A/N: OK here's the remake of Chapter 1. I might switch from third to first person a lot throughout the story IDK. I'm really glad some of you guys liked the first chapter as it is, but I think I needed to change it so it could have a better plot. Please feel free to leave any suggestions!

Jessica Harris gazed at her current surroundings like a deer caught in headlights. Where she was, at least to her, was overwhelmingly beautiful and stimulating. For hours upon hours, she had observed every building, every street, and every person that had walked in close proximity to her. Everything that was happening to her was just, "so amazing!" She thought about these feelings she couldn't really describe as she skipped down the streets, grinning, and then choking, as she inhaled a nearby passerby's cigarette smoke.

Jessica's chaperone, Mrs. Jones, barely glanced at the girl. "Jessica, stop fooling around, I'm sure the Belgians think you're crazy enough!" Some of Mrs. Jones's French three honors students laughed at the remark.

Mrs. Jones's daughter, and Jessica's best friend, Ashley, walked up to Jessica.

"What's up?" Ashley asked nonchalantly.

Jessica cleared her throat and brushed herself off before strolling along with her friend behind the group. "I swear that guy blew the smoke into my face on purpose." Jessica shook her head. "What a jerk!"

"Uh huh, sure," Ashley replied.

Jessica looked right at Ashley. "I'm serious! Why does everyone hate me?"

"I don't hate you."

"You're not supposed to say that!" Jessica responded. "You're supposed to say, 'That's not true, Jessica!'"

"…what?" Ashley was too busy staring at some cute guy.

"Ugh, never mind."

Jessica didn't care that her friend usually never thoroughly listened to what anyone was telling her; nothing could ruin this trip for Jessica, not even her friend's attention problem.

Jessica remembered that her mother had mentioned several times months ago that she could go along with Mrs. Jones and her French class to somewhere in Europe next semester. The teenager really did want to go, but she never thought it would actually happen.

The whole trip hadn't hit Jessica until they were at the hotel yesterday. Jessica had never expected to actually be standing in the hotel's lobby! Two weeks before the trip, the seventeen year old had thought the worst, like how she could lose her luggage, or how the plane could crash before arriving to their destination and the survivors would have to live on an island for four years like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Fortunately for her, none of these fears had happened, yet Jessica still had mixed emotions of anxiety and relief when her and Ashley went into their designated room in the hotel, and the girl would continue to have these feelings, even until the very next day. Jessica was perfectly aware of her constant anxiety, and knew she would probably continue to experience it throughout her week and half long stay in Belgium.

But Jessica didn't care, as long as she could make this one of the best trips of her life, nothing could stand in her way!

Jessica put her thoughts aside as she and her friend continued to follow behind their group. After a long day of exploring Brussels, Mrs. Jones and the students decided to head back to the hotel.

Jessica observed the sky, which had slowly turned from light blue to red and orange tinted with indigo as the sun was beginning to set. A feeling of tiredness suddenly began to overcome Jessica, but she still giggled merrily with her friend as if she was never fatigued in the first place.

Mrs. Jones then spoke as the group continued to walk at a steady pace. "All right kids, I hope you guys took some notes! For all of you juniors this will be great for your history class next year!"

"Pfft, no!" A boy rasped. Some of the group snickered at the comment.

Their chaperone rolled her eyes. "Oh, c'mon, guys! I have to make this trip at least a little educational…"

Mrs. Jones voice trailed off from Jessica's mind; she was barely acknowledging her chaperone when she abruptly stumbled over something.

"Shit!" Jessica cried as she fell to the ground, her head landing on Ashley's heel.

"Whoah!" Ashley halted as she heeded to her friend. "What happened?"

"I tripped over something-" Jessica was about to answer when Ashley interrupted.

"That sucks but c'mon, we have to catch up with the group!"

Ashley grabbed Jessica's hand as she hoisted her up. Jessica gazed down to see what she tripped on, and was surprised to see that the object she fell over was a book.

Jessica tilted her head to one side as she stared at the book, then snapped out of her thoughts as she saw Ashley scurrying away. Jessica then impetuously snatched the book before jogging up to her friend. While she was carrying it, Jessica was a little surprised that the book wasn't as heavy as she had expected.

"Hey, I think someone dropped a book," Jessica said.

"Who?" Ashley responded, glancing at the object Jessica was holding.

Jessica shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm going to tell your mom."

Ashley yawned before answering: "It's just a book. I'm sure whoever dropped it isn't too worried. Just tell my mom tomorrow."

Jessica nodded in reply and continued walking, but she was dying to get back to the hotel to thoroughly examine this entrancing object.

Mrs. Jones's group soon arrived at the hotel. Mrs. Jones had established yesterday that she would always have the keys to the kids' rooms during daylight hours, so everyone always had to go to the hallway together, but Jessica couldn't bother waiting for her chaperone and instead hurried onto the stairway and headed towards her room.

Of course, Jessica's friend was jogging briskly behind her. "Hey!" Ashley exclaimed, clearly exasperated as the two girls entered the hallway. "What are you doing? Only my mom can open our door!"

"I know, but I'm just…tired," Jessica replied, stifling a yawn.

Ashley sighed. "Well next time can you wait a little longer?"

The girls' group was soon visible in the hallway, and Mrs. Jones trudged toward the two teenagers. "You guys have to wait for me, you know. Or did you two forget?" A look of annoyance was plastered on their chaperone's face.

"Sorry," the two girls answered in unison as Mrs. Jones unlocked the door to their room. Then the girls stepped inside. They were already pretty used to their room, even though they have only been in it for less than a day. It was a typical hotel room: two individual beds, one restroom, one television and one large window with a view of the city.

"I'm going to take a shower," Ashley stated as she threw her hoodie onto her bed.

"Okay, but don't pee in it!" Jessica exclaimed. Ashley rolled her eyes and smirked before stepping into the bathroom and closing the door.

Jessica plopped onto her own bed and examined the cover of the book she was holding with excitement.

It was, surprisingly, very old; the cover was a rusty, reddish-brown color. Various stains also dotted the cover. Jessica looked for the titled of the novel, but there was none.

The teenager then decided to thoroughly analyze the book. She opened it, and scrawled lightly inside the front cover was undistinguishable, cursive handwriting. Jessica lightly flipped through the ancient pages, which were yellowed and tattered. She continued to examine the pages, which all had the same cursive, faded handwriting.

When she turned about one page before the book's halfway point, Jessica was surprised to find that there was no more writing. She continued to turn several more pages, but they were all blank, and this continued until the very end of the book, which left another surprise.

Jessica gently grabbed what was at the end of the book: it was a ripped, small, yellow parchment. Before she could analyze the piece of paper, Jessica heard the bathroom door open.

"Hey Ashley, you know the book I found?" Jessica asked her friend.

"Yeah?" A pajama-clad, wet-haired Ashley stepped out of the bathroom and walked over to Jessica, holding a plastic bag. "Oh, and here are our matