The Great Game

If you’re new to the Great Game, please have a quick look at the blurb to your left, where you’ll find a short catch-up introduction.

I shot down the straight as fast I could. There was a definite sense of rising threat, and the idea of being in such an open stretch was extremely unpleasant. I was panting by the time I got to the end. I threw myself round the corner, very relieved to see just a short corkscrew curve ahead. I leaned back against the labyrinth wall, painfully out of breath. It was revoltingly warm and spongy, but I tried again to put the thought of green, sparkling flesh out of my mind.

It occurred to me that I’d forgotten something. Odd… It felt important. Was it something to do with the void? Spiralling blackness… I worried at the memory for a little, while I caught my breath again and the hot ache in my legs faded. There was a hydra, I seemed to remember. And possibly a martinet.

Gradually, I realised that there was a foul stench building in the air. It had the tang of acid, and the heavy feel of copper, as well as a dark hint of putrid filth. The hairs on my arms prickled unpleasantly as I became fully aware of it. I’d waited here too long.

I ripped myself away from the wall, and set off into the corkscrew turn ahead, not quite running. There was a long moment of disorientation, where up and down lost meaning, and I couldn’t tell if I was walking or plummeting, and then I was out the other side, looking down the throat of a jagged row of short, sharp switchbacks. My heart was racing, and my skin felt taut, but the stench was fainter. I set off again at a slightly slower, more sustainable pace.

After some time — and a horribly protracted spiral that had me glancing nervously at the walls — I found myself heading down a long, gently-curving corridor. I was disturbed to realise that it was getting narrower. I tried not to worry about it, but after a few minutes the walls were brushing my elbows. Shortly after that, they were brushing my shoulders. I glanced back, but retreat was unthinkable. I pulled myself in tighter, rolling my shoulders into my chest as much as I could, but not much later, I had to turn my torso at an angle. A few more steps after that, and I was shuffling along sideways as quickly as I dared.

Less than a minute later, I felt the first brush of the wall against my chest. I stopped despite myself, hopelessly bleak. I sighed, and realised that the air was slightly tainted. Already. I immediately started shuffling forward again. The walls were hugging me within a couple more steps, and then they were closing around me. I could hardly see or breathe. I pushed on, blindly desperate. Even being crushed was better than…

There was an audible shlup, and the walls were gone. I tottered forward into a big, square chamber, wild-eyed and panting. Looking back at where I’d just come from, I could have sworn that for a second, I could see the edges of the walls quiver. There was a crumbling archway in the far wall, leading out of the room, and I made my way towards it as swiftly as my shaky legs would allow. The corridor beyond was considerably dimmer, and when I stepped into it, I realised that it was cooler, too. The far end was actually shadowed, although it was impossible to tell why.

As I walked into the shadowy patch, I discovered that the corridor opened up into a dingy bell-shaped chamber. The floor looked patchy and uneven. Amazingly, there were several exits. One was framed with garishly-bright green and red stripes. Another appeared to have a shimmering ghost-blue light coming from somewhere inside. A third looked like a regular corridor, except that it was even darker than bell chamber. I took a couple of uncertain steps into the room.

“Please,” said a high, nervous voice. “Don’t leave the folly.”

I looked around, and saw a young, dark-haired girl huddled in the corner. She was wearing a curious mustard-coloured jumpsuit, and holding a small stuffed bear. The bear was angled away from me, and I was surprised that I was incredibly grateful that I couldn’t see its face.

“I can’t stay,” I told her gravely. “I’m being hunted. It’s not safe.”

She frowned unhappily. “Don’t leave. The shade is much more dangerous. Go back. It really is safer for you.”

“There is no route back,” I said.

“The ways change. Maybe it’s different now. There are bad things in the shade. They won’t let you get beyond. You’ll never find the truth.”

I thought about that for a moment. “What about those doors?”

“Unpredictable,” she said. The bear seemed to twitch slightly in her arms, and she glanced down at it. “I have to go.” She ran past me, and back up the way I had come.

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Today’s photo is Twisted Labyrinth by Commander Dex