Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be: The Maze
Title: Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be
Pairing: Brittany/Santana
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: For Audition (2x01)
Summary: For this prompt on the glee_fluff_meme
Disclaimer: Don't own Glee, Shakespeare, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Pan's Labyrinth, or The Dresden Files.
Author's Notes: I like this chapter. Maybe a little too much.
Chapter One
---
It was a simple wooden door, plain, with no adornments, and so completely and utterly out of place in a sewer system that for a moment Santana simply stared at it, her mouth agape.
After her mind had ground back into gear, Santana looked around. The footprints stopped here. Brittany had obviously gone through this door, and as much as her nerves were screaming at her to run away, she had to follow.
Reaching out, she paused for a second. The door had no handle, no doorknob. She placed her hand against the smooth, solid wood and pushed.
The door slid open silently, and Santana couldn't really decide if it was creepier this way, or if it would be worse if it had made a lot of noise. Either way, it felt like every single hair on her body was standing on end. She was suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that her flashlight only cast a very very small circle of light, and that the area behind the door was very very dark.
She took a deep breath, then another. There was something about this door that was rubbing her the wrong way, something that was telling her senses that running as fast as she could in the opposite direction was the smart thing to do in this situation.
But Santana had never really cared what the smart thing to do was. She needed to find Brittany, and if it meant going through The Creepiest Door of All Time, then so be it. She steeled her nerves and stepped through the door.
Nothing happened.
Santana let out a breath that she didn't remember holding. She glanced around her, flashing her light from left to right. There was a path on either side, and one in front of her, long uniform stone corridors stretching out into pitch blackness. Little patches of moss were scattered randomly on parts of the walls, floors, and ceiling, and in places, some of the walls had broken or crumbled, leaving small piles of stone and dust. The air in here was different from the air in the sewer, dry and musty, and smelled of stone. It was like the air in a long-unused basement. Or a tomb.
Swallowing down that thought, Santana turned to her left. You were always supposed to go left in a maze, right? She had probably read that somewhere. Or something. Maybe she was just making it up. But it seemed like a good idea.
She started walking, then stopped. This was a little more serious than the sewer. Stooping, she grabbed a chunk of rock from the floor, juggling the bat and flashlight for a second before getting a hold on it. She scratched the rock against the wall, next to the door, and noted with satisfaction that it left a mark. She carefully etched the word 'Exit' into the wall, nodded to herself, then turned and began walking down the hallway.
If she had been a little less focused, she would have noticed that, underneath her mark and on the other side of the doorway, there were several other marks, made by different hands. Some of them looked quite old.
---
The first time she reached a fork in the road, she paused. She hadn't gone that far down the path, and if she remembered correctly, the fork to the left would lead directly back into the sewer system. But when she shone her light down the corridor, she could only see a long, unbroken stretch of hallway, continuing on past where her meager light could reach.
This was seriously odd. Actually, this was so far past odd that there probably wasn't a word for it yet. This was some seriously freaky shit, right here. She should probably go take the right fork, and stay to the area near the door, but she had made a decision and was sticking to it.
Making a mark on the wall, Santana started down the left-hand corridor.
---
It could have been an hour later. It could have been a day. There was no way of telling how much time had passed. Her feet hurt like hell. With every step, the crowbar thudded painfully against the same exact spot on her lower back. There was a 100% chance that she was getting a blister on the hand holding the bat. These walls were boring. The fear of the darkness had faded into intense irritation. She had drank half of one of her bottles of water and was now starting to feel an insistent need to pee. Working under Sue Sylvester for two years had taught her excellent bladder control, though, and she was distracting herself from thinking about her problems by working her way through her Glee repertoire.
"Ba ba da da da daaa, da da da daaa, da da da daaaa..." she warbled, half under her breath. "Ba da! Just a small town giiiiiiiirl....livin' in a looooooonely wooooooooorld....took the midnight train gooooooin' aaaaaaaaaaanyeeeeeeeeeeewheeeeee-"
She stopped singing and walking at the same time. The corridor came to an abrupt end a few feet away. This wasn't unusual; she had encountered several dead-ends so far, each more pointless and frustrating than the last. What was unusual was that this corridor ended in a door.
This was the first door she had seen since the entrance into this weird place, and it couldn't be more different. It was made of a dark metal, studded with spikes, and crossing it were straps of shining steel. There were no patches of moss on the walls or ceiling here, and the stone changed from grey to black a few feet in front of her.
All in all, everything about this place might as well have put up neon signs saying "Stay Away!!!"
But Santana was on a mission, and some Doom-ass, World of Warcraft-looking door wasn't going to stop her.
This door didn't have any handles either, but when Santana put both hands on the door and pushed, it easily swung open.
The air in the next room was warm, and close, smelling of smoke. It was a big room, too. It had to be, because there was something big in it.
The big thing was really big. It had big red scales. It had a big tail, and a big face, with a big long snout. Its big mouth was open and it had big shiny teeth. It had great big eyes that were closed right now but could open at any time.
Santana found herself thinking in tiny little words, because her mind wasn't really big enough to comprehend what was in front of her. Because tiny little words were the best thing to sum up a great big idea. An idea like, "There is a dragon in this room."
The eye closest to her opened.
It was beautiful, in a strange, fierce way. It looked like molten gold, swirling and bright, with a slash of pure black down the middle. The eye blinked twice, then focused on her.
