The Labyrinthians
A Short Horror Story
This was a story prompted by the incredible art of Original Worlds (Ira Robinson). I highly recommend you go subscribe to their Substack if you haven’t already for impressive and inspiring artwork.
Carmen and Travis were heading home from dinner. After four years of marriage the soon to be thirty year olds enjoyed their Friday date night as part of their regular routine. A brisk wind accompanied them as they strolled beneath the watchful gaze of the street lamps on Elias Terrace. There was a soft silence to the evening, lit by a wise half moon and only disturbed by the quiet whistling of the wind and the lively rustling of the trees.
Carmen was holding onto Travis’s arm as the two wandered along, her gazing down at the cement sidewalk while Travis appraised the beauty of the moon in the dark empty sky. Not a cloud was in sight, allowing the shimmering stars to dot faint constellations in a defiant battle with the illumination of the city around them.
When Carmen looked up she stopped, squeezing Travis’s arm who paused to look at her. She was staring straight ahead, at a figure neither of them had noticed.
What appeared to be a samurai stood before them, wearing a simple white kimono with her hair pulled neatly up in a traditional bun. She stood silently staring at them in the darkness, her face cast in shadow from the lights overhead.
Travis tensed, preparing to defend his wife, but he didn’t know what he could do against the long sword sheathed at the samurai’s waist. Fortunately he was much taller than her, and that alone gave him a touch of hope.
“You have been chosen,” the samurai said finally, her voice gentle and whispery as if struggling to gain purchase in the air.
The words were immediately followed by a strong gust of wind that caused Travis’s thick brown jacket to billow in the autumn breeze. Carmen’s skirt danced to a similar rhythm but the samurai’s kimono was not forthcoming to the fabric festivities.
“What are you talking about?” Travis demanded, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“You have been chosen,” the figure repeated.
Her voice sent shivers down Carmen’s spine and she clung tighter to Travis.
It seemed to carry a deep regret, but still somehow felt as if it struggled to exist.
Travis defensively swept Carmen behind him and put his dukes up, hoping that his boxing training all those years ago in college would help him in this dire situation.
“I don’t know what you want,” he called across the space between them, “But I’m warning you to stop. We don’t want any trouble.”
“You have been chosen.”
“By who?” Carmen squeaked from behind Travis.
“The Labyrinthians.”
Travis looked back to share a confused look with Carmen who she shook her head in response.
“Just get out of our way,” Travis answered, “We don’t want any trouble. This is the last time I’m gonna say it.”
He hoped that the sword was a fake and that this was a prank, but just in case it wasn’t he was quietly strategizing. He knew his best opportunity would be if he attacked first with the element of surprise. Hopefully he could catch this mysterious figure off guard.
He took a step forward, his fists still raised, patiently watching for a reaction.
The figure didn’t move.
Travis jumped forward, sprinting toward the figure with a shout.
His eyes studied for any sign that she was reaching for her katana.
She still didn’t move.
Travis arrived at her position after mere seconds and swung for her face with all of his might.
His fist passed straight through the woman.
Unbalanced, he tumbled to the floor, turning over quickly only to find the tip of her sword already pressed against his neck, glinting in the steady glow of the street lights.
His mind couldn’t process what had happened.
He hadn’t heard her unsheathe the weapon.
He watched his fist go straight through her as if she were nothing, but he hadn’t missed. He was sure of that.
Travis tried to sit up and felt the cold, jarring sensation of metal sliding through his flesh. He grasped at his neck and looked at his hand to see blood.
His blood.
He looked down the sharp shining blade of the weapon at the steady hand of the warrior wielding it, like a pale sculpture marble. Her face held a determined sadness, as if conceding to something out of her control.
“Not you,” she said turning away from him towards Carmen.
Quietly she raised the sword until it pointed right at the woman he loved.
“You have been chosen by the Labyrinthians,” the samurai announced again.
Travis tried to kick the legs out from under the assailant while her back was turned, but his own passed through her as if she were a mirage. Just like his fist.
He couldn’t make contact this mysterious figure.
His chest tightened as a sense of overwhelming powerlessness consumed him.
Carmen looked defiantly at the woman despite her own pounding heart.
“Who are the Labyrinthians?” she demanded, “Why did they choose me?”
“They chose you to walk the labyrinth.”
Carmen looked from the spirit of the samurai to her husband lying helpless on the floor.
“What do I have to do?” she asked, resigning to the situation.
Travis’s face was suddenly painted with surprise and confusion.
“Look behind you,” he called.
Carmen spun around to find that behind her in the middle of the street were two gigantic walls leading away, containing a dark corridor between them. The polished pale stone looked ancient and worn with age, but there were no seams to be seen where the bricks had been laid.
Carmen turned back to the figure, her face drained of all color.
“I have to go in there?”
