I chase thrills, you still crashin' Hot Wheels

Jess smiled cheerfully at her fellow blondes. “Now, as I said before, thank you very much for freeing me from that treasure chest,” she said, pressing her hands together and lowering her head in a bow of gratitude. Rose couldn’t help but notice the way her fox ears twitched with her movements.

Cute.

The fox girl stood up straight. “Now! As your reward, please, allow me to guide you both a substantial portion of the way through the labyrinth!” She proposed. “Unlike the map, which changes on the whim of the host, I can assure you that my path will be consistent and should provide a great advantage to you both!”

“Really!?” Rose’s eyes widened in surprise. If she was telling the truth…

“That would be a considerable boon,” Amelia noted. “No catch?”

Jess shook her head. “The audience voted to give a treasure chest reward, after all,” she pointed out. “That’s why you arrived at this room in the first place! And the reward is myself! …If you’ll have me, of course,” she added, shyly playing with her fingers. “I mean… I can understand why you might not have faith in my abilities… after all, I can only do so much on my own… but mistress says I should be more confident… so I just thought…”

Amelia walked over and placed a comforting hand on the fidgeting girl’s shoulder. It was a gesture of respect and appreciation, even if her expression was as cold as ice. She didn’t say a word, but Jess could see it in the other woman’s eyes… Amelia was expressing her gratitude.

She smiled, relaxing a little as she felt the other woman’s comforting words.

“…Then let’s go!” Jess said, turning on her heel and heading towards the exit with a confident strut in her step. Amelia followed behind her without hesitation.

They had just reached the door when Rose cleared her throat.

“Ahem?”

Amelia and Jess both turned to the other woman. Jess’s brow furrowed with confusion.

“Um… aren’t you gonna come?” She asked hesitantly.

Rose nodded. “Well of course,” she replied. “But aren’t we forgetting something important here?”

She pointed to the third treasure chest.

Jess stared at her, only getting more confused.

Amelia raised her eyebrow. “Rose… are you suggesting…?”

“Well, Jess was in the second treasure chest, and the first one was a mimic, right?” Rose said, counting on her fingers. “But we have no idea what the contents of that one might be! For all we know, it could be an even better reward!”

Jess’s jaw dropped in shock. A better reward than her!? That… could actually be quite a number of things, she had to admit. She closed her mouth quickly and decided not to say anything.

For once, Amelia was the verbose one.

“…Is that a serious proposal?” The older woman narrowed her eyes.

Rose blinked, a little intimidated, but not by much. “Is it such a crazy idea? Knowing Dakota, she’d probably rig the final treasure chest to have some super bonus reward, just in case we decide to leave it!”

Amelia blinked, processing what Rose was saying. So she was proposing that the contents of the treasure chests had not actually been determined ahead of time, but that Dakota switched them depending on which order they were opened? So regardless of their decision, the first chest would always be the mimic, and the second one would be their new fox girl companion, thus luring them into believing that it would be best to leave the final chest untouched, while it actually contained the best reward of all?

That… actually sounds exactly like something Dakota would do, Amelia had to admit, thinking back to the days of “No, that didn’t count” and “Actually, I didn’t want to move my piece there, I wanted to move it here” from when Dakota was young.

The girl had a nasty habit of changing the rules as soon as things didn’t go her way. The more Amelia thought about it, the more it made perfect sense that Dakota would switch around the contents of the treasure chests like some demented shell game.

“…Your idea has some merit to it,” Amelia conceded. “But my answer is still no.”

“What!?” Rose was surprised. Amelia wasn’t an idiot, she had to see that Rose was onto something, and she even admitted that the proposal wasn’t crazy! So why was she saying no!? “Why not?!”

“…Because, if we take your reasoning as fact, then that means Dakota could change the contents of the treasure chest at this very second to set a trap,” Amelia pointed out as clearly and carefully as she could. “Just out of spite.”

Amelia knew their demented host far too well.