Santana slowly eased herself out the door, pulling it shut behind her. She pressed her back to it, as uncomfortable as it was, for a second, like she would be able to stop what was in that room from coming out. Then she saw, as if for the first time, the black stone of the floor and walls in front of her, stretching halfway down the corridor.
Black stone. From fire. Halfway down the hall. Dragon. Fire.
Looking back on that moment, she was pretty sure that she had never moved that fast in her whole life.
---
She was still shaking from the experience about an hour later. Her mind kept shying away from what she had seen, trying to force her to think of something else. There were only two explanations for it: either she had completely lost her mind, or she was living in a world where dragons were real. Neither of these options was very appealing.
If she had completely lost her mind, there would be psychologists, medication, and hospitalization to look forward to. She would probably never graduate high school. That would suck hardcore because she had already started planning her acceptance speech as Prom Queen. But if she was living in a world where dragons were real, then-
And that's where she would usually start thinking about something else, because the idea was just too much. She was already tense and on edge from walking around these fucking endless hallways in utter darkness for-fucking-ever, she didn't need any goddamn mythological creatures tossed into the mix.
She reached another crossroads, and automatically scratched the wall as she turned to the left.
From behind her, there were three sharp knocks.
Santana froze, and for a second, it felt like all of the skin on her back was trying to crawl around to her front. She turned around, sweeping the beam of her flashlight around erratically. There was nothing that she could see, but the darkness was creeping in all around her, pressing her in. She started to back down the hallway, still frantically flicking the flashlight back and forth, hoping and yet not hoping to catch a glimpse of what had made that noise.
Again, three sharp knocks echoed down the corridor.
She started to back up faster, sure that the sound had come from one of the other two unexplored paths. Whatever it was, it had scared the living shit out of her, and she was starting to freak out as her mind raced to come up with what could have made that noise. Her hair tickled at her face and she brushed it away impatiently, not taking her eyes away from the dark hallway.
As she continued walking backwards, Santana let out a deep, shuddering breath and tried to force herself to relax. There had been no more knocks, but she kept backing down the hallway, not willing to let anything sneak up on her. While moving, she tried to force her breathing from the shallow panting of panic to a more normal rhythm.
In. Out.
In. Out.
In. Out.
The only sounds were her own breathing, and the quiet thuds of her footfalls.
She was more than 40 feet away from the crossroads now, and nothing had come rushing down the hall at her. There was a sudden tickle on her leg, and she swatted at it. A second later, there was another tickle, on the other leg. She swatted at that one, too.
Annoyed, she turned around, face-first into a spiderweb.
Sputtering indignantly, she waved her hands around her head like a lunatic, trying to get the strands off of her. She brushed her hair back and gave a shriek when she felt a little spider on the top of her head. She swept it off of her head, only to feel those little tickles on her legs again. Pointing the flashlight down, she screamed.
Her legs were dotted with little tiny spiders.
Screaming again, she did a frantic dance as she tried to shake the bugs off of both legs at the same time. She ended up shaking herself into another spiderweb, prompting another scream.
Now she was really freaking out. There were spiderwebs and spiders everywhere, they were all over her legs and arms and oh my God, what if they were under her clothes?!
A loud rustle from further down the hall made her freeze. Her skin itching and crawling with dread and dozens of insects, she whipped around.
Her flashlight shone through hundreds of spiderwebs, draping the halls like Halloween decorations, and directly into eight eyes the size of tennis balls, attached to a spider the size of a minivan.
The spider seemed to recover from the surprise first, and one giant, hairy leg reached out, lightning-quick. Screaming in utter terror, Santana swung the bat, slicing down through the webs and hitting the insect's leg with an almighty crack. The bat snapped in half, but the spider pulled back quickly, curling into itself and moving its mandibles.
Santana took the opportunity and fled, making a mad dash for the crossroads. She ducked around the corner, hoping that the spider was especially stupid and not inclined to following prey, and immediately began smacking at every itch and tickle on her body and shaking out her shirt, hoping to kill every single one of the tiny spiders.
Finally, she was pretty sure that she had gotten all of them, even the ones under her clothes and in her hair. Even so, she kept brushing at her arms and legs, hoping to erase the awful feeling of little bugs crawling all over her.
A stray hair brushed against her arm, and she immediately smacked it. Yeah, okay, she was a little jumpy right now, but that was to be expected, given that she had just seen a giant fucking spider, and now she was seriously starting to wonder what she was doing down here, because she really-
The flashlight suddenly dimmed.
"No," she said. She shook the flashlight, which didn't fix the problem at all. "No, stop it." As if it was purposely disobeying her command, the beam flickered.
"Fuck," she said. A small rain of rock dust fell on her head, instantly clinging to her tongue and making her cough. "Fuck," she said again. The beam from the flashlight flickered again. "Shit!"
This time, the rain of dust was accompanied by a small sharp rock, which hit her on the crown of her head. "Ow!" she said, trying to both clutch at the wound and shake the flashlight into life again. "Goddamn it!"
The light went out.
Santana went very, very still. The oppressive darkness was all around her now, weighing heavily, constricting her chest so it was hard to breathe. She hadn't planned for this, hadn't brought new batteries. How could she find her way back now? She couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She was completely alone, surrounded by monsters, in the complete and utter darkness below ground.
She needed to move, needed to get further away from something that had just tried to eat her, but her body was completely frozen by fear. She kept looking around her even though she couldn't see anything, and the more she looked and couldn't see, the more she panicked. Her heart was racing, fluttering in her chest, and every nerve in her body was on fire. Wave after wave of dread washed over her, leaving her gasping for breath. She was really going to die down here, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Some of the longest minutes of her entire life passed as she stood there, paralyzed with terror, pressing her back into the wall so hard it hurt.