“Solve the labyrinth,” the spirit answered, “Save your soul. When you find the exit, it will bring you back to this place.”
She then turned and put the sword against Travis’s neck once more causing him to stiffen.
“Carmen don’t do it,” he shouted, “I’ll be fine! Run away!”
The sword pressed into throat as he spoke causing it to bleed a steady trickle of bright red blood.
“Stop!” Carmen cried at the ghostly figure.
She felt tears in her eyes. The samurai look back to her without removing the blade, a sorrowful look painting the spirit’s pale face.
“Solve the labyrinth,” she repeated, “Save your soul.”
“What about Travis?” Carmen asked, her voice trembling with worry.
“I’ll be fine,” Travis called mustering his remaining bravery to steady his own voice, “I love you! Just go!”
“I love you too,” she whimpered in reply, her heart heavy and thumping with fear.
Carmen retreated a step and turned back to the maze entrance. The gigantic walls rose out of sight and the corridor stretched away into looming darkness.
Her heart beat even faster. Her breath caught in her throat as she eyed the terrifying shadows of the labyrinth.
She took one last look back at her husband, pinned to the floor by the sad demon’s blade, before she turned and slowly walked between the towering walls of the maze.
The silence within was deafening, allowing her heart beat to echo in her head, causing her to shiver uncomfortably. After a few steps she looked back and gasped.
Behind her the street had vanished, replaced with the blank grey wall of the labyrinth. A single rounded sphere of stone protruding from its center.
It was a dead end.
The only way to go now was forward.
Carmen swallowed and started walking slowly. Surprisingly, despite the gloom, she could see fairly clearly ahead. The wall was lined with rounded ornaments forming half spheres and dotted each side about shoulder height. She looked up and felt dizzy.
The walls on either side rose up out of sight.
There was no way she’d be able to scale their perfectly smooth faces to try and get a better view from above. The half spheres were the only things that could give her any purchase and even they were impeccably polished and much to low to be of assistance.
Proceeding forward slowly, Carmen was sick with anxiety at what dangers might lurk in the corridors of the maze. She felt stupid for not asking if there were monsters or other creatures here that could harm her.
Her stomach sank and she wished Travis was with her.
She continued for several minutes down the walled path until it branched out in opposite directions. Carmen looked down each but couldn’t see the end of either.
She’d have to make a choice.
Carmen chose left and started walking again, hoping that she’d made the right decision. There was no way of knowing, every inch of the place looked exactly the same. There were no markings on the walls aside from the regularly placed half circles of stone that bulged from each side of the corridor.
She reached another split and paused.
Which way now?
She peered both ways into the darkness, unable to figure out whether one was more correct than the other. Whether one of the paths lead to salvation, or to another split.
Carmen began to panic.
What if she never found the exit?
She had no clue how big this maze actually was. The thought of wandering within these walls for much longer caused her bottom lip to quiver. Sadness began to drain her hope as she finally chose left again and started walking.
If she chose left every time, at least it would be easy to retrace her steps.
After two more turns she started increasing her pace, realizing that the slower she went, the longer it would take. Her courage was fading as time stretched on, and with each new split in the path she felt the risk of being overwhelmed with the hopelessness rising up within her.
She bravely soldiered on but stopped abruptly as her heart trembled.
A dead end.
She hadn’t seen it due to the darkness of the maze, but here it was nonetheless.
It looked just like the place she had begun this journey. A tall pale wall stretching out of sight, with a single ornamental half sphere inlaid at the height of her shoulders.
“Oh no,” she moaned taking another few steps toward the barrier and looking up at the length of its height.
What should she do?
She had to turn back. She had to retrace her steps in the hope that taking a right somewhere would take her to the exit. Her hope was faltering as she imagined just how far off it could be, how many turns might be left to make before she found it.
Her heart began to pound against her ribs as a movement caught her eye.
The half circle of stone that protruded on the wall began to slowly turn.
Had she done it?
Was this the exit opening up for her?
As the sphere moved with the sickening grinding sound of stone rubbing on stone, she was horrified to see hair appear.
When it had finished its rotation an angry snarling man’s face stared back at her.
He had glowing amber eyes and and grey complexion giving him a furious gaunt look as he glared at her, fixed to the wall like a tortured mask.
For a second she was frozen in horror as she looked at the terrifying face.
“JOIN US!” it roared, his bellowing voice shattering the silence and causing Carmen to jump.
(Artist Credit: Original Worlds (Ira Robinson) )
Carmen screamed.
Then she turned, and ran.
Sprinting away from the face, she heard its forceful and angry cry once more.
“JOIN US!”
Carmen began to cry. She quickly reached the turn that had lead to the dead end and stopped to catch her breath.
The heavy grinding sound returned and she saw the stone circle to her right begin to rotate into the wall, revealing the sorrowful face of a wrinkled old woman.
