Stuck in a maze, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Dani had no idea how to process the surge of stimulus slamming into her as she shot down the chute. It wasn’t a sharp drop like she’d anticipated, no- it felt more like a tunnel slide, jerking her down curves and slowly smoothing out, to the point where she was almost lying on her back instead of actually falling. And all the while, she found herself surrounded by darkness, with the occasional flicker of shape or color passing by too quickly for her to get a good look.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

One thing she was sure of, though- Morgana’s nails were digging tightly into her arm. Not tight enough to hurt, but just enough to serve as a reminder that her gothic companion was present. Not to mention, the loud screaming echoing through the chute. Was that Morgana’s voice wrecking her eardrums? Almost certainly.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Another sharp jolt in the tunnel sent Dani and Morgana careening in another direction. And just when the tight, claustrophobic space of the chute pressing in on all sides became too much to bear, a rush of air slammed Dani in the face. Although her surroundings were still pitch black, there was an openness around her now, like the feeling you get when a water slide ends and you’re catapulted out into the pool.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Only Dani was still on the slide. The only thing that changed was that she finally had fresh air to breathe. But when she tried, she found that her mouth was occupied doing something else.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Oh. So that’s where the screaming is coming from.

Dani slammed her mouth shut so hard she could feel her teeth rattling. She swallowed, taking a big gulp of air, and exhaled, calming herself down.

Silence. Either Morgana had much more composure than Dani gave her credit for, or the poor girl had passed right out.

Now that it was quiet, Dani could finally think. She was still falling- no, not falling now, sliding was more accurate. She had no idea how fast she was actually going, either- with nothing to ground her vision, it all just seemed like a blur. But judging by how her feathery hair was whipping in the wind, she had to be going pretty fast.

Straining to sit up (she was on a slide, after all) Dani didn’t feel as much drag as she expected. And she also found out something else as well. At some point when she was falling, the chute beneath her had widened as well. Instead of tightly pressing her curvy figure in, it was now so wide of a slide that there was nothing to hold onto! (Except a pale goth, of course…)

Realizing that fact made her heart sink in her chest. If she didn’t maintain her balance properly, she might just end up spinning ass over tits and smash her head clean open! Yeah, no thank you on that one!

Of course, the rational part of Dani’s brain would have told her that Dakota wasn’t about to let that happen. But that part wasn’t really active at the moment, with how much adrenaline her heart was pumping through her body.

Then she heard it. It was faint, far off in the distance, but… it was definitely a scream!

Ella! She realized, her eyes widening. That’s Ella screaming!

That told Dani two things. One, that she was on the right track, going after Ella like that, reckless as it was. And two, that even though Ella was falling the same way she was, it apparently wasn’t enough to bring Cinder out.

Not sure what to do with that information, Dani barely had time to think about it as the slide beneath her shifted again, and she felt her direction change. She squinted ahead and was just barely able to make out what looked to be a fork in the road! It was almost impossible to see in the darkness but it was definitely there, a split in the path coming up fast- she only had seconds to make a choice!

Which way did Ella go!? Right? Or left!?

Dani had no way of knowing so she just went with her gut, yanking her body to the right and using that momentum to carry her down one of the paths. As she shot past the lip of the tunnel, she strained her head back, giving one last longing look into the darkness behind her.

Is this the way Ella went? She asked herself, right before the slide gave out underneath her and she plummeted into the darkness once more.

“…UGH!” Dani landed hard on something soft. It was a rough landing, but not a landing that actually hurt. She’d missed the center of the big fluffy pile of pillows, though, and landed on a smaller pile instead, one that comforted her well enough.

But as she picked herself up off the silk-carpeted floor and looked at Morgana’s passed out form nestled nice and comfy in the middle of the pile, she couldn’t help but find it a little unfair.

A second later, Morgana’s hat dropped down from the gap in the ceiling above, drifting gently down to the top of her head like a falling leaf.

Dani sighed and rolled her eyes. Someone had clearly voted for Morgana to get something good, that was for sure. Even if the other girl was too **** to appreciate it.

Looking around, Dani tried to survey her surroundings. The room she was in felt weirdly spacious for what was meant to be a maze, kind of like the comfy room she’d started this challenge in. Even more odd, the whole chamber was doused in a deep red light. It gave her an odd feeling, like she was in a spy movie or a rave or something.

Through the weird lighting, Dani could make out a sign hanging from the wall.

APHRODISIAC SAUNA

Bad memories flooded Dani’s head and she groaned in frustration. “Ah, shit!”

Will anyone find them before the aphrodisiacs kick in?

https://strawpoll.com/e6Z2ALp9XgN

Ella’s slide came to a stop as well. She screamed and screamed and screamed until her voice went hoarse, her voice mixing together with the air rushing over her body.

CINDER! Where are you!? She silently cried to her other self. You’re supposed to be protecting me from stuff like this!

But Cinder refused to emerge, much to Ella’s chagrin.

At some point she bumped into something that may have been a fork in the road, she couldn’t be sure. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

Then all of a sudden she stopped sliding, and she found herself weightless, plummeting through the air. With a cry her eyes snapped open, and she had just enough time to register the face of the person she was about to land on top of.