Rose pressed her lips together, irritated by how reasonable Amelia’s argument actually sounded, in hindsight.

“…Yeah, well… I don’t think she’d do something like that!” Rose’s stubborn streak reared up, too proud to admit that her first instinct may have been wrong. “I believe that there IS something beneficial in there! Don’t you think so, Jess?”

She turned and looked sharply at the fox girl, who flinched in surprise, not expecting to be addressed.

“What? No! I mean, yes, I mean… what was the question again?” Jess’s eyes spun in her head as she struggled to make sense of the conversation. She had been uneasily listening in on their debate, but she had only been half paying attention.

Rose’s expression softened and she clarified what she was trying to say. “I think that Dakota might have put a reward in this third chest right here,” she explained. “But Amelia said that it might be a booby trap. What do you think?”

Jess bit her lip. She really was just here to guide the girls, not make judgment calls like this. “Um… it’s possible? She’s the host, so…”

She shook her head. “…No, I don’t think she would switch the contents of the treasure chest right now, before you opened it! She’s really twisted, and scary, but for some reason my mistress really likes her, so she can’t be all bad! …I think.”

Rose turned to Amelia with a look of triumph on her face. “See?” She said, trying to hold rein in her smugness to keep from upsetting the woman she really, really wanted to like her. “Jess works for Dakota and she says Dakota would definitely not change the results at the last minute just to screw us over!”

Jess nodded rapidly in agreement.

Amelia didn’t have it in her to argue with the both of them. “…Very well,” she relented. “You may be right.” Perhaps she was letting recent events and Dakota’s questionable behavior color her perception as to the fairness of this challenge.

“Great!” Rose smiled, glad that they were all on the same page. “Now then, Jess, if you could just open that treasure chest, that would be great.”

Jess blinked. She turned her head slowly towards Rose.

“Eh?”

“The treasure chest?” Rose walked over and patted the aged wood. “Could you be a dear and open it, please?”

“HUH!? Why do I have to do it!?” Jess screeched.

“What’s the problem?” Rose put her hands on her hips. “You said it was safe, right?”

“I said it could be safe! That Dakota wouldn’t switch things up on you! But what if there’s actually a booby trap in there!?”

Amelia frowned. “Rose, are you seriously proposing…?”

“She works for the show, so even if there is a trap in there, it won’t be so bad,” Rose pointed out. “Come on, Jess, this is in all of our best interest!”

“Not mine! What do I get out of this?!”

Amelia sighed and removed her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

“Come on, Jess,” Rose said sincerely, placing her hand on the other girl’s shoulder and giving her a doting smile. “Isn’t that what friends are for? Helping each other out without needing something in return?”

Jess’s eyes bulged out of her skull in shock. “Since when were we friends?!”

Rose puffed out her cheeks. “How rude! That’s a really hurtful thing to say, you know?”

Jess wanted to scratch her eyes out. But she wasn’t that kind of person.

She was, unfortunately, the kind of person who folded very easily to pressure.

“…Rrrgh… fine…” she sighed, walking over to the treasure chest. “You did say please, so… I’ll help.”

Besides, Rose’s logic was sound. Dakota was the sort of host who would reward clever thinking like this! And Jess knew with absolute certainty that she wouldn’t change things around for the challenge. No, whatever the contents of the treasure chest were, they were what Dakota had intended to be in there!

She flipped the lid open and a spray of pink gas hit her in the face.

“Uweghg!?” Jess staggered back, waving away the smoky air in front of her. Her tail went wild and her eyes spun around in her head.

Rose watched dispassionately from the sidelines, far out of range of the gas. “…Huh I guess there really was only one reward. Oh well. Never hurts to double check!”

Amelia rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Can we go now?”

“Um… ehem… ehehe…” Jess staggered back over towards them with a dazed expression on her face, her cheeks as pink and shiny as her clothes. She was drenched in sweat and her eyes were glazed over. “Ogay… led’s ged goink…”

Amelia frowned. “…Are you alright?” She asked, concerned for the other girl’s wellbeing.

