I had ben lured by my former girlfriend, Ari, to an outdoor maze on her uncle’s estate and then abandoned to swelter in the unforgiving sun.
It was payback for my abandoning her for another woman.
But make no mistake—I would not be set free until Ari’s revengeful fury was fully satiated and she made sure I fully paid.
There was definitely no exit for me.
I tried vainly to escape from the blazing sun overhead, but there was not even a sliver of shade to provide respite from the glare and the heat.
A few hours passed—it was impossible to gauge how long, before Ari returned, sipping from a huge frosty glass of iced tea.
My throat was so parched I could barely speak and I toppled back onto the ground as I I tried to get to my feet.
Ari seemed oblivious to my needs. She was exacting every drop of venom from my suffering making sure I fully paid for choosing somebody other than her.
“Did you know,” she said brightly, “ that many of the great cathedrals of Europe have maze patterns on their floors? Penitents crawl on their hands and knees following twisting paths as a penance to expiate their sins.”
“Is that what you want, Ari,” I rasped, “do you want me to come crawling to you on my hands and knees?”
“That would be a start, Theo. But you will have to do much more than that, Silly. You’ll have to prove yourself worthy.”
“Worthy of what—of you?”
“Worthy,” she sniffed, and left in a huff.
“Come back, Ari,” I cried, but she turned a corner and was gone.
I was left abandoned without water or reprieve from the sun. It seemed an eternity before the sun began to decline and the cedars about me were able to offer some shade.
I was incredibly weak and found it difficult to sit up.
I heard a rustling noise and suddenly Ari emerged again from a leafy corridor, this time dressed in a skimpy bikini and carrying an ice bucket filled with water.
“Sleeping again?” she said crossly, “Am I going to have to dump this water over your head again?”
It was a cruel reference to the way she tormented me earlier that day.
“Oh no, please,” I croaked, extending a faltering hand as if to hold her back.
She had begun to swing the bucket toward me, but stopped part way. I watched as the water sloshed in the bucket like a wave slapping a dock, and felt a few precious drops spill on my face.
I wiped at them with my fingers and rubbed the liquid over my lips.
She stood towering over me, arms akimbo, silhouetted by the setting sun.
“Don’t stare,” she whispered, and then added seductively, “although I can’t blame you, I suppose. Men are so weak.”
A strong surge of passion suddenly flared up inside me, fanned by intolerable thirst.
In my mind Ari was the water bearer and now an irresistible seductress, and both ideas, aided by the intolerable heat and thirst, became melded together into one desire.
I had to possess her.
