She'd thought the Labyrinth had shown her its worst. She'd thought what it had done to her uncle and stepmother, how it had warped them and the doctor had been the greatest terror she'd ever known - surely nothing could be worse than the desperation and hunger of the wicked. She'd been wrong.

Spiders. Fucking spiders were worse.

Kirsty didn't even realize how fast it had happened. One minute she'd been facing a distractingly beautiful woman, the next the world went dark. How long she'd slept was unclear, because she woke to a sunless wilderness, visceral and reddish green. Like so much of this place, it was almost beautiful. And then it tried to kill her, and it decidedly wasn't.

The spiders didn't come until she'd gotten up and started walking; for the first half-hour she'd assumed this was one of his machinations, something conjured from a dream. It would be like the Cenobites to send temptation in such a lovely form; had she and the woman been having drinks? That might have been it. Drinks, and heading towards the woman's hotel room, and then... wham. She'd checked down a couple times just to make sure she actually was fully dressed; it seemed she and mystery lady hadn't gotten very far.

Probably for the best, all things considered, but it was still annoying.

Kirsty continued this line of thought as she navigated through lush, fleshy vegetation; it was as if viscera had taken root and blossomed into plant life, greens and reds and so, so many veins. She could only recognize it as the Labyrinth by the tiniest glimpses of stone walls between the layers and layers of growth, and because there was no other place this could logically be. She kept going in a straight line, reasoning that the Labyrinth's tendency of moving her around the first time would eventually get her where it wanted her to be; it was usually at the heart of the problem that she did her best work getting out of it.

Snapping flowers and bleeding vines did little to deter her as she walked; it was only when the ground gave under her that she screamed, falling into an entanglement of veins. She twisted and turned, clawing at the ropes holding her and tearing them open, their pulpy insides staining her white shirt a hideous brown. She tore herself free and staggered back, staring at the net and the hole she'd fallen through, and registered the word trap just before hearing the hissing noise.

That was when the spider showed up. Kirsty ducked; something flew overhead and when she looked up she saw legs and hairs and flesh and teeth. No eyes, just teeth pointed at her as the thing lunged forward again and she tossed herself aside, slamming into the nearby wall. It shook. Something moved under her back.

Loose brick.

She grabbed it and swung, and it hit the thing charging her with a heavy thwak. It staggered backwards, then hissed again.

"Dammit!" She screamed at the thing as it charged again, "Get away!" It jumped and she was slammed into the wall, but her arms were over her head and, more importantly, over the thing hissing in her face.

She brought it down and a loud squelch ended it. Kirsty stumbled back, away from the spider, and now that she looked at it the thing looked less like a spider and more like a worm, but a worm covered in teeth, and walking on teeth, and its guts were all over her. She was about to swear in revulsion when she heard something else move. She readied her rock when the approaching shadow turned the corner, and pitch-black eyes met hers between perfectly-gridded pins.

Oh, holy shit.

"So what is this place?"

It had taken five to ten minutes for the two to get on the same page; between Kirsty scraping bug goop off herself and trying to follow the Cenobite while the scenery tried to chew them up, they'd barely gotten any moments to speak. It seemed he was as on edge as she was, which was comforting, but also really, really wasn't.

"It is the Labyrinth," he said, stopping at a corner and looking around before continuing on, "but a Labyrinth beyond my understanding. We are in its lower depths, past the lighting that marks the edge of our existence."

"So that means what, exactly?" She'd never been happier to be wearing her old, "I'll replace them eventually" jeans; if she'd gotten her good pair dirty she'd have been upset on top of being confused and more than a little disoriented. These she would have no issue burning once she got out of here, provided she did."You don't know where we are?"

"That is the start of it," he said, looking up - what was he looking for? They hadn't stopped to come up with a game plan, but then, she barely had the presence of mind to do more than ask whatever question came into her head. It was all so much. "It goes deeper, though. My connection to Leviathan is weakened, and no other Cenobites have come down here."

"You mean recently?"

"I mean in our history."

Oh.

"So how do we get out of here, then?" She heard another hiss, and looked over her shoulder, but it was just some gassy flower deflating some distance away.

"We keep moving, and find stairs. We are closer to the Labyrinth's core; our only way out is up." Kirsty nodded and ducked under a cluster of vein-vines, and almost felt a bit calmer when something else occurred to her.

"Do you know how far away the nearest stairs are?" He stopped, and looked at her long enough for her nerves to sink in her stomach.

"I do not."

Shit.