Vivian!?

The two girls collided and Ella saw stars. The first thing she noticed when the world stopped spinning was Vivian’s panicked face looking down at her.

“Ella! Hey! Are you okay!?” The heiress cried, shaking the dazed girl by the shoulders.

“Eh… I… am I… …AH!” Ella gasped in shock and staggered to her feet, breaking free from Vivian’s grasp. “Vivian, what the hell!?” She swung her head around frantically. “How did I get here!?”

“That’s what I want to know!” Vivian sighed in relief, glad the other girl seemed to be okay. “I was just minding my business trying to get through the maze, when all of a sudden you come falling out of the sky like a bloody meteorite! Geez!”

Her beaming smile stood in stark contrast to the tone of her voice. However she might have sounded, she was clearly happy that Ella had dropped in on her for whatever reason.

As for Ella… she regarded the other girl with hesitant suspicion.

Ella and Vivian… they didn’t get along. It wasn’t as if Vivian had done anything to the latina per se… but the way she acted… how she drew everyone’s attention to herself… Ella wasn’t a big fan.

And then there was all that stuff with Cinder, too… and what happened in the last challenge…

Needless to say, their relationship was complicated.

But Vivian didn’t seem to care about that one bit.

“This is great, because I just got separated from the others, too!” Vivian gushed. “I was just thinking about how much I wished someone would drop in on me, and here you are!”

She flashed Ella a toothy smile. “Isn’t that great?”

“Uh-huh…” Ella mumbled, not sure what the other girl expected her to say. “Pretty great…”

She glanced furtively down the corridor. It was well-lit with large torches lining the walls, and seemed to stretch on for miles… not a great sign. And Dani and Morgana were nowhere to be seen!

I hope they managed to avoid the pitfall, Ella thought, biting her lip. She wished the two of them could be with her right now, but it was good enough if they were safe. Then again, she could have sworn she’d heard Dani’s screams…

Ella didn’t want to think about that. Or about what Vivian had said before, about…

“…Wait, you were with the others? Who!?” Ella was a little slow on the uptake, but she managed to register what Vivian had said before. She looked frantically at the heiress.

Vivian blinked, not sure what to say for a moment. “Well, I mean… yeah, I was,” she nodded. “Not, like, everybody, but I was with Kim, and Gina, and Rose… and Amy too, of course. Plus Sylvia, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin… …Oh, and get this! Holly’s in the challenge now, somehow! But we all got separated. This huge tree-thing just shot up out of the ground and split our room up, and, well, I took the only door I could take outta that place,” Vivian explained, much to Ella’s shock.

“Seriously?!” Ella’s eyes bulged out in surprise. How much had she missed!?

“I was hoping I’d be able to run into one of the others, but you’re just swell too!” Vivian chirped. “…Why’re you giving me that look?”

“No, it-it’s nothing,” Ella said, shaking her head. “I’m just surprised is all…”

Vivian laughed. “Haven’t even gotten to the best part! So there was this doll, Lynette, carrying these giant scissors, and, well…”

Vivian gave Ella the rundown of everything that happened. By the time she was done, Ella didn’t even know what to think. She was just glad she’d managed to stay far away from all that stuff.

“That… that’s really… …Wow,” Ella said, shaking her head.

“What about you?” Vivian asked. “What have you been getting up to? Because that outfit…”

She glanced at the tight leather bondage gear wrapped around Ella’s slender figure.

“…It’s not exactly your style,” Vivian said as politely as she could, not wanting to hurt Ella’s feelings.

Like Ella would be bothered by THAT of all things! Ha!

Ella sniffed and shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s not like I’m wearing this because I want to be!” She snapped. “The audience **** me into this costume! I was perfectly fine wearing my old clothes!”

Vivian whistled, impressed by the fire in Ella’s voice. Everybody usually regarded her as a shy little waifish wallflower, but Vivian knew from experience that she could be dangerously passionate when she wanted to be. One moment in particular really stood out to her…

…But more importantly, the other girl had said something that caught Vivian’s ear. “Wait, what’s this now?” She asked. “Are you saying that the audience can vote on giving you clothes!? That’s no fair! I’d love an outfit change right now, it sounds like fun!”

Ella looked at the other girl in shock. They were stuck in a maze and Vivian had been imprisoned by a crazy scissor-wielding doll, and all she could think about was her wardrobe!? What was the matter with her?

Luckily for Vivian, the audience was happy to grant her wish.

What new outfit should Vivian be given?

https://strawpoll.com/e6Z2ALpw5gN

On the subject of Little Lynette, she was still firmly in the hands of one Sylvia River.

And she was none too happy about it.

“Put me down, you!” The doll demanded. “This is so undignified!”

“I have to carry you,” Sylvia protested as she walked down the hall with Lynette in one hand and her reclaimed flashlight in the other, not that she needed it with how well-lit the hallway was. “It’s not like you can walk on your own.”

“Shishishishi! And it’s a good thing for you that I can’t, otherwise I would stab you so hard-!” Lynette growled at her. She would gnash her teeth, if she had any! …Or if her mouth could even open.

