I sip ill, pop pills, crack seals

Cinder fumed as she stormed down the corridor. She wasn’t running anymore, having at least calmed down that much, but she was far from content.

Whatever Vivian had said to Ella had enraged her alter so much that Cinder had practically been **** to take over- and the negative feelings she held for the heiress had been amplified even more.

“Fucking waste of space,” she growled, balling up her hands into fists. She was picking up the pace without even realizing it. “Next time I see her, I’m going to-!”

She couldn’t even put her feelings into words, because if she was being honest with herself, she knew what she was going to do next time she saw the other woman.

Nothing.

That was the worst of it. As angry as Cinder was, as much as she wanted to hurt Vivian, she couldn’t do anything to her. All she could use were her words. That wasn’t enough to protect Ella from… …Whatever it was that had upset her!

Cinder could still see the other woman’s pained face. The wounded expression she made as she looked at her, as she took the **** Cinder had thrown at her without raising any objections.

She was on the brink of tears, huh…?

…Cinder didn’t feel bad. Why would Cinder feel bad?! The bitch had it coming! She deserved it! Saying that stuff, trying to provoke Ella… sure, Cinder didn’t know what exactly she had said specifically, but it had to be pretty bad for Ella to be as miserable as she was right now!

A miserable feeling that was reflected in Cinder’s own heart.

Sighing, Cinder came to a stop and dug her nails into her palm. She glanced down at the rubber-band wrapped around her wrist. Right, of course. Whenever Ella got upset and found it difficult to cope with the overwhelming emotions she was feeling, whenever she felt the pressure of Cinder bearing down on her, she would snap her rubber-band and that would somehow make her feel better.

Cinder thought that was the stupidest thing in the world. And yet, she found her fingers inexplicably drawn to the rubber-band, almost like…

A shuffling sound from behind Cinder made her jump. She whirled around in a panic, eyes wide and frenzied.

Vivian?! No, impossible! I left her behind four or five turns ago! There’s no way she would have been able to catch up with me! Cinder reasoned. And yet, she heard the distinct sound of footsteps.

The last thing she wanted was to run into anyone in this state. But there weren’t any side corridors she could duck behind.

Grinding her teeth together in frustration Cinder turned on her heel again and darted down the corridor, trying to put some distance between herself and whoever was following her.

She turned a corner and found herself facing a large glass door. It was fogged up from steam and she couldn’t see through it, but it was the only path forward. So without thinking twice she swung the door open and stepped inside, and was immediately greeted by a blast of hot, muggy air right in the face.

Cinder almost gagged.

“Fuck!” She cursed, fanning herself. “Fucking heat… FUCK! This is worse than the fucking island!”

Cinder was learned enough to know what “humidity” was, but she was currently bathing in it, much to her chagrin. Shaking her head in irritation she wiped here bangs from her forehead (they were already starting to stick and she’d only been in this place a few seconds!) and stormed forward.

The reason for the heavy humidity would have been obvious if Cinder had taken a second to look at her surroundings, but she didn’t care about that sort of thing. Oh, she wasn’t blind, so she knew that she was in a twisted greenhouse, surrounded by large flowering plants, but that didn’t mean she had to care about any of it.

She walked through the grass, maneuvering around as best she could as she kept her eyes open, trying to spot an exit. It was hard to see through the lush plantlife, and the sunlight beaming right into her eyes wasn’t helping matters, either. How was it even so bright and sunny? Wasn’t she supposed to be underground!?

Scowling, Cinder rubbed at her eyes and tried to get a better look. But she wasn’t seeing a path forward. All she could do was just keep walking, and hope she found an exit sooner or later.

She took a step forward, and suddenly a large flower reared up in front of her. It bobbed up and down like a sentient being, some living tentacle, and its petals spread wide. Cinder’s heart dropped in her chest. She had just enough time to process what she was seeing to remember when she’d gotten tangled up in that web of vines.

