THE MAZE - A Thriller Short Story Read online

we supposed to fit through there?

  “Yes, this is it. It’s a tight squeeze, but you girls won’t have any problems,” Pierre said and slapped Anna playfully on her behind. She let out a delighted squeal and blushed.

  Pierre swung his backpack to the front, so it rested on his chest and then unzipped it. He fumbled through the contents and handed each of us a flashlight.

  “Don’t turn it on until we get inside,” he said.

  “They should be full, but I have spares if you run out,” he added.

  “Let’s go,” Eric said and crawled through the hole, with his legs first. He smiled up at us as his lower body disappeared in the darkness.

  Anna and I looked at each other, and even her eyes showed a flicker of fear, although she would never admit it.

  The hole was a very tight squeeze and this time I was glad to feel Eric’s touch on my legs and hips as I lowered myself further into the hole. We had to crouch, and I immediately flicked the flashlight on and scanned our surroundings, while Eric helped Anna and Pierre through. It was a fairly small circular room, with three tunnels leading away from it. The tunnels were completely dark and without the flashlights we wouldn’t have been able to see our hands in front of our faces.

  Pierre went first, followed by Anna, myself, and Eric was right behind me. We took the first tunnel to our left, and although the boys assured us we’d be safe in their hands, I made myself memorise the path we were taking. The tunnel was very narrow and constructed using large bricks. Almost every inch was covered in graffiti and weird paintings. We passed a skull surrounded by a radioactive symbol.

  This is not so bad… Nothing is going to happen, I thought. I looked down at my flashlight, which I trained from side to side and up and down as I needed it, although Anna was only a step in front. Even if the batteries were to die, Pierre had spares, plus there were four of us, and on top of that I had my iPhone safely in my pocket. I wondered if I would need to use the flashlight feature today. For having said it was a useless gimmick, today I was glad to know it was there.

  We kept walking and reached another hall which had an option of five tunnels laid out in front of us. The hall was decorated with enormous paintings. A nude woman, covering her privates with a red sheet, a skull, graffiti, a death reaper and more graffiti.

  There was a makeshift table out of an old wine barrel with little stools all around it. Melted candles covered most of the table top and rubbish lay scattered on the ground. This must be where the addicts come. It’s dangerous enough to come down here, let alone when you’re high on heroin.

  “Keep moving,” Eric said behind me.

  I had slowed down, not realising Pierre and Anna were already entering the third tunnel.

  Okay, First tunnel left, big hall, then third tunnel left.

  I walked a bit quicker, desperate not to fall behind. We continued along this tunnel for several minutes, always steering to the left when the path happened to split in two. The knot in my stomach grew bigger and the realisation of the utter darkness around us, if our flashlights were to die, was beyond frightening.

  I tried to control my breathing and stay calm. Good, positive thoughts. This is exciting. People do this all the time…

  I wondered how long we had been walking for, and where exactly we were heading. Was there something in particular they wanted to show us. I couldn’t believe we didn’t even ask the question. My guess was we had been down here for at least fifteen minutes. The deeper we went into the tunnels, the colder and stuffier the air became.

  I was surprised that even Anna stayed relatively quiet. Her bubbling excitement reduced to the occasional ahh, as she pointed her flashlight at graffiti or belongings left behind from other people who ventured into these tunnels before us.

  After a while, we could hear water trickling somewhere.

  “There’s water down here?” Anna asked quietly.

  “Yes, some of the tunnels are flooded. Try not to step in the water. And keep an eye out for rats. They’re everywhere down here,” Pierre said.

  Anna muttered something to herself and didn’t ask any more questions after that. Sometimes it was better not to know. We reached another hall, and I almost dropped my flashlight at the sight of it. The entire hall’s perimeter was lined from the ground up to the ceiling with skulls and bones. There must have been thousands and thousands of them. Eric and Pierre stood next to each other, giving us time to absorb what we were seeing.

  “There are more halls like these in the tunnels. Combined they are the resting places of about six million people,” Eric said.

  This sight did not faze the boys. They had seen it many times before.