“Yup! Of course I am!” Jess bobbed her head up and down so fast Amelia feared she might get a nosebleed. “I’m jusht… a little dizzy… but I know the right way still, pretty sure! It’s, um… th-this way?”

She bumped into the wall, taking a step back and grabbing the doorknob. She pushed and pushed, but the door wouldn’t budge. Then she blinked and giggled sheepishly before pulling the door open. “Ehehe… whoopsiedoodles!” She let out a hiccup and stumbled through the doorway.

Amelia slowly turned to look at the mortified Rose. She didn’t say a word, she just stared at the girl in quiet judgment.

Rose looked away, unable to speak up for herself. There was really nothing she could say at this point, she knew what she had done.

“…Sorry.”

Will Jess still be able to lead them in the right direction?

https://strawpoll.com/XmZRQ5Y8mgd

“…So that’s why I think that he shouldn’t have got together with the main heroine, he should have gotten together with his sempai!” Morgana said adamantly, her eyes burning with passionate fire. “They were so good together and he looked up to her so much! But of course, her name was in the title, so she had to win… it’s so dumb! Gawd, this is why I hate it when a series claims to be a harem manga but it doesn’t end in an actual harem, it’s like, what a waste of time!”

“I totally get what you’re saying!” Sylvia nodded enthusiastically. She didn’t really watch those shows so much, even though Sally was constantly recommending them, because Dakota didn’t like her watching “trash” as she called it, but she totally agreed with Morgana! “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Daddy! He can’t just have Mary as his wife, he should marry all of us! …Err, all of you, I mean. I don’t think Daddy and I are meant to be together in that way,” she quickly corrected herself.

Morgana looked sympathetically at the other girl, all while her face burned from Sylvia’s insinuation.

“W-well… I see what you mean,” she murmured, nodding slowly.

“You’re a lot of fun to talk to, Morgana,” Sylvia laughed. “Yep, bringing you on the show when we did was definitely the right decision.”

Morgana smiled bashfully at her. “Um, th-thanks… it’s not often I get to talk about anime with people my age, so…” Well, Sylvia was close enough to her age, anyway. They were both 18, even if it was only a technicality on Sylvia’s part.

“Please kill me. I know I’m a doll, but please, fucking kill me you two lunatics, I can’t stand this.”

Sylvia and Morgana looked down at the Lynette doll in Sylvia’s bag. Her expression was unreadable, but her voice carried the weight of a woman who had given up on life completely.

“Please.”

“…Maybe we should have this talk later,” Sylvia suggested.

Morgana blushed and agreed.

The two girls turned the corner and came upon a new room in the labyrinth. At first glance it seemed spacious, but it was actually quite cramped. Crumbled walls and broken pillars littered the ground, making it look like the room had been the scene of some great disaster. The only things left undamaged were large stone statues standing upright among the rubble; beautiful angels with long wings and curvy figures, elegant hands covering their faces from view.

“Oh, cool!” Sylvia admired the statues with glee.

Morgana stopped breathing.

“Nononononono…” she muttered, trembling like a leaf.

Morgana had had nightmares about this.

“What’s up, my girl?” Sylvia turned around to look at Morgana when she realized that the goth girl hadn’t followed her into the room. Then her eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, why is there a statue behind you now?”

Morgana nearly peed her pajamas. She whirled around, her face pale as ash when she saw a statue looming over her, face covered.

It hadn’t been there a second ago. It had appeared behind her like it had teleported there… or moved so fast that she hadn’t even noticed it.

“Morgana?” Sylvia stepped closer and Morgana whirled around on her heels, face white with panic.

“Sylvia! Stop! Don’t move an inch!” She shouted, and Sylvia froze in place. “Don’t move! Don’t do anything! Just. Stay. Right. There!”

“…Okay? Sheesh. Is the moving statue really that scary?” Sylvia questioned.

