Rachel Andric and The Editor

Chapter 27: Friend or Foe?

Will brushed his clothes off after they landed in the next Story. Wherever they were, it was dark, and dirty. Will frowned as he looked up at the ceiling; they were in some sort of a tunnel, he thought.

Rapunzel looked around her, twirling her hair around her finger with a frown. "We're in a tunnel," she said with a frown.

"I can see that," Will responded. "But what Story is this?"

Rapunzel went to shrug when an earsplitting roar seemed to rock the tunnels. Will's face paled. "What was that?" he squeaked.

"I think I know what Story we're in now," Rapunzel said lightly, though her face was dark with concern.

Will heard something extremely large hurtling down the tunnels towards them. He drew the sword Morgiana had given him, but Rapunzel grabbed his arm. "No fighting!" she exclaimed. "There are guards coming from the other way!"

"Where do we go?" Will asked, panicked. He sheathed the sword once more as Rapunzel dragged him down a side tunnel. The creature was right on their heels, slamming into the wall and roaring behind them.

Rapunzel stopped, yelling at Will, "Keep going!" She extended her hair across the tunnel, wrapping it around a rock on one side and holding it in place on the other.

"That's not going to work!" someone shouted. Will felt the person rush past him and grab Rapunzel, dragging her along with them.

A second person—this one a man—grabbed Will's arm, pulling him behind him. "I don't know who you are," the man panted, "but you're out of your minds!"

"What is that?" Will gasped, his arm feeling as though it were being yanked out of its socket.

"The Minotaur!" Rapunzel said. She was only a few steps behind Will and the other man. "Half man, half bull. And that makes you two..."

"Theseus," the man supplied.

"Ariadne," the young woman added. "And who are you two?"

The Minotaur slammed into the Will only a step behind Rapunzel and Ariadne. "Later," Theseus decided. He grabbed at his sword.

"No, Theseus!" Ariadne cried. "Turn right!"

Theseus obeyed the girl's order, and dragged Will into a short and skinny tunnel. Rapunzel and Ariadne were seconds behind them, and the Minotaur charged past. Theseus slouched back against the wall. "That was too close," he said, running a hand through cherry blond hair. He looked to be in his early twenties, around the same as Ariadne. He blinked dark grey eyes slowly at Will and Rapunzel. "And now, I believe explanations are in order. You disturbed the Minotaur before he could fall asleep. You effectively ruined my chances of killing him."

"It wasn't exactly planned," Will protested. "We just kind of...ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm Will Scarlet."

"Rapunzel," his friend offered. She raised an eyebrow at Theseus. "You're younger than I thought you'd be."

"You do not belong in this Story," Ariadne said. Her blue eyes were cold and distant, and her ash-blonde hair curled around her shoulders, somehow still perfect despite running from a monstrous creature. "Nor do you belong with each other. How do you explain your presence here?"

"Listen, lady," Rapunzel said impatiently, "I don't know what little bubble you're living in, but the Editor is trying to destroy The Story and rewrite it. I really couldn't care less what The Story is 'supposed' to look like, I just want to make sure everything I know isn't written out."