I…I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am…

Lights faintly glistened through my closed eyes lids. I could muster out the sound of whispers and gasps. My stomach churned as my head continued to throb; the last thing I remembered was I was walking home from my friend's house and decided to cut through the church yard. Two men in black suits were leaning up against the rusty fence where the old graveyard was; one man had long, red locks while the other man's hair was multi-colored. Both of them wore spectacles. I had seemed to have caught their interest for they slowly approached me from the other side of the field.

"Is this the one, boss?" The multi-colored hair man asked as he observed me from head to toe. It was then that I noticed he kept a lawn mower by his side, and I had noticed that the two men had the same eye color. It was a strange, almost neon green color that I had never seen any normal human possess. I figured at that moment the two were not normal human beings.

The ginger nodded. "Yes, this is Anna Nicole Grayson. She is the one that my dear Bassy orde-er…I mean requested us to find."

The other man started up his lawnmower. "Alright, let's get this over with. Little miss, I am afraid that this is going to be one hell of a ride."

I cocked my head; I had no idea what was going on. Where they going to kidnap me? Rape me? Kill me perhaps? Hell, they could do all the above! I growled and began to run as fast as I could. I darted into the graveyard and let out a piercing scream. There was another man there waiting for me! This man was dressed in black robes, and had a tall top hat covering most of his face. I could see some scars cascading down his cheeks, and his hair was long and a beautiful silver colored. I tried to maneuver around him, but I felt something whack me upside the head, and the last thing I remembered was crumbling to the ground and crying out in agonizing pain.

"Someone get the Doc!" I heard a female voice cry. My eyes slowly opened and tried to get adjusted to the light. I quickly sat up and instantly wished that I hadn't; the world had begun to spin and I groaned and fell backwards. A pair of arms had caught me. Everything began to come into focus. Three people were hovering above me, but I could not see those men from earlier anywhere around me. I panted heavily and took in my surroundings; tents were everywhere, and it was cold outside.

Funny, I thought to myself. It's the middle of the summer, so how on earth is it so damned cold outside? I took one final glance and realized that I was no longer in the old church cemetery. In fact, I had no clue where I was. Panic began to rise inside of me; those damn bastards kidnapped me! They kidnapped me and sold me to some foreign country! Who knows how long I was out?! For all I know, I could be in freaking Antarctica! Anger billowed inside me and I pushed myself away from the man that had caught myself and stood up.

"Alright," I hissed. "Someone needs to explain to me what the hell is going on! Where am I?! How the hell did I get here?!" I glared at the man who was holding me. He stood and brushed himself off; the man had long, red hair that was tied up in a ponytail. His hands looked like that of a skeleton's, and makeup covered his face.

"Yer a right funny one," he chuckled. I noticed that he had a British accent, but it wasn't the stereotypical posh British accent; it was more like a cockney one. "Name's Joker, and that," he said as he pointed his skeleton finger at a woman who was hardly wearing any clothes. She had short, curly black hair and crimson eyes. "'tis Beast, our animal trainer. And the young fellow over there be Snake, our snake handler." I glanced over to see a man handling a bunch of snakes. His face was covered in scales.

"We are the Noah's Ark Circus!" He exclaimed merrily. "Now, how ye got here, I have no idea. Ye was laying on the ground all sickly, and Beast found ya!" He glanced over at Beast and patted her shoulder. He whispered something in her ear that caused her to tense up and heave a heavy sigh. "Now, we'll get Ye a tent since yer a little lost. Who knows, maybe you'll take a likin' to our circus. I'll go speak with Doc for a moment."

Joker slowly walked away and left me alone with Beast and snake. Beast looked over to me and cocked her head. "Follow me; I'll show ya a tent where you can stay. What's year name?" She asked me as she led me through the maze of various tents set up.

I quickly followed behind her and glanced at her. "My name is Anna. Anna Grayson. It's nice to meet you." I offered the animal tamer a kind smiled, but she just scoffed at me in response. I sighed; no use in trying to develop a friendship with her. "Um… I'm not trying to sound crazy or anything, but do you mind telling me what year it is… and where exactly I am."

She humorlessly laughed. "It's 1889, and you are in the outskirts of London. We have a parade tomorrow downtown. Now, where ye from? Don't sound British to me."

