Chapter 5 LABYRINTH OF WHISPERS

"The reason that I write is that I have a quill and ink

But I may not have a gift for doing so

I do it for it is only some of the things that I am able to do

I am not capable of showing hope or despair

Not even showing other emotions in my stories, but I do it

One day, if I still do write, I may be able to have it"

The scavenger's mouth closed behind her, leaving her to be blinded by the sunlight all around there.

Left and right and down, there was green leaves and grass all around. Up above, the sky so blue, unlike the past place with a darkened hue. She stood in the middle of the vast labyrinth, everything so quiet, like an untouched painter's palette.

North, south, east, and west, four passageways, she needs to choose the best. And then she noticed a simple sign, one not so helpful and yet not benign.

In a board it is written,

"This maze leads to places hidden. To know which way to your destination, one must state the desired location. After which you will hear, whispers that talk in your ear. To get to the place you must listen, choosing your own fate, one shall truly glisten."

Sounds quite a simple task. But in reality it is more than just a swig at a flask. With this the girl had thought,

"Is this another trap or just how this place tap?"

Not knowing what else to do, she did as the little board assigned her to.

Taking a deep breath and a step back, the power and volume of her words did not lack,

"I desire to find the troll's hill!"

Her voice echoed through the silence. Her voice strong and solid stating its' sense. But even so she did not feel any presence.

When all was said and done, the signage's promise began to run.

In her ears began to whisper, voices of many that all too jitter. A man and a woman, a child and a grandma, hundreds of voices that contradict one another. Voices that fight, disagree, and stabs each other.

In this magical field she began to wonder, is this where souls rest when they've gone asunder?

In their words she began to ponder, which is the right way that she must weather? She turned round and round yet their words still bled.

"Go right!"

"Go left!"

"No! Stop! Keep walking!"

"What the heck? I thought you said left?"

"No, I said right!"

"But you're the one who said walk!"

"Did I now?"

The voices in her head seems to have an argument, yet they never get a conclusive refinement.

Within the flood of voices in her head, the loudest voice that boomed she trusted to follow ahead.

"Yes! Just go straight!"

Said the voice in her ear that she hears quite clear. The deep voice of a man that she doesn't know. But what could we do of the things that follow? The result is just about to show.

The moment she walked all began to bicker, shouting words of insolent bitter. Cursing and hating. Laughing and crying. Silence now is but a luxury, in her quest to the secrets of her diary.

She walked and endured the voices that said,

"You insolent child! Why do you believe his words?! He's obviously lying!"

Then the man whom she followed answered and ranting,

"You fools and insolent slaves! Your tongues ought to be shaved! Who says the truth, me or you? Is it not what the girl thinks as true?"

They continue to talk and fight, till the girl reached a split way in sight, left or right.

She asked the voice in her head,

"Can you tell me where should I tread?"

At once the voices answered in chorus. Stinging pain they caused like cut from papyrus.

"Now listen here little girl! You must take a left now!"

Said the grandma that fought the man. Her voice frail and weak, like a clock that is about to run out of tick.

But the man answered, in unison with a thousand voices,

"To the right you must give your loyal paces!"

They argue again and again. Like her decision decides the fate of all men. They fought and retract, changing sides time by time. Confusion swept the girl's mind like many sides of a dime.

Still, she kept following the man. Walking and walking, her dark shadow behind her stalking. She moved and moved and did not rest till her lungs were about to pop from her chest.

As she heaved in air from exhausting conversations and unending marching desolation, she found herself back on the four pathways on which she started her choosing decision.

A loop around the maze she had been led. Just as around fifty other voices had said.

"You sly fox! Why did you take me back to where I came from?" said the girl with an angry heart beating like a drum.

"And so? Why do you question me you silly little girl? You had done your part of the bargain, I did not. I am a liar, you are deceived. Why would I let you leave?"

And a fiendish laugh he just had to gurgle.

With this the girl was done with him.

Not needing for attention. Not needing for forgiveness. For the man the girl had trusted, had beguiled and tricked her. No more words for him will be spoken forever. For trust is something affected like rust. Once rotten to its core, it can never be the same again forevermore.

Then she decided to choose more wisely for a voice to follow, one with which intentions not too hollow.

But unfortunately for our trusting heroine, not everyone's intentions are quite genuine.

Here and there she was forced to labor, but her mission is far from over. She tried and tried but at the end of each road they all just said,

"Such fun entertainment! Become our toy and do us a favor!"

Not one with a golden heart. No one with a proper start. Devastation in its most cruelly designed art.

The girl filled with anguish and regret, still being haunted by the voices in her head. Thousands of paths she had been led. But none of them had meant what they said.

However much she had endured, suffering and torture she was assured. Listening to one, listening to two, she still doesn't know what seems to be true.

At the brink of insanity, her mind suddenly had clarity.

"You're all lying raccoons and knaves. My path is not something you decide. For I know deep inside, I am the ruler of my own ship. The king of my own land. The writer of my own story. One must always remember that. Always."

And indeed she listened, and the way she chose her fate, she truly glistened.

The voices say in unison and in chorus,

"Forward you must go! Right is the way you must know! Left is the correct way to row!"

And with this she finally found, the resolve to make her own path sound.

She turned and faced the direction the voices never said. She chose the path behind her all that time. The path that the voices suddenly said was a crime.

"Never go back! In your decisions, we, must never lack!"

But the girl is now stronger. Strong enough to be her own protector. She decides her own path. She decides her own fate. One must never be swayed by the voices around them. For it is always you who have the choice to make.

She spent hours backtracking her steps, going deeper and deeper into the depths. She culled their voices and made her own choices. Always taking the path that the voices in her head abolishes.

And with that she paved her own destiny, unaffected by others envy and agony. She found her way towards a door, only to be blinded by light once more. She opened her eyes and then she saw the troll's hill. Simple yet with awe. The adventure was done, but it barely just run.