Gradually, she became aware of something. Although it was still incredibly dark, she could make out the faint outlines of the corridors around her. There was some kind of light source. Her eyes darted from side to side, trying to figure out where the eerie glow was coming from.
Finally, she spotted it: some of the patches of moss were glowing faintly. She had skipped basically all of Biology class, but she could remember seeing something on the Discovery Channel one time about phosphorous plants or whatever. The moss must have those glowing bacteria or whatnot.
This was good. This was better than good. If she could see, then she could find her way out of here. But before she found her way out, she needed to find Brittany, because she was almost 100% sure the other girl didn't have a flashlight, and would therefore have been wandering around in this almost complete darkness the whole time.
She was definitely, totally not going to go down the left-hand corridor again, but there were two other paths here, and-
And there, down the middle path, was a pair of glowing eyes.
Santana experienced a moment of terror so absolute that she couldn't even scream, could only draw in a shuddering breath. Her 'fight or flight' response seemed to be stuck on 'freeze up like a deer in the headlights,' so she simply stood, trying to will her legs and arms to move, as the eyes began to creep closer and closer.
As she watched what she assumed to be her doom approach, Santana realized two things. One: the eyes were glowing like a cat's, catching and reflecting the meager light, not glowing from some internal light source. And Two: they were awfully close to the ground, meaning that whatever it was, despite having big-ass glowing eyes, was much smaller than she was.
Finally, a tiny little creature crept close enough that she could make out the details. It was very small, about the size of a house cat, but with almost comically oversized eyes and ears. Instead of paws, it had long, spindly fingers that were tipped with large pads, making it look like one of those weird animals that only came out at night in Madagascar. It had a long, whip-thin tail curled into a question-mark shape above its body, and it was completely hairless.
When it was about ten feet away, Santana shifted her feet slightly, not sure if she should be running from something that could almost be classified as 'so ugly it's kind of cute.' The critter immediately froze, its ears laying back against its head like a scared cat, its whole body poised to flee.
It was more scared of her than she was of it, she realized, and that filled her with confidence. "Hey," she said.
The creature scrunched its eyes shut, and covered its big ears with its creepy little hands. "Sorry," she whispered, and it opened its eyes again. Now that it was close, it was just looking at her, like it was waiting for something.
"Was I too loud before?" she whispered. The creature nodded, not blinking. "My bad."
Instead of making a noise, the little creature balled up one of its hands into a fist, and sharply rapped its knuckles against the floor. Three loud knocks echoed down the corridor.
"That was you?" Santana whispered. The creature nodded again. "Were you trying to tell me not to go that way?" Another nod. "Well, you scared me." No response. "But thanks for trying."
Still no answer. It was just staring at her, not blinking. She crouched down, trying to bring herself more to its level. "I'm looking for someone right now. Have you seen her? She's taller than me, pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes..." As she spoke, the creature began nodding furiously, its head shaking like a little bobblehead doll. "Can you show me where she is?"
The creature nodded a few more times, then turned and skittered away. Before she even had a chance to swear, those eyes appeared in the gloomy darkness again, just outside of what she could see in the faint glow of light. It was leading her.
Santana smiled. Things were looking up. Gripping what was left of her bat tightly, she followed her little guide down the hall.
---
She lost track of time again. Her world narrowed to glowing eyes down a long, dark corridor, and the brief glimpses she would catch of her little friend when it would wait for her so that she wouldn't miss a turn.
They passed three more doors on their way, but her guide didn't stop to look at them, so neither did she. She had learned her lesson about randomly opening doors down here, anyway.
Once, a strange noise in the distance had turned out to be a bubbling fountain, set into a niche in the wall. Santana stopped to stare, and saw that water, cool and crisp, was flowing out of a strange, half-carved face into a small basin, where it drained away. She started to lean closer, to try and make out what the face was supposed to be, and three sharp knocks echoed down the corridor.
"Don't drink the water, huh?" she muttered. There was no answer, and she started to lean in again. The water looked so pure and refreshing, and she was dusty and tired and hot, it probably wouldn't be so bad to just take one sip, right? Plus, that face...it looked like someone had roughly hacked it out in a hurry, but there was an odd elegance to the design. It looked almost familiar, a strange likeness to someone she knew, or had known before...
As she stared in fascination at the face carved in the wall, trying to place its features, she became aware of a heavy throbbing in her ears. Finally breaking her gaze away, she realized that the little creature had climbed the wall, directly next to her head, and was pounding its knuckles furiously against the stone. In her reverie, she had leaned in until she was inches from the fountain, so close that she could feel the spray of water on her cheek, her lips almost touching the stream of water. When she looked at her guide, it stopped knocking, and shook one finger at her like it was scolding her.
"Alright, alright, fine. Let's go," she muttered. The little animal shook its head furiously, exasperated, and scuttled back down the wall and into the darkness.
With one last, lingering look at the fountain, Santana followed.
---
Just when Santana was starting to think that she would be down here forever, endlessly following a little rat-Chihuahua thing until she dropped dead of exhaustion, she caught up to it.
It sat in the middle of the corridor, strangely bathed in light, waiting for her. When she was close, it pointed. There, in the wall, was a rough hole, barely four feet high and about three feet across. Unlike the smooth stone of the hallways, this looked more cave-like, less polished and more primal. When she bent to peer in, she could see a long path, with a small, bright light at the end.