Just enough time to regret as a cloud of pollen was sprayed in her face, making her sneeze. She stumbled backwards as her body began to heat up, and she clawed frantically at her eyes.

“Shit!” She cursed as the pollen did its work. “FUCK!”

---

While Cinder tried to fend off the plants, two other girls were busy dealing with some sensations of their own that were plaguing their bodies. Dani and Morgana both struggled to catch their breath, looking at each other through the heat of the aphrodisiacs.

Morgana could see the desire in the older woman’s eyes. Dani never looked at her like that under normal circumstances, she wasn’t that sort of woman. But now, having been bathed with aphrodisiacs, the tomboy’s heart was racing.

Morgana could actually hear it. Or was that her own heart, pounding loudly in her chest? She wasn’t quite sure.

What she did know, though, was that the feelings she was having didn’t belong to her. They were brought on by the aphrodisiacs! She wasn’t… wasn’t the kind of woman to be having these thoughts… about DANI of all people!

The last time Morgana had thoughts like that about Dani, it hadn’t gone well for her.

“D-Dani…” Morgana whimpered out, looking at the other woman with tired eyes.

“Morgana…” Dani bit her lip, not sure what to say. The two of them stared tensely at one another, hearts pounding.

It didn’t help that the two of them had just spend an indefinable amount of minutes orgasming in front of one another. That was just another reason for the burning shame searing in Morgana’s breast right now.

The flustered goth shook her head, trying to banish those thoughts from her mind. She staggered to her feet, panting.

“We… we need to get out of here,” she gulped, finally thinking clearly. “If we keep staying around here, then- then we’re just going to keep cumming our brains out…”

Morgana needed her brains! Especially if she wanted any chance of getting through this challenge! She couldn’t back down now!

“Yeah- you’re right,” Dani mumbled in agreement. Her head was a blur of intense emotions and she was trying really hard not to lust after the woman in front of her. But it wasn’t going well. Her heart raced every time she looked at Morgana’s generous curves!

But she needed to calm down. She wasn’t the kind of woman to be ruled by her emotions, damn it! She could think for herself, and fight her urges!

So even though it seemed like a herculean task, Dani managed to pick herself up off the ground as well, and dust off her raunchy clothes, and look Morgana in the eye.

The two women needed to cool off somehow.

So Dani decided that the best thing she could do was run.

Morgana blanched when she saw the tomboy take off. Was Dani deserting her or something!? “D-Dani!” She wailed, chasing after the other woman on unsteady legs. Her heart was pounding for a different reason now, out of fear. “Come back! Don’t- don’t LEAVE me here!”

Dani skidded to a stop and turned back to face Morgana, wiping her bangs out of her face. “Sorry!” She called, waving over at the girl. “I’m not leaving!” She could see now how Morgana could have gotten that impression. “But when I’m really worked up, sometimes it helps me to just sweat it off, you know? With some good, old-fashioned exercise. So I thought, well…”

Dani shrugged. She knew that as far as Morgana was concerned, “exercise” may as well have been a curse word. And not the fun kind of curse that Morgana liked, either.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Dani added with an awkward look.

Morgana gulped. “M-maybe… maybe it’ll work,” she said hesitantly. As much as she hated exercising, she would do anything if it meant burning away this excess energy that was roiling in her gut.

If that meant running? Well… she would do her best!

Dani, noticing the gleam in Morgana’s eyes, flashed a smile. “Alright then!” She gave the goth girl an encouraging thumbs-up. “Let’s go! Try your best!”

As soon as Morgana started running she was certain that she’d made a mistake. All those terrible memories from P.E. classes that she’d failed to skip flashed back to her, and she felt her legs morph into jelly. But she pushed forward, wobbling towards Dani in shaky strides that made her breasts bounce in her robes.

This was better than being gassed with aphrodisiacs and having a body heat that she couldn’t control. But not MUCH better.

Dani was there the whole way though to encourage her, telling Morgana to try her best. And that actually helped! Morgana could feel the burden on her body lessen as Dani gave her encouragement.

