lilly in the labyrinth

chapter 1

It's a cold and silent autumn night; the full moon illuminates the sky whilst a pitch black raven perches on a tree branch outside of an apartment window, staring blankly inside. In the apartment a petite girl in her early twenties named Lilly lays in her bed reading a little red book and eating from a small bag of chips. "Guurrr" Her stomach growls. She reaches into the bag of chips, feeling around for any decent sized crumbs, but it's empty. [Just when it was getting so good and I've almost finished the book]. She gets out of bed with a sigh and heads to the kitchen. On her way out of the room she passes a mirror and stops to look at her reflection. Her medium length, platinum - blonde hair is a mess due to her laziness. Her bright hazel eyes are blood shot from reading all day and into the night. The shirt she is wearing (that is several sizes too big) is speckled with chip crumbs, which she then brushes off. "Grurrg" [Alright, alright, I'll go see what's in the in the fridge.] She walks into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. To her dismay it was mostly empty save for a pitcher of tea. [Right, I was going to buy groceries today. Guess I'll have to make due till tomorrow.] So she looks through the cupboards and finds a box of cereal, fills a small bowl and pours herself a cup of tea. With snacks in hand, Lilly returns to her room with the intention of finishing that book before she passes out.

Once again she lays in bed reading and occasionally munching on the cereal. This goes on for about twenty minutes until the book is finally over. She looks over at the half-eaten bowl of dry cereal. [I'll just go to bed without eating the rest, I'm going to eat when I wake up anyways.] She turns out the lights and covers up for bed. [Dang, I have an art history exam tomorrow. Ugh, I wish my life was like that girls' in the book, full of magic and strange creatures.] Soon she fell into a deep sleep.

Amidst her slumber she could hear the voice of a man, calm but tinged with a slight amusement: "Tsk-tsk dear Lilly, you lay in bed all day and now you're going to waist this beautiful night. It's a wonder how you live like this and remain so thin."

Upon hearing his voice she wakes up. In the corner of the room sits a man at a table by her window. Before she can scream he waves his hand and her palm covers her mouth immediately.

"Now, now it would be inconsiderate to wake your neighbors." he says with a smirk.

She lowers her hand and says "Who are you?"

"I'm called by many names, but to you my dear, I am Oberon." he says still smirking.

Now that she has calmed down some she can see him clearly. He's a tall man wearing extravagant clothes with black, gravity-defying hair. His eyes have pale grey irises surrounded by darkness.

"So... can I help you? Are you a flamboyant serial killer or is this like an acid flashback or something?

"I'm nothing of the sort, I am a granter of wishes and I have granted yours."

"... My wish?"

"Yes, you wished for a life of magic and wonder and I have brought you to it, see for yourself." He waves his hand again, though this time the bedroom erupts with loud rumbling and cracking noises. The walls splinter and crumble away revealing a vast crater with an immense piece of land suspended in the middle, above a deep lake. Lilly stands at the edge by a long stone bridge, hundreds of yards in front of her are the great stone walls of an enormous labyrinth. A dark castle sprawls out from its center, filling most of the space beyond the walls with towers and strange structures. She stood there in awe saying nothing.

"So what shall you do next?"

"I'm not sure, what all can I do now? Can I go back home whenever I want?"

"Why you can do whatever you want here. Why would you want to leave? You just got here."

"Well, just show me the way back home please."

"Silly Lilly, there is no path or direction you could take out of my realm unless it leads to me, for only I can take you back home."

"Fine. Could you please take me home then?"

"A gift cannot always be so easily rescinded, if you want to leave you'll have to strike a deal with me." He says with a deviant grin on his face.

"... What do you want me to do?"

"You have thirteen hours to get to me in my castle in the center of the labyrinth, and if you fail you'll be my concubine for eternity."

Lilly stood there silent. [Concubine?! Like hell! What do I do!? Whether he's lying or telling the truth I seem pretty fucked either way.]
"... Alright, I'll do it, it's not like I have much of a choice." She says with contempt.

"Good, now before you leave let's get you out of these rags."
He waves his hand and instantly her clothes turn into a beautiful white and lavender dress with a black ribbon around the waist.

"Much better, and one last thing, I'd like to offer you a gift that will help you in the labyrinth." He holds out a small, purple velvet bag

"A fancy sack?"

"Tis no mere sack dear girl, but a bottomless bag that can carry an infinite supply of items and render them weightless inside. Now off you go, and take your time." With a wink Oberon vanishes like mist in the wind.

So with nowhere else to go she starts crossing the bridge towards the labyrinth. [It's bigger than anything I've ever seen. But surely it won't take thirteen hours to get to the castle. I can make it.] Upon reaching the outer wall she spots a brass door with a metal sphere clasped by a loop as a door knocker. She walks up and grabs the knocker, as soon as she does a massive yellow eye forms on the door. It stares at her intensely, never blinking. She shrieks and lets go of the door knocker. The eyes' pupil dilates and the door begins moving away. Lilly runs and reaches for the knocker, grabbing hold tight she tries knocking on the door. The eye on the door seems to display a bit of glee as it drags her across the ground, continually picking up speed. After about twenty or so seconds the strain on her hand and arm is too much, she drops the magic bag and tries to grab on with both hands but she loses her grip and she's sent tumbling across the ground.

Lilly lays there for a moment and tries to blow her bangs out of her eyes. "Welp, apparently doors work differently here."

After a few moments she gets up, brushes off the dirt and walks over to retrieve the bag. Uncertain of where to go next she wanders along the wall for a bit until finding an odd section of wall covered in thick vines. [Of course I couldn't just walk there.] Grabbing on to a thick mess of vines, she begins to pull herself up. But upon pulling the vines, the wall makes a loud "click"; the sounds of machines whirring and stone grinding come from within as a section of the wall slowly sinks to the ground providing her with an entrance. Lilly walks through the opening and looks both ways: to her left is a long hallway with no end or corners in sight and on her right it was exactly the same save for debris laying around in different spots. [What the heck am I going to do? I can't pick out any details to help me choose which way to go... so I guess I'll just follow a path without choosing.] She closes her eyes, spins around three times and opens them to see that she stands facing mostly towards the way she came but slightly left. [Yeah... I guess that didn't make much sense. Oh well, fuck it! Left it is then.]

For what seems like hours, Lilly marches down the path on a mostly empty stomach. The longer she walks the more pressure she feels. [Man, how long have I been walking!? For all I know I could be halfway through my time limit!] The stress rushes her until she can't wait anymore, Lilly sprints down the hall frantically in hopes of seeing some sign that she is getting closer.
19 chapters, created 9 years , updated 5 years
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Twig Higgins 5 years
Here's a link to the updated version: https://www.deviantart.com/twig-higgins/art/Lilly-in-the-Labyrinth-Chp-1-BBW-SSBBW-WG-Story-770971176
Twig Higgins 5 years
Ignore the bold print at the end of chapter 7, it's not supposed to be bold but I can't change it. Also one of the quotation marks in chapter 18 has been changed to "& quot;" and it won't let me fix that either. Anyone know why it's doing this?
Noarthereonl... 5 years
So good!
Theswordsman 5 years
This is good
Twig Higgins 9 years
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. Good, there's still quite a bit left in this story though I can't say exactly how much longer it will be.
Redneck9 9 years
Can't wait for more!
DemonNeko 9 years
this is grate please don`t stop