Castle Labyrinth

The ominous castle by the water loomed high above. It was a labyrinth that scared most. There was talk in the town about how the castle lost the princess it once had, and it was going to soon pick another one. "How do we even know it had a princess at all in there to begin with?" Vetiver asked her cat Lemon Square.

"There was once a girl around your age who was pulled over by a force there, went into the castle, and disappeared forever," he waved his paws for emphasis.

"How intriguing," she replied as she dabbed on her daily coat of Chanel No. 5 perfume, with notes jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, cedar, and of course vetiver.

"No, do not be intrigued. The only way to avoid becoming drawn to the place and stuck there is to be afraid of it!" Lemon Square warned.

"I don't know, that seems like something squares would do," Vetiver laughed at the name she had given her cat. Mostly because she loved baking lemon squares, but it was great being able to call him a square at times he was totally being one!

"Oh hah hah, I just love that joke every single time you tell it and will never get old," the cat licked his paws and then pointed them at her, "Look girl, if you ever get a call to that castle because of your curiousity..."

"Oh come on!" she interrupted him, "Cats are supposed to be curious! Why did I adopt the least curious cat?"

"I am curious about small things like what you keep in you laundry room cabinets, not a giant castle that others become sucked into forever."

"Then you can get sucked in with me."

"Ugh, dragging me there against my will are you?"

"I need my companion," she pet Lemon Square and tried to sleep, but the castle floated within her visions. More of the towers and gardens than just the outside. There were exploration of lavishes calling her name. Enchantments waking her from slumber. She got up and picked up the sleeping cat into a blanket and walked to the Labyrinth castle. It loomed ominously and glinted with bright lights like fireworks pointing to the entrance.

She walked in and stepped into a room with a tea table and a fireplace blazing with invitation. Vetiver sat down and picked up the teacup. She took a sip and it was her favorite blueberry green tea. She sat there enjoying the warmth of tea and fire when she caught the scent of Chanel No. 5. The bottle of perfume, chapstick, and a small bottle of water was all she had brought with her in her pockets. She believed maybe the perfume bottle had burst open on her robe and nightgown. She reached down and it was still capped. The smell was in the room. She walked over to the flowers on the edges of the room and felt them. They felt... almost real but not quite. They were fake and had perfume spilled onto them. "Don't have the type of magic to conjure real flowers, huh?"

She picked up the sleeping cat and started walking through the corridor. It had many pictures of women in the walkway. "It is all of the women chosen as princesses," Lemon Square looked up, "Oh no, we came to the castle in my sleep."

"We can look for them and find out what happened to them," she continued walking until she reached a room that was just a giant aquarium.

"That might be what all of the others thought when they came here, but also got trapped forever," the cat meowed feistily.

"What if they just stayed," she suggested.

"Yeah?" Never to go out and visit anyone else ever again. I more so have the feeling that they got stuck. This place is supposed to be endlessly twisting with no real way out," Lemon Square stared at the fish darting around in the aquariums.

"They have to be in a room here, we must come across them some time," Vetiver hoped.

"If the castle can conjure whatever room it wants for you, it can keep you all constantly separated," the cat informed.

"There has to be a way to have control over what the castle does!" she was determined.

"Well the other ladies had all the time in the world to figure that out, but yet the castle swallowed them up and never spit them out," the cat walked beside Vetiver as they entered a room with a small breakfast table with scones and a couple of shelves with books. Vetiver ate a scone and looked through the books. "Find anything to read?" a voice that sounded just like a childhood best friend she once had named Mimi spoke.

Vetiver turned around and there she was! "Mimi?" she asked.

"Kind of. More like a magical representation of her, but still here to be your friend," Mimi nodded, "Want to do something fun like conjure up your past bullies and tell them what for?"

"Why would I want to do that?" she wondered.

"Because the pain still runs deep," she smiled

"There is no need to go back like that. We all move on."

"Do we really move on," fake Mimi stepped forward, "I mean, just think what we could be now. Closer than ever. The only friend that actually kept in your sights, because I know all the rest never gave a damn."

"You are not real though, it would be like friends with a talking mannequin," Vetiver pointed out.

"These halls were meant for the justice you did not get for all that has happened to you. Getting what you never got to have and living in the magic of what should have always been yours," Mimi touched Vetiver and she began having visions of the past. Such joyous times before Mimi left too soon.

"There is no real way to prove Mimi and I would still be friends now. Many friends fall apart. Who is to say?"

Mimi started fading and yelled, "No, make me come back. Relish in our memory. Stay living here in the past!"

"No, I won't. The others may have gotten stuck here in all the wonder, but I want to live my life. I don't want to get stuck as a princess of the past. She picked up Lemon Square and kept running. The hallways were endless. With each dead end she kept trying to find the way out. Through each bowling alley and swimming pool she wanted to stop and stare. Each hall containing a part of her past that made her want to intervene or change it. She couldn't bask in any luxuries or linger for too long though, or it would mean to be stuck forever. She finally found a door that was the end and lead to the outside. When she ran from the castle, the magic exploded and the castle broke down in ruins, and the curse of princesses of the past had been lifted. Vetiver mourned for all the girls the castle had swallowed and Lemon Square purred on their way back home.