Skyla had set up an altar in her lair, where she kept Snow White on display. Snow White stood on a small platform, surrounded by candles. Barbed wire was wrapped around her arms from just above her elbow down to her wrist and the barbed wire was attached to the walls on either side of the altar, holding her arms out in the crucified position. Barbed wire was also wrapped around Snow White's body from her waist down to her ankles and attached to the platform. Snow White figured out pretty quickly that when she struggled, the barbed wire cut into her skin; her arms were all cut up and her dress was torn. Now, she just stood there waiting for whatever would happen next. She had no idea how long she was going to be Skyla's prisoner.

Skyla returned then. She walked over to Snow White and smiled up at her.

"You're friends are here," Skyla said. "They're in the labyrinth right now."

Skyla walked up the steps to the platform. "Your friends have twenty-four hours to solve the labyrinth. If they don't, they die." Skyla gently touched Snow White's temple. There was now a small, black spot where her finger had been. "I just planted the seed in you. As that black spot grows and spreads so will the evil inside you. After twenty-four hours you will belong to me."

Fear gripped Snow White's heart like the barbed wire on her arms. She fought the urge to struggle, and instead started crying. Skyla laughed, then jumped off the platform. She walked over to an old birdbath in the center of the room. Where the water should have been, there was ice. Skyla put her hand on the ice and now the birdbath served as a type of crystal ball; she could watch over the labyrinth and knew exactly what was going on at all times.

Snow White didn't know the other girls, but she was afraid for their lives, as well as her own.

xxx

When Ariel woke up, she was in a dead end with only one way out. She looked around and was happy to see that Esmeralda was with her and she wasn't alone. Esmeralda was still passed out, and Ariel crawled over to her. Esmeralda had ash smudges all over her, and Ariel assumed she probably did too.

Ariel gently started shaking Esmeralda. "Esmeralda? Esmeralda, wake up."

Esmeralda rolled over and groaned. She sat up and looked around, then looked up at Ariel. "Have you seen anyone else?" she asked.

Ariel shook her head.

Esmeralda stood up and held her hand out Ariel. Ariel took it and Esmeralda helped her up. "All right, we should really get going."

Ariel followed Esmeralda out of the dead end and they were immediately greeted with a fork; they could only go left or right. Esmeralda looked down both paths; they both looked exactly the same. She sighed and went left. They wandered straight for a while without any turns.

"Since we're just wandering straight and there aren't any turns, we're probably walking along one of the sides," Esmeralda said. "My guess is she put us in one of the corners of the labyrinth. We just have to figure out which corner."

"How?" Ariel asked quietly.

Esmeralda shook her head and looked up. "I don't know. We could use the sun as direction, but I don't know how much good that would do. We were heading north when we reached the labyrinth. But that wall could have been any one of the sides. Of course, she did this on purpose so we'd lose our bearings."

Ariel thought for a minute. "If we're walking along one of the sides, then we should be able to find the center, even without knowing what direction we're going in."

Esmeralda looked at her. "What do you mean?"

Ariel knelt down and drew a square in the dirt. "If we really are on the edge, then we can only go one way from here, and that way would lead to the center." She drew lines leading from all four sides to the center of the square.

Esmeralda nodded. "Right. There were eight of us, so she must have partnered all of us up and put us in all four corners. And the corners, of course, are the furthest points from the center, so that has to be where her lair is. The only problem is, we're not gonna be directly across from the lair." Esmeralda pointed at the line Ariel had drawn from the center of one side straight to the center. "We could be off to the side and end up wandering next to the lair and never actually reach it." She drew a random circle next to the center point.

"What if we don't take any of the turns and just keep going straight?" Ariel asked.

"Then we wouldn't get anywhere." The annoyance in Esmeralda's voice was obvious.

"But, the other girls are in the corners, too. If we kept going straight, we'd run into someone else, probably halfway through. Then we'd know we were directly across the center," Ariel explained.

"In theory, that would work. But, there are a couple flaws with that: one, if the girls we're walking towards turned off the path, or went in the opposite direction, we'd never run into them. And two, we have no idea how big this labyrinth is. We only have twenty-four hours to solve this, and it could take half that time, or more, just to reach the halfway point," Esmeralda said.

Ariel looked down and ran her fingers through her hair. She hadn't thought of all the possibilities and now felt stupid. Esmeralda reached over and touched her shoulder.

"You did a good job figuring out where the lair is and giving us a general direction to head in. We'll just have to figure out the rest as we go," Esmeralda said in a soothing voice.

Esmeralda started to stand up, but Ariel grabbed her hand and pulled her back down.

"What the-" Esmeralda cried out.

Ariel pointed at one of the corners. "We do know where we need to go. The center is directly diagonal from each corner. We just need to head straight from the corner."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes. "Ariel, we couldn't go stra-"

Ariel held up her hand. "I know. So, when we reach the first turn, we're just gonna have to back track. The quickest way between two points is a straight line, and Skyla knows that, so-"

"So, we'll know we're on the right path because there will be more obstacles the closer we get to the lair." Esmeralda finished.

Ariel nodded. Esmeralda smiled at her, then took her hand and pulled back down the path.

xxx

Jasmine was glad she was with Pocahontas. Pocahontas had a great sense of direction, so they weren't getting lost or turned around every time they hit a dead end. They only thing she didn't like was that Pocahontas talked about John Smith incessantly. But, she was keeping them from getting lost, so Jasmine didn't complain.

Pocahontas spotted a tree up in the distance and ran to it.

"I'm gonna climb up this tree and see if I can figure out where we are," Pocahontas said when Jasmine caught up.

Jasmine looked up at the tree. It was very tall, but also really thin. "I don't know if the tree can handle any weight," she said.

"Don't worry about it." Pocahontas grabbed a branch and pulled herself up. She moved quickly from branch to branch.

The tree swayed with every movement. Jasmine did her best to stay under Pocahontas so she could catch her if she fell. Or, at least, break her fall.

Pocahontas could almost see over the wall, when suddenly the branches wrapped around her. She tried to wiggle free, but the branches just tightened their grip. Some of the other branches formed into a face with dark eyes and long, sharp teeth. Pocahontas squirmed some more and managed to get one arm free. She snapped some of the branches, but that just made it angry. The monster started pulling Pocahontas towards its mouth and she screamed.

"Pocahontas!" Jasmine cried out when she saw what was happening.

Jasmine grabbed the small sword she had strapped around her waist and started chopping at the tree. It began to tilt, so she pushed it until it snapped and fell. Jasmine ran to Pocahontas and helped get free from the branches.

"What the hell was that?" Jasmine asked as they quickly got away from the tree.

"I have no idea," Pocahontas replied. "Clearly, we're gonna have to stay on the lookout and just assume anything that could be remotely helpful is a trap."