The Lost Labyrinth (Book I of The Labyrinth Trilogy) Prolouge: Thirteen Years Earlier

by Jace X. Anders in some place dark...and DUSTY; huh, must be my room.

Prologue:

Thirteen Years Earlier

“Do you think he’ll hate us?” a man wearing a black trechcoat asked, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.

“Probably. But it is for the best,” the other replied.

“‘For the best’, eh? What, exactly, can the best be in our situation?”

“If I had the answers, do you think that I wouldn’t have told you them by now?”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

“And if I am?”

“You are, and I need a straight answer: What can we do?”

“We can only ‘do’ what we think is best; which is what we’re doing right now.”

“Or so we think.”

“Exactly.”

“And if we’re wrong?”

The other man shrugged; his sunglasses reflected off a sharp ray from the blazing sun.

“We die,” he responded with an over exaggerated slouch.

“But what of the boys? Will they die too if they do not solve The Complex?”

“Who knows. If they don’t, then either one of two possibilities could happen: One, they all die from The Complex Defenses, or two, they start a new life and live happily.

“It will end eventually though, won’t it?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. They’ll have to find out for us if we are doomed, will they not?”

“And I thought I was the one asking questions.”

“Well, which one of us is ‘avoiding the question’ now?”

“As you said before: they might or might not succeed. We really can’t judge, now can we?”

“We have just a few years left if they don’t; and they’ll all boys.”

“That can be changed.”

“Can it?”

“Of course. You know as well as I that if we’re involved, then we can change things in it too.”

“Yes, but what of The Complex Defenses?”

“They can be maneuvered; such things are not impossible to breach.”

“Indeed. But will it be enough?”

“Enough to protect them, you mean? We can only hope.”

“Hope. That is the only thing we have left, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. Hope is, will be, and always was essential to our survival from the start.”

“One story ends, another begins.”

“How true.”

“One day, when they find out the truth, I hope they’ll understand that what we did was - in our minds - for the best.”

With that, the two men departed paths, each thinking the same thing:

Hope is the only thing we have left.