Albert went a few steps farther and thenstopped and sat down. He looked up above him at the distance they’dcovered, huffing exhaustedly. He wished there was some way ofknowing just how deep they were. It felt like they just kept goingdown.

“It’s unbelievable,” gasped Brandy. “Howmuch deeper can we possibly go?”

Albert shook his head. He had no idea.

She sat down on the steps to catch herbreath. “We can’t just go down forever, can we?”

“You wouldn’t think.” Albert gazed down intothe darkness. There was no telling what might lie at the bottom ofthis hole, but he was certain of one thing: there were still twoclues left in the box. He was sure they would have to use both ofthem before they reached the end of this labyrinth.

He turned and looked at Brandy, who wasleaning back on the steps with her arms at her sides and her kneestogether, staring up into the darkness from which they’d come. Shewas slick with perspiration and her breasts were rising and fallingwith her labored breath. He watched her for a moment, taking in herbeauty, and then turned his gaze back to the emptiness below.

“Thank you,” he said after a moment.

Brandy sat up and looked down at him.“Why?”

“For not leaving me back there after the sexroom. I would’ve let you.”

Brandy looked down at the flashlight. Sheremembered him telling her that she could take it and go, that shecould just leave him down here in the darkness. She’d actually beentempted to do just that. Now she felt ashamed of that urge. “Icouldn’t have done that,” she said at last, and realized that itwas the truth. “I couldn’t have gotten out on my own. I would’vebeen too scared.” She looked at him again, but he was not lookingback at her. “Besides, I couldn’t just leave you there. What if younever came back? You couldn’t have found your way out of here inthe dark and I never could’ve lived with myself for just leavingyou to die.”

Albert stared into the darkness. “But Icould’ve been the bad guy.”

“I don’t think you are. If you were, I thinkI would’ve found out before now.”

“You could’ve called the police. Theywould’ve come to get me.”

“True. But what if they came down here andfound you dead?”

Albert could think of no response forthat.

“Then I’d live with the guilt for sure andthey’d probably put me away for abandoning you like that.”

“I’m sure they would’ve understood.”

“Can we please not talk about this? It’supsetting me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She smiled a little. Perhaps hewas the bad guy, but if so, he was hiding it very well. Itdidn’t really matter anyway. By the time they’d reached the sexroom, she was already at his mercy and would be until they wereback above ground.

And so far he’d been a perfect gentleman.Except for that whole sex room thing, of course. But she hadn’texactly played hard-to-get back there.

No, he didn’t fit the part of a killer. Infact, he was the only thing making her feel remotely safe downhere. Although she would admit that his ability to solve thepuzzles in this place was extremely creepy at times.

“Ready to go on?” Albert asked, standingup.

“Yeah.”

The two of them had barely completed anotherlap around the hole when the ground finally came into view.

A short passage led into the next room andas Albert peered inside, he saw that it was cavernous, perhaps thesize of the maze they spied from the bridge, its ceiling far toohigh to see with what light they carried.

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” Albert gazed around at the room ashe passed through it. He expected to find something down here. Heexpected to see a statue materialize out of the gloom, anotherbridge, more water, some sort of obstacle to overcome, but the roomwas empty. Again Albert felt that strange sense of wrongness. Thisroom shouldn’t have been here. It served no visible purpose, yethere it was. He looked around, paranoid, feeling as thoughsomething was watching them, waiting for them to drop their guard,perhaps.

But there was nothing.

Before them appeared a huge wall of stoneand a small corridor leading through it. There was nothing more tothe room. It was just a vast, empty space. Albert supposed that itcould have been intended for some purpose other than traps andobstacles. It could have been a banquet hall of some sort, forexample. But he didn’t think so. Nothing else in this labyrinthseemed to serve any purpose other than to impede their wayforward.

They ducked into the short passage in thefar wall and into the next room. Here, they stopped and stood.Albert’s musings about the empty room behind them vanished from histhoughts at once. They stood side-by-side, staring forward, neitherof them surprised, but both of them nearly sick at the reality ofthe sight before them.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck,” Albert agreed.

The room was twenty feet high and twentyfeet wide. Too far to see the other end. Three pairs of sentinelswere visible, lined up against the walls on either side. The firstwere standing straight, their feet together, hands at their sides,grotesquely long penises limp and pointed at the floor. Like theirbrothers in the last two rooms like this, each pair was slightlydifferent than the one before.

What more could this hellish place givethem? It already drove them to lust and tried to make them hate.But Albert already knew what was coming. He knew because he wassurprised it wasn’t the first.

Brandy took his hand and the two of themstarted forward, watching as the sentinels slowly mimed out theirmessage. They raised their hands, not to threaten, as they did thelast time, but to defend. They bent their knees and sank into acrouch as their long, thin arms crossed before their empty faces.Soon they were sitting, their knees sprawled out, their facesuplifted in an expressionless shriek. There was no aggression inthem now. The final pair of sentinels sat with their backs archedand their necks stretched out as they threw their heads back inwhat could only have been a howl of such ferocious terror that evenwithout faces, they appeared to have completely plunged intomadness.

The face that appeared in the far wall madetheir stomachs boil with acid, their hearts pound like machines andtheir skin tingle with gooseflesh despite the sweat clinging totheir weary bodies. It was the face of a woman, but different fromthe first one. This woman was heavier, her face rounder, herfeatures pudgier. She was fairer than the lusting woman and had amole under her right eye. Her mouth was open in a frozen and silentscream so fierce that, had she been real, her vocal cords could notpossibly have gone undamaged. Her eyes bulged with terror, her lipspeeled back. It was the face of sudden madness, of fright soterrible it could kill.

“Albert, I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can.”

“No. I’m scared.”

“So am I.”

“Please, Albert.”

He turned and squeezed her hand. “This hasgot to be the last one. The only emotion as powerful as lust, hateand fear is love and I doubt if Cupid’s got a pad down here.” Itwas a lie though. He was sure that any mind sick enough to createthese three rooms was also capable of forcing other emotions intodangerous levels. Sorrow, and even joy, could become too much tobear under the right circumstances.

She stared at him, pleading with her eyes,and it broke his heart.

“You did wonderful in the hate room. Youdidn’t feel any hate at all.”

“But I didn’t feel any hate before Iwent in. I’m already scared.”

“But you won’t be any more scared if youdon’t let yourself be. I’ll be right beside you, holding onto youthe whole time. I promise.”

She stared at him, suddenly trembling withfright. “I don’t know.”

“I do. You’re a brave girl. I’ve seenit.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know.”

“What if I can’t go on? What if we get inthere and I can’t go any farther?”