Set up on the grass outside, there are five rows of pews between us. Probably to stop me and Axel from getting into it again. It’s a closed casket service, out of respect. It’s like I can almost see through the oak, to Chrissie’s resting face, the skin so cold when I’d kissed her for the last time. The coffin is small, the same height as me. It would’ve dwarfed her. I hope she’s comfortable in there with the extra headroom and foot space.

The cushioning looked soft.

They lower her into the ground, and I’m encouraged by my parents to say something. Getting the words out is hard. My nose is running and I can barely see the words on my paper as I speak. I can’t feel my heart in my chest because it hurts so much.

“I love Chrissie. She’ll always be my little sister. She shouldn’t be dead. It’s not fair. I will miss her all my life.”

I finish, hands shaking, world blurry, and my parents both say their farewells through tears as well, and then the ceremony is over. People, faceless strangers to me, mill about us, offering empty condolences.

We add her favourite toys onto her casket before they begin to cover her up. I also give Chrissie my favourite book, even though I’ll never be able to read it to her. The dirt thudding against the casket lid is the only sound for a long time.

When Axel approaches the grave, at first anger hits me. I’m rushing up to confront him, fury cutting through the sadness, ready to throw down again. But he’s speaking, very softly, down to Chrissie. He sniffs as he speaks, and it causes me to hesitate. My steps slow, but I inch closer to listen in. I only manage to catch the end of it.

“...my sister, but you were the closest I had. This was for you, like always, like I promised.”

After taking a moment, Axel releases something into the grave and then walks away to his parents who are also distraught, almost as much as my own. I creep hesitantly to the edge of the hole. Down there, amidst the growing mound of dirt, on top of the book I’d given Chrissie, is a crisp blue raspberry Warhead.

Just like me she loved sour things. I even remember the expression on her chubby baby face the first time she’d tried a lemon. Though for the past year or so, because of several cavities, she’d been banned from eating lollies. She’d taken the ruling with a peculiar grace, never throwing a tantrum or even asking for any. Mum and Dad had been proud.

Had Axel been sneaking her these the entire time?

“Hey, Lee, everyone’s back up.”

I blinked back the dream, or the memory, or the dream of a memory. As the world rushed back into focus, I became aware that the rest of the party were in various stances in a semicircle around me. They were waiting on me. I must’ve dozed off while we were letting Wren rest.

I stared for a moment at Axel. It still felt unreal that he was calling me by my name. He was squatting down beside me, the hand that’d shaken me awake mid-retraction. There were bags under his eyes. If I thought about it, those had appeared, and had never truly faded, after that day.

I’d forgotten that he’d loved Chrissie too. Axel and my sister never got along like me and her, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t cared about her.

After the funeral, prompted by Axel’s actions, I’d dug up the remaining pack of Warheads I had.

A few weeks before everything, my parents had brought me that packet as a reward for getting good grades. They made me promise not to give any to Chrissie, and so I’d hid them under my bed and had been snacking on them in secret.

I told myself I would eat the rest for her.

Opening the remaining individual packets, one by one in preparation as if in ritual, I’d eventually broken down, sobbing that I was sorry for never sharing them. Thinking about Chrissie, tied to how helpless I felt and how useless what I was doing was, triggered my first ever attack.

Scared that I was dying, as punishment for hiding the lollies from my sister, for letting her die, the even more irrational part of my brain thought I could take the lollies with me to her. Through my tears and crushing heart and lungs, I shovelled a handful of the Warheads into my mouth.

That the sour flavour of them shocked me out of the panic attack was pure happenstance.

I’d never told Axel about that. I don’t know how he knew. Yes, they helped me with the attacks. But beyond that, I’d always had them because they reminded me of Chrissie, of the future she’d lost, that we never got to share.

Maybe Axel had kept them for the same reason.

Realising myself, I nodded to his prior words, and I quickly checked my own stats to ensure I was good to go as well. Both my stamina and mana were back to around two thirds. Not a lot of time had passed while I’d slept, but if everyone else was ready, I wasn’t going to hold us back. I think I’d done enough of that.

