A/N: thanks a million for all the nice reviews! You guys are awesome! For your pleasure, there are two movie quotes referenced in here. Can you find them?

I know that Rapunzel doesn't have a lot of thoughts at the end of the chapter, but I figure, if I were her, I wouldn't have had much time to think.

I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled.

Chapter 8-The Scary Tunnel and the Even More Scary Chase that Followed

"Okay, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?"

-Riley Poole in National Treasure

"Of the thirty-six ways of avoiding disaster, running away is best."

-Anonymous

The thug entered the room with a smug grin, delighted with his news. "I found the guards!" he said. Guards, I wondered. What guards? However, before I had any time to speak, Flynn grabbed and thrust me beneath a nearby table. He hastily looked around the room before he joined me there. From our hiding spot, I could hear a very loud and deep voice demand, "Where's Rider? Where is he? I know he's here somewhere!" Heavy footsteps thundered on the floor of the restaurant. "Find him! Turn this place upside down if you have to!" bellowed the same voice, and a loud smack ricocheted from the top of the table.

Then, the sound of the footsteps slowly faded away. Flynn quickly peeked over the top of the table, and then, just as quickly, hid again. I glanced over at him. His eyes were wide with fear, his chest heaved with anxiety, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He's scared, I thought wildly. The audacious Flynn Rider was scared. I can't believe it, after all we've been through, he's finally scared. If he was scared, then I was terrified. Throughout all the other frightening events of the day, at least I could be reassured by his placidity. However, now that he was petrified, I myself was on the verge on hysterics. What are we going to do now? What if they catch him? What will happen to me?

Unexpectedly, Hook Viking appeared. "Don't worry," he whispered. "You can escape through the tunnel." Overwhelmed with relief, Flynn and I followed him as he graciously helped us flee. He quietly showed us to the tunnel that was hidden beneath the floorboards. As we were about to depart, he kindly said, "Go. Live your dream."

Now that Flynn's escape was guaranteed, his Flynn Rider bravado reappeared. "Oh, I will," he assured the man. Hook Viking chuckled wryly. "Ha! Your dream stinks! I was talking to her!" he said, nodding at me. Flynn had no response to that, and began to climb down into the passageway. I flashed a smile at the man, relieved and grateful for all his help. 'Thank you for everything," I told him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before I followed Flynn into the darkness of the tunnel.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Loyal listener, did you hear me mention that it was dark in there? Actually, it was more than dark. Imagine yourself being in a room completely devoid of any light whatsoever, trapped in a vortex of burning blackness, and you might get close to how dark it was. In short, it was difficult to see anything. The place was downright threatening, verging on frightening, and part of me wanted to cling to Flynn even more than was necessary (since it was so black in there, he told me to grab the back of his shirt). I didn't, because why would I want to subject myself to that fate twice in one day? Although I needed him to take me to see the lanterns, I didn't want to be a complete burden.

Anyway, it was just as well in the end because he managed to stumble across a lantern (and I do mean stumble-he nearly broke the thing) and we now had some light to guide our way. However, the lanterns illumined things that I didn't really want to see. Like gigantic rats, large spiders, murky cobwebs, and skeletons with swords in their chests. The place bordered on creepy, and was only an inch away from sinister. To keep myself from screaming and screeching, I decided to make conversation with Flynn. Don't get me wrong, listener, I did not expect it to be any more fun than the last time around, but I had to do something to distract myself.

However, before I could say anything myself, he spoke up. "Well, I gotta say I didn't think you had that in you back there. That was pretty…impressive." Was he giving me a compliment? I beamed with pride. I was pretty pleased with myself, but for him to notice what I did? I felt ten times more satisfaction than if he hadn't. "I know!" I said gleefully. Then, realizing that I sounded a bit pompous, I said it again, but this time with a little more modesty.

He glanced over his shoulder, and flashed a quick smile at me. Was that a real smile? Had I finally gotten a real smile out of him? It was truly a lovely smile, and one that was well worth the wait. When he smiled, the cocky smugness of Flynn Rider seemed to vanish, and in its place was an amiable young man who was quite…handsome.

Encouraged, I mustered the courage to ask him a personal question. "So, Flynn, where are you from?" I asked, shyly pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. Part of me didn't think he would answer, but most of me hoped he would. Will he answer me this time?

He didn't. "Whoa whoa!" he exclaimed. "Sorry, Blondie. (Rapunzel!) I don't do back stories." I couldn't say that I was surprised by his answer, but I was slightly disappointed. I decided to ask him something else, maybe about how he had known about The Snuggly Duckling in the first place…

"However, I am becoming very interested in yours," he said. I shot him a very surprised look. He's interested in my story? Really? "Now I know I'm not supposed to mention the hair," he continued.

That's for sure! "Nope," I said firmly.

"Or the mother."

Not a chance! "Uh-uh."

"Frankly," he cracked, "I'm too scared to ask about the frog."

The…frog? I glanced over at Pascal. He scowled, indignation and disgust etched on his face. I'm no frog, his eyes said. I don't do that tongue thing. "Chameleon," I corrected.

He was completely unaffected. "Nuance. Here's my question though." He has a question for…me? Part of me thought about what it would be like if I refused to answer, like he did. Hmmm.

