Chapter Twelve

+If you want to get out live
Run for your life+
+If you want to get out alive
Run for your life+

It had been three days since Ash and I agreed to Elizabeth joining us on our quest to find the exit of the labyrinth. She stayed closer to Ash and didn't really speak with me much. I don't know whether to be annoyed or fine with that. I found it strange though, that during those three days, we didn't run into any monsters, nor did we hear people screaming- which didn't seem… normal. The only sound I've heard recently was the sounds of our voices, and I found that to be strangely unsettling.

The maze's design now was a thick forest, with the dirt roads as guidance; we couldn't see past the trees. My guess was that it was nighttime, because of how dark it was.

We ended up taking a right turn instead of going straight ahead and it brought us in a u-turn, then our only other option was to turn left. When we did, there was something wrong. The trees have gone white, as if they were mummified.

"Woah! What happened here?" asked Ash as he furrowed his eyebrows together. I couldn't answer him. The only thing I did understand from this, was that the labyrinth had something in store for us.

Elizabeth decided to approach the mummified trees with a slow step. While she inspected the trees, I saw a spider about the size of my foot crawl across the path. I kind of just stared at it while it crawled across the path. Yes, I was afraid of spiders, but it wasn't close enough for me to react to it.

I did find it interesting though, that spiders got that big. Where I'm from, they get only about as big as your thumb, max.

I refocused my attention on Elizabeth who had started getting up from her crouching position. "I don't know guys, it kind of looks like a web to me. But how can spiders live in this environment? It doesn't make sense."

I felt the need to look around. It could have very well been a spider, but knowing the craziness that the labyrinth has put before us in the past, I wouldn't put it past it to be something else. While scanning the area, I decided to look up and realized too soon afterwards how much of a mistake it had been; and how much trouble we could be in.

We were domed in by spider's web. And not only that, there were many spiders; big ones, sitting on their web, waiting to catch unsuspecting prey, or hanging on their strings.

"Uh, guys…"

They both turned towards me and I tried hard not to panic. I pointed my index finger subtly towards the sky. They both lifted their chins.

"Oh my God," Elizabeth said cupping her hand over her mouth. Ash's eyes widen in shock. So many daddy long legs hanging upside down, at least 20 times their original size, while spiders with bigger bodies were sitting on top of the webs or walking across them.

We all silently decided to, slowly, cautiously, get ourselves out of there. We did so by taking slow steps turning occasionally to make sure none of the spiders were following us out.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of a tight string being let go from being pulled, and then someone fall. When I turned around, Elizabeth was down, and in back of her was a thick white string. When I followed it connected to, I realized we were in trouble.

"Ash," I said in a shaky voice. This was bad. "We need to run… now."

I remembered in science class, while we were learning about insects, the teacher had brought up how spiders catch their prey. Even though spiders have six eyes, their vision isn't very good, so they rely on the vibrations of the web strings to know when dinner walked through their front door.

Fortunately, the string Elizabeth had tripped over wasn't very sticky and she was able to pull free with ease. But the spiders nonetheless felt the vibrations. We walked into their trap, and they were quick to pounce.

We, quite simply, were screwed.

We started running, but the spiders were faster and had quickly gained on us.

"This isn't working!" Ash cried out.

"And knowing the labyrinth, these spiders are all poisonous," Elizabeth said. Ash and I both looked at each other; she was probably right.

"Then what do we do?" Ash asked, "It's not exactly like we could climb up a tree to get away, they're spiders."

"We need to fight back," I said. It was the only thing that had made sense. Thinking while sprinting for your life though was not an easy thing to accomplish; thankfully, Ash had spoken for me.

"We could use the thicker branches and whack them!"

I nodded my head.

"We have to gain ground on them first," Elizabeth said. So we all tried hard to run as fast as we could.

As much ground as we gained on the spiders, it still felt like it wasn't enough time. And if we wanted the attack to be effective, it would have to be a pretty big branch. That would take more time to pull apart from the trees.

