God's Gone AWOL

[3] THERE! (Part 2)

They wandered the maze for quite a while, but never once came across... well, anything at all. They were just met with constant walls, dead ends, turns, split pathways. It was all just a never-ending, dizzying spiral of greenery and cool, foggy air without any variation for eternity. And the three of them walked it without any sort of destination or method of direction.

It also didn't help that Atticus was getting claustrophobic again. Plus, the fact that they hadn't encountered anything dangerous was also making him anxious. If they had encountered booby traps like a pit of spikes or a tripwire or something along the way, he wouldn't be so tense. But because there was nothing, no obvious threats or challenges, Atticus felt infinitely worse.

"Are you aware of the legend of Daedalus' Labyrinth?" He asked Bentley as they wandered around.

"What's with you and Greek mythology today?" She replied.

But he wasn't really listening.

"Who's to say we aren't the only ones in this maze?"

In the original legend Atticus was referring to, a great inventor known as Daedalus had constructed an elaborate maze. It was designed to contain the Minotaur, a malformed half-man-half-bull which lived off sacrificial human meat. Sure, the beast was killed in the end by it's own half-sister's boyfriend, but the memory of the legend still remained clear in Atticus' mind.

He'd read 'Harry Potter'. Owen had forced him to watch 'The Shining'. Atticus knew that nothing good ever happened in hedge mazes. So he couldn't help but wonder, what sort of minotaur was waiting for them in a place like this?

"If anything tries to bother us, I trust you'll be able to handle it, Halo Head," Bentley said, very encouragingly.

"Oh? Are you too weak to handle yourself now?" he replied,

Just as he said this, the close veils of green suddenly disappeared and they found themselves standing in the middle of another open area. This place was similar to the garden-like enclosure at the beginning of the maze. There were little stone benches and patches of flowers scattered here and there, and the hedgy barrier surrounding everything was much lower. Upon seeing the way it opened up, the tightness that had been gripping Atticus' body released somewhat.

Then something caught his eye. Directly in the center of the square garden, a small stone obelisk stuck straight up into the air. It wasn't very tall, reaching just a little bit above Atticus' waist. The sides had been smoothed down with rough craftsmanship so it wasn't perfectly neat or polished, and it had been worn down by weather after standing a number of years. Atticus recalled seeing quite a few similar structures go up in various places around the world shortly after Bentley passed away. They had been memorials for human soldiers killed in the second world war.

But who would put a memorial in a place like this? Unless this entire maze was some sort of monument, the obelisk had to be something else. Perhaps it was an exit of some sort?

"What's this thing?" Said Leslie, circling the obelisk after appearing out of nowhere.

Okay, he hadn't actually appeared out of nowhere. But Atticus had been so focused on following Bentley that he had completely forgotten Leslie even existed... again.

"Do you see a door anywhere?" He asked,

"No, it's just a bunch of weird symbols," Leslie responded, still examining the obelisk. "Is this like a cult thing or what?"

Atticus and Bentley hurried up to take a look for themselves. As soon as they saw the familiar characters etched into the surface of the stone, both inhaled in surprise.

"This is Enochian," Atticus said, tracing a finger over the curled little letters.

"The heck is that?" Said Leslie.

"Bentley, whoever put this here must have known that angels would be the ones reading it,"

"D'you think whoever designed this maze might be trying to contact us?" Bentley tilted her head.

"There would be no other reason to use the Enochian script,"

"Okay, so you two can read this. What does it say?" Leslie smacked the stone for no reason.

"I can translate." Bentley waved her hand and the letters on the obelisk started changing, rewriting themselves into Latin-Alphabet characters.

Two sentences were traced out on opposite sides of the structure, their letters stretching downward in neatly carved text. Even though Bentley and Atticus could have just read everything out in it's original language, poor Leslie would be quite confused. Now that it was translated into something he could understand, he eagerly leaned forward to read the lines out loud.

"'Two lights shine alone in the dark. One is white and one is red'? What the heck does that mean??" He said.

Nobody had an answer for him. Bentley circled around to the other side.

"'Though once they were rivals, now they are—'"

She suddenly froze. Then looked up at Atticus with round red eyes.

"'Friends.'" She finished.

White and red? Rivals turned into friends? Hm...

"What do you think this rhyme is about?" He asked her pointedly.

It was as if she hadn't heard him. Bentley quickly turned around and immediately started walking back the way they came.

"We should go a different route," She said.

However, neither the angel nor the human bothered to follow. Leslie was too busy spinning around in circles trying to make sense of the rhyme. And Atticus was smiling silently to himself. This rock considered him to be Bentley's friend —Even if she didn't do so herself. For some reason, it made the angel very happy.

"Where did the path go??" Bentley said loudly, interrupting his thoughts.

Atticus glanced up. When they had entered the little garden earlier, they had been facing the side of the obelisk that now had the second half of the rhyme written on it. However, now when all of them turned back the way they came, they were met with a solid line of green. The path back into the maze was nowhere to be seen.

"I could have sworn we just came this way." Bentley blinked her eyes a couple times.

"We did just come this way," Atticus told her, "However, 'the way' is no longer there,"

"Well where the heck did it go?? Do I have to blast my way through the shrubbery or what?"