"If you wanted to see the lanterns that badly," he asked, "why haven't you gone before?"

Completely unsure of how to answer, I glanced over at Pascal again. How should I answer that? Well, hey, Flynn, I didn't leave my tower because people would want to use me for my magic healing hair? Care for a demonstration? Yeah. That would go over well. Besides that, my hair was my deepest secret. Even though I was starting to like Flynn more and more, I wasn't sure I trusted him enough to tell him about it. "Ah…well…" I stammered finally.

Suddenly, a rock fell onto my head and the floor began to shake beneath my feet. Thoughts of my hair vanished, and I felt the new and increasingly familiar feeling of fear rising up in its place. "Ah…Flynn," I began nervously. I glanced behind me and immediately wished I hadn't. Twenty guards with swords and lanterns bore down on us, yelling "Rider!" at the top of their lungs. I guess we hadn't lost them after all.

My voice went up in pitch in proportion to my rising terror. "FLYNN!" He quickly looked behind us, panic now present in his eyes as well. "Run!" he told me, but my feet wouldn't move. He placed a hand on my shoulder, propelled me forward, and helped me gather up my hair in my hands. "RUN!"

I ran as fast as I could, thinking all the while- How did they find us? How did they find us? Eventually, we left the tunnel behind us. I remember thinking, I'm so glad that's over. However, the tunnel was nothing compared to the new challenge that awaited us. Instead of a dark, gloomy tunnel, we were now at edge of a high cliff, with no apparent way down. Other precipices were everywhere, and so were old wooden beams. I glanced down, wondering what we could do to escape. Unexpectedly, two burly men with red hair burst out of one of the tunnels below us. I darted a glance at Flynn, surprised to see a mixture of recognition and dread on his face. He apparently knew who they were. It was also equally apparent that we couldn't escape that way.

"Um…who's that?" I couldn't help but ask.

He pointed a finger at them. "They don't like me," he nervously informed me.

I glanced back behind us, hoping that the guards had somehow vanished. They hadn't. In fact, because we hadn't gone anywhere, they were almost on top of us. A corner of my mind bet that Flynn knew who they were too. "Who's that?" I asked again.

"They don't like me either!" Um, I gathered that. A white horse raced out of the tunnel, right behind the guards. Something was different about that horse….

"Who's that?" I asked for the third time. He quickly turned me to face him. "Look," he said impatiently. "Let's just assume for the moment that everyone here doesn't like me." My eyes desperately searched for a way to escape. The wooden beams. Determinedly, I shoved Hesty into Flynn's hands. "Here!" I threw some of my hair around the beam, and jumped off the cliff, swinging until I had reached another rock.

From there, I saw everything that happened to Flynn. The guards continued to bear down at him, drawing their swords. One, whom I guessed to be the leader, said tauntingly "I've waited a long time for this." I nervously watched as they began to fight Flynn with their swords. Flynn has no easy way out of this. There's so many more of them, and they have swords…
However, I underestimated him. He, with Hesty's help, managed to knock all of them out. He stared at her, stunned, and then he grinned with pleasure. "Oh, Mama!" he quipped. "I have got to get me one of these! Ha!" I beamed. Hesty had finally shown him the great ferociousness of the frying pan.

The Big White Horse, on the other hand, was still ready to fight. I watched, stunned, as The Big White Horse began to fight Flynn with a sword in hits mouth. That had to be one of the strangest things I had ever seen! It was obviously strange to Flynn, too. As he fought, I heard him say, "You should know that this is the strangest thing I have ever done!" Suddenly, The Big White Horse managed to knock Hesty out of his hands, and she tumbled off to the bottom of the cliff. Uh-oh. He defensively held up his hands. "How about two out of three?" he suggested.

Without thinking, I threw some of my hair around one of his hands. "Flynn!" I yelled as I pulled him (by my hair) away from The Big White Horse. I did my best to keep him away from the Burly Red Men too, and fortunately managed to get him to safety. Unfortunately, safety meant that he had smashed his chest against a rock. However, it was slightly entertaining to watch as he smirked at the Burly Red Men, shouting "You should see your faces! Because you look (smash) ridiculous." Flynn Rider, I decided, had a quip for everything, even when he himself looked silly.

Just then, The Big White Horse beat down a wooden pole and I quickly realized that he would be able to get to me by walking across the pole. Oh no, I panicked. What will I do now? Thankfully, Flynn had noticed my predicament. "Jump, Blondie! Jump!" I immediately took his advice and jumped, seconds before The Big White Horse reached me. In fact, I barely made it. His teeth had almost caught my hair.

Now, loyal listener, most animals here would have given up the fight. But not the Big White Horse. No, he had tenacity from the tips of his ears to the end of his tail. He began to kick down the wooden poles that held up tons and tons of water. And a very large stone pillar. As soon as I reached the ground, I ran as fast as I could to escape both. I headed for the tunnel that the Burly Red Men had exited, hoping that I would make it. I didn't see what happened to Flynn, but I felt something pull on my hair, and I figured that he had gathered some of it to help me. He managed to rescue Hesty as well (what a guy!). We both raced to the tunnel, instants before the pillar blocked the entrance. I let out a deep breath. We were safe. For the moment.