"We don't have time to fight back!" I said, suddenly opposing my own idea, "we just need to keep running, and quickly."

"Spiders are fast, Dawn. They won't tire as easily as we would," Ash said.

I looked at him hopelessly. What else was there to do?

This was where things started to get weird. We ran out of the section of the webbed cave and the spiders suddenly stopped following us; kind of what happened with the werewolf. Either we just got lucky or the labyrinth is on our side, and that boggles my mind.

I looked at Ash and Elizabeth and hoped that they knew something that I didn't.

"Maybe they can't leave their sector?" Elizabeth shot out.

"That doesn't make sense," Ash started quietly before speaking up, "if creatures in this labyrinth all have a sector, then we shouldn't have ran into the animorph guy-" I smiled at the reference, " – that Dawn had run into when she first got herself down here. We shouldn't have seen him again… and don't say that we're running in circles, because we aren't. And even if we were, I refuse to believe such things!"

Elizabeth just shrugged. I smirked inwardly at that.

%^&*

"Left or right?" I asked when we reached a fork in the path.

"Who knows what's in store, although I can guarantee you girls that either way, we'll get into trouble. So… when in doubt, go left? Right?" Ash asked comically.

Elizabeth laughed. "I haven't actually heard of that one before," she said, playfully hitting his arm.

I rolled my eyes at the contact and focused my attention on both paths. The left path was brightly lit up as if the sun had been overhead. But while the lit path was comforting, you saw ahead, and there was a lone dirt path stretching on as the eye can see; so that route didn't lead anywhere soon. It made my heart drop knowing the safest looking path wasn't the way to go. The path over to the right, however, was darker than the road we were currently on. In place of the hedges that normally took the stance as the labyrinth walls, it seemed to be glass that was going to separate us from the other possible routes.

Both paths illuminated the way, but the right path did a better job. "I think we should go right."

"You sure?" Ash had asked me. I nodded my head in response.

"Ok."

We walked towards the darkness and into a new setting of glass walls.

*&^%

We've been walking through the glass labyrinth for what seemed like hours. I expected it to be easier to walk through since it was made of glass, but the labyrinth had other plans. I had a feeling Ash was right about taking the left path, but I wasn't going to admit it, and we're definitely not turning back now.

A breeze glided past us and I shivered slightly.

"Guys," Elizabeth started, standing her ground, "where the hell are we going?"

Ash looked at me.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? It's a fucking labyrinth for God's sake," I replied defensively.

"Touch-y," she said back.

I almost let out one of those sarcastic laughs. "Honestly, what the hell Elizabeth. Maybe if you stopped flirting with Ash and started making yourself useful, I wouldn't keep on regretting letting you travel with us and just maybe we'd actually get somewhere!"

Elizabeth's eyes went wide for only a split second before she smirked instead. She said nothing though.

"Dawn, calm down; you are seriously getting worked up over nothing," Ash said putting his hands on my shoulders trying to "calm me down" and putting his unneeded two-cents in.

I looked at him incredulously, then turned around and stalked off the other way.

"Jealous much," I heard Elizabeth say. I just rolled my eyes.

"Come on," I heard Ash say before I started to hear footsteps behind me. I called a silent victory for myself when Ash didn't acknowledge her and smirked inwardly.

About a half hour later, it started to rain.

"Since when can it rain?" I asked aloud.

"Since when does anything normal happen between these walls," Ash replied, and he had a point.

We started running, and the rain started coming down harder. When I looked to my left, I noticed a house, coated in darkness. Nothing was illuminating it except a window at the far end of the house that had light in it; the only reason I noticed its presence. Since I was in front of the group, and the one everyone was following, I decided not to mention the house, and just lead them all to it.

It was hard to get there; the rain started pouring down in sheets of water, the glass was getting foggy and really wet, and then there was the darkness of it all. In all, visibility was very minimal, and I was relying on memory and a small hand in logic to get us to this house.

