Chapter Twelve
Gwendolyn
Anticipation thrummed through me, the feeling of acceptance starting to fill an empty space I didn’t know I had.
Each step guided by an instinct that was new, the maze continued to whisper its secrets and I understood even without words, the foliage rustling softly like a breath of a thousand eager souls, and maybe that’s exactly what it was.
And I felt Kasper, his presence infiltrating everything that surrounded me, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. I loved it.
“Let the maze guide you to your truth,” he urged, his voice filling the part of me I thought would never be awakened, and I could feel him, his gaze, even though I couldn’t see him. A predatory admiration that only fueled my resolve and my decision.
I ventured deeper, allowing myself to feel the new sensations, to feel the energy shift. Each rustle of leaves and crack of twigs heightened my senses, the maze was my partner, and it wanted to embrace me as I was.
“Focus,” Kasper’s voice reached inside and became one with me. “Feel it, embrace it, accept it,” he encouraged me to continue on, but let this be mine and mine alone.
I nodded, letting it guide me, and suddenly, I saw him. A figure stumbling through the underbrush, oblivious to the fate that awaited him. Jake. The name was a bitter taste on my tongue and I felt the surge of adrenaline course through me.
He was just ahead, his unworthiness, his silhouette leaked the bitterness of his soul, his aura nothing but pitch black and I saw it as it smothered the goodness of the maze.
I wanted to stifle it, suffocate it until it was no longer a problem and wouldn’t be a stain on this world any longer.
My heart raced but not with fear but with primal excitement and purpose.
I crouched low, the soil cool beneath my fingertips, blending into the coverage the maze provided me as I watched him.
“Enchanting,” Kasper whispered, his voice dripping with approval. “The maze wants to show you how it can help you, let it guide your instincts.”
I could feel his footsteps as his feet hit the soil, a thumping in my chest. The wind carried the jagged sounds of his breaths as he took them, and I felt the maze cloak my presence so he couldn’t see me, couldn’t feel me until I was ready.
Every fiber of my being felt alive, felt guidance, protection, and love over my darkest parts and it was intoxicating.
“Now, my love,” Kasper urged in a whisper that sent shivers down my spine.
With a swift movement, the maze uncloaked my presence and I appeared from the shadows as I moved forward without hesitation. Jake turned, his eyes wide with surprise. Confusion filled them next and then a predatory gleam as he had no idea what awaited him.
I closed the distance and Jake just stood there, momentarily frozen in shock, or not considering me a threat, both of which would be part of his downfall. He took me in, and I could see that flicker of arrogance that would have made anyone else’s stomach turn. “Who are you?” He sneered.
“Gwendolyn.” He should be aware of who was going to end him.
“Gwendolyn.” The sound of his voice was bitter. My name rolled off his tongue like poison and I hated the way he said it, and I considered cutting out his tongue as part of his penance.
I vibrated, but not with fear. No, with knowledge, acceptance, and want. I felt the maze urging me on, wrapping its tendrils around my mind, amplifying my rage, my need. “You’ve been terrorizing Clara,” I said in a growl that resonated with the depths and depravity of my soul.
His laughter was a harsh, mocking sound that sliced through the night. “That little entitled brat? She’s weak, just like you. You’ll never be anything more than a pathetic little girl who got lost in a maze and never found her way out.” Oh, how right his words were, he just didn’t realize why.
His ego ignited something primal within me, a flicker of fury that turned into a roaring blaze.
I could feel the heat rising in my chest, the need for justice, the need to protect overwhelming.
Clara was innocent, and this man, this…being, had made her life a living hell, and now he had to answer to me. To us.
“Pathetic.” My voice trembled with barely contained rage. “You have no idea.” Then I started to laugh at the confusion on his face when I didn’t cower in fear, when I didn’t bend or break or beg.
Suddenly, all of my insecurities faded away, replaced by a searing clarity.
The maze had offered me power, and with it, I could continue my work for centuries to come.
I lunged forward, propelled by a force far greater than myself, the ground beneath me a blur as I closed in on him.
The maze hummed in anticipation as it slithered to bind his arms and legs.
In that instant, he must have realized the gravity of his miscalculation, his mistake. The smug grin faltered and the arrogance he held faded away, replaced by a flicker of fear that I could taste and relished in it. “Wait!” he shouted, but it was too late, far too late.
He’d been judged by me, by the maze, and now only his soul would do.
In a blur of shadows and fury I felt the maze envelop me, its energy pulsing through me as my limbs appeared to become one with the stalks and I drove him back against his newly found prison.
The impact reverberated through my bones.
He struggled, his eyes wide with panic, but I could see the truth behind his facade.
I could see it, feel it, the nothing but evil that coated his soul.
The depravity that plagued Clara’s life was now standing before me, now the one terrified.
“You don’t get to hurt her anymore,” I hissed.
“In fact, you don’t get to hurt anyone anymore.
” My voice dripped with venom as I pressed my body against his, sucking in his fear as if it brought me to life, as if it fueled me far beyond my wildest dreams. “You’re nothing but a problem, a stain, unworthy of life in this world, and I’m going to take care of that. ”
The maze responded to my fury, its energy surging around us, and I felt that rush of exhilaration that I reveled in as I drew my knife, the blade glinting menacingly in the moonlight. “It ends tonight, you end tonight.”
He struggled against the grip of the stalks, crying out in frustration when they only tightened further causing him to bleed, the soil soaking it up. I could see when his frustration turned to horror and his eyes widened as he looked at me then. “No! Please, I didn’t mean it!” he stammered.
“You’re lying,” I scoffed. Why did they all lie?
“I promise, I swear, I'll change.” His ramblings meant nothing to me, they never did.
With a swift motion, I pressed the blade into his flesh, not with hesitation but with fierce determination. The thrill of it all pulled me deeper into my new reality, the maze welcoming me fully as I felt the warm blood spill from beneath my fingertips.
“Consider this your apology,” I informed him. “Dead men tell no lies.”
With one final thrust, I ended his life, the rush of it sending a sense of euphoria through me. The shadows and stalks of the maze danced around me, and pulled me into them, almost like a hug, and I felt Kasper’s presence envelop me, a dark approval radiating from him like a warm embrace.
“Beautiful,” he murmured as he came out of his watching place, his words wrapped around my heart.
As I looked down at Jake’s lifeless body, I felt the exhilaration of the hunt intertwining with the acceptance of my new reality. I was no longer lost trying to find my way, trying to find a purpose, I was home.
I was the second keeper of the maze.