Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“Faster,” he says again. “It’s gaining on us!”
I try, I do. But I don’t have another gear and I’m just about to panic when Quaid passes me—grabbing on to my hand as he goes by—and begins pulling me down the corridor.
“We’re almost there!” he yells. “Sing it!” And when I look up ahead of us, he’s pointing at something. Bright lights glowing on the dark stone walls.
Symbols. Like the ones we’ve seen a few times. But I seem to be missing some critical information, because even though I understand that ‘sing it’ is most likely referring to my earworm, this isn’t my song. It’s Aric’s and I’ve only heard it once while I was in the middle of a very stressful situation just like this one. And at no point in time did anyone explain to me that there would be a pop quiz on that fucker, so why the hell would I memorize the words?
But to my surprise, I do know the words. And they come spilling out of my mouth. It’s not in tune, in fact, its kind of shrieky, but nonetheless, singing it badly seems to be enough. Because as soon as I finish with ‘A final gift to be your eyes’, Quaid’s glasses flash a bright light and everything becomes… I don’t know. Dreamy. Foggy. Spinny.
I don’t think spinny is a word, but it does describe what’s happening because suddenly Quaid and I are slowly rotating up in the air!
He’s reaching for the lights on the stone wall, while I’m focused on the charging Minotaur that just came around the bend.
The first thing that hits me is the smell. It’s monstrous. But then, all I see are teeth.
My heart aches for a second, picturing Aric running from this thing for five years. But there’s literally no time to wax poetic about that, because he’s covering ground like a damn racehorse in the Kentucky Derby!
“Hurry!” I scream. “Hurry up!”
These words come out of my mouth, but I don’t know why. Or what Quaid is doing behind me. All I know is that he’s interacting with the lights on the wall.
“I’ve got it,” he says. “Last one and—”
I blink. Blink again, because the light I so bright, I have to put a hand up over my eyes.
“What the hell did you just do, Star?”
I look to my right and find Quaid standing next to me. He’s naked. I look down at myself, find me in the same state, and then look out at the horizon. We’re on some kind of a cliff overlooking a peaceful summertime valley.
I look back at Quaid. “I didn’t do this.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. I don’t normally interrupt my fucking and choking to go into a dream.”
“Hmm.” That’s all I say back. Because yeah, when you’re on the verge of having the best orgasm of your life, you don’t generally want to interrupt that with a paranormal experience. But then the maze comes back to me and I turn to him. “Oh, my god, were you there? In the maze with me? Did you see it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The maze! The Minotaur! It was chasing us and we were running towards a wall with glowing symbols. I had to sing the song, and we floated up into the air, and you were fucking with the lights, and then…” I blink. “Well, a big flash of light occurred and we came here.”
He’s shaking his head. “Nope. That’s not what I saw.”
“What did you see?”
“Code. Like… I was inside a computer, or something.”
“Like the green outlines in the maze?”
“No, it was literally code. All around me. Like those symbols on the walls that you light up.” We stare at each other for a moment. Then he says, “That’s your power. That’s the one I unlock.” He smiles. Like he’s proud of this fact. “It’s how we get out!”
“But what’s this place?” I ask. Panning a hand to the peaceful valley. It’s very picturesque. Almost unreliably beautiful. Like it was painted or something. But it’s real, we’re here, and I can feel the heat of the bright sun and the coolness of a gentle breeze on my naked body.
Quaid studies the valley down below, then looks around where we’re standing on the cliff. He points up. “Look. Is that a village up there?”
I turn and look up in the direction he’s pointing. It does, in fact, look like some kind of village. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “But when you saw us running in the maze, was it that time we were all running together? When we first figured out where we were?”
“No.” I shake my head. “It wasn’t that time. It was different because we—you and me—we were only half dressed. No shoes. It was like we were interrupted in the middle of sex and had to get the fuck out of Dodge, pronto.”