Chapter 3: Entering the Labyrinth
The storm inside Auggie's room settled down as I started to get my confidence back. I looked toward where the owl was supposed to be, but instead, a man took the owl's place. He was tall, regal, and commanding in his presence. His hair showed that he did not keep it well, but his eyes were the strangest thing. They flared waiting to diminish any form of defiance.
"Who are you?" I asked him as I studdered to get the words out of my mouth.
"You know who I am," he answered with a smooth and cold British accent as he pulled my copy of Labyrinth out of my hand and then handing it back to me.
He was the Golbin King. He couldn't be him because the Goblin King was a fictional character. If he is real, I just condemned my brother to become a goblin.
"Please don't turn Auggie into a goblin," I pleaded with him. He let out a chuckle that brought fear into my mind.
"That is why I am here," he smirked as he held out a crystal ball. "I offer you a choice. This crystal holds your dreams; take it, and your brother becomes one of us forever. Or, you can run the Labyrinth to win him back, but if you fail, your brother will become a goblin forever."
"Where is he?" I asked him.
"He is in my castle," he pointed out the window.
I cast my eyes to where he was pointing. In front of my eyes, I could see the lit streets of New York transformed into a red, rugged, dead countryside. In the far distance, there was a castle. Auggie was there.
"I give you a choice," The Goblin King said as he stepped behind me.
I looked around. Auggie's bedroom was gone, and I was in the Labyrinth. I was standing on a hill overlooking the entrance of the Labyrinth.
"What is the choice?" I asked.
"Out of the thousands of years that I had ruled the Labyrinth and the hundreds of runners that ran my Labyrinth, only one was able to beat it. You can turn back now, and your brother will be stuck here forever."
"What if I told you I did not mean what I said?" I asked.
"What said is said," he answered taking a step back. "If you want your brother back, then you will have to run my Labyrinth."
"That is not fair!" I yelled at him as a clock appeared next to him.
"I have heard that phrase before," he sneered at him as he stalked closer to me. A glint in his eyes murdered my defiance, but they also seemed to be remembering someone else as though they were a past someone who he loved. He shook it off before continuing. "It doesn't matter anymore. You have thirteen hours to solve my Labyrinth."
He faded out of sight as he stepped back leaving me alone to try my luck. I turned to where the wall of the maze stood, and I started running down to it. I took in everything. Outside the gate, there was a small garden breaking the appearance of a desolate place. There, I saw something tending to it.
"Who are you?" a grumpy voice asked. I turned around to see a gnome and dwarf mixed standing behind me.
"I am Riley," I answered friendly.
"You are looking for the entrance to the Labyrinth, I suppose," he commented as I kept walking to the wall.
"Yes, how did you know?" I asked.
"That is what most people who come this way are looking for," he answered.
"Can you help me?" I asked him receiving a snort from him.
"If I were you, I wouldn't go into there," he answered.
"Why not?" I asked.
"You want to go in to save a wished away person, and I don't know if the King told you but-"
"I know, only one person has managed to defeat the Labyrinth," I interrupted as he opened the door.
I sprinted inside looking left and right to see which way I should go. There were only two ways to go left and right. Hoggle turned around and started going back outside of the Labyrinth.
"Where are you going?" I asked him.
"Back outside because I don't want to take part in this."
"Can you at least tell me which way I should go?"
"I wouldn't go either way," he answered.
"Why?"
"Either way you go, the Labyrinth will try to stop you," he answered as he shut the gates.
"I guess I will go right then," I said to myself before I started running in that general direction.