  “Come on, let’s keep moving,” Pierre said and took the tunnel to his right.

  Although I hated to admit it, the route we had taken so far, was a blur and I couldn't even remember the last few turns. We really were in a subterranean maze.

  I kept telling myself, It’s okay. You don’t need the directions.

  We kept walking, and I estimated we had been underground for over an hour. The regular thud of our steps on the dirt beneath us and the occasional trickle of water from a tunnel nearby were the only sounds we could hear.  Even Anna stopped pointing things out. The boys seemed to have forgotten English and didn’t speak either. We simply followed them along, deeper into the dark maze.

  My flashlight dimmed and then started to flicker. I hit it with the palm of my hand and shook it. The light was gone.

  “Uh… my flashlight just died,” I said.

  Nothing. It was as if he didn’t hear me. Anna turned back to look at me, but I couldn’t make out the expression on her face.

  “Pierre,” I said a little louder, “my flashlight just died. Could you hand me some spare batteries?”

  Pierre said something in French and Eric replied. I wondered what they were saying and if it was about us. We were all standing in the middle of a tunnel, but I could see another hall further up ahead, and behind us there was only darkness. Pierre said something in French again, and then they both started laughing. He walked up to Anna and me, held his flashlight up to his face, the bright light carving deep shadows where his eyes were and in a deep voice said, “Don’t move… Stay here, and we’ll be right back. If you move from here, you will get lost. We have to check something out.”

  My heart was beating loud inside my chest; I was sure Anna could hear it too. She looked at me in disbelief. Luckily her flashlight was still working. We couldn't do anything as we watched Eric and Pierre run towards the hall. We called their names, and ran after them, only to reach a small room with two tunnels leading from it. We stood there, unsure which one they had chosen, and could no longer hear the sound of their footsteps.

  I felt physically sick and my knees went weak. I couldn’t believe they would just abandon us like that, and to make matters worse, they thought it was a joke.

  Anna let out a nervous laugh.

  “They’ll be back. They’re just being idiots!” she said loudly, hoping they were still within earshot.

  Something told me they weren’t coming back. I felt like crying and cursed myself for ignoring my instincts when they first suggested we come down here. We could have visited the catacombs in the safety of a guided tourist group, but instead we put our lives in the hands of two guys we had only known for a few days.

  I shook my head in disbelief and reached for my phone, but my hands found nothing. My back pockets were empty.

  Panicked I checked all of my pockets, frantically searching my jeans and my jacket.

  It suddenly dawned on me that I had either lost it, or it had been stolen. And given our predicament, I knew it was the latter.

  “Anna, do you remember the path we’ve taken to get here?” I asked quietly.

  She looked at me, her eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears.

  She shook her head from side to side and looked at the two tunnels in front of us.

  The darkness was suffocating and my m
ind saw all sorts of things hiding in it. The only source of light came from Anna’s flashlight and it too was starting to dim slowly.

  Anna had left her phone back at the hotel, and other than the clothes on our back and two flashlights, one of which was dead already, we had nothing else.

  Anna pointed the beam of light onto her wrist and looked at her watch.

  We both wondered the same thing, just how long would we be waiting for Eric and Pierre?

  The seconds ticked by. It was excruciating, and a constant battle on deciding what we should do. Anna’s flashlight was not even as half as bright as it was when we Eric and Pierre first abandoned us. I suggested we turn it off for a while, to save the battery life, but we barely lasted twenty seconds before it came back on.

  When Anna checked her watch again, it had been over two and a half hours. Our voices were hoarse from our desperate calls for help, and it dawned on us that we had no choice but to try and find a way out of this maze ourselves, yet we were unable to move. The fear had paralysed us.

  We cowered on the ground with our backs pressed against the cold brick wall. Rats scurried past, sniffing out their next meal. The impenetrable darkness crept forward, closing in on us, as Anna’s flashlight began to flicker and eventually died.

  As the light went out, so did our hope of being rescued, and with shaking hands we blindly tried to find our way back to the surface.

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