Standing, I asked Wren, “How was your nap?”

“I feel a lot better.” She smiled. “I had really good dreams. Did you dream?”

“Oh, uh. I dreamt about…” I paused, trying to figure out how to explain it without making it sound bleak. No matter how I cut it, it was going to be a mood killer. Even though the dream hadn’t made me sad.

The cutthroat of our party rolled her eyes. “No one actually cares, babes.”

“Oi, speak for yourself, I love hearing about dreams,” said Jye. “They reflect a person’s mental state.”

I blanched. “I hope that’s not true.”

Gigi crossed xir arms, shaking xir head. “I disagree. Dreams mean nothing.”

Nodding sagely, Axel seemed to agree with xem. No wonder. With no prompting, once when drunk he’d told me about a dream where he was struck by the realisation he could transform into a car and then proceeded to drive away as a Mazda. If Jye was right, I couldn’t even hazard a guess about Axel’s mentality at that point.

Wren said, “Well, I dreamt that I lived in a tower in the clouds. And that I could fly!” She spread her arms out and closed her eyes, as if summoning the memory of soaring through the skies. It was a pity there was no wind in this biome. A soft billowing in her pixie cut hair would’ve sold the image.

I remarked, “You never know, with all these skills, maybe one day you actually can.”

This seemed to settle strangely over the others, as if reminding them that nothing was normal and perhaps never would be again. Okay then. I’d wanted to avoid bringing down the party, but it looks like I’d failed that. At the very least I wouldn’t have to mention that I’d dreamt about my sister’s funeral. Crisis averted…?

“We might as well get going then.”

I turned to face the entrance to the shrine. After the battle, the oddness of it paled in comparison to what we’d done. Though the blue-flamed candles still flickered unendingly, and the light fogginess still hovered in the air, the eeriness had been flattened, desaturated in eminence.

Axel scoffed. “‘We might as well get going then’? That’s really gonna be the line you use to introduce us to the Dungeon boss? Can’t you think of something more grandiose?”

Scowling, I replied, “You don’t know it’s a boss. Like Tam, or rather Mumma said, it could be a riddle.”

“It could be another maze,” suggested Jye.

In concert, an upset groan erupted from everyone else.

Wren whined, “Please, no more labyrinths.”

As a group we walked up the aged stone steps to the shrine’s entry. Either due to its design or the limitations of creativity behind whatever made it, you couldn’t see anything inside. The interior was just pitch black as we approached. The closer we grew, the stronger the musty smell of mildew became. All along I’d thought that the biome just gave off that scent, but maybe it originated from the temple itself. Were we walking into an inside swamp?

“I believe it is a challenge.”

Frowning, I echoed Gigi, “A challenge?”

“Yes. [REDACTED.”

I repressed the frustration at the censorship. A challenge, huh? I examined Tam’s expression to see if any information could be discerned. Perhaps Mumma had told her something. Unfortunately, she looked just as sceptical at Gigi’s words. I sighed internally.

If we combined the idea of a challenge with the riddle concept, maybe it would be something like the infamous two guard problem; the one who always lies and the one who always tells the truth. Or maybe we’d face a sphinx?

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We’d reached the shrine’s entrance.

I took a deep breath and glanced around at the others. Everyone had a slightly different look of anticipation on their faces: Gigi’s was a steeled optimism set in flatly pressed lips. Jye’s, a resigned but balanced curiosity in their widened green eyes. Tam’s, unshakable confidence only belied by a clenched jaw, revealing the smallest of doubts. And on Wren, concerned apprehension was furrowing her brow.

Axel’s features were unreadable. That figured. His gaze met mine and he titled his head, as if to say, Caught you. Somehow that small exchange lifted a bit of the worry I felt.

“See you guys on the other side.”

Then I stepped through into the building, the blackness swallowing me whole.

