The longer that Nick Brown pressed on through the odd hallway or tunnel, the more convinced he was of the basic inherent wrongness of it. It wasn’t just that he could think of no reason for anybody to make a utility tunnel the size and shape of a hallway and connect it to an underground parking garage, it was also the fact that its layout seemed to be… well, impossible.The more that he paid attention to the lefts and rights, the more certain he was that the tunnel should be doubling back on itself… so he tried not to pay attention.
The red line continued to play out smoothly no matter how many bends he went around, never catching on the corner or snagging on anything. He wondered why Woe had given him the end of it instead of handing him the ball and keeping an end for herself, but it didn’t seem to be hurting anything to have done it this way.
Wasn’t there a story or a myth or something about somebody who took a string into a labyrinth in order to find his way out? He thought that there was… a Greek myth. Theseus and the Minotaur, or Perseus, or somebody. It was definitely “and the Minotaur,” though. He was sure of that much, and it wasn’t a pleasant thing to be sure of.
Of course, he could reassure himself with the pure and certain knowledge that there were no such thing as minotaur, or monsters… just as there were no such things as witches, or secret subcultures of street people, or unending utility labyrinths that doubled back on themselves without having any actual intersections…
That was another weird thing, of course. He had the distinct feeling of being in a labyrinth, or a maze, but he couldn’t help but wonder at a labyrinth with no forks or branches. Even as he thought this, he turned a corner and found himself faced with a T-intersection.
“Well, hell,” he said.
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‘It was definitely “and the Minotaur”…’
Amazing. I’m obsessed with MU already, and your clever narratives have yet to disappoint here. Awaiting the stroke of midnight!
BAH! Oh AE you tortue me so! what a tease you be.
I come here searching for something to quench my unquenchable MU lust and find yet another obsession! Can’t wait for tomorrow. please keep it up! If I was not a poor student I would donate generously to your no more 9-5 poopy job fund. Instead I send you heaps of love. I hope it suffices!
Uh-oh. “Thinking makes it so.” Let’s hope he doesn’t wonder about even more complex junctions…
*sigh* thats that then. im obsessed about this now too.
it’s over already . . . I thought I would run into another story that had way more updates than I had time for . . . oh well another thing to check everyday
*giggle* He’s funny. ^_^
I wonder, did he come to an intersection because he was thinking about it, or did the hallway’s T already exist? Something tells me that the world takes its shape from his mind. If that’s the case, perhaps the reason he’s not going anywhere is that he keeps thinking in circles. Did anyone else notice that, since entering the tunnel, he has yet to think about his daughter? Hmmm…
Well, as long as he doesn’t think of marshmallows…
heeheehee
A Labyrinth? But… There aren’t turns or corners or anything… it just goes on and on…
heheheh
No worms? Maybe that’s next chapter
it definately matches woe’s reasoning, which i follow quite easily; as long as you don’t think there will be an intersection, there won’t be… OH! hitchhiker’s guide! that’s what it reminds me of… the whole flying thing. can’t think about it, or you fall…
I know this is nitpicking. Sorry.
FWIW, a proper labyrinth has no forks or branches. It’s not meant to trick you into getting lost, as a maze is.
But then again, would Nick know the diff?
The canonical “labyrinth” was the maze designed by Daedalus to contain the minotaur, and it was so twisty and turny that even the creator himself had a hard time getting out. The hero Theseus was only able to find his way out of it by trailing a thread as he went, much as our Nicky is.
The definition you’re citing is a relatively modern perversion used mainly in art and architecture. That tile thingy on the church floor? Would never have held the minotaur even if it had proper walls and not just tiles… to say nothing of confusing Daedalus himself.
When most people speak of a labyrinth, they’re either speaking explicitly of a maze, or of a situation in which one can, metaphorically speaking, become hopelessly lost.
This whole labyrinth part reminds me of “House of Leaves”.