AN. The year is 1830 and Lima, Ohio hadn't existed.
AN.1. The existence of Aaron Puckerman is acknowledged.


In place of it is a town named Little Harrow, and there was something wrong with the day March 18. It's the day the new comers settle in.

Don't get me wrong, I, Rachel Berry am not quick to judge on people and my best friends Samuel and Michael took me out to watch them entering the estate with not one, but two horse-drawn carriages bring a family of only three people to the large, abandoned mansion that was our secret hideout most of our childhood. You know, so then I'd be able to judge them.

These people were about to take it for themselves, and it wasn't fair.

I wanted to storm in, but Samuel and Michael held my arms and dragged me down the bush, shushing me for fear of being seen by anyone at this hour. Curfew was two hours ago, but we wanted to see the carriages.

"Let's move closer." Samuel suggested, gesturing to move through the bushes with his thumb.

By all means, Sam wasn't the leader of our little trio, but we listened anyway, getting more and more curious as to what we'd discover tonight. Michael grabbed my hand; I looked at him plainly, raising an eyebrow in the process.

"We can go home if you don't want to do this." His eyes registered worry and panic as I squeezed his hand.

"Michael, I didn't come all this way not to see who these people are." He gulped, and released my hand. He always has been the rational one of the three of us. But lately there's this extra tenderness in him I can't explain.

"Fine." He smiled and I carried on.

"Hurry up guys! They're unloading the carriage!" Samuel whispered to us quite excitedly. I moved to his left and saw the lights from the vehicle turn off and lessen our already hazy vision. There was fog, and Michael did not seem to like where this was going. "Chicken." Samuel hissed under his breath, earning a slap on the shoulder from Michael, leaving me laughing until the door opened.

"Quiet! Both of you!" I reprimanded, wanting to see the faces of the new residents in town. It was fairly strange, to travel at night. Why do it in the darkness when the light has far more visual opportunities? The conductor grabbed the suitcases from the second carriage and set it out in front of the door before opening it for the people inside.

Seconds later and we see a boot, a fancy one that looked like it belonged to Lords and Ladies. Who came out with it is what stunned us even more.

It was a lady with fair hair, and she was in a tight emerald dress. None of us could see her face but her skin was a ghostly pale. She moved gracefully, as if she were inhuman. That's what she was and that's how she seemed. Her presence moved us, and we couldn't do a thing. Her face was covered by her hat, but we saw her mouth, which was curled in a lopsided grin. It was as if she knew we were there.

She grabbed the suitcases on either side of her body and began walking in the manor with a twisted laugh.

"Holy Ghost." Samuel swore, taking off his hat. I looked at him jealously simply because no one had ever looked at me the way the two men beside me were looking at her now.

"Great Heavens." Michael said at almost the same time, and swallowed a lump that formed in his throat.

"Seriously Samuel, Michael? She is not that beautiful." I said bitterly and I didn't know why. They did not argue with me though, I do not think they even noticed my claims. Their heads simply turned to watch the woman enter the mansion.

There was a second figure. A man came out now, and he was wearing a rich man's suit. It was all black, save the golden laced design, and his head was shaved. It was odd. No one shaved their head around here, it was a sign that you were a warlock, but the stranger thing than that was he looked oddly familiar. He had those deep set eyes, and then I remembered.

Aaron Puckerman had eyes like those, except his wasn't as golden as this guy's was.

"What is Aaron doing out?" I heard Samuel ask Michael. Aaron hasn't been allowed out of the house ever since he turned seventeen months ago. It was hard. Aaron was a good friend of ours, and now it's like he's being kept prisoner. The Aaron Puckerman look alike turned his head, and we noticed that he did not have a shaved head; his had a strip of hair at the center of his head.

"That's not Aaron." Michael surmised, he was almost as smart as I was for figuring that out. Samuel shook his head in disbelief.

"Alright then, if that isn't Aaron, who in the ghost is that?" Samuel was using Small talk he learned from men at the tavern last week. It was horrible, he felt like one of the hooligans that ate and drank at his father's bar too.

We were busy arguing to notice that the Aaron Puckerman look-alike was gone. It was all very strange, nothing seemed to make sense except for the fact that I was going to be in loads of trouble when my father finds out that Samuel and Michael snuck me out to see the carriages that carried these people. People we had to meet when the sun came up.

"I'm never coming back here." Michael whispered to me, Samuel laughed.

"I knew you were a chicken, Cudmore!" Samuel then pushed Michael and he fell to the ground, the former began running with Michael chasing after him. I didn't follow. My eyes were on the ground he stood on, and as it moved to the path of the mansion, I saw him. He was staring right at me. This Aaron look-alike. He had the eyes of the devil and his mouth was in the same lopsided grin as the woman's.

I ran. Ran like I never have before, there were tears in my eyes and I just wanted to find Michael and Samuel. I screamed their names so they'd find me, and after a few seconds I crashed into Michael's arms. I was so scared. His eyes were about to suck me inside. I didn't want to, it felt like death.

I promised myself then to never leave the sight of these men. Ever.


AN.2. Mike's name was changed to Cudmore because of the complications of immigrants during that time. He's still Harry Shum Jr, and Samuel is obviously Chord Overstreet.