I blinked back the inkiness and my vision cleared, revealing a rather standard looking stone interior. It reminded me of one of the dungeons from the Zelda games, but I couldn’t pick which one. Jesus, would we have to do all those time-based puzzles? That was not my idea of a good time. But it was, just as we’d lamented, and Jye suggested, a further labyrinth, this time topped with a roof. No more “semi-cheating,” I guess.

What was the point of the mysterious black entrance then?

“That was stupid,” I said.

Silence greeted me.

Heart in my throat, I spun around, frantically praying that the others were just taking their time. But there was no entrance behind me. Black or otherwise. The only thing now before me was a cold stone wall.

Fuck.

They’d split us up.

Fear grabbed hold of me. It writhed its way through my limbs and locked me to the spot. The cold sweat breaking out on my brow trickled down into my left eye. If I couldn’t borrow my party members’ skills when I wasn’t near them, I was a dead man walking. But nothing about the ability said it had to be used in proximity to its origin member. I took a deep, stilling breath, forcing myself to stop making logic leaps that flung my mental state into the abyss of defeat.

Tentatively, I tried activating [Thick Hide].

The thin layer spread around me, the unusual second skin suddenly a comforting hug rather than the foreign feeling I’d long associated with it.

At least there was that. However, my nerves were still frazzled and fraught. I hadn’t been genuinely alone since… before the Gates. Even when I’d been in Twilight, hell, even when I’d been basically dead, there’d been someone nearby, someone I could rely on. Thinking back on it, before all this had started, Axel had been there, somewhere. I don’t think I ever really acknowledged just how much that meant to me, deep down. Without me knowing it, having him in my life was a constant that I’d relied on, like trusting the sun would rise and fall. And I’d wanted to run away from that when I’d wanted to move out?

Well, congrats to me.

Now I was truly alone.

It was cold.

Hoping against hopes, I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out, praying someone in the party would be able to hear me. “Guys! Are you there?” Fingers crossed that this was just another stupid scheme to make this more entertaining and that we were in the same instance of the Dungeon, and not truly separated.

“Lee?” came an echo from the distance. “Is that actually you?”

A chorus of other voices replied and the relief that flooded me was tangible.

“What does everyone see?” I asked, trying to identify where each member might be.

“Walls,” came one bland reply.

“Real helpful, Axel.”

Though I couldn’t really talk. It was the only notable thing near me as well.

“Damn, walls is all I see too,” Jye said, from the completely opposite direction, and I could visualise them throwing their hands up in frustration.

“It’s stone walls ‘til the cows come home, sunshine.”

“Wren, Gigi?”

“It’s dark where I am…” Wren said, dread making her voice tremble.

My fury at whoever/whatever had orchestrated this rose. One day, I don’t know how, I’d have a long conversation with the creator of this Dungeon. This conversation would also involve me throttling them to an inch of their life, if they were living. If they weren’t… well, I guess I could get creative.

“I would advise no one stays where they are,” came Gigi’s voice, though it sounded like xe was moving. Was xe… running?

“Why?” I asked, confused. If we wanted to find each other, having us all wandering around was literally the opposite way to do that, especially if this maze was as big as the one outside. We were liable to walk past each other or just miss each other. Besides, it wasn’t like there was a time limit on this shrine. I’d been about to suggest we find members one at a time, with Axel starting the search because of his [Swift Footed] trait.

An inhuman roar that thundered the walls around me answered for xem.

“I am being pursued,” Gigi said, more calmly than I would’ve in xir place.

“Oh, fuck this shit. It’s dog eat dog right now.”

“Tam, don’t be selfish,” I shouted, now beginning to start walking. I wanted to get away from the deadend to my back. It would be stupid to remain somewhere I could be cornered. I eventually came to a T and turned left.

“Me? Selfish? Wouldn’t think of it.”

After that, she said nothing more, even as I called for her.

“What’s chasing you, Gigi?” Jye asked. Their shorter breath meant they were on the move too.

“I do not know what to call it.”

