Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun

by Guillermo del Toro

From dusk till dawn that night Alba stayed in the labyrinth, walking its crooked paths, even though her infant son was crying for her milk in her chambers. Ayuso didn’t follow her, afraid the labyrinth wouldn’t reveal the answers his wife so desperately yearned for in his presence. He waited all night in front of the labyrinth and when Alba finally came out, Ayuso saw in her face that she hadn’t found what she’d been looking for. Every month for the next twelve months, on the night of the full moon, Alba went back into the labyrinth, but all she found between its stone walls was silence, and her sadness grew and grew until one moonless November night, she fell gravely ill. She died before the moon was full again, and one hour after she drew her last breath, Ayuso sent five of his soldiers to the witch’s hut. They dragged Rocio through the woods and into the millpond, although the miller begged them not to curse his mill with such a deed. It took three men to drown her. They left her body drifting between the lily pads for the fish to eat. Fifteen years later, Ayuso’s son walked into the labyrinth hoping to find his mother there. He was never seen again, and it took another two hundred and twenty-three years until the prophecy of the witch came true and the labyrinth revealed his mother’s true name when she once again walked its ancient corridors as a girl called Ofelia.