Rapunzel Untangled by Cindy C Bennett Page A

the table.
    From there they entered the foyer. Sunlight filtered through a tall wooden door with patterned stained glass windowpanes that caused panic to fill her belly again. On the opposite side of that door was the outside world that she’d only ever seen from her window high in her tower. She took one step toward the door as if to step into the world, but Fane tugged her lightly back. He pointed to the little white box affixed to the wall next to the door that flashed a red light.
    “Alarm,” he said. “If you open the door, it’ll go off.”
    Rapunzel nodded, disappointed that she couldn’t follow her instinct. A wide set of stairs led up to a landing, where the stairs then split in opposite directions. Rapunzel thought they might go up, but instead Fane led her around the base of the stairs into a darker area. He opened a narrow door. A set of stairs that descended beneath the others. As they went down, the house changed.
    It was darker, the little light available coming from both the upstairs and small windows tucked up against the ceiling in the rooms that they passed, all of them with cement walls and floors, dust and cobwebs evidence of their disuse. Rapunzel shivered, not completely due to the chill pervading this area of the house.
    They came across a set of wooden steps that led up. By mutual silent consent they followed them, only to find that they ended at a cement wall. There was no door, no hallway, just a solid wall.
    “Huh,” Fane said, not sounding all that surprised. The discovery stunned Rapunzel. What was the point of the stairway?
    They descended, discovering several other sets of stairs, both ascending and descending that ended in the same manner, or sometimes at a door that opened to a wall. The more they found, the more the sick feeling in the pit of Rapunzel’s stomach increased. Finally they found a set of stairs opening onto a narrow walkway. Fane pulled his phone out to light the path in the dark. Rapunzel could feel the soft, stringy pieces of webs sticking to her face and arms and, shivering, tried to push the thought of it from her mind. The path went on for some ways, and Fane asked her if she thought they should turn around.
    “Maybe,” she said. “What do you think?”
    He thought for a moment then said, “Let’s go a little farther and see if we find a way out. If not, we go back.”
    Rapunzel agreed and they soon came to a door. Fane put his shoulder against it and gave it a couple of hard hits. It flew open, spilling him into a room like the others that had light coming in through their dingy windows.
    “Stairs,” he said, pointing to the opposite side of the room. They went up, ending in a trap door above their heads. Fane pushed it open and stepped up and out of the hole. He looked around before turning to lean down and offer his hands to Rapunzel. She placed her hands in his, and he pulled her up and out into a brightness that hurt her eyes.
    “What is this?” she breathed, looking around in awe at the room made of glass. Plants and flowers grew everywhere, even trees. Rapunzel reached out and reverently brushed her fingers over the pink rose nearest her. She took a deep breath, breathing in the fresh smells, a mixture of scents she’d never experienced.
    “A green house, or nursery,” Fane told her. “People use these to grow plants where they can bloom year round. That way they won’t die in the winter.”
    Rapunzel walked down the aisle, wonder lighting her eyes. Fane dropped the trap door, causing her to flinch and look back. “Well, I guess I know how I can get out of the house tonight without risking my neck on the trellis that will probably fall when I climb on it.”
    Rapunzel hadn’t even thought of that. She was just so glad he’d made it in safely it hadn’t occurred to her to figure out how he could get back out. He jogged the short distance to catch up to her. He took her hand once again, and though she didn’t need it for security, she was