Welcome to the labyrinth of life

I will be telling you the story of how I came to be the most powerful queen of the labyrinth of life.

I will be taking you back to where it all started, my birth. I was born in the dirtiest slums in the bottom of the labyrinth. The slum was like a big dumpster where all corpses were gathered. Only normal humans would live there because there were no threat down there. The labyrinth was stacked like a big underground tower. The higher one went the more dangerous and horrifying It was. As I said, normal humans would stay at the bottom to be safe but there were also not normal humans that were called survivors. The survivors would try to go higher up to fight the stronger monsters and collect treasures.

Many die that way so it’s pretty weird why they are called survivors when they don’t survive while those at the bottom have been there for generations.

But back to the story telling, as I said I was born in the slum, and I was named Miria, my name was supposed to mean mirror and that I could copy people and their abilities.

It properly sounds a little strange to you. Why would my parents choose that as my name? Well, you see those normal humans are not entirely normal, it’s just that every human or actually every living creature is able to read someone else's level of power and their special ability unless one is powerful enough to hide it.

I was born with white hair looking like pale crystal without any power. I had pale skin and without any flaws. And my eyes were the color of blood.

A crystal's level of power depends on its color and on how bright the color is and white is said to be the lowest.

Every day was about finding food, water and surviving the bad conditions down there. The slum is surrounded by big rocks and small mountains. There is no sun in any part of the labyrinth but on the top of the labyrinth there are some crystals above the ground and those crystals absorb the light and take down the labyrinth so that every creature gets their share of sunlight.

And as time flew by, I was now seven years old. I was collecting eatable plants along with other kids but because of my special ability they all viewed me as a freak. None of them wanted to befriend me, I even tried to take the first step toward a friendship, but they all avoided me. It was quite lonely.

When I got home with the things I had collected, for me and my parents, we went on a walk to the outskirts of the layer, we climbed up the stairs that were made so that there would always be a way up. Me and my parents had now reached the second layer and were able to see small insects roaming around. The small insects were practically harmless, they would only attack if feeling threatened. The small insects could be found mostly in groups or with their partners. me and my parents went further up to the 3rd layer. The 3rd layer where the place where the monsters and beasts started being more aggressive but not that dangerous. The 3rd layer was mostly home to the ground wolves. The ground wolves are loners and some act like puppies but considering their size one still had to behave around one.

Suddenly the ground was shaking, and all the beasts and monsters were fleeing. My parents tried to get me to go with them, but I didn't move an inch. I was very captivated by what was happening. I felt something draw me to what was happening, so I kept watching the place where I felt the reason to all the shaking came from. I then began to walk, but not home but further into the shaking and rumbling caves. And there it was the reason for all the shaking; a giant hunting spider was fighting the king ground wolf and the wolf was losing and dying. It was horrifying as the spider went for the face to cut the eyes, nose and ears. I wanted to run for my life but couldn't because of feeling drawn to what was happening.

When the fight was over, I returned home but without my parents. They had sacrificed themselves to protect me from the falling rocks made under the fight. I was left alone, and I thought that it was all my fault and everyone else thought so too.

I then began taking care and watching out for myself. Even from my own race, humans. I was bullied by the other kids and some old people that didn't have anything good to do. I ended up finding a place where there were kids just like me. They had either lost their parents, or they had killed their parents themselves. I was allowed to stay there but that didn’t mean they liked me. So I sat in the corner trying to figure out if I was going to eat or not.

“If you aren’t going to eat that, then at least give it to someone else”

“We are someone who hasn’t given up”

The voice seemed to be directed at me, so I looked up and there stood a girl looking at me with disapproval in her eyes. The girl had blond hair, it almost looked like gold. Her eyes were green as a spring leaf. I had to admit, the girl was pretty, even with old clothes and some dirt on her face.

“Hello, somebody in there?” the girl asked

“I haven’t given up, I’m just tired” I said.

Without saying anymore, the girl left.