"Finally!" I said exasperated, when we reached the house; although, it very much looked more like a mansion than a house. It was black in colour, and it looked abandoned, not taken care of. But I knew there was someone inside since there was that room at the far end was illuminated.

"Should we knock?" Elizabeth asked when we got under the sheltered entrance in front of the door. The doors were huge and the door knockers were certainly unique; they were human faces with wide eyes, as for the knockers, the you had to pull down on the jaw so that it would hit the door to knock.

"After you," I responded, my voice clipped. Elizabeth was getting on my last nerve.

But she only nodded at me, took the knocker by the jaw and fiercely knocked twice.

After five minutes of waiting, we were about to camp out on the steps, but someone had finally answered our knocks.

"Did you knock?" asked a weak voice, "the Mistress hadn't had a knock in ages."

We all turned around to see who the voice belonged to.

He was a frail man, and very tall. He wore black clothes and had vibrant green eyes and snow white hair. His long boney fingers wrapper themselves around the outside door handle and opened the door wider.

"Please come in," the man said eagerly, "the Mistress will be so pleased."

I was taken aback by the beauty of the mansions inside. It looked polished and brand new, which was a stellar contrast from the outside frame. It lead me to believe that whoever his mistress was, didn't actually want a knock on her front door.

"If you'll follow me, I'll take you right to her," he said leading the way. We all followed, grateful to be out of the storm outside.

The man led us to these large twin black oak doors. "She's just this way," he said, grasping both door handles and opening them into a much larger room.

I heard myself gasp; I cupped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming.

There was a set in front of us; a ballroom scene. The actual ballroom was the backdrop; it was grand, beautiful, and full of people. These people though, were like dolls for they didn't move nor speak. There were some placed on the dance floor and were held from strings into place; like marionettes. All of these people had cuts starting from the tip of their lips down to the end of their jaws.

"Are these-" Ash started to ask.

"Human?" the man finished for him, "Yes. They all volunteered their lives to the Mistress. Though, their real eyes are gone, they were replaced with glass eyes as to not blink for long periods of time, and their mouths move at the Mistress' command. They are, of course, all a part of her grand doll collection."

"I see," Ash said turning towards me with eyes screaming distrust. We must be on our guard.

As I passed by one of these human dolls, I heard something shift. I turned around and saw one of the chairs at the table had shifted and the girl sitting on it was looking straight at me. She had black hair with a white elaborate bow in her hair and a long faded blue dress.

I looked at her curiously before I heard Ash call my name. I gave the girl one more look over before I followed Ash's voice to where they were.

The closer we got to the next set of double doors, the "fresher" these doll-people were. Small pools of blood were found underneath their feet, and their shirts were soaked from the cut along their jaw, and probably a few other cuts at their torsos.

"Sorry about the mess," the man croaked, "didn't finish cleaning it all."

"What is this place?" Elizabeth asked.

"It is called the Marionette Manor."

"Three guesses as to where it found its name," Ash asked sarcastically.

Instead of leading us through the double doors, like I had thought, there was a narrow hallway in a poorly lit section of the ballroom. It was to the right of the tall brown wooden doors.

We stopped before the hallway. The light from the ballroom provided no help as to where the end of the hallway would drop us off, and the mystery of it all was unsettling.

"In you go. I'll meet you there in a bit," he said, wearing a smile on his face.

Ash was the last person to walk into the hallway, and when we started walking forward, we heard a bang from behind us.

Things only got more unsettling when I turned around to lit ballroom only to see darkness.

Author's Note: So, I did keep my longer chapter promise, since this is the longest chapter I've ever written for this story. I got a writer's kick after watching As Above, So Below. Anyway, I split this chapter into two because I had a thought that ran really long, so I'm just gonna put that in another chapter. Honestly, if I make you guys wait this long again, I should give up :P. Reason for length in time: Hundred book challenge actually. (Read 100 books in a year). Next chapter won't take this long.

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PorcelainDollxx