"I don't think that would work," Said Atticus, "If the maze can grow over like this in such a short time, even destroying it wouldn't stop it from changing."

"Wait, are you saying that the hedges are moving?" Leslie asked the pair of them.

"It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case." Atticus let out a sigh. "It's just as well. If we get lost in here for eternity, at least it isn't because we're incompetent."

"Atticus, has it ever occurred to you that you have wings and can literally just fly us to the center of the maze?" Said Bentley.

He smiled.

"You haven't looked up yet," He said.

Flying had actually been the first thing he thought of, but he quickly discovered that such a thing would not be an option. This was because: stretching over their heads like a canopy reaching from hedge to hedge, was a thin shimmer of light. It was only about as visible as a spider web in sunlight, but it was certainly there.

This was a barrier. One of the simplest forms of magic, and also one of the most effective. In order to prove just how effective it was, Atticus picked a flower up from the ground and threw it directly into the air. As soon as it hit the shimmering veil, sparks flew as if the flower had touched an electricity line instead. Then it fell back to the ground as a smoldering pile of ash only a second later. Bentley's eyes went wide just at the sight of it.

"Flying is off the table," Atticus said simply. "We have no choice but to follow through the maze,"

"Alright then, 'friend', lead the way," She said.

Another path leading back into the maze had opened up, this time in a different direction. Atticus gripped Bentley by the wrist and tugged her forward with the bewildered Leslie in tow. They soon found themselves once again enclosed between the high walls of green. Back in the close quarters of the labyrinth. Going ever onward in the endless thread of green green green. But this time they were moving much faster than before.

He had no idea why, but Atticus had suddenly felt a rush of self-confidence ever since they had read out the rhyme on the obelisk. Earlier, when they had first entered the maze, he had been following Bentley's lead wherever she went. Never once daring to make any decisions for the group for fear of encountering something dangerous. But now he had taken over, and was making every move on a whim, leading the three randomly and not worrying about it even in the slightest.

To be completely fair, that obelisk in the garden helped somewhat. Though it was a tad bit metaphorical, the parallels between the text and real life was a little too similar. It wasn't a coincidence that they had stumbled across it. And though that in itself did make Atticus feel just a little bit like a hamster in a cardboard maze, it also gave him a strange sense of security. Why would the designer of the maze put a message up for himself and Bentley if they just planned on killing them or trapping them forever?

Besides, Bentley had already said; if they really DID encounter something dangerous, Atticus could handle it.

"Do you have any idea which way we're going?" She asked him after having been tugged around for nearly ten minutes.

"I haven't a clue!" Atticus replied, smiling.

They had just come to another fork in the path.

"Guys, I feel like we should think carefully before we just randomly pick a way," Said Leslie, "This seems kinda horror-movieish to me, honestly. What if there's something else in here following us?"

"YOU'RE the only one following us." Bentley twisted herself around in Atticus' grip, "Feel free to leave, you're really welcome to anytime."

"Whichever path we choose to follow will be random no matter what," Atticus said calmly, "There's no way to determine what lies ahead in either case,"

"Okay but still, you guys don't seem to be getting the bad vibes from this place." Leslie fidgeted with the straps on his stupid little hat.

"The only thing here capable of giving off GOOD vibes is Atticus," Bentley replied.

For a moment, Atticus thought he heard her wrong.

"Did you just give me a compliment?" He asked.

"Don't even dream about it, Halo Head. For an angel like you, it's impossible to give off negative energy. I was just stating the obvious." She waved her hand around, motioning to their creepy enclosure, "Plus in a place like this, there's nothing BUT dark energy,"

"Wait, do I give off dark energy too?" Leslie's perfectly-neat eyebrows were tilted upwards almost pitifully.

"You smell just as evil as me, if not more," Bentley snapped.

A sudden itching feeling at the back of Atticus' mind caused him to take another look at the bellhop behind them. Bentley had spent more of her life in the presence of demons and other dark creatures. She was more adept when it came to identifying the potency of evil. Leslie appeared to just be a bellhop, but the more Atticus thought about it, the more unsettled he felt. The kid had been following them this entire time, could it be that there was more to this Leslie than he originally thought?

The angel tilted his head slightly. Just wondering...

"Wait, are you talking about limited-edition Lucy Feral perfume?" Leslie asked.

And suddenly all doubt was expelled from Atticus' mind. Sighing, he tugged lightly on Bentley's wrist, leading her down the path to their left.

"We're going this way," He said.

Although he had made the decision completely on impulse, it actually proved to be somewhat fruitful. After only a few meters of walking, they suddenly found themselves in another square garden. And at the center stood another obelisk.

All three of them stopped walking.

"Is that a new spikey thing, or did we just loop back around to where we were before?" Leslie asked.

Atticus said nothing. He walked up to the obelisk and quickly waved a hand over the stone, translating the Enochian into English again.

"'A Nephilim child is dragged into the mess, as well as the Prince of Hell,'" He spun around to the other side, "'Can four lives save the four realms? Only God can tell,'"

"Have you been writing this down?" Bentley asked.

"It's already written down,"

"No, I mean in a way we'll be able to remember. Just in case,"

"Not everybody's memory is as bad as yours, Bentley," Atticus said with a smile.

Bentley could only respond with an offended little laugh.

...