((I'm so sorry this took so long to get up. I was procrastinating for a really long time. This is for Cat-Stat-Ave, who requested this. It's going to end up a little different than we discussed, because that's how most of my stories go. I make a plan and it goes in a strange direction. I'm gonna try to stick to the plan as much as possible though. Please read and review, because reviews are love!))

Waking up on that first morning was nothing special, unlike the days that would follow. There was a strange feeling though, one that I tried to suppress as I went about my day. I felt like I was having deja-vu, but that doesn't really sum up the entire feeling. Something important was going to happen today, I thought as I got dressed in a pair of jeans, a red band t-shirt, and a black jacket. Although, ever since I had entered the campus, I had felt a strange something, but this feeling was different.

Well, thinking back on it, that shouldn't have surprised me so much. After all, it was the beginning of a new semester in college, and I had just transferred in. Well, really, my grandfather, Alaric, got sick of me partying so much back in the states and sent me out here, to the wilderness of Europe, to study in a calmer environment. Since it was such a good school, he sent my younger brother, Ludwig, along to watch over me and get a teaching degree.

I got a coffee and a muffin at the Starbucks, a recent addition to the ancient dining hall. There were only four food stalls in the entire place. One was traditional European food, one was McDonald's, one was Starbucks, and one was Panda Express. I hadn't tried the traditional place yet, but I could tell that it wasn't frequented as much as the other three. I had only been on campus for a week though.

I ran on to World History 101, a required class. I didn't really understand how history was going to help me with my art career, but I didn't have any say in it. Walking into class, that I was just barely in time for, I scanned the class for a free seat. The room was relatively small for the thirty-or-so people who were sitting at the desks, but high stained glass windows let in plenty of natural light.

You would think this place would have been a chapel in its earlier days, but it wasn't. This room, in the rather expansive estate that was now a school, had been a master bedroom. If you looked hard enough at the walls, you could see where a bureau, a canopy bed, paintings, and possibly a full-length mirror had been. The master of the house who had lived here, in the 1700s, had lived in this room until his early twenties. Where he dwelled until his death, which happened to be when he was only twenty-eight, no one knows.

I only knew this because the school had handed out pamphlets informing you about every classroom, or common room, you would be likely to be using that semester, and I was actually bored enough to read them. Somehow, the story was familiar to me though, and I felt there was much more behind it than the faculty knew.

Sitting down by one of the windows, I looked out across the grounds. I could see the edge of the woods from there, and a bit deeper if I strained my eyes. There, surrounded by trees, covered in vines, and deep in growth, was another building. On my first day, when I had asked a janitor what that building was, he had replied that it was a mystery to anyone. People had tried to investigate, but had been scared away by the "little folk", spirits that haunted the forest.

He wouldn't give me any more than that, sadly.

The door opened again, and I turned back, expecting the professor. Instead, I was greeted with a most beautiful sight. A girl with long tawny hair that was pulled back in a bun with a ribbon. She wore a green cotton dress that stopped at her knees, and a pair of brown flats. A messenger bag was slung over her shoulder.

Her gorgeous emerald eyes scanned the class, searching for a place to sit down. Her eyes locked on the desk next to mine, the only available seat, then flicked to look at me. She looked genuinely shocked, more than my unusual appearance usually does. The girl looked like she recognized me, but I hadn't been around campus that much, and I'd definitely remember meeting her.

She strode to the desk, then turned to me with questioning eyes. She looked slightly hopeful, for some unknown reason, as she asked, "Do you know me?"

Pausing to ponder her question, I decided my best course of action. I smiled charmingly up at her as I answered, "No, but I'd like to."

She sighed and sat down, "Never mind. I mistook you for someone else."

"I didn't think anyone looked like me," I said, frowning.

"Well, there is. Somewhere. I just have to keep looking, I guess." She turned away and fell silent.

I shrugged and turned back to the window, resuming my stare. That building, and what lied beyond was so painfully familiar that it gave me a headache. Yet, I was unable to look away. The beauty of the building, so empty and forgotten now, felt like it also applied to me. I didn't know why. I found myself ignoring every word that the professor uttered thence on, thinking of the little folk and that building.

When class ended, I stood immediately and left. Instead of heading to my next class, Advanced Color, I walked out to the edge of the woods. Staring at the building, several hundred yards away, I could swear I saw a figure glowing in the window, but it could have been a reflection from the setting sun.

"That building is off-limits." I turned quickly to see that beauty from class standing there, looking at me curiously.

"Why?"

"Apparently, when they were converting the estate into a school, anyone who tried to enter the building would end up hurt, or passing out on the spot. The workers who passed out would rave about spirits and how only the owner of the building could enter."

"Oh...that poor building," I muttered, looking over at it. To me, it seemed like it was just waiting for its owner to come back.

"What's your name? I'm sorry, I forgot to ask in class." The girl queried.

"Gilbert. Gilbert Beilschmidt. And yours?"

The green-eyed girl smiled as she replied, "Elizabeta Hedervary."

Flicking my eyes back to the building, I said, "I'm going in there, you know. Tonight. I just feel like I have to."

"So, if you aren't back by tomorrow, I should tell the campus police to start looking?" She asked, a joking smile tugging at her lips.

I laughed, "Yeah, that'd be a good idea."

"Oh, and if you run into trouble, just call me." She pulled a Sharpie out of her messenger bag and grabbed my arm, scribbling down her digits. I blushed when she wasn't looking, because of her unchecked closeness, but the added color soon disappeared when I decided that it was comfortable being near her.

"What if the trouble is that I can't decide which pretty girl on campus I want to take out to dinner first? Should I call you then, to see if you would like to go?" I asked, before I lost my nerve.

Elizabeta's cheeks turned red and she looked speechless for a minute. She looked like she was trying to decide whether to slap me or not. Then, she grinned and replied, "Only if I'm the first you call," before she turned and walked away.

I stared at the corner of the main building that she disappeared around for a full five minutes before I walked on to my class. 'Wow, that's a girl you don't see every day.' I thought. Elizabeta Hedervary would be mine.