Labyrinth — Hive

Sindy looked at the chapel - yellow stone with white marble trimmings; a bronze cross embedded above the far right window - it looked exactly like father's drawing.

She found it.

"Thank you, Tuk," Sindy said to the guide. A nice man. "I'll be good from here on out."

"B-b-but, Mistress!" He exclaimed. "It will trap you! I-I-I told you. There are evils in this place. I-If y-you trespass, it it it-"

"Tuk," She nestled a coin purse in his hands. "It's alright. Take this, and get back to your family." The man looked bewildered so Sindy smiled. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

She halted his protest with a finger to his lips, then stepped away ignoring his latent protests. If Sindy gave way to superstition, she would've quit a long time ago. For her to turn back now was to betray father's legacy.

Sindy marched with a determined step toward 'The Chapel of Christ's Savior'. Known now by a different name, of course. On the outskirts of the chapel there was an unusually diverse cast of people - especially for the village's main place of worship.

"Welcome to St. Marry's Respite." Said a woman in a burqa, standing underneath a palisade outside one of the arched doorways. Curious. Sindy asked about the peculiarity. The old woman gave her a look that said Sindy was an infant. "Child, this place is not for you." Sindy narrowed her eyes. It was a normal question, why was she so mean? "I can see you are lost, you may enter, but take care you don't find your way out."

Sindy brushed passed the crazy woman. The inside of the chapel was much larger than evident from the outside. She noticed clearly different believers mingling and walking around. Perhaps the chapel had transformed into a sanctuary of sorts? Interesting but irrelevant. Sindy needed to focus on the task at hand.

She would prove to her mother that father's legacy wasn't a sham. There was no time to get distracted by the banal.

Sindy approached the altar - it looked just like the drawings in dad's journal. What the drawing didn't display, however, was the Star of David at its base.

This made her stop. Yes. She was too eager, too fast. These weren't some niche connections or coincidences - they weren't banal. Why did so many different religions present here? Father's texts said this was a Christian chapel in a remote village. Clearly all sorts of different religions found comfort here, what did it mean?

"Are you a believer of the fifth?" A bald woman in orange robes approached Sindy with her hands behind her back - and a bindi on her forehead... "I see you staring at our altar in amazement."

"I... Yes." Sindy was anything but a believer, but it felt like the right thing to say. "I am fascinated by all the different religious iconography. I thought this was a Christian chapel?"

Again, Sindy received the same perplexed look. "This isn't a chapel, child."

"But, the cross -"

"This is St. Marry's Respite." The bald woman said, firm. "And non-believers are not welcomed."

"I... do believe."

"Believe in what, child?"

Sindy looked the woman in the eyes. Only one answer made sense. "God."

The woman nodded and walked away.

Yes. Something peculiar was definitely happening here, and father would've seen through whatever it was... Focus. Sindy needed to focus. She returned to her contemplation of the altar - one of the sides of the star was slightly... chipped? She didn't know how to say it, but it was most certainly not even relative to the others.

She tapped it, tapped the side of the altar above it. Nothing. Consulted her notes taken from her father's journal. Nothing about an uneven side there either. Was she overthinking this? No, it was definitely a clue.

Sindy looked around at the many arched doorways and the people entering the darkness within. She noticed the spacing of the arched doorways, her brain was always good at picking up patterns. Sindy saw the doorway, saw the Star of David - each arch of the star correlated to a doorway.

She felt like she was making connections where there weren't any. Now that she was here, so close to her father's dream, she felt giddy. She needed to breathe and steady herself.

Breathe.

Sindy entered the dark doorway. The room was no different than the one she came from but smaller. Peculiar. She even saw a similar altar. The people around her moved and acted as if she wasn't there. This gave her comfort. She wasn't standing out.

Sindy went to the altar, noticing another side was 'chipped' - a different side. She entered the correlated doorway. Once inside this third room, she felt... warmer. There was no mistaking it.

But... this room was barely different as well. Sindy could swear the chapel wasn't this expansive. Same alter; different chipped side of the Star of David. Sindy followed again.

The darkness of each doorway always gave way to almost the exact same chamber she left. Sindy finally approached a couple sitting on some benches, one had a cross neckless, the other a moon.

"Excuse me but -"

Before she could finish her sentence they got up and left the way she came. Sindy looked through the doorway, She noticed the even greater warmth in this room. These peculiarities were enough. She would come back with a team and research this... strange place thoroughly.

When she went back however, the doorway was... gone. What the? It was just gone. None of the people around her responded to her, choosing instead to pretend like she wasn't there.

They ignored her confusion, her panic, her hysteria.

Her madness.

She in turn forgot why she was there. In time, there became where. And where became a memory. The memory turned to myth. And even myth gives way to time.

And time is without mercy.

BW twirl.png