The fire that burned to hot

This article is part of an interconnected series created for the 2024 Spooktober challenge, designed as a text-based adventure through the twisted paths of thE Twilight Macabre. To fully immerse yourself in the horrors that await and make the most of this spooky experience, it is strongly recommended that you begin your journey with the "LAIR" article. From there, you will navigate the carnival's dark secrets, encounter its eerie performers, and face decisions that will shape your fate. Proceed carefully, as each path holds its own unique terrors...

Dizzy and disoriented, you hear the Minotaur’s heavy footsteps, the ground shaking beneath his immense weight. His roar of agony echoes in your ears as his twisted horns plunge deeper into his neck, rage consuming him as fiercely as his self-inflicted wounds.

He barrels into you once again, driving his horns into your stomach. Pain overwhelms you, but it’s not just physical; it’s the weight of every struggle, every fight you’ve ever faced, crashing down all at once. You try to stand, to resist, but your body betrays you. The harder you fight, the faster you fall toward your own demise.

But what else can you do? Fight. Rage. Spit in the face of your burdens, even if they loom too great to conquer.

Just as the darkness begins to close in, a peculiar thought pierces through the haze. Your breath falters, your chest heaving with the last effort to stay conscious. In that fleeting moment, you see the Minotaur for what he truly is: an amalgam of your most traumatic experiences, a living embodiment of the burdens you’ve carried your entire life. A burden you’ve always fought against instead of acknowledging.

But now, it is finally too late. The thought lingers for only a second before your vision fades entirely. You collapse, gasping for air, but there is none. As the molten heat of the arena floor begins to claim your body, you see the Minotaur stand above you, his eyes burning like abyssal fire pits—unending and merciless. And in your last moment, you know: from now to eternity, you belong in that raging void; forever doomed to suffer the agony of an ever-fleeing solace.