How she was able to talk at all was completely beyond both girls’ understanding.

“Well, stab me if you can,” Sylvia muttered, rolling her eyes. “But I’m not leaving you alone. Okay? I’m not going to do that, Lynette.”

Sylvia knew what it was like to feel abandoned and unloved. She wasn’t about to do that to her sort-of-sister, no matter how unhinged the doll was.

Besides, she was made out of fabric. What would she even be able to do?

“…If you’re expecting me to thank you, I won’t,” Lynette promised her “sister” with a snarl. She glared at Sylvia. “I won’t, I won’t, I won’t. I will never, never, never forgive you for trying to take Mommy away from me…”

Sylvia sighed. “That… wasn’t ever what I wanted to do,” she said quietly. “I didn’t even know about you, Lynette.”

If she expected that to make the doll girl feel better, it didn’t.

“Well… now you do.” Lynette’s words came out cold and harsh. Sylvia winced at them. Then she sighed again.

“I’m bringing you back to Dakota,” Sylvia promised her. “Once that’s done, you two can work out your drama yourselves, alright?”

Lynette didn’t respond. Like a petulant child, she was flexing whatever power she had over the other girl. Even if that was only something as basic as not talking to her.

“…It appears we have been separated from the others.” Amelia adjusted her glasses while trying to cover herself with what remained of her clothes, and stated the obvious. She was doing that more now, overexplaining, to try and keep from her well-established issue of not saying everything she meant.

The woman she had ended up with due to the placement of the roots had no such problem.

“Don’t worry, Amelia! Leave it to me!” Rose proclaimed, puffing out her chest with pride. “Your diligent daughter-in-law will gladly help you!”

Amelia stared blankly at her. “…Excuse me?”

“Well, it’s not official yet,” Rose admitted, scratching her cheek sheepishly. “But Nick’s going to propose to me any second now, I know it! He’s just shy. Ooooh, I can’t wait!”

That was certainly news to Amelia. “So you’re seriously intending to marry Nicholas?” She asked incredulously.

Under normal circumstances, Amelia would have never asked an intrusive question like that. Certainly not in a situation like this, where there were more important things to prioritize, like finding their way out of this labyrinth.

Which just went to show how stunned she was by Rose’s proclamation.

“Of course I am,” Rose said without hesitation. “I love him, and he loves me. Why shouldn’t we get married?”

“He already has a wife,” Amelia replied, once again stating the obvious.

Rose pursed her lips, then stopped herself before her expression morphed into a full-on scowl. “…Yeah, well… so what?” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Does the fact that he married that dumb Mary first mean that I can’t be with him?”

Under normal circumstances, absolutely. But Amelia conceded that this show was anything but normal.

“…My apologies,” she said. “Given your… attitude, Rose, I had assumed… that your feelings towards my stepson lacked in… sincerity.” She used more effort than she normally did to explain her thoughts to the younger woman, going so far as to overexplain, in her own opinion.

She didn’t want Rose to misunderstand her or think poorly of her, even as she apologized for making a mistake.

“If you’re truly determined to make Nicholas happy, then I will support you,” Amelia assured the other woman.

Rose practically burst into tears. She’d spent the first round Amelia was here trying to butter the older woman up, but to no avail- and after that disastrous challenge where she’d eliminated Amelia first, she’d figured that was it, and that would be the end of their relationship.

She never imagined that Amelia would actually acknowledge her like this! Not after everything that happened.

“Ameliaaaaaa!” Rose threw her arms around Amelia and pulled her into a tight hug. It was a good thing she couldn’t cause any injuries thanks to the rules of Harem Hotel, or she might have broken some ribs there!

“Yes… well, thank you for your… candor,” Amelia muttered, finding herself a little flustered. As much as she disliked the way Rose comported herself with others, she still felt like the woman was another daughter to her.

Perhaps this conflicting feeling of adoration and frustration is similar to the feelings Nicholas has for her, she considered.

“Alright! Time to get ready for action!” Rose let go of Amelia and cracked her knuckles. “So we’ve been separated from the others with this wall of roots, and there’s only one way out! So what? I can take this wall down and we can all join up again! Not a problem!” She boasted.

With Dani’s superhuman strength, she could do anything!

…Well, almost anything.

As Rose quickly found out, breaking through the wall of roots was one of those things that she couldn’t do. They refused to even budge.

Same with the floor. And the other walls.

Someone had Rose-proofed (or Dani-proofed) this room, and every second Rose tried to do something about it, the more foolish she looked.

“…Well… hehe… so much for that,” she said sheepishly, scratching her head. “Sorry, Amelia… guess I goofed.”

“It is quite alright,” Amelia gently assured her. “Come. We may not be able to reunite with the others, but we are certainly capable of continuing this maze ourselves, no?”

And with that, Amelia turned towards the only exit available to them.

“PLAP!”

She froze in place, her cheeks flushing as the sound of her other cheeks clapping together filled the chamber.

Rose awkwardly cleared her throat. “Right, uh… c-coming!”

Aww, how sweet! What should Rose be given to celebrate the burgeoning relationship that’s developing with Amelia?

https://strawpoll.com/1MnwkmDrjn7