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Minotaur
There was no exit.
Emma knew it all to well, but she couldn't give up.
She carefully looked around the corner. She didn't hear anything in minutes, but sound was traitorous in this confined place. Sometimes she couldn't hear anything deafened by her own steps and breath.
Nothing.
Nobody was waiting to catch her.
She continued walking down the narrow dark corridor to the door at the end.
Locked.
She kicked the door in frustration, but as always it remained closed. Locked doors couldn't be opened in this place, no matter how hard she tried.
She turned back. Ten steps in the dark to reach a room from where she came. Not that she could say it for certain. While every room in this place was unique in some way, it was hard to tell them apart. Bare gray walls, windows with only darkness outside, all locked. Furniture was sparse and provided no real cover, yet it was cluttered enough to obscure movement, forcing Emma to carefully step around it, wasting her time.
Some rooms looked like classrooms: rows of desks before a blackboard. Others resembled living room if one could imagine people spending their time sitting on chairs watching a window with nothing around to distract them from the darkness. Still others had an industrial look, with canisters of unknown origin placed around chaotically.
None looked like they were used by anyone.
Emma took a door to her left. She tried to follow the left hand rule of labyrinth exploring even though she knew it was futile. A few times in the past she ran without paying attention to directions, and now she was completely lost.
Not that it made a difference, really. There was no exit.
She heard a sound. A distant buzz like static.
She ran, stumbling over a chair only to get up, mindless of the pain in her leg, jumping over a desk to get to the door a few moments earlier, running through the dark corridor, hitting a wall when she suddenly reached a corner, turning, hoping she picked the right direction in her confusion, running again for the closed door, reaching for the handle hoping it won't be locked, opening the door...
She was greeted by a vision of white, contrasting so much with the gray walls normally surrounding her.
Bathroom. Urinals lined the wall opposite her, pipes were exposed, making the room seem similar to a cage.
Dead end.
She turned, covered her face in hands and ran back, but already she knew she has lost. First bugs landed on her skin, biting, stinging, chewing. As she continued to run, bugs increased in density, forming a swarm that enveloped her in a cloud of pain.
The swarm spoke to her in thousands distorted voices coming from everywhere around her, from under her skin, mixing with her thoughts.
"Did you think you can escape me, Emma? Did you think I won't find you? Foolish girl. I will devour you bit by bit until nothing is left."
Emma ran. Blind, she didn't know where she was going. More than once she fell, stumbling over the damned furniture, pushed around by clusters of bugs. Each time she stood up and searched for the next door to open trying not to expose her face and failing at it.
There was no escape, and each bite, each lost piece of flesh was driving the point home. It was only a matter of time before she gave up, unable to make another step.
But that moment was yet a few steps ahead. She reached the edge of the swarm. She wasn't running anymore, she wasn't even walking. Her legs felt numb, one eye couldn't see. She crawled to the next door at the end of a dark corridor. Foot by foot she dragged herself for a brief reprise from the hunt.
She reached for the door.
Locked.
Dead end.
She laid on her back, prepared to face her pursuer.
A dark distorted figure appeared before her. It was a girl covered in bugs which were obscuring her features and making the edges of her figure blurry. The girl walked closer to Emma, bugs covering the walls behind her, filling the air with maddening patterns.
"Hi, Emma," the girl said and a few flies flew from her mouth.
"T-Taylor," said Emma. She had troubles moving her tongue.
Taylor leaned over Emma and poked her nose.
"You are it," she said.
The swarm descended on Emma.
Flesh twisted. Bugs were still biting it, but they were the ones being devoured now.
Skin was the first thing to heal, enveloping the body in a loose cocoon. Shapes that could be internal organs given independent life or could be something else moved under the cover in agitation.
Different body parts weren't synchronized yet, muscles convulsed, inhuman forms reached in different directions, stretching the skin they shared.
Emma stood up, her face yet recognizable to the backing Taylor.
"Hey, Taylor," said dozens of mouths. "I think it's my turn now."
"Told you it was fun," said Taylor, smiling. The bugs disappeared into dark corners and cracks in the walls, leaving only a fragile girl behind. "Sophia always has the best ideas."