I gulped; how did this happen?! There was no way in hell that I could have magically transported from the year 2014 back to the year 1889! What the hell did those devils do to me?! This was all a bunch of bull shit; it had to be. I noticed Beast had stopped walking and was looking at me with curiosity in her crimson orbs. It was then I realized that I had yet to answer her question. "Me? I-I'm from the Unites States; O-Ohio to be exact. Columbus Ohio…" I laughed nervously and began to mess with my short, wheat colored hair.

Beast scoffed at me. "Never 'eard of it," she muttered. "Ye be a strange lass…" She turned and continued leading me to the tents. I sighed heavily and was overjoyed when we had finally reached mine. I wanted to be out of her presence. I noticed a young girl was sitting on one of the beds. She looked to be about fifteen years old, and she had long, chocolate brown hair and eyes to match which lit up when they spotted me. She was dressed in a raggedy old gown. She smiled happily and came over to greet me.

"'Ello! Name's Addy! I sew the costumes together for the circus! I'm so happy to be getting a tent mate; I…I don't have much friends here; I'm one of the young get ones, but Joker rescued me from thru sweatshop, so I'm grateful!" The young girl was filled with excitement and happiness. She must really have felt very alone; I kinda felt bad for her. I would hate it just being cooped up in a tent sewing costumes all day for a circus. I mean… who would want to talk to her? She was a nobody, and I would bet money that everyone would flock over getting to talk with the performers and would not even care about the people who did all of the behind the scene works. So, I was determined to become her friend.

"Hi," I replied with a smile. "My name is Anna. I'm new here. I come from America, and I'm seventeen years old. It's really nice to meet you. I hope we can become very good friends!"

Her eyes filled with tears, which I was not expecting at all. She soon jumped on me to hug me tightly. "OH THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! That makes me sooooo happy!" She squeezed me so tightly that I thought I was going to suffocate. For a scrawny girl, she was freakishly strong.

"A-Addy," I choked. "Y-you are killing me!" I squirmed in her tight embrace and tried to free myself from the hormonal teenager. Soon, her grip loosen and I sighed in relief as oxygen began to fill my lungs.

"Oh, I am sooooo sorry, Anna! I'm not trying to kill you…" Addy stopped apologizing when she heard a deep chuckle from behind her. Her eyes lit up and she swiftly turned to see Joker behind her. She laughed merrily and jumped into his arms. "Joker!"

Joker sighed and pushed her away. "I need to speak to the little lass for a moment, and Doll needs her dress fixed." He glanced over at me and walked around Addy. He sat down on the bed next to me, and I looked over at Addy who had her head hung low in disappointment. She scuttled out of the tent and I heaved a heavy sigh.

"You know that you don't have to treat her like that. I know she is a bit hyper, but she is a human!" I growled and glared daggers at the ginger before me.

He simply shrugged. "She's in love with me, but there's no need for that in the circus." He looked down and studied the ground for a moment before peering up at me. "Would ye like to join the circus? Ye can try out 'morrow after the parade in London. If ye don't make it as a performer, ye could do work."

I hesitated for a moment; in all honesty, I had no idea how I had gotten here or how to even get back home. What other choice did I have? Maybe if I kept this up, I would somehow return home…I had to have hope I wasn't going to just waste away in Victorian England and be stuck here forever. I had to figure out a way out of here, or find those three men again

I held out my hand and nodded. "Yes, I will join your circus." I smirked as he shook my hand; I would figure out a way to get back to my own time, and a way to beat the crap out of those three men who dared to attack me.

"So, ye have any talents?" He asked and looked into my hazel eyes. "Anything that could benefit the circus?"

My smirk widened. "I am an excellent archer…" Little did I know that that handshake would change my life forever. If I could have foreseen all the things that were coming my way, I would have ran away from Joker right then and there. But, I am merely a human and cannot control fate or destiny…

A/N: First of all, hello! For those of you who are not familiar with me at all, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new story, The Unexpected Pawn! To those who are familiar with my work and hate my guts at the moment for going MIA, well… I'm back! I had a really, really, really rough year, and even that is an understatement, but I'm back to normal and back to writing. No, I do not know when I will continue writing my other stories, but I have this one. I hope you all enjoy! Thanks for reading!

-Nicole Grey

((P.S. Sorry for the short chapter. It's more of an intro, so I don't like to make them very long, but much more to come!)