Cupid’s Match

Gluttony looks like a huge worm. Its bulbous, swollen flesh drips with a sticky fatlike substance that shudders as it lurches forward. With each movement, the squelching sound I heard earlier reverberates about the room. The worm gives off a pungent odor: the smell of old sweat, rotting garbage, and death.

Pandora stands before it, swishing her sword through the air. Her words repeat themselves over and over in my mind.

Don’t get eaten.

Suddenly, Gluttony lifts its entire top half into the air, exposing an underside completely covered in sharp, needlelike teeth. It stays there a moment, reared back, its body pulsing, before suddenly turning and lurching in my direction.

“Lila!” shouts Cupid. “Get out of the way!”

I scramble to my feet and instinctively pull out an arrow. I thrust it upward as the monstrous creature strikes, the black weapon sinking into the rolls of fat on the side of its body. I try to pull away, but find half of my arm sucked into its flesh; it’s moist and hot and feels like jelly. The stench is unbearable and the intense pressure against my arm makes me feel light-headed with pain.

With a heave, Cupid hauls me away from the beast, creating a suctioning noise as my arm is released from its flabby prison. We both fall to the floor and Pandora leaps before us—slashing at the monster with her sword and scattering lumps of flesh about the arena.

“Eeeww,” says Cupid.

The monster, however, does not slow down. It advances again and again, forcing Pandora to move backward until she is fighting with her back to the far wall. Every time a part of it is cut off, its body pulses a new roll of slippery fat into place. It moves with an extraordinary speed, its teeth gnashing and gnawing.

“A little help,” she calls between heavy breaths, “would be nice.”

Cupid gets back onto his feet and grabs his black bow. He looks at the creature distastefully. “It’s just so . . . gross.”

The beast hits Pandora with the side of its body, throwing her across the floor.

“Okay, I’m coming,” Cupid says. “As long as I don’t have to touch it.”

He fires a rain of arrows into its swollen body. It rears up again, away from Pandora, and for a moment it looks like it’s sniffing the air. Then it turns toward Cupid and me.

“Fire into its mouth,” Pandora shouts, springing back to her feet, “between its teeth. That’s the only place where it’s vulnerable.”

Cupid does so—firing arrow after arrow as it bears down on him. As the arrows find their mark, one after the other, the monster begins to thrash about in the air. Then, suddenly, it falls to the floor, its flesh exploding on impact and spurting a sticky, gelatinous substance across the entire arena. Cupid gets the full brunt of it, the dripping fat coating his body. He turns around and looks at me, a pained expression on his face.

“So. Disgusting,” he says as translucent goo drips down his face.

He strips off his leather jacket, wipes his face and hair with it, then casts it to the ground. My eyes linger on his muscular arms. He somehow manages to look hot even while covered in goo.

He catches me staring. “See something you like?”

Pandora walks forward and stands beside him, surveying him with dark eyes. “Of course she doesn’t. You look disgusting and you smell like a trash can.”

She smirks, the smile lighting up her otherwise serious face. I laugh, instantly liking her refreshing bluntness.

Cupid’s eyes glint with amusement. “Pandora, this is Lila,” he says. “She’s my Match.”

Pandora purses her lips. “I assume Venus is back then?”

“You assume correctly. We’ve come to ask for your help. You and all the others trapped in Sims.”

A dark look passes across her face. “Sure, you want to break us out now that you need something.” She wipes her sword against her sleeve. “Where have you been for the past . . . however many centuries?”

Cupid shrugs. “Hey, I’ve been banished. You can take that up with my brother when we get you out.”

Her eyes flash. “Cal.”

“You know Cal?” I ask.

“He was the one who put me here.”

I’m not sure how to react. In the silence, Cupid looks between the two of us.

“Well, granted, this could cause some awkward reunions when we get out of here,” he says, “but be that as it may, Cal has connected all the Sims, we have the Finis, and we’re breaking out all Her prisoners. We’re going after Venus.” He pauses, then adds, “Will you help us?”

Her steely gaze passes over Cupid then me.

“Fine. But only because I’d be happy to watch her die.”

“Excellent,” he says. “Now . . . how exactly do we get out of here?”

She gives Cupid a look. “Well I obviously don’t know. I’ve tried all the doors—they’re all dead ends leading to the sin rooms. The hatch that spat out our friend Gluttony is home to all the monsters.” She shakes her head. “You seriously came in here not knowing how to get out?”

Cupid shrugs. “Not really thinking that far ahead. However, when the Sims were merged they created links between themselves. We just need to find the link—something out of place.”

Pandora raises an eyebrow. “Well, we better be quick—the next sin will arrive soon.”

The three of us search the vast arena for what feels like an age. I keep firing glances at the hatch in the floor. Pandora says the next monster will appear in the next five minutes.

I force myself to look away and my eyes settle on the carvings of the nearest door. A W is embossed into the metal along with the picture of a fierce lionlike creature. I walk to the next door. This one is marked E for Envy. An image of a snake curls its way around the letters.

I’m about to move on when something glinting on the ground catches my eye. I crouch down and brush away the rubble to expose a dirty mirror. There’s an M engraved in the center.

“Cupid,” I call. “The girl in the Venus’s prison—Medusa. I saw a snake in her cell.”

He looks up from the door he’s examining and nods. “Yes, she always has snakes. They’re kind of her trademark.”

Pandora looks my way as Cupid comes over. “What is it?” she asks.

Cupid inspects the mirror on the ground, then the snakes on the door. He grins. “Medusa’s Sim must be close. The way out of here will be through this door.”

Pandora looks unconvinced. “If you’re wrong, we’ll be faced with Envy in there. We’ll kill each other.” She pauses. “Well . . . I’ll kill you.”

A hissing sound suddenly echoes from the hatch behind us, which has started to move once again.

“Shall we take our chances?” Cupid suggests.

She sighs then nods, resigned. Cupid opens the door and we hurry through, slamming it shut behind us just as something large and horrible—with the head of a lion and scaly skin—bursts into the arena. With a wave of relief I look around. We’re back in the labyrinth, its high concrete walls leading to a junction just ahead. The faint sound of carnival music hums in the air. I hear Pandora’s intake of breath beside me.

“It really was the exit.”

“Good to be out of there?”

“You have no idea,” she says, her eyes drinking in the black sky above us.

We walk to the junction, where, to the right, the labyrinth walls have been replaced by a network of abandoned carts, tents, and fairground rides. Far in the distance are eerie red and white lights. Along the path to the left, the labyrinth darkens ominously. I shudder as I notice a substance on the wall that looks suspiciously like blood, dark and shiny.

“You see that building glinting in the distance? Through the carnival?” Cupid says, pointing right. “That’s a house of mirrors. Medusa has the power to turn people to stone at will with just a glance. She won’t be able to control her powers in here. One look in a mirror and she’ll turn herself into stone.” He looks meaningfully at Pandora. “She’ll be there.”

“I agree. You want me to retrieve her?”

Cupid nods. “Then tell her to find the next Sim and get to the center of the labyrinth—that’s where the exit lays.”

Pandora turns without another word and makes her way through the desolate carnival. I look up at Cupid. “What now?”

“While the others recruit the rest of the Myths, we’re going to get to the center of the labyrinth and face the worst Myth of them all,” he says. “We’re going to face the Minotaur.”