She almost smiled, even.

That lasted all of three minutes.

“Dani… hah… can’t… I… can’t… run… anymore… breath… killing… ****… misery… despair…” Morgana’s brain was swirling as the adrenaline rush that she absolutely should have been feeling failed to kick in. She just felt miserable. Breathing was agony for her… only she couldn’t even do THAT.

She was going to collapse as the muscles in her legs burned with agony, and it felt like her body was as stiff as an elderly woman afflicted with arthritis.

In summary- she was not having a very good time.

Dani, of course, wasn’t even winded. She looked at Morgana’s miserable condition and slowed down, going to her aid. “Come on,” she said gently to the goth girl, helping her as best she could. She was still wary of touching Morgana given the other woman’s condition. “Let’s take a breath, alright…?”

“R-right…” Morgana wheezed, trying to breathe. The fact that she wasn’t running anymore should have made her feel better, but it very much did not.

It would be TEN minutes before she felt like she could move again.

Not exactly the best use of the girls’ time. At this rate, they wouldn’t get anywhere.

While Dani waited for Morgana to recover, she took stock of her own condition. Checking her pulse, she was disheartened to find that it was still racing. Disheartened, but not exactly surprised. She still felt the flush of the aphrodisiac in her system. Probably because in trying to keep pace with Morgana, she had barely even been jogging.

“How are you feeling?” Dani asked gently, hoping that Morgana’s workout had at least purged the aphrodisiacs from her system.

“I feel dead.”

“…Oh.” That wasn’t exactly how Dani had meant it. “But… you’re not aroused or anything? No aphrodisiacs?”

Morgana gulped and shook her head. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get aroused again… nope… I’ll be too dead to do that…”

Dani almost laughed. But if she laughed, Morgana might laugh, and Dani had JUST gotten her breathing normally again.

“…I’m really out of shape… I know…” Morgana looked down pitifully.

“Hey, no, don’t say that,” Dani said gently, trying to comfort the other girl. “You-you were just, um… …You made it a whole five minutes! That’s not nothing! Five minutes of jogging, that’s… yeah!”

Morgana raised her head and gave Dani a wounded look. “…I was running at full speed,” she mumbled.

Dani winced. Running at full speed, and she was THAT slow? Ouch. No wonder Morgana looked like someone had kicked her when she was down, Dani’s attempt to comfort her must have sounded as patronizing as she feared it would.

“Well… then, no wonder you’re out of breath!” Dani pivoted. It was actually more impressive that Morgana had lasted five minutes in an open sprint, even if she was so slow. “That’s a really good workout!”

Morgana didn’t look like she believed the other girl. Dani was probably just saying that to make her feel better… “…Really?”

Dani bobbed her head up and down. “Trust me, you have nothing to be ashamed of! When I started out with Kim, it took her a while to get to where she is now. You can join us sometime, maybe!”

Morgana looked like she would rather do literally anything else.

“…Did Kim also feel like she was going to puke?” Morgana asked.

“Yes,” Dani answered without hesitation.

In response, Morgana did just that.

“…Blegh…” Her face ablaze and her heart aflame, Morgana felt like Dani might as well strike a match and make it official- she was done like dinner.

“Morgana, if you want me to carry you, I will,” Dani said gently.

Morgana shook her head adamantly. No, she did not want that, in fact! Emphatically not!

…She wanted to complete this challenge under her own power. And that meant NOT relying on Dani to literally carry her through it.

Sure, Morgana felt like she was going to die, but she still had her pride!

“I can keep going,” Morgana said, cradling her side. It didn’t hurt to breathe anymore, which was good. She took a shaky step forward and smiled at Dani. “See?”

Dani nodded hesitantly. Morgana could certainly have looked worse for a girl who had just barfed all over the maze, but she still looked exhausted and dehydrated. And that wasn’t good.

“Maybe we can find somewhere else we can rest,” Dani decided as she followed Morgana down the path. “The aphrodisiac is still getting me a little worked up, you know?”

