Alicen Porter walked through the park in silence. The sun was just beginning to set off into the other side of the world, and the sky looked like a multicolor painting. Besides the small animals, and the sleeping birds, the park was empty. Alice didn't mind the quietness though. She had just got off of work at a bar with sexually harassing men and loud women, and the quietness was pleasing to her. She never minded the solitude, ever.

At the edge of the park, beside the dark waters of the river, there was a single bench. Alice sat herself down upon it and rubbed her temples with her fingers, dulling the pain of her long-day headache. Soon she found herself staring at the star-studded sky above the black liquid river, and slowly falling asleep.

She awoke to a silent rustling. It was night and the stars in the sky winked at her. She sat up quickly, looking around for any intruders, but she found none. Something was wrong. Something didn't feel right. Her mother's wedding ring was gone. Her finger was left bare and naked. Someone had stolen it!

Alice's tips from the bar were still in her pocket, and her pearl necklace was still clasped around her neck, but her ring was gone. She never removed it from her finger, so where did it go.

There was a small walkway in the park, and the little light given off from the small street-lamps gave it an eerie glow. Alice thought that she saw something in the light. Something small and childlike, but in another minute it was gone.

That is strange, she thought to herself, as she neared the walkway to investigate.

She was now standing beneath the moth-infested beam of light and she saw nothing, but she knew that the thief was near. She could hear the rustling of someone in the shrubs right beside her.

Pretending she didn't notice anything, she walked around the light and the shrubbery and started tapping her boots as she walked a little further down the sidewalk.

Suddenly a small boy popped out of the bushes and took off in a mad dash, deeper into the park.

Alice took off after him.

"Hey, come back!" she yelled, but the boy still ran his little heart out. He couldn't have been older than seven! Why would he be stealing from her?

Suddenly the boy was cornered by a large stone wall. He stopped and turned around. Alice could actually take in what the boy looked like from here. He wore strange clothes. It was like he jumped out of a gothic circus. His pants were black and red pin-stripes, his coat was black and tied with a skull like bow, and as Alice stopped in front of him, he put on a hat that seemed to come out of nowhere. The more Alice looked at him, the more she noticed that he didn't really look like a little boy at all. He had the eyes of someone older, much older.

"Give me my ring back," she said to the boy. The boy smiled a smile of sharpened teeth. Alice couldn't help but flinch at the sight of the ragged sharp teeth, but she neared the boy once again.

"Please give me my ring. It was my mothers."

"I like this piece of jewelry," the boy said, his voice resembling that of a British person's, but very different, 'and the Queen would be very pleased if I brought this back."

"I don't care," Alice said, "I have you cornered and now you have to give it back. Do you want me to call the police?"

The boy looked at her quizzically. "Do you know what you are dealing with?" he asked her in a cocky manner.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked him.

The boy shook his head and turned around, only to look over his shoulder once more before a big dark tunnel appeared in the stone wall.

"If you don't want to die," he said, again smiling his biting smile, "than I suggest you go home and forget about the ring and I. But...if you want to die trying to get it back, you can follow me."

With that the boy jumped into the hole, disappearing completely. Alice couldn't believe what she just saw and what he just said. She figured that this boy wasn't from England. But wherever he was from, she was going to get her ring back that was for sure. She wasn't going to give up that easily.

Taking a few steps forward she put her hand in the darkness. Nothing bit her or grabbed her, and with one single step, she entered...