“Shishishishi, I think she’s gone insane,” Lynette cackled.

Morgana couldn’t even begin to explain the utter terror of the situation that they’d found themselves in.

“These aren’t ordinary statues,” she said, shaking her head. “Just stare at the statues. Keep your eyes on them! Okay!? You too, Lynette!”

“I don’t have actual eyes,” Lynette dryly replied.

The words came out from Morgana’s lips so fast she couldn’t believe it. But then again, she’d watched this episode so many times, even though it scared the daylights out of her. She could recite the whole speech by heart at this point. “Don’t blink. Don’t even blink! Blink and you’re dead! They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and don’t. Blink.”

Sylvia, feeling like the most rational person in the room for the first time in her life, stared blankly at the other girl, not understanding a word that came out of Morgana’s mouth. “…Okay!? What, look, I don’t get it!”

“The angels!” Morgana’s eyes leapt frantically from statue to statue. Were they closer now? Had that one moved since the last time she looked at it? “If we stop looking at them, they’ll move! They’ll GET us! You can’t stop looking at them! Don’t blink!”

Sylvia blinked. Yup. Definitely crazy.

“My eyes are attached, so I can’t blink,” Lynette unhelpfully pointed out from Sylvia’s pouch.

Morgana was too wracked with terror to even notice the doll’s words. And the more worked up she got, the harder it was to maintain her concentration.

Then she blinked.

The next thing she knew, a stone hand touched her.

And an orgasm like none she’d ever had before shot through her body, nearly knocking her ****.

“This way! We’re going this way, I said so!”

“Inadvisable. This way is more likely.”

The two Morganas stared at each other in the middle of a fork in their path, neither refusing to yield to the other.

“Rock… Paper… Scissors!”

Magnifica Sun and Moonshadow swung their hands at one another, and produced clenched fists.

“Rrrgh! Dummy! Why’d you throw rock!?” Magnifica demanded.

“I could ask the same of you,” Moonshadow coldly replied.

They tried again, and this time, they both threw scissors. Then they both threw paper. Then scissors again, then rock, then paper, then…

…Then Dani threw a rock between the both of them.

“Calm down you two!” She clapped her hands together. “This is getting us nowhere! You two have the same brain! You’re going to throw the same thing every single time!”

She wasn’t sure if that was technically true or not. Considering the two versions of Morgana couldn’t even agree on which path to take, it was far more likely that their brains were distinct enough that the assumption they’d throw different signs was a reasonable one.

But after fifty rounds of rock-paper-scissors had ended in ties, Dani was done entertaining the probabilities. It was an amount of math that made her brain hurt.

“Are you saying we’re the same?! No way!” Magnifica pouted. “You see, my rock is an unshatterable diamond! It’s beautiful and sparkly and awesome!”

“Hmph. My rock is glittering obsidian, elegant and sleek and flawless. Of course it is superior,” Moonshadow asserted.

“Dummy! Diamonds are WAY stronger than obsidian, so I win!”

“You simply lack the awareness of obsidian’s charm. It has been used in weapons for eons-”

“Okay, the both of you, put a sock in it!” Dani was done playing nice. Wasn’t this supposed to be a benefit somehow? Two Morganas for the price of one? And yet, all that had happened was the girls kept bickering incessantly with one another, and it was giving her a headache!

Dani didn’t sign up for this level of stress.

“Look, I’ll pick a direction,” she said, flipping a coin in her head. It came up tails. “There, we’re taking the left path,” she said, stomping down the left hallway.

Magnifica stuck out her tongue at her silver-haired counterpart. Moonshadow stoically fumed at her.

As Dani led the difficult witch girls down the hallway, she hoped that whatever they came across, it would be something that would bring the two of them closer together instead of setting them at odds again. Because there was only so much of this she could take before she completely lost her mind.

What will Dani find at the end of this hallway?

https://strawpoll.com/e2naXV34MyB