thing. I try to ignore it, but the more I resist, the more intense it becomes.

Suddenly, a mouth-watering aroma fills the air, and I freeze. Cake. My head snaps up, and my stomach twists in hunger, the scent wrapping around me like a cruel temptation. My mouth waters, and the ache in my empty belly grows sharper. I feel like I’ve spent the entire day walking away from the room with the cake and the hooded figures. Yet, as I turn the corner, I find myself standing right back where I started, at the entrance to the labyrinth. The Earthery has pulled me back, like a rubber band snapping me into place.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Everything in this place is a construct of the minds trapped inside it, twisting and shifting to amuse the audience above. I knew from the start that this was never a fair race. The labyrinth changes constantly, adapting to the will of whoever—or whatever—is controlling it. And me? The most thrilling thing I’ve done today is whine about my blisters, so clearly, the Earthery is pushing me back toward the one thing I avoided: the cake room.

Maybe I was supposed to fight the hooded figures. Maybe that was the point all along.

I sigh heavily, shoulders sagging as I turn toward the scent of chocolate, the promise of cake pulling me in like a magnet. I don’t have a weapon, nothing to defend myself with, but what if I somehow manage to take them down? Would I finally be rewarded with that mountain of cake? God, I could use it right now.. My stomach rumbles in agreement.

I pause at the threshold, eyeing the towering cake warily. The hooded figures are gone, but something about this feels wrong, as though it’s a trap. Taking a tentative step forward, I suddenly notice something I hadn’t seen before. Behind the cake, the floor is stained with the unmistakable crimson of blood. My first thought goes to Orlin and the horrible thought that it was me that sent him here, albeit whilst trying to warn him about it. As I walk around the display, a gasp escapes my lips when I find the body of one of the other contestants sprawled on the ground. Just like in the underwater area in Purgatory, someone has decapitated him, the head missing. I’m momentarily pacified by the fact it isn’t Orlin. I look closely at the bloody shirt of the headless man. It’s one of the contestants. I didn’t know him well, but he seemed nice enough. David something or other. Bile rises in my throat, and I quickly clamp my hand over my mouth to suppress it. We never did find out who killed Michael and Lucia. I thought that after nothing happened that wasn’t explained in Lust, the murderer must have been out of the games, but evidently not.

My thoughts spiral to the contestants still trapped in this labyrinth with me. A few names flicker through my mind, but one stands out: Felix Barclay. I don’t want to believe it, especially after how he’s been these past few weeks, but the thought gnaws at me. He always had a nasty streak, and I can’t shake the fear that this is precisely what the games are about—surviving at any cost.

Fighting the urge to panic, I quickly grab a handful of cake, the rich frosting sticking to my fingers, and race away from the gruesome scene. My heart pounds in my chest as I navigate the labyrinth once more, adrenaline coursing through me.

When I can run no more, I find a corner and sit, looking at the sticky chocolate frosting coating my hands. I have no idea what will happen to me if I eat this. It could be filled with poison, like in the second trail. It might render me confused. I sit looking at it for an inordinate amount of time as my stomach’s grumbling gets louder. In the end, I eat it all, licking my sticky fingers until there is nothing left. Then, because I’m too exhausted to carry on, I tuck my legs up to my chest and fall asleep.