For the friends who shaped my life: Michael Madonia,
Michael Nemeth, Todd Johnson, Ronald Schultz,
Ed Kellet, and Heather Averill Farley
S
abrina scrambled through the darkness, armed with only a shovel. She used the cold stone walls as a guide. Each step was a challenge to her balance and senses. She stumbled on jagged rocks and accidentally kicked over an abandoned tool, sending a clanging echo off the tunnel walls. Whatever was waiting for her in the labyrinth knew she was coming now. Yet she couldn't turn back. Her family was somewhere in the twisting maze, and no one else could help them. Sabrina prayed they were still alive.
The tunnel made a sharp turn, and around the corner Sabrina spotted a distant, flickering light. She quickened her pace, and soon the tunnel emptied into an enormous cave, carved out of the bedrock of Ferryport Landing. Torches mounted on the walls gave the room a dull light and created dancing black shadows. But aside from a few old buckets and a couple of shovels that leaned against a crumbling wall, Sabrina was completely alone. Another dead end! She had just turned to retrace her steps when something hit her squarely in the back, knocking her to the ground. She fell heavily onto her arm, and the searing pain told her it was broken. She groaned in agony, but her distress was drowned out by an odd clicking and hissing.
She crawled to her feet and grabbed the shovel with her good arm, swinging it around threateningly.
"I've come for my family!" she shouted into the darkness beyond the torchlight. Her voice bounced back at her from all sides of the cave.
Her ears filled with a cold, arrogant chuckle, and a long, spindly leg struck out from the shadows, narrowly missing her head. It slammed against the wall, pulverizing stone into dust. Sabrina swung wildly at the leg, sinking the sharp edge of the shovel into the monster's flesh. Its shrieks were deafening.
"I'm not going to be easy to kill," Sabrina said, hoping her voice sounded more confident to the monster than it did in her own ears.
"Kill you? Don't you understand? This is a party!" a voice replied. "And you're the guest of honor."