Gigi must’ve been nearby, because xir voice was clear. The ground under me rumbled. Continuously checking behind me to ensure I wasn’t going to be taken off guard, I picked up speed, shifting to a light jog. Running would just exhaust me and, baby, I was not a runner and trackstar. A controlled faster than walking pace was much more suited to me.

Feet slapping on hard ground sounded to my left followed by heavy pounding. Then a booming THUMP. It echoed into the floor and walls, vibrating all surfaces, disturbing and shaking dust and small stones loose.

Something very large had crashed. If Gigi was trying to stop it from following xem, perhaps xe’d used [Shield Wall] to halt it? But why hadn’t I heard the goddamn static hiss? Was it glitching it out again?

At the next intersection, I turned towards the direction of the sounds. Perhaps with two of us to chase, whatever it was would get confused and lose track of both Gigi and me. If worse came to worse and it came after me, I could hide behind [Shield Wall] and protect myself, like xe had.

“Gigi, buy some time! I’m coming to help,” I announced.

“No, you are most definitely not.”

Alarmed, I glanced around to see Axel barreling toward me.

“What are you–” and then his arms were around me, sweeping me off my feet, the action knocking the breath out of me. I boggled up at him, unable to comprehend what he’d just done.

Axel had picked me up.

He was carrying me as we sped along, further and further away from where Gigi was, darting about each corner with a single light precisely measured step. I couldn’t believe what was happening. No. This couldn’t be happening.

Finally mentally caught up, I struggled against him. “What the fuck?”

“Gigi’s shields are stronger. You know that.”

Furious, I yelled whilst batting at his hands, “It doesn’t mean I can’t help!”

“You heard the size of whatever it is. Think your shields would last even one hit?”

I didn’t parse what he was saying, nor did I care. My mana and stamina were mostly regenned, apart from the cap of [Thick Hide]. If I wanted to, I could make him stop, but that’d be a waste of precious resources we needed to conserve. Instead, I lifted a hand, threaded it through his hair and gripped, yanking down on it so his gaze met mine.

“Axel, I swear to God, if you don’t put me down right now, I’ll never forgive you.”

He skidded to an immediate stop, kicking up dust. In his eyes he had that same stupid damn lunatic sadness. Axel laughed.

“You never change.”

With that, he unceremoniously deposited me onto the ground and disappeared around a corner. I scrambled up, swearing. By the time I found my feet and pursued him, I’d completely lost him and the direction he’d gone. The rumbling of whatever situation Gigi was in could barely be heard from where I was.

FUCKING AXEL.

After letting out a frustrated growl, I shifted gears. I’d wanted to get Gigi away from the attacker because we needed xir defensive abilities if we were to mount a full-group attack. Having xem spending all xir mana and stamina now would bite us in the ass later.

I let out a long sigh.

We still needed the full group for that assault, anyway.

One step at a time.

“Jye, Wren, Tam! Where are you?”

“You know all you gotta do is speak of the devil and you will receive.”

The built cutthroat stepped out from my right at one of the offshooting pathways. Meeting her like this was the most insane coincidence. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought that Axel had tracked her down and placed me here with her. But given her relative radio silence that was impossible. What crazy good fortune.

“You must’ve saved someone important in a previous life, Tam.”

She grinned. “What can I say? Lady Luck has a crush on me.”

The way she said it felt like she was implying something more, but I didn’t have the time to break her words down.

“Can you find the others?”

“You want me to go cat?”

I nodded.

“What’s in it for me?”

"Not dying to the thing crumbling this maze.”

She made a non-commital noise of consideration and then said, “You better put your running shoes on, babes.”

In a puff of smoke, Tam disappeared. Without giving time for the haze to clear, the bob-tailed cat streaked off, forming speed lines of smoke behind her.

Still no ability sound. I couldn’t rely on it anymore.

I pounded after her, listening intently for any signs that would reveal how Gigi, and maybe Axel, were holding up against the… monster? Was it a monster? No human would sound like it had as it lumbered through the labyrinth, chasing down the intruders.

Oh.

Of course, it was a monster.

It had to be the Minotaur.

Real fucking original.