This is the last time I can die.
The lingering brine parches my tongue and when I lick my snout the sensation of swallowing sand seeps down my throat. I collapse into the sand on all fours after crossing that cursed sea and I suppress a howl, mourning the loss of the remaining balance of my lives.
If this path were simple, there would be more criminals to live to tell the tale.
I whimper, a muffled sound lost into the night sky, absorbed by the slow whirl of the churning windmill, the final marker.
I creep along with my gaze on the castle and a growl percolates in the pit of my throat, an aspect of my wolf-sense I haven’t mastered, warning me of the danger lurking inside. Though I radiate power in this form, I preferred when the Game-Master provided me with the form of eagle. Flying, though only for a few levels, reminded me of my true calling. Piloting a Burner SA-13 scout ship near uncharted black holes and dead star systems, collecting data samples for the Documation Agency. A bittersweet memory.
The growl deepens and surfaces as a bark. Stupid! But, I can’t help myself, I shouldn’t have allowed myself to think about those spineless cowards, the Agency who tried and convicted me of the digital theft I was accused of.
I could have chosen an alternate route. I had the choice to confess to a modified version of the truth, which would have frozen my existence for a thousand years, fast-forwarding my mind into the future, and restarting my life again at forty-five in an alien environment without friends or credentials.
But, I would never see my daughter again. Unacceptable.
The creaking door punctures my pointing ears, the castle awakened by my bark. The thirteenth and final labyrinth.
I stride toward the panel to the right. My final options. Remain as a dog and recharge my strength, return to my human form with only modest strength modifications, or choose any past form: eagle, bear, or bull.
I choose my well-worn, human self. I want my final existence to be familiar.
I press my snout against the panel. The transformation is instantaneous and painless. I flex my digitally enhanced fingers and form fists; I rub my small human nose.
As I step through the threshold, an unfamiliar electric charge burns through my veins. This place is familiar. Too familiar. It’s a reconstruction of my apartment-flat from Stenllos Seven, the home where I raised my daughter.
I don’t expect this. My pattern seeking mind assumed it would be another labyrinth filled with puzzles.
They’re using my daughter against me! Have they unlocked the truth? I punch the wall in the entryway, my uncontrollable canine instinct still lingering. Would I die, whimpering like a baby about how I failed my daughter in so many aspects of life, my final goodbye to her?
Almost drowning in the sea has derailed my determination to destroy this world, gain my freedom, and be reunited with my daughter again. I shake the past off my body and snap my eyebrows together.
I lift my left foot with great care and step into the living quarters, approaching a couch facing away. I move around the corner and approach my daughter. She’s eleven years old and taking a nap.
My gasp awakens her.
She blinks and sits up, her golden hair flowing across her shoulders, an image straight from a memory burned into my brain. A tiny angel, a reflection of her deceased mother, the only link I have to my short-lived, but perfect past. I spoiled her rotten, an obvious mistake, though I failed to stop myself…
“Daddy!” Her teary-eyed face and cracking voice shatters my spell. “Where are we?”
Did they make a digital copy of my flesh and blood daughter? Is there nothing they won’t do to break me and uncover the truth? Yet, her being here with me, in the end, warms my blood.
“Daddy’s being tested, Easta. Don’t be frightened. You love adventures. Remember your favorite story? What’s your favorite story?”
She’s not easily distracted. She has the inspector mind. “Why are you being tested?”
She’s so real; the words catch in my throat and I blink back my tears. “I was accused of a crime I didn’t commit. Now, I must convince them I’m telling the truth and not hiding anything. This fabricated world is a lie detector; they’re sifting through my thoughts, challenging my beliefs, channeling to the core of my soul, and exposing my motives. They’re using you to break me. Choose your words carefully.”
Her eyes darken, a crimson glow silhouetting her irises. “You’re a criminal, Daddy!” She folds her arms.
“Does it matter so much, my daughter?”
“What did you do? Tell me!”
“Why? The world believes their version of truth. The only one who matters is you. Do you judge me by one moment, Easta? Or do you judge me by the thousands of times I’ve read to you, worked to feed you, brought you to school, taught you life lessons, cried with you and for you, helped you stay strong when you missed Mommy…”
Easta leaps from the couch, transforming into the young woman I left to fend for herself at twenty-two and hugs me tight, tears pouring down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Dad! I’m so sorry! I’m sorry for lying to them! I was so angry with you for leaving on that job for five years, I don’t know why I lied and told them you stole…”
I hold her head as I smile through my wet face. “And now you know why I couldn’t tell them the entire truth. This was the only way. The final gamble. Freedom for the both of us. Live or die. Now, watch your words, they are listening…”
She wipes her wet hair out of her eyes. “But, if you die, I will never forgive myself…”
I reach for her hand. “That’s why you must help me win. For both of us.”
She smiles. “I will, Dad. We’ll beat them together.”
And I choose to believe her.
The End