"This is where she is?" Santana whispered, her voice rough from disuse. The little creature nodded.
"Thanks, little buddy. You really did me a solid." The creature didn't answer, just stared at her. She felt like she owed it something, for trying to save her life earlier and for leading her to where Brittany was.
Slipping her bag off of her shoulder, she opened it up and fished around inside. When she had run around her house earlier (had it really only been that morning? It felt like she had been down here for weeks), she had grabbed whatever food she first laid eyes on. Therefore, her idea of 'supplies' was apparently some Power Bars, a roll of Oreos, a bag of M&Ms, and a half a turkey sandwich she had made yesterday but didn't finish, wrapped in cellophane.
She pulled out the sandwich and unwrapped it, surreptitiously sniffing it as she did so. It didn't smell like it had gone bad, so she held it out. "Here you go, little man," she whispered. The creature hesitated, then crept closer, delicately taking the sandwich in one hand. "Yeah, thanks," she said, and gave it a thumbs-up. It paused, then cautiously returned the gesture with its long, stretched-out fingers.
She grinned, and after a moment, the creature grinned back, its tiny little snout parting to reveal a too-wide mouth, filled with long rows of tiny sharp teeth, a shark's mouth in miniature.
Then it turned and scuttled away with its prize, not seeing the way Santana had frozen, grin still in place, giving a thumbs-up to the empty air.
After replaying the sight of endless, glittering teeth a few times over in her head, Santana shook herself off. Brittany was in here, and once Santana found her, they could both go home, and never ever speak or even think about what happened down here ever ever again.
She had to crouch awkwardly to fit in the hole, hunching her shoulders and bending her knees, but she was nearing her goal, and a little discomfort was nothing by this point. Bent over until her hands almost touched the floor, Santana ducked into the entrance to the cave.
---
As she crawled, the light grew brighter, almost hurting her eyes after spending so long in the darkness. Then, she started to hear the faint sounds of music, thudding heavily in the distance. The air was starting to get warm and damp, and as she got closer to the end of the tunnel, she was overwhelmed by an awful stench, the smell of musk and smoke and sweat and body odor. She gagged a little, but kept going, moving faster until she eventually emerged in the light, blinking.
She was in a large room, which was filled with flickering torchlight. It was also filled with what could vaguely be described as "people," three-foot-high monsters, with ugly pig faces, big hairy ears, and squat, fat bodies. They were all watching the opposite end of the room, where a larger, taller version of the creatures around her was sprawled on a rough-hewn rock throne, surrounded by creatures that were beating on drums and blowing on pipes. Clutched in its hand was a small silver chain, which led to a collar currently fastened around Brittany's neck.
In a cleared circle in front of the throne, Brittany was dancing. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and her chest was heaving with ragged breaths, but she showed no signs of slowing down. Next to her, a tiny little monster, with a big goofy hat and oversized tennis shoes, was trying to mimic her movements. Every time he stumbled or missed a step, the other creatures would laugh and lash out, kicking or punching the little jester.
"Hey!" Santana yelled, and the music came to a sudden stop.
All of the creatures turned to look at her. They didn't have teeth, she realized. Instead, their mouths were filled with shards of stone and chips of glass.
The large one on the throne gave a yank to Brittany's chain, and she fell still. Her eyes were blank and unfocused, staring at the wall, and for a second, her gasps for breath were the only sound in the room. Then, the big one spoke.
"Who are you, who disturbs the Goblin King in his revelry?"
Its voice was deep and rumbling, its mouth filled with bright flecks of blue and green glass, cut into jagged edges. Santana didn't care.
"That's my friend. I came all this damn way to find her. Let her go," Santana said, waving her hand at Brittany.
The Goblin King began to laugh, a deep, raspy chuckle. After a second, all of the other goblins started to laugh along. Santana flushed with anger, clenching her fists.
"I think not," the Goblin King said. "She amuses me far too much."
Santana took a threatening step forward. "I'll show you amusing, you fat freak!" She waved the handle of her bat menacingly. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be so amused-"
Something suddenly slammed into the backs of her knees, and she fell, her forehead hitting the floor with a sickening smack.
After that, things got a little hazy.
The Goblin King said something, but his words were lost in the ringing in her ears. She blinked slowly, trying to focus, but everything was blurry and swimming around, and trying to look at something was making her nauseous. It was easier to just close her eyes for a second, to get her bearings.
---
She was being dragged along the ground, rough stone leaving scrapes on her legs and back. Her arms felt like they were being yanked out of their sockets. When she opened her eyes and lolled her head backwards, she could see two upside-down goblins, or maybe four, pulling her by her wrists. She tried to move, but all of her limbs seemed to be made of dead weight. She closed her eyes to gather her strength.
---
There was a strange clicking noise, like a metronome, echoing in the back of her head. Click, click, click. It was getting louder. Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps, she realized groggily. They were footsteps. Summoning all her strength, she opened her eyes. She was lying face-down on the floor, sprawled in an ungainly heap. With a mighty heave of her shoulders, she turned her head. The movement almost made her puke, but she fought to keep her eyes open, trying force her vision to stop blurring.
There were boots, coming down the hallway, getting closer and closer. She wanted to move, or make some noise, but turning her head had completely sapped her strength. Her eyes were sliding closed as the boots approached. Finally, they stopped directly in front of her. "Hmm," a voice said, and that was the last thing she heard before she slid into unconsciousness.
---
Chapter Three: The Meeting.