The next day a couple of robbers were taking the food that all the kids had collected. The robbers had torn clothes and were dirty all over, some were even missing their teeth. In short, they were all very ugly. I didn’t really care about the robbers hurting the other kids but then I saw that girl from before. She was protecting the others. Foolish I thought, but when I saw blood coming from her head I reacted. I felt like my blood was burning, I felt something in my chance. It was like my blood began to fizz. I was running entirely on my instincts. The memories of the fight between the spider and wolf flashed before my eyes, as I ran to the robber who had hurt the girl. I remembered how the spider had attacked three of the senses. I charged, only attacking the eyes since that would be enough to scare them and it did. They ran from their life's and I smiled, I felt free. When I turned around, I had become the new thing scaring them all or not everyone the little girl didn’t look scared just surprised, surprised over I had saved her.

I didn’t know my appearance had changed until the girl I just saved gave me a broken piece I guessed was from a mirror. My eyes looked beastly, my eyes looked like a cat, they were red and sharp. I had a tail also looking like a cats and so did my ears. My nails had turned into claws, long and sharp. Very sharp. There were even markings on my body or maybe they were runes. My hair had become longer. It almost reached the ground. My hair hadn’t just gotten longer, it had also turned pitch black with a little gold in it. My clothes though hadn’t changed. Even if my body didn’t look like that before, I actually felt good, I felt like me.

When everything had calmed down, meaning my body had turned back to normal since that was considered normal, the girl from before came over to me. I was sitting in the corner again and so she sat beside me. She looked at me with concern, weird considering how she looked at me before.

“I'm sorry”

"Sorry for being so hard on you before” the girl apologized. I didn’t really know what to answer so I just nodded.

“what’s your name?” the girl asked. Again, I didn’t answer.

“My name Is Lilith” she kept staring at me, so I finally opened my mouth and said “Miria, my name is Miria”

Lilith began to smile she was clearly happy over my reply.

“Want to be friends” Lilith asked. I looked at her with shocked eyes and an open mouth, but I couldn’t say a thing. She asked me if I wanted to be friends.

“s....su..re” I said stupidly. I was so used to people not wanting anything to do with me, but she was different. Lilith then smiled at me with such warmth and kindness, so I just smiled back at her trying to accommodate her warmth and kindness.

*So hot* *I can’t breathe* I woke up startled by the sudden heat and smoke that made it hard to breathe. A fire, there was fire to the shelter that kept me, Lilith and all the other kids safe. I tried to find Lilith as soon as I could through the smoke and fire. My eyes felt like they were burning.

I found Lilith and tried to wake her up. Her eyes started to open, and she started coughing. She looked up at me and tried to speak but just coughed more so I put my hand on her mouth. Lilith understood immediately that it wasn't time to ask questions. Lilith started to wake the other kids and lead them outside the same did I. some kids even helped to take others outside. I walked outside to find that everyone had escaped, everyone except Lilith. Again, I felt my blood fizz as I ran through the flames. My vision this time was clear even with all the smoke. I saw Lilith lying on the ground hugging a little boy, protecting him from the stone she now was under. I lifted the stone as if it was nothing but a little feather. She was bleeding. I lifted the little boy up on my back, he was still conscious so he held me as tightly as he could, and then I lifted Lilith so that she was laying in my arms. I ran, avoiding the flames this time because I could go through the flames, but they couldn’t.

I laid Lilith down on the ground carefully. somebody else had taken the little boy from her back and was treating him. Lilith wasn’t breathing. I hadn’t realized that I was crying until my tears dropped from my chins down on hers. It had been a long time since I last cried. The last time I cried was after my parents dead. Without realizing it Lilith had become somewhat her new family. Five years had already passed since we had become friends. I couldn’t lose her too. I smiled with hope when I saw her eyes starting to open and she took in the air. Lilith came to her senses with tears.

“I’m so sorry” she said

“For what?” I would have laughed at her silly apology if it wasn’t for my own tears starting to fall.

