Canto 4: The Labyrinth

Marcus returned to consciousness on a rocky island shore with stones jabbing his back. Behind him, Dante waved to a departing Charon.

He turned to Marcus. “Ah, there he is! How are you feeling?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Marcus inspected his surroundings. A dozen yards inland stood the single façade of a ruinous temple, composed of chipped marble pillars and a vibrant mosaic. Half the mosaic was faded beyond recognition, but the visible portion depicted a blood-red bull fleeing from an unseen beast with brown claws.

“Actually, I do want to talk about it.” He followed Dante up the temple steps. “If I’m to continue suffering horrible deaths, can’t you at least turn down the pain?”

“I’m afraid that’s beyond my capacities. Pain is the purpose of Hell, hence why the architects boosted it twenty percent.”

Marcus halted. “Pain is higher here?!”

Dante nodded and rubbed his fingers over the claws in the mosaic. This caused an adjacent wall to open mechanically, revealing a ramp into darkness.

He gestured to Marcus. “Shall we enter the labyrinth?”

“Ah, the labyrinth,” Marcus groaned. “Nothing ever goes wrong in a labyrinth.”

“That’s the spirit!”

#

Dante materialized torches instead of an orb as he said the latter would draw attention. As they turned corner after corner, the sandstone walls shrunk, though Marcus figured it was just claustrophobia toying with his already traumatized mind.

After several minutes they fell upon individuals wearing jeans and tuxedos with bowties. Each was curled in the fetal position and shivering against the walls. They seemed terrified, not even looking up as Marcus and Dante passed.

“Let me guess,” Marcus broke the silence, thankful to pull his mind from the memory of boiling alive. “These are…life coaches and inspirational speakers who led people astray for profit, so now they too wander endlessly in a maze?”

“What a clever mind you have!” Dante replied. “But no, the residents of the labyrinth were of a far more sinister profession. They were investors.”

“Investors?! Are you kidding?”

“Well, bigwig stock investors and venture capitalists to be precise but, no, I’m gravely serious. During their lives they invested heavily into companies that widened the Great Chasm. Without their fiscal fuel, those CEOs and engineers would have never passed the starting gate.”

“But that’s what investors do. They bet on companies they think will succeed.”

“Sometimes what one does and what one ought to do lie in direct opposition, especially with a society at its breaking point. These investors manipulated the market to make themselves richer and keep the poor powerless. If, instead, they hedged their bets on folks who needed it, perhaps they could have kept their pockets lined and avoided revolution.”

“That’s some serious conjecture,” Marcus sighed. “So, why a labyrinth as punishment?”

“Oh, the labyrinth isn’t the punishment!”

A dim shadow appeared ahead, growing as it approached.

“What is that?” Marcus asked, halting.

The shadow crept into the torch light, revealing itself as a chubby middle-aged man in a suit jacket torn to shreds. He stared wide-eyed at them before stuttering, “Ma…Marcus? You…You’re here too?”

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded without indication of their direction. The chubby man spun around, his body shaking uncontrollably.

“Shit, shit, it’s coming. Quick, Marcus, we need to find the way out!”

“Wait, who are you?” Marcus asked, but the man sprinted the way he came. He rounded the corner and released a terrible scream. The sound of metal slicing flesh brought about silence and the man’s decapitated head bounced off a wall and rolled to Marcus’s feet.

The executor stepped forward; a blood-red half-man, half-bull Minotaur ten-feet tall with a dripping axe. It twisted their direction.

“Dante?” Marcus plead.

The Minotaur huffed and charged, roaring with his axe raised high.

“Dante!”

Dante snapped and the Minotaur became smoke.

“Thank god,” Marcus said, taking deep breaths. “That man. He knew my name.”

“Well, of course he did! You were somewhat of a celebrity in the outside world!”

“Right, but he talked as if he knew me, like on a personal level.”

“Hmmm perhaps he thinks he does. This labyrinthian prison tends to drive its captors to madness.” He gestured to an elderly woman clawing bloodied fingernails on a wall beside them.

“Do they ever find the exit?” Marcus asked.

“Yes, all the time!”

“Really? What happens when they get out?”

“Oh, they never get out!”

“What? But you just said…”

He was interrupted by a violent rumble.

“Goddammit!” Marcus exclaimed. “Not again.”

He braced for the ceiling to collapse or ground to give way, but nothing happened and the earthquake shortly subsided.

“Not this time, Judas!” Dante exclaimed.

#

Eventually they reached a corridor Dante said marked the exit.

“About time,” Marcus felt relief until he turned the corner.

“What the hell is that?!”

A monstrous being lay wait at the end of the corridor with the upper body of a grizzly bear and the torso of a bull. It guarded a bright white portal to the next canto.

“Behold the Ursataur!” Dante said with a hint of pride. “The guardian of the exit and slick metaphor for the market trends these investors so cherished.”

The Ursataur stomped a hoof and growled. “Very clever. Now poof it away, please.”

“As you command,” Dante snapped but the Ursataur stayed put. “Hmm that’s peculiar.”

He repeated the action to the same result.

“I’m unable to access its code. That damned Judas must have altered my restrictions!”

“He can do that?” Marcus kept his eyes on the beast. “What do we do?”

“Calm yourself, Marcus, this is only a slight inconvenience.” He snapped and a wooden spear appeared in his hands.

“You’re going to fight it?!” Marcus asked.

“Of course not, my attacks would phase right through,” He handed the spear over. “You’re going to fight it.”

“What?! No way!”

“All you need do is cross into that portal and the Ursataur will be unable to reach you.”

“Oh that’s it, huh? Can’t you at least make a gun?”

“I’m afraid I lack a code set for guns. I can’t just create anything, Marcus!”

Dante walked down the corridor, phasing through the Ursataur and disappearing past the exit portal.

“Un…fucking…fair,” Marcus whispered. He took three deep breaths and closed his eyes, retrieving the memory of his wedding dance. “For Barbara, do it for Barbara.”

He released a battle roar and charged, sliding on his back between the Ursataur’s four equine legs and thrusting the spear at its stomach.

With one claw the Ursataur broke the spear in half. With the other it swiped Marcus’s head clean off, rolling it down the corridor.

Fortunately, the majority of his body continued through the portal and vanished.