Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters, Annabelle Hawthorne [smart ebook reader TXT] 📗

“I’ll do my best.” He set the candle on the far side of the table. Grabbing the lid of the box, he saw several runes appear over the Russian letters, glowing symbols that rapidly swirled before him. Flicking through the lenses of the goggles on instinct alone, he quickly saw that most of these glowed an angry red. Five of them, however, glowed a soft blue with numbers next to them, and he touched these in order, avoiding the angry red runes. The runes disappeared, and a thin line appeared in the middle of the box. Mike grabbed the edge, taking a deep breath.

“Are you going to keep standing there?” Ratu asked.

“It just opened.”

“You’ve been standing still for almost half an hour.” Ratu squeezed his shoulder. “Time is already distorting. You need to act fast.”

“Jesus.” Grabbing the tongs, Mike pulled open the box. The room filled with the stink of rotting soil, a sinister wind wrapping itself around Mike. Ratu’s arms slid around his waist, holding him tightly. Her dark hair blew against his face, briefly obscuring his vision.

A black mist burst out of the box, clutching at him with spectral claws and swallowing them both in darkness.

Beth watched Tink running around on the shore. The fairies were flying in circles over the goblin’s head, and Tink was jumping in the air, trying to catch them. The fairies’ laughter sounded like the gentle tinkle of bells, contrasting heavily with Tink’s cackles of glee.

“How long will they be down there?” Abella asked Asterion.

The Minotaur said nothing, his eyes on the ice.

“I wouldn’t think too long,” Beth suggested. “I guess there’s probably some sort of ritual involved, and if it was going to take them a while, they would have brought it back up. Choosing to stay down there for hours would be—”

She was interrupted by a loud crack, which ricocheted off the ceiling of the Labyrinth. The lake rumbled, and sections of the ice cracked and then crumbled. The tunnel shook, and Beth heard the collapse farther in. Standing there in shock, Beth realized that the ringing in her ears was Tink screaming. Abella held the little goblin back.

“What do we do?” Beth asked the Minotaur.

Asterion lifted his ax, fixing her with intense eyes. “We dig.”

Walking into the tunnel, he was soon followed by Tink and Abella. The fairies rushed in behind them, and Beth found herself bringing up the rear. About twenty feet down, a large chunk of ice had fallen down, blocking further passage. Asterion began knocking giant chunks off with his ax, and Abella lifted them away. The fairies circled near the top of the passage—Tink was handing them blocks of ice, which they were melting into the cracks and then refreezing to keep the ceiling secure. Sofia’s eye would occasionally flash, and she would immediately redirect their efforts.

After a few minutes of this, they got through the first section. Tink slid ahead of them, her bare ass on the ice, then returned to declare a more serious cave-in up ahead. The others started to work again, and Beth stood back, marveling at how they all worked together.

I want to help.

Beth pulled Jenny out of the bag around her hip and ran her fingers over the porcelain doll’s features. Looking at the others, she realized that she didn’t have the strength or magic to help them.

But Jenny did.

“Let’s do it,” she said.

“Ow.” Mike sat up, blinking rapidly. Unable to see, he wondered if he had gone blind. Waving his hand in front of his face, he snapped his fingers. At least he still had his hearing. Standing carefully, he stuck out his arms, feeling around the edges of the room. He smashed his fingers painfully into the wall, cursing silently. Moving around, he stumbled over something small and then crashed into a stack of objects that made a huge racket when they tumbled over on him.

“Goddamn it!” Pushing his way free, he found the wall again. He slid along it and found the hinges of a door. He moved to the other side and was about to open it when he felt a light switch with his left hand and flipped it on instead. Blinking away the sudden intrusion of light, he saw that he was inside of a large broom closet with a drain in the corner. Stunned, he looked at the mess of buckets and mops he had tipped over.

Where the fuck was he?

A small groan came from beneath the mess he had made. Kneeling, he pushed away the mess to reveal a young girl with long dark hair. She opened her eyes and slowly focused on Mike’s face.

“Are you okay?” Mike asked. Something was wrong with his voice. It came out at a higher pitch.

“Mike?” The girl sat up, her hair falling across her face.

Mike saw the scale patterns on her neck and shoulders. She wore a simple white dress with flowers on it that reminded him of lotus blossoms.

“Ratu?” He helped her up. “What happened to you?”

“What happened to us?” she corrected him. She directed Mike to the other side of the broom closet, and he saw a small mirror over the drain. Looking into it, he saw that his hair was longer and slightly tousled, a style he hadn’t seen since his thirteenth birthday when his mother had started calling him a little girl.

Mouth opening and closing in disbelief, he lifted the white shirt he was wearing. The scars on his chest and stomach were still there.

“Why are we little kids?” Mike asked, leaning closer to the mirror. One of his eyes was the wrong color. It was a swirling seafoam green that reminded him of Naia’s hair. Pulling his hair back for a better look, he found a shock of stark white hair beneath that reminded him of Cecilia. “Is this the Dreamscape? Or somewhere else?”

“I’m going to have to get back to you on that. I haven’t been this young since before Jesus was