“What, you didn’t sweat it out all over your clothes like I did?” Morgana snidely remarked, tugging at her drenched collar.

Dani sputtered out a giggle. “Well, if you can joke, then you’re probably doing okay,” she judged, earning her a smile from the goth.

The two girls kept going, and Morgana felt her strength returning bit by bit. But after all that running, she was getting SO thirsty! (Vomiting certainly hadn’t helped either.)

Then the two girls came across another chamber, one that practically had a neon sign flashing “REST AREA” for everyone to see.

It was like a small indoor garden. A circular field of flowers and grass ringed a pristine blue spring, the water so clear it nearly shimmered. …No, wait, as the girls got closer they saw cracks in the ceiling, with beams of light streaming through that literally bathed it in a heavenly glow.

“…Yeah, this is a trap, right?” Dani shook her head. “This is SO OBVIOUSLY a trap.”

Morgana swallowed. She knew Dani was right, but at the same time, she was REALLY thirsty.

As they reached the lakebed, she crouched down in the grass and cupped a palm of water to drink.

Dani grabbed her wrist before she could.

“Are you crazy!?” She exclaimed. “You’re just going to drink the water?!”

Morgana looked up at her. “Dani, I just got dosed with aphrodisiacs,” she pointed out. “They’re still making me pretty horny, even if I’ve worked through most of the effects. What’s the water going to do that’ll be worse than that?”

Dani paused, and then gave the other girl a begrudging nod. She had to admit- Morgana raised a valid point.

Vindicated, Morgana turned back to the spring and this time sampled the water directly.

It was delicious! Somehow, Morgana could feel it slide past her tongue, all the way down into her throat, and into her stomach, where it swiftly spread through the rest of her body, easing every aching muscle it passed.

She couldn’t help it- she needed more! So she leaned over and scooped up another big handful, then two more.

Dani watched reluctantly as Morgana drank her fill, and she had to admit- she was feeling a little parched herself. Maybe the spring water might even help with the aphrodisiacs. But before Dani could get a chance to try some…

“Waaaaah!” Morgana’s legs gave out, and she pitched forward.

“SPLASH!”

Dani went white. “Morgana!” She lunged forward seconds too late to grab her friend as Morgana plunged into the drink. Waiting anxiously on the edge of the lake, Dani scoured the surface for any sign of her friend.

But as clear as the water was, somehow, Morgana was nowhere to be seen.

“MORGANA!”

Dani’s heart raced with fear and doubt. Whatever trace of aphrodisiac remained in her system had been burned away by the rush of adrenaline as her heart beat a mile a minute, and she swatted at the water as if she could somehow **** it to spit Morgana back out.

But when the water started glowing she stumbled backwards, eyes wide with terror.

With barely a rippled, a shimmering figure emerged from the center of the spring.

Dani’s heart leapt up into her chest as she let out a sigh of relief, recognizing the figure immediately. It wasn’t Morgana, but…

“Serenity?” Dani breathed, looking at the shimmering siren. “I- …D-did Morgana-?”

“I am the spirit of the spring.” Serenity spoke each word like it had to be pried out of her with a crowbar. “Greetings, weary traveler.”

Dani looked at her, wondering what the theatrical voice was for. “…Huh?”

Serenity coughed. “Sorry, um… what was the line again… …Right.” She cleared her throat. “Tell me… which was it that you dropped into the spring?”

Two shapes emerged from the water. Two slumbering girls that made Dani’s jaw drop.

“Was it this golden Morgana?” Serenity asked, rolling her eyes and gesturing at a carbon copy of Morgana but bathed in gold. “Or was it this silver Morgana?”

Which Morgana did Dani drop into the spring?

https://strawpoll.com/Dwyo38v2kyA

Who should get an advantage, Carly or Gina?

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Who should get an advantage, Vivian or Sylvia?

https://strawpoll.com/eJnvVJBj4nv