“I don’t know” she stared at me and then the both of us started laughing while many tears escaped our eyes.

The next day came as a surprise. Everything had been burning down to the ground. Some of the kids were trying to find some of their things in the ashes, others were leaving to find a new place. I was helping those who had gotten hurt in the fire along with Lilith.

Suddenly I felt a feeling of being drawn to something. Was it another fight? would someone Kill'd? I couldn’t think clearly. My instincts just told me that I had to get there fast, so I ran. I heard Lilith calling me in the distance and her voice was getting closer she was following me, so I forced myself to slow down just enough for her to catch up. We ran at the same pace until she suddenly pulled my arm.

“Where are you running off to?”

“We shouldn’t leave the slum” Lilith said while breathing hard.

“I need to get up”

“Up where? Witch layer?” she asked, still trying to catch her breath.

“Water” I just said without really thinking. It looked like Lilith had even more questions to ask but she kept her mouth shut. She sensed it was important, I could see it in her eyes that she knew that I might be running on the feeling in my gut. I began running again still so that Lilith wouldn’t fall behind.

The two of us took a break when we had reached the 3rd floor. When we had caught our breath, we started to walk. Now that I felt close to whatever I was heading I didn’t feel like rushing over. Suddenly I began to hesitate, walking a lot slower. Fear was creeping up my spine.

“What's wrong?” Lilith looked confused at me so a said sadly with tears almost running from my eyes.

“This is where my parents died” I found myself looking at the place where my parents died, and the big rocks were still there tough the rotting smell of corpse weren’t. How surprising but after five years It kind of made sense. I turned away to see a tear rolling down Lilith’s cheek. We started walking and we walked to we had reached the 4th layer.

It was gorgeous. In the 4th layer was a giant waterfall and it looked like there were stars on the Sieling. The waterfall had formed a lake beneath it, and the water was so clear that we were able to see our own reflections, even with the rushing waterfall. Oddly enough I felt more than safe there. I just kept staring at my reflection and suddenly it changed. I now looked like I did when my blood began to fizz, and instinct started taking over. Lilith stood beside me, and she was crying. For me her reflection looked normal but maybe she saw something else.

“What do you see?” I asked with a low voice. She didn’t take her eyes off her reflection, but I could see that she was listening because she started whipping her tears.

“I had a brother we got separated when we were younger” Lilith started to cry again. She turned her head in my direction.

“ and... We were...” Lilith closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then continued with even more emotion.

“Twins... we were twins”

I then hugged Lilith and she hugged me back. We held tightly on to each other. We just stood like that for a little while.

I suddenly felt tears trying to escape my eyes and one succeeded. The one tear dropped down in the mirror like water and then it was like it all came undone, like a mirror shattering. The waterfall had dried and so had the lake. What was ones a waterfall now became a gloomy cave.

We weren’t holding on to each other anymore. We were now scared. Scared of the sound, a rustling sound that was getting closer and closer. Lilith almost screamed when she saw it and I, I couldn’t help but want to get closer. I felt it again, the feeling of being drawn to it, it called me. I knew it wouldn’t hurt me, but Lilith didn’t, so she pulled my arm when suddenly she just stopped. We both stared at the snake that came out. It looked like if it had been just a little bigger, I wouldn't fit in the cave. The giant snake was greenly silver colored, its scales were almost glowing like a crystal, gem or maybe even like a diamond. Its eyes were red like blood just like mine.

*Finally, you have come* the snake spoke.

“Are you the reason why I wanted to come?” I asked the snake.

“What? No, I'm not. Why would I want to take you to a snake?” Lilith said

“I was talking to the snake” “didn’t you hear what it said?” I asked confused. Lilith also looked confused, still scared of course. Lilith shook her head.

*She can’t hear me and that just proves that you are the one I've been waiting for* the snake said, and I could feel it was glad about it. But what would a snake want with me? Was it the snake I felt when I was younger, when the spider and wolf fought each other, when my parents died?