“JOIN US!” the face wailed.
Carmen screamed again and took the right path, running as fast as she could.
Her heart was beating furiously as her feet pounded the ground beneath her.
This couldn’t be happening.
Tears began to blur her vision as she ran at full speed down the corridor.
Another turn.
Which way?
The grinding sound came again and this time two of the stone spheres began to turn.
The face of a small boy and that of a middle aged woman appeared, her blond hair hanging in front of her horrified features as her twisted face stared at Carmen’s.
“JOIN US!” they chorussed together, the haunting cry causing the hair to stand up on the back of Carmen’s neck. Another stone began to turn and she screamed once more and ran to the left.
As she sprinted down the corridor she could hear more and more of the stone circles turning within the wall as the Labyrinthians emerged to welcome the soul they’d chosen to be in their company.
Carmen started sobbing, wiping the tears from her eyes as she desperately continued her hopeless flight along the identical corridors of the haunted maze.
She couldn’t bear to look at the faces that appeared.
So many faces, all of them a variation of grief, anger or pain.
So many different people of all races and ages, imprisoned in the walls, trapped for eternity within the dark gloom of their communal prison.
“JOIN US!” the labyrinthians called to her, their suffering voices strained with longing.
“NO!” Carmen shrieked as she kept running, “No! No! NO!”
Left, right, left, left. Carmen lost track of the turns she took.
All she wanted was to escape the faces and see Travis, to escape this cursed maze.
She ran on instinct, turning on feeling, praying her intuition would save her.
She kept it up for what felt like hours, her legs screaming from the pain, exhaustion building up as her joints swelled from the exertion.
Her breath began to fade and her strength with it.
Her face was puffy and red from wiping away her tears. Her legs were sore and as she slowed, a cramp developed in her side that cut through her determination to carry on.
Carmen took a final right turn and gave one last desperate effort to outrun the slow wave of rotating faces that were emerging from the wall behind, chasing her to groan and wail their morbid invitation.
She had to get out.
She just had to.
Flying down the corridor her heart sank and her hope suddenly extinguished like a flame being blown out.
Another dead end.
She looked back and saw the stones rotating behind her, more and more of the labyrinthians coming to gawk at her efforts, to taunt her into submission.
She turned forward and took a step towards the wall, but she froze.
The stone at the end was already turned, and on it, sleeping soundly, was a face she knew.
She recognized it immediately from the mirror.
It was hers.
The long brown hair framing the relaxed features, the closed eyelids adorned with her long dark lashes.
This was her face.
The stone began to rotate slowly, taking the face with it into the wall.
Carmen screamed and reached and arm out but suddenly felt her own head turning.
She tried to watch the wall ahead, desperate to see what happened, but her vision rotated as her skull was slowly spun against her will.
She couldn’t stop it.
Her body wouldn’t move.
She couldn’t do anything.
There was a sudden, brutal crack as the stone fully closed, disappearing into the wall with her face.
With a sickening jolt, Carmen’s neck snapped as her body crumpled lifelessly to the ground and lay still.
For years the residents of Elias Terrace told their children to avoid the insane homeless man who sat on the sidewalk beneath the street lamps. Day and night in both sunshine and rain he remained and mumbled continuously to himself.
In the summer he refused to react to the heat, and when winter came he simply pulled his thick brown jacket tighter around himself and waited, staring at the same spot in the road as if expecting something to appear from the air.
Those who had stopped and asked if he needed help were met with mad ramblings about a spiritual samurai and a magical maze that selected souls, but it never made any sense.
Occasionally kinder residents would bring him food and water, trying to treat the wound on his neck that never seemed to stop bleeding.
Sadly sometimes the youths would bully him, kicking him and spitting on the vagrant.
But regardless of his suffering, he never left.
He just waited on the side of the road until the day he died, waiting for someone who never returned.
Author’s note: Hey there! Seb here! I just wanted to thank you for choosing to spend your time reading my work. I’m so grateful that you chose to come on this journey with me and I hope it has prompted some fun questions for you to enjoy thinking about in the future. Feel free to leave a comment about any of your thoughts on this story or any of the ideas it inspired! Your support means a lot and I am honored that you put your belief in me to entertain you.
Thank you.
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© 2025 Sebastian Arends | Sincerely Seb. All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use, reproduction, or distribution of any part of this story or accompanying image is prohibited without permission from the author. No generative artificial intelligence (AI) was used in the writing of this work. The author expressly prohibits any entity from using this publication for purposes of training AI technologies.
Eeeeek, Seb, this was so creepy, I loved it! lol The whole “you have been chosen” thing gave me instant chills, but then the faces in the walls? NOPE. No, thank you! And that ending with Travis waiting there for the rest of his life? Brutal. Creepy, tragic, and so unsettling. Great job!
Insane ending. Loved it!