Pairing: Brittany/Santana
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: For Audition (2x01)
Summary: For this prompt on the glee_fluff_meme
Disclaimer: Don't own Glee, Shakespeare, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Pan's Labyrinth, or The Dresden Files.
Author's Notes: I like this chapter. Maybe a little too much.
Chapter One
---
It was a simple wooden door, plain, with no adornments, and so completely and utterly out of place in a sewer system that for a moment Santana simply stared at it, her mouth agape.
After her mind had ground back into gear, Santana looked around. The footprints stopped here. Brittany had obviously gone through this door, and as much as her nerves were screaming at her to run away, she had to follow.
Reaching out, she paused for a second. The door had no handle, no doorknob. She placed her hand against the smooth, solid wood and pushed.
The door slid open silently, and Santana couldn't really decide if it was creepier this way, or if it would be worse if it had made a lot of noise. Either way, it felt like every single hair on her body was standing on end. She was suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that her flashlight only cast a very very small circle of light, and that the area behind the door was very very dark.
She took a deep breath, then another. There was something about this door that was rubbing her the wrong way, something that was telling her senses that running as fast as she could in the opposite direction was the smart thing to do in this situation.
But Santana had never really cared what the smart thing to do was. She needed to find Brittany, and if it meant going through The Creepiest Door of All Time, then so be it. She steeled her nerves and stepped through the door.
Nothing happened.
Santana let out a breath that she didn't remember holding. She glanced around her, flashing her light from left to right. There was a path on either side, and one in front of her, long uniform stone corridors stretching out into pitch blackness. Little patches of moss were scattered randomly on parts of the walls, floors, and ceiling, and in places, some of the walls had broken or crumbled, leaving small piles of stone and dust. The air in here was different from the air in the sewer, dry and musty, and smelled of stone. It was like the air in a long-unused basement. Or a tomb.
Swallowing down that thought, Santana turned to her left. You were always supposed to go left in a maze, right? She had probably read that somewhere. Or something. Maybe she was just making it up. But it seemed like a good idea.
She started walking, then stopped. This was a little more serious than the sewer. Stooping, she grabbed a chunk of rock from the floor, juggling the bat and flashlight for a second before getting a hold on it. She scratched the rock against the wall, next to the door, and noted with satisfaction that it left a mark. She carefully etched the word 'Exit' into the wall, nodded to herself, then turned and began walking down the hallway.
If she had been a little less focused, she would have noticed that, underneath her mark and on the other side of the doorway, there were several other marks, made by different hands. Some of them looked quite old.
---
The first time she reached a fork in the road, she paused. She hadn't gone that far down the path, and if she remembered correctly, the fork to the left would lead directly back into the sewer system. But when she shone her light down the corridor, she could only see a long, unbroken stretch of hallway, continuing on past where her meager light could reach.
This was seriously odd. Actually, this was so far past odd that there probably wasn't a word for it yet. This was some seriously freaky shit, right here. She should probably go take the right fork, and stay to the area near the door, but she had made a decision and was sticking to it.
Making a mark on the wall, Santana started down the left-hand corridor.
---
It could have been an hour later. It could have been a day. There was no way of telling how much time had passed. Her feet hurt like hell. With every step, the crowbar thudded painfully against the same exact spot on her lower back. There was a 100% chance that she was getting a blister on the hand holding the bat. These walls were boring. The fear of the darkness had faded into intense irritation. She had drank half of one of her bottles of water and was now starting to feel an insistent need to pee. Working under Sue Sylvester for two years had taught her excellent bladder control, though, and she was distracting herself from thinking about her problems by working her way through her Glee repertoire.
"Ba ba da da da daaa, da da da daaa, da da da daaaa..." she warbled, half under her breath. "Ba da! Just a small town giiiiiiiirl....livin' in a looooooonely wooooooooorld....took the midnight train gooooooin' aaaaaaaaaaanyeeeeeeeeeeewheeeeee-"
She stopped singing and walking at the same time. The corridor came to an abrupt end a few feet away. This wasn't unusual; she had encountered several dead-ends so far, each more pointless and frustrating than the last. What was unusual was that this corridor ended in a door.
This was the first door she had seen since the entrance into this weird place, and it couldn't be more different. It was made of a dark metal, studded with spikes, and crossing it were straps of shining steel. There were no patches of moss on the walls or ceiling here, and the stone changed from grey to black a few feet in front of her.
All in all, everything about this place might as well have put up neon signs saying "Stay Away!!!"
But Santana was on a mission, and some Doom-ass, World of Warcraft-looking door wasn't going to stop her.
This door didn't have any handles either, but when Santana put both hands on the door and pushed, it easily swung open.
The air in the next room was warm, and close, smelling of smoke. It was a big room, too. It had to be, because there was something big in it.
The big thing was really big. It had big red scales. It had a big tail, and a big face, with a big long snout. Its big mouth was open and it had big shiny teeth. It had great big eyes that were closed right now but could open at any time.
Santana found herself thinking in tiny little words, because her mind wasn't really big enough to comprehend what was in front of her. Because tiny little words were the best thing to sum up a great big idea. An idea like, "There is a dragon in this room."
The eye closest to her opened.
It was beautiful, in a strange, fierce way. It looked like molten gold, swirling and bright, with a slash of pure black down the middle. The eye blinked twice, then focused on her.
Santana slowly eased herself out the door, pulling it shut behind her. She pressed her back to it, as uncomfortable as it was, for a second, like she would be able to stop what was in that room from coming out. Then she saw, as if for the first time, the black stone of the floor and walls in front of her, stretching halfway down the corridor.
Black stone. From fire. Halfway down the hall. Dragon. Fire.
Looking back on that moment, she was pretty sure that she had never moved that fast in her whole life.
---
She was still shaking from the experience about an hour later. Her mind kept shying away from what she had seen, trying to force her to think of something else. There were only two explanations for it: either she had completely lost her mind, or she was living in a world where dragons were real. Neither of these options was very appealing.
If she had completely lost her mind, there would be psychologists, medication, and hospitalization to look forward to. She would probably never graduate high school. That would suck hardcore because she had already started planning her acceptance speech as Prom Queen. But if she was living in a world where dragons were real, then-
And that's where she would usually start thinking about something else, because the idea was just too much. She was already tense and on edge from walking around these fucking endless hallways in utter darkness for-fucking-ever, she didn't need any goddamn mythological creatures tossed into the mix.
She reached another crossroads, and automatically scratched the wall as she turned to the left.
From behind her, there were three sharp knocks.
Santana froze, and for a second, it felt like all of the skin on her back was trying to crawl around to her front. She turned around, sweeping the beam of her flashlight around erratically. There was nothing that she could see, but the darkness was creeping in all around her, pressing her in. She started to back down the hallway, still frantically flicking the flashlight back and forth, hoping and yet not hoping to catch a glimpse of what had made that noise.
Again, three sharp knocks echoed down the corridor.
She started to back up faster, sure that the sound had come from one of the other two unexplored paths. Whatever it was, it had scared the living shit out of her, and she was starting to freak out as her mind raced to come up with what could have made that noise. Her hair tickled at her face and she brushed it away impatiently, not taking her eyes away from the dark hallway.
As she continued walking backwards, Santana let out a deep, shuddering breath and tried to force herself to relax. There had been no more knocks, but she kept backing down the hallway, not willing to let anything sneak up on her. While moving, she tried to force her breathing from the shallow panting of panic to a more normal rhythm.
In. Out.
In. Out.
In. Out.
The only sounds were her own breathing, and the quiet thuds of her footfalls.
She was more than 40 feet away from the crossroads now, and nothing had come rushing down the hall at her. There was a sudden tickle on her leg, and she swatted at it. A second later, there was another tickle, on the other leg. She swatted at that one, too.
Annoyed, she turned around, face-first into a spiderweb.
Sputtering indignantly, she waved her hands around her head like a lunatic, trying to get the strands off of her. She brushed her hair back and gave a shriek when she felt a little spider on the top of her head. She swept it off of her head, only to feel those little tickles on her legs again. Pointing the flashlight down, she screamed.
Her legs were dotted with little tiny spiders.
Screaming again, she did a frantic dance as she tried to shake the bugs off of both legs at the same time. She ended up shaking herself into another spiderweb, prompting another scream.
Now she was really freaking out. There were spiderwebs and spiders everywhere, they were all over her legs and arms and oh my God, what if they were under her clothes?!
A loud rustle from further down the hall made her freeze. Her skin itching and crawling with dread and dozens of insects, she whipped around.
Her flashlight shone through hundreds of spiderwebs, draping the halls like Halloween decorations, and directly into eight eyes the size of tennis balls, attached to a spider the size of a minivan.
The spider seemed to recover from the surprise first, and one giant, hairy leg reached out, lightning-quick. Screaming in utter terror, Santana swung the bat, slicing down through the webs and hitting the insect's leg with an almighty crack. The bat snapped in half, but the spider pulled back quickly, curling into itself and moving its mandibles.
Santana took the opportunity and fled, making a mad dash for the crossroads. She ducked around the corner, hoping that the spider was especially stupid and not inclined to following prey, and immediately began smacking at every itch and tickle on her body and shaking out her shirt, hoping to kill every single one of the tiny spiders.
Finally, she was pretty sure that she had gotten all of them, even the ones under her clothes and in her hair. Even so, she kept brushing at her arms and legs, hoping to erase the awful feeling of little bugs crawling all over her.
A stray hair brushed against her arm, and she immediately smacked it. Yeah, okay, she was a little jumpy right now, but that was to be expected, given that she had just seen a giant fucking spider, and now she was seriously starting to wonder what she was doing down here, because she really-
The flashlight suddenly dimmed.
"No," she said. She shook the flashlight, which didn't fix the problem at all. "No, stop it." As if it was purposely disobeying her command, the beam flickered.
"Fuck," she said. A small rain of rock dust fell on her head, instantly clinging to her tongue and making her cough. "Fuck," she said again. The beam from the flashlight flickered again. "Shit!"
This time, the rain of dust was accompanied by a small sharp rock, which hit her on the crown of her head. "Ow!" she said, trying to both clutch at the wound and shake the flashlight into life again. "Goddamn it!"
The light went out.
Santana went very, very still. The oppressive darkness was all around her now, weighing heavily, constricting her chest so it was hard to breathe. She hadn't planned for this, hadn't brought new batteries. How could she find her way back now? She couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She was completely alone, surrounded by monsters, in the complete and utter darkness below ground.
She needed to move, needed to get further away from something that had just tried to eat her, but her body was completely frozen by fear. She kept looking around her even though she couldn't see anything, and the more she looked and couldn't see, the more she panicked. Her heart was racing, fluttering in her chest, and every nerve in her body was on fire. Wave after wave of dread washed over her, leaving her gasping for breath. She was really going to die down here, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Some of the longest minutes of her entire life passed as she stood there, paralyzed with terror, pressing her back into the wall so hard it hurt.
Gradually, she became aware of something. Although it was still incredibly dark, she could make out the faint outlines of the corridors around her. There was some kind of light source. Her eyes darted from side to side, trying to figure out where the eerie glow was coming from.
Finally, she spotted it: some of the patches of moss were glowing faintly. She had skipped basically all of Biology class, but she could remember seeing something on the Discovery Channel one time about phosphorous plants or whatever. The moss must have those glowing bacteria or whatnot.
This was good. This was better than good. If she could see, then she could find her way out of here. But before she found her way out, she needed to find Brittany, because she was almost 100% sure the other girl didn't have a flashlight, and would therefore have been wandering around in this almost complete darkness the whole time.
She was definitely, totally not going to go down the left-hand corridor again, but there were two other paths here, and-
And there, down the middle path, was a pair of glowing eyes.
Santana experienced a moment of terror so absolute that she couldn't even scream, could only draw in a shuddering breath. Her 'fight or flight' response seemed to be stuck on 'freeze up like a deer in the headlights,' so she simply stood, trying to will her legs and arms to move, as the eyes began to creep closer and closer.
As she watched what she assumed to be her doom approach, Santana realized two things. One: the eyes were glowing like a cat's, catching and reflecting the meager light, not glowing from some internal light source. And Two: they were awfully close to the ground, meaning that whatever it was, despite having big-ass glowing eyes, was much smaller than she was.
Finally, a tiny little creature crept close enough that she could make out the details. It was very small, about the size of a house cat, but with almost comically oversized eyes and ears. Instead of paws, it had long, spindly fingers that were tipped with large pads, making it look like one of those weird animals that only came out at night in Madagascar. It had a long, whip-thin tail curled into a question-mark shape above its body, and it was completely hairless.
When it was about ten feet away, Santana shifted her feet slightly, not sure if she should be running from something that could almost be classified as 'so ugly it's kind of cute.' The critter immediately froze, its ears laying back against its head like a scared cat, its whole body poised to flee.
It was more scared of her than she was of it, she realized, and that filled her with confidence. "Hey," she said.
The creature scrunched its eyes shut, and covered its big ears with its creepy little hands. "Sorry," she whispered, and it opened its eyes again. Now that it was close, it was just looking at her, like it was waiting for something.
"Was I too loud before?" she whispered. The creature nodded, not blinking. "My bad."
Instead of making a noise, the little creature balled up one of its hands into a fist, and sharply rapped its knuckles against the floor. Three loud knocks echoed down the corridor.
"That was you?" Santana whispered. The creature nodded again. "Were you trying to tell me not to go that way?" Another nod. "Well, you scared me." No response. "But thanks for trying."
Still no answer. It was just staring at her, not blinking. She crouched down, trying to bring herself more to its level. "I'm looking for someone right now. Have you seen her? She's taller than me, pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes..." As she spoke, the creature began nodding furiously, its head shaking like a little bobblehead doll. "Can you show me where she is?"
The creature nodded a few more times, then turned and skittered away. Before she even had a chance to swear, those eyes appeared in the gloomy darkness again, just outside of what she could see in the faint glow of light. It was leading her.
Santana smiled. Things were looking up. Gripping what was left of her bat tightly, she followed her little guide down the hall.
---
She lost track of time again. Her world narrowed to glowing eyes down a long, dark corridor, and the brief glimpses she would catch of her little friend when it would wait for her so that she wouldn't miss a turn.
They passed three more doors on their way, but her guide didn't stop to look at them, so neither did she. She had learned her lesson about randomly opening doors down here, anyway.
Once, a strange noise in the distance had turned out to be a bubbling fountain, set into a niche in the wall. Santana stopped to stare, and saw that water, cool and crisp, was flowing out of a strange, half-carved face into a small basin, where it drained away. She started to lean closer, to try and make out what the face was supposed to be, and three sharp knocks echoed down the corridor.
"Don't drink the water, huh?" she muttered. There was no answer, and she started to lean in again. The water looked so pure and refreshing, and she was dusty and tired and hot, it probably wouldn't be so bad to just take one sip, right? Plus, that face...it looked like someone had roughly hacked it out in a hurry, but there was an odd elegance to the design. It looked almost familiar, a strange likeness to someone she knew, or had known before...
As she stared in fascination at the face carved in the wall, trying to place its features, she became aware of a heavy throbbing in her ears. Finally breaking her gaze away, she realized that the little creature had climbed the wall, directly next to her head, and was pounding its knuckles furiously against the stone. In her reverie, she had leaned in until she was inches from the fountain, so close that she could feel the spray of water on her cheek, her lips almost touching the stream of water. When she looked at her guide, it stopped knocking, and shook one finger at her like it was scolding her.
"Alright, alright, fine. Let's go," she muttered. The little animal shook its head furiously, exasperated, and scuttled back down the wall and into the darkness.
With one last, lingering look at the fountain, Santana followed.
---
Just when Santana was starting to think that she would be down here forever, endlessly following a little rat-Chihuahua thing until she dropped dead of exhaustion, she caught up to it.
It sat in the middle of the corridor, strangely bathed in light, waiting for her. When she was close, it pointed. There, in the wall, was a rough hole, barely four feet high and about three feet across. Unlike the smooth stone of the hallways, this looked more cave-like, less polished and more primal. When she bent to peer in, she could see a long path, with a small, bright light at the end.
"This is where she is?" Santana whispered, her voice rough from disuse. The little creature nodded.
"Thanks, little buddy. You really did me a solid." The creature didn't answer, just stared at her. She felt like she owed it something, for trying to save her life earlier and for leading her to where Brittany was.
Slipping her bag off of her shoulder, she opened it up and fished around inside. When she had run around her house earlier (had it really only been that morning? It felt like she had been down here for weeks), she had grabbed whatever food she first laid eyes on. Therefore, her idea of 'supplies' was apparently some Power Bars, a roll of Oreos, a bag of M&Ms, and a half a turkey sandwich she had made yesterday but didn't finish, wrapped in cellophane.
She pulled out the sandwich and unwrapped it, surreptitiously sniffing it as she did so. It didn't smell like it had gone bad, so she held it out. "Here you go, little man," she whispered. The creature hesitated, then crept closer, delicately taking the sandwich in one hand. "Yeah, thanks," she said, and gave it a thumbs-up. It paused, then cautiously returned the gesture with its long, stretched-out fingers.
She grinned, and after a moment, the creature grinned back, its tiny little snout parting to reveal a too-wide mouth, filled with long rows of tiny sharp teeth, a shark's mouth in miniature.
Then it turned and scuttled away with its prize, not seeing the way Santana had frozen, grin still in place, giving a thumbs-up to the empty air.
After replaying the sight of endless, glittering teeth a few times over in her head, Santana shook herself off. Brittany was in here, and once Santana found her, they could both go home, and never ever speak or even think about what happened down here ever ever again.
She had to crouch awkwardly to fit in the hole, hunching her shoulders and bending her knees, but she was nearing her goal, and a little discomfort was nothing by this point. Bent over until her hands almost touched the floor, Santana ducked into the entrance to the cave.
---
As she crawled, the light grew brighter, almost hurting her eyes after spending so long in the darkness. Then, she started to hear the faint sounds of music, thudding heavily in the distance. The air was starting to get warm and damp, and as she got closer to the end of the tunnel, she was overwhelmed by an awful stench, the smell of musk and smoke and sweat and body odor. She gagged a little, but kept going, moving faster until she eventually emerged in the light, blinking.
She was in a large room, which was filled with flickering torchlight. It was also filled with what could vaguely be described as "people," three-foot-high monsters, with ugly pig faces, big hairy ears, and squat, fat bodies. They were all watching the opposite end of the room, where a larger, taller version of the creatures around her was sprawled on a rough-hewn rock throne, surrounded by creatures that were beating on drums and blowing on pipes. Clutched in its hand was a small silver chain, which led to a collar currently fastened around Brittany's neck.
In a cleared circle in front of the throne, Brittany was dancing. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and her chest was heaving with ragged breaths, but she showed no signs of slowing down. Next to her, a tiny little monster, with a big goofy hat and oversized tennis shoes, was trying to mimic her movements. Every time he stumbled or missed a step, the other creatures would laugh and lash out, kicking or punching the little jester.
"Hey!" Santana yelled, and the music came to a sudden stop.
All of the creatures turned to look at her. They didn't have teeth, she realized. Instead, their mouths were filled with shards of stone and chips of glass.
The large one on the throne gave a yank to Brittany's chain, and she fell still. Her eyes were blank and unfocused, staring at the wall, and for a second, her gasps for breath were the only sound in the room. Then, the big one spoke.
"Who are you, who disturbs the Goblin King in his revelry?"
Its voice was deep and rumbling, its mouth filled with bright flecks of blue and green glass, cut into jagged edges. Santana didn't care.
"That's my friend. I came all this damn way to find her. Let her go," Santana said, waving her hand at Brittany.
The Goblin King began to laugh, a deep, raspy chuckle. After a second, all of the other goblins started to laugh along. Santana flushed with anger, clenching her fists.
"I think not," the Goblin King said. "She amuses me far too much."
Santana took a threatening step forward. "I'll show you amusing, you fat freak!" She waved the handle of her bat menacingly. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be so amused-"
Something suddenly slammed into the backs of her knees, and she fell, her forehead hitting the floor with a sickening smack.
After that, things got a little hazy.
The Goblin King said something, but his words were lost in the ringing in her ears. She blinked slowly, trying to focus, but everything was blurry and swimming around, and trying to look at something was making her nauseous. It was easier to just close her eyes for a second, to get her bearings.
---
She was being dragged along the ground, rough stone leaving scrapes on her legs and back. Her arms felt like they were being yanked out of their sockets. When she opened her eyes and lolled her head backwards, she could see two upside-down goblins, or maybe four, pulling her by her wrists. She tried to move, but all of her limbs seemed to be made of dead weight. She closed her eyes to gather her strength.
---
There was a strange clicking noise, like a metronome, echoing in the back of her head. Click, click, click. It was getting louder. Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps, she realized groggily. They were footsteps. Summoning all her strength, she opened her eyes. She was lying face-down on the floor, sprawled in an ungainly heap. With a mighty heave of her shoulders, she turned her head. The movement almost made her puke, but she fought to keep her eyes open, trying force her vision to stop blurring.
There were boots, coming down the hallway, getting closer and closer. She wanted to move, or make some noise, but turning her head had completely sapped her strength. Her eyes were sliding closed as the boots approached. Finally, they stopped directly in front of her. "Hmm," a voice said, and that was the last thing she heard before she slid into unconsciousness.
---
Chapter Three: The Meeting.