Page 14 of Minding the Minotaur
“No,” I grunt. How the fuck could I forget the agreementwe made with humans after the rebellion a hundred years ago? The final two lines hang on the wall of every school and workplace.
BLESSED FREEDOM BELOW
IS GIFTED FROM ABOVE
Which basically means we work our butts off, and in return, the humansgenerouslylet us live down here unfettered in these tunnels. Hardly freedom, but it’s what we’ve been forced to settle for.
A teeming warren of burrows and hive colonies stretching below the Earth’s crust, the Labyrinth is ten levels deep—officially. No doubt, with the mutant monsters that have bred over the centuries, the tunnels go much deeper. No-one from the upper levels explores any further. Why go looking for trouble?
And no monster since the Covenant was signed has dared to go above ground. Or if they did, they certainly never returned.
“I was curious, is all. To see what humans get up to. Not like in the movies, but close up, in real life…” I mutter.
Getting up close to that delectable human sure has changed my views on at least one of their kind.
“You really have no idea how much danger you put yourself in. Not just you, but the whole of level one, and below.” Otis looks so tired suddenly, a stab of guilt hits my gut. I realize what a burden it must be keeping up law and order down here.
And okay, yeah, secretly I have to admit I do imagine myself as some kind of hero.The minotaur who led the folks of the Labyrinth to freedom. Maybe Otis is right. I’ve got tickets on myself because of my day job. I feel special in some way, like I have superpowers, because there are some bionic cells in my sperm that the humans need.
I guess I’ve always wanted to feel special. Noticed. And today, miraculously, I did—by that beautiful human.
And suddenly, she matters more to me than all my macho heroics.
“I need your solemn promise you will never go there again,” Otis says.
Never.The word grates on my ears. “Promise me, Arlo,” Otis growls when I don’t reply.
I hang my head. Bite my lip. “I can’t promise.”
Otis grits out. “Fuck your?—”
“—bull headedness?” I supply cheekily. That will get me an hour in the equalizer for sure.
But instead, Otis does a turn of his desk. Stops and stares at the cape, still shimmering, but losing its glow a little by now. “I’m going to put you under house arrest,” he growls finally.
I feel myself paling. “You’re going toincarcerateme?” For years, we were confined in chains. It’s embedded in our DNA, the genetic memory of being held against our will. Worked to the bone. Eventually, when we signed the Covenant and promised to never return above ground, the humans let us work without being tethered.
Thus, there is a pledge in our own constitution that says we will never remove a monster’s freedom to move around the Labyrinth. We’re already stuck underground, with only the occasional grain of light that filters through the thick rock canopy. Why would we make it harder for our fellow monsters?
The worst punishment is confinement to your home for a period of up to a month. That probably sounds mild, but it’s not. It’s purgatory. Every monster dreads house arrest right down to their bones. It is tantamount to imprisonment.
“No one will take the job,” I challenge desperately.
“I’ll find someone. An ogre from level ten.”
“Gods, now you’re scraping the barrel.” My nostrils flare. “What reason will you give? That I was the first monster to make it through the portal since the Covenant was signed? Yeah, right, and then you risk others attempting it.”
Otis rakes a hand over his cropped dark green hair, sending it spiking in all directions. “I’ll get a peripheral to do it.”
I feel the blood draining from my cheeks. The peripherals are low-life humans. They work between our two worlds, moving products. “You wouldn’t.”
“Just watch me.” For a moment we stand almost chest to chest, in a silent power struggle, then Otis lets out a ragged sigh. “You’re a danger to us and to yourself, Arlo. If they see you, the things we’ve worked to build here could be destroyed. Worse,wecould be destroyed.”
“How?” I shout. “How exactly? They need us, not the other way round.”
“They have far more ways to harm us than you have a clue about,” Arlo says darkly. “I’ve no choice, Arlo. You will be on house arrest for a month. And in the meantime, we hope to the gods you were not sighted by a single human out there.”
I open my mouth. Shut it. There was much more than a sighting by a human. There was a connection… a chemistry I can’t make sense of. Even now, my balls tighten, and my cock thickens at the mere thought of her.
