Isaac Woodman
T2 2025 - The environment faded out of existence, becoming simple particles of white and grey. As the colour vanished, I watched Daedalus speak the last words he would ever speak and found anger coursing up through me. No, It can't be, That can't be the answer, I refuse to believe it! I screamed into the swirling void around me, but none of my words produced sound. Through my anger, I saw Daedalus's fragile, elderly form produce a weak and pitiful smile as he turned from me, finally giving up. The humane part of myself that was hiding in the recesses of my mind, felt forlorn and somewhat happy for the man, whilst the conniving side cursed his weakness. I knew that I should be grateful, but I felt anything but. As the workshop finally disappeared in its entirety, I found myself standing in a familiar plane of nothingness.
"How did it go?" I spun towards the source of the voice, but found no speaker. I turned around once more and stepped back from the sudden appearance of a new figure. Dressed in a luxurious suit of black and sporting long dark brown hair, the figure stood with a contemptuous smirk that made me instantly dislike her. Her eyes flickered between different colours and she cocked her head, looking me up and down. "Did it go as planned?" she asked and I got the distinct impression that she was annoyed.
"Who are you?" I asked, racking my brain to see if I had met her before, but her distinctive ever shifting eyes would have instantly caused me to remember her. I looked past her and saw the usual expansive nothingness, but Hans and Jacob were nowhere to be seen.
"I don't think that hardly matters at this point," she muttered, looking down at her nails which also rapidly changed colours, working their way through the colour spectrum in the same manner that her eyes did.
"It does to me, I don't know who you are, or why I should say anything to you." I responded and found myself unable to move. I felt an invisible force hold me in place like unseen bandages, wrapping my frame. The woman sighed as she turned from me and held her hands up in front of her. Beneath her open palms, two glasslike monitors flickered into existence, formed by floating particles of dust that made up most of the expansive nothingness. The two monitors played through two events from the maze. The first showed me talking to Daedalus through the obelisk. The second showed the stranger fighting the Minotaur, allowing the others to escape.
"Isaac Woodman, you are an unknown entity, quite like this other man," She paused both videos, zooming in on my face and on the strangers. "You seem to possess knowledge that you shouldn't have yet, and whilst this other stranger was also admitted as a valid actor, like yourself, we don't have any knowledge on who he is." She turned to me, leaving both images hanging in the air behind her. "I'm here to see how much you know. Now, you can either tell me willingly or I have another, more uncomfortable way of finding out the information I require." She looked at me with a blank stare that didn't unnerve me, and she smirked as she realised this fact.
"I don't know how you are, but I don't think that you will get me to talk." I stated, the honesty in my words surprising myself. It wasn't a bluff either and by the micro movements in the woman's face, she seemed to agree.
"I don't need to get you to talk, I have a different way of getting what I need." She sighed once more and dismissed the two monitors with a gesture, then placed her open palm on my forehead. Her skin was cold to the touch and she closed her eyes.
"What are-" I felt my mouth clamp shut as I felt my body lurch backwards. The white nothingness was gone, replaced by a haze of red that only allowed me to see a few centimeters past my fingertips. I tried to open my mouth, to ask what was going on, or to scream, but I couldn't open it. It was the same uncomfortable wrapping sensation. Time seemed to come to a standstill, Where was I? What time is it? I felt a fog over my mind, as if I was intoxicated, without being drunk. Then as sudden as the sensation began, the red haze suddenly disappeared and I found myself on my knees in that expansive nothingness.
"YOU!" the woman screamed, "OF COURSE IT WOULD BE YOU! OUT OF ALL OF US, OF COURSE IT WOULD BE YOU TO BREAK THE RULES FIRST!"
"I don't think you can recite rules to me first Kezariah, I'm playing the most fair," The voice was instantly familiar but I still found my body unable to move.
"Fair, FAIR," Kezariah sounded stupefied, "You have no idea what you have just done by interfer-" I finally found myself able to move and I stood on shaking legs.
"Isaac, you've done well, you've found him."
"It's, It's you?" I asked as I looked about, seeing the woman, Kezariah frozen in time, but the familiar voice was still without form.
"Things are changing as they should, and in order for things to change even more, I'm going to give you a present." Kezariah's body suddenly stood incredibly straight, before twitching erratically. I took a hesitant step back, but Kezariah's body took a step forward in response. "Don't worry, just be still." The woman started to shake more violently, before her entire body exploded. As the gore landed on me, I screamed as the intense heat seared its way into me. I could feel my heart beating ever more vividly, as if trying to escape the pain. Darkness crept into my vision as the ever similar blue screen flitted into view in front of me, but I couldn't focus on the text. I could only focus on the screaming.