Deeper and deeper I’m going in the labyrinth, chasing the more and more fading away phantom of an old Ariadne.

When I learned that there was no Minotaur and I’d been lured inside so that I’d let my bones to rot trying to get out, Ariadne had run away from me. Despite her thread spun on the halls, she was as well lost, trying to keep me away from the exit.

What she doesn’t know is that I’m not chasing her to have my revenge. I don’t even want to catch up with her. As soon as I’ve realized that her goal was to take me well away from the exit, I understood that she could help me in my quest.

Two or three times I even put my hands on her, for the sake of appearances, but I pretended to be careless so that she could escape. I think that she suspects nothing. In a way, I’m playing with her. And perhaps she thinks that she’s playing with me. In fact, maybe the labyrinth is the one who’s playing with both of us all this time.

I feed on all the insects I can find in the cracks. Every now and then I catch up mice and small lizards. Normally, I wouldn’t do it, but I have no choice.
I’m not short of water, for the moment. From place to place there are fountains where I can fill up my last water skin. I drink from it bit by bit, I don’t know when I’ll be lucky enough to find the next one.

For some time now, I’m completely alone. Ariadne has vanished, I don’t sense her ahead of me anymore. I was disturbed for some moments, but then I’ve understood that it didn’t matter. I can go on unhindered with my quest without her help the same as before. I left signs on the walls of all the halls I’ve been passing through, so now I know whether I’m moving in circles or I’m making any progress.

Maybe she, Ariadne, finally discovered the exit. Or maybe she died and her body lies somewhere, on a hall I haven’t passed through yet. Maybe the exit isn’t any longer where it’s supposed to be. After we came in, it might had very well been closed up. But I haven’t found any wall looking to have been fresher built than the others.

I’m overwhelmed and fascinated by the huge dimensions of the labyrinth. It didn’t look so gigantic from the outside. Sometimes I have the impression that it’s built as I’m going further inside, I even heard voices and footsteps a couple of times, but I know that such thing isn’t possible.

In a way, the labyrinth has become my world and my home, the last and only one. My bones will rot here, indeed, not searching the exit, but something totally different. Maybe the goal that the builders and Ariadne had it in view from the very beginning is fulfilling in this way. However, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Sometimes I wish to know what the people outside think about me, what story they tell. Perhaps they forgot about me the moment I made the first step inside.

A faint light is dragging me in the distance. Is this the exit or my quest has finally come to an end?