Monsters in a Maze — The Icarus Writing Collective

By Heather Meatherall

Ask Icarus and he'll tell you there was more than one monster in that maze.

There was the obvious one, of course. The half-man half-bull, with hooves and horns and a horrible roar Icarus would remember for as long as he lived. There were no timepieces in the maze, but you could still tell time by the sun and sounds of screams that marked the monster’s meals.

The other was less noticeable. An older man, with a graying beard and blue eyes that went from kind to cruel in the time it takes two boys to kiss. Icarus could still see the way his father had looked at him when he’d caught the two embracing, could still hear the threats he’d made after Apollo had fled back to the sky. He wasn't sure if Daedalus knew who the golden-haired boy really was, but he wasn't sure it mattered. There wasn't much that scared his father.

Some nights Icarus wondered if Daedalus mourned him. He'd certainly screamed loud enough when he'd fallen into the sea, to anyone else they might have sounded like the screams of a father losing his only son. But Icarus had watched him fly away, not even bothering to look back and see if he'd surfaced. It hurt a little, to know his only blood family wanted nothing to do with him. But Icarus knew a monster when he saw one, when he heard it, and the love of a monster wasn't one he was willing to fight for.

Heather Meatherall (she/her) is a poet and writer from Canada. She finds a lot of inspiration from quotes, music, and nature. Her work has been published in magazines such as Poetry Undressed and Mythos Magazine. Heather is currently studying Computer Science at Ontario Tech University. You can find her on Instagram under the handle @heathermeatspoetry.