Under the Roses

10 - The Jaws That Bite, the Claws That Snatch

RAPUNZEL

It was wet and slippery inside the beast's mouth. Rapunzel screamed as darkness encapsulated her, rows and rows of thin, jagged teeth closing in. It smelled disgusting, so much that she wanted to throw up.

She had to stop screaming. She didn't even want to breathe in the putrid stench of the beast's insides, but it was impossible to escape the saliva. It was thick, disgustingly blackish, and it dripped down onto Rapunzel's head as she grabbed at the beast's teeth to keep herself from falling down into the slippery abyss of its throat.

There were muffled shouts from outside. Those stupid strangers. They were the reason she was even here in the first place.

The beast's teeth gnashed together, and with a yelp, Rapunzel let go. Realizing her mistake only too late, she tried to grab something, but there was only the squishy flesh of the beast's throat as she slid.

Rapunzel screamed again. A wet glob of saliva hit her face and she had to stop.

It was Snow White's fault. If she weren't so beautiful and hadn't stolen the prince's heart, Rapunzel wouldn't even have to be here! She wouldn't have to be in Ailthe with a bunch of strangers who had let her get eaten up by some stupid beast!

If it weren't for Ruben and Oskar and Nicolai and Cecilia, she would be at home, resting peacefully, watching the prince from her window. But no. Of course not!

She landed on something soft and squishy. Saliva followed her, and she ducked out of the way with a shriek. She wanted so bad to wipe her face, but her hands were covered in that same sticky goop.

There was a hiss and bubble around her, but she couldn't see out of the hair in front of her face and the saliva that dripped from her eyelashes. It was dark, anyway, but she knew where she was—in the beast's stomach.

With a whimper, Rapunzel scrambled away from the acid in the pit of the beast's stomach. She was going to die here. She was going to die.

The beast was moving. Jumping up and down, it seemed like. Rapunzel was getting jostled all over the place, and she forced herself not to throw up as she gripped the side of the beast's soft stomach, digging her nails in to keep herself from getting flung into the sizzling pit of stomach acid.

The strangers were still shouting outside. Were they seriously just going to let Rapunzel die in there?

"Are you alive in there!?" cried one of the girls—the younger one, who was definitely not eleven years old.

Rapunzel just screamed in response. A bit of the beast's saliva dripped into her mouth, and she spat it out, horrified. She retched as she tried to get the disgusting, salty taste out of her mouth.

There were screams. As if they had anything to scream about—they weren't the ones stuck in this beast's stomach!

It was getting hard to breathe. Not that Rapunzel wanted to breathe; it smelled so nasty that she would rather suffocate. But still, she was going to die. And her prince wouldn't even know her name!

She heard the beast make weird, guttural noises that shook her even more, its stomach pulsing in a way that made Rapunzel sick.

More screams. Rapunzel wanted to scream, too, but she was too afraid of getting anything else in her mouth. What if the beast's saliva was actually poison?

Something splashed beside Rapunzel, and she let out an involuntary shriek, moving away from the sound.

"Oh, Fates!" shouted one of the girls. Vanessa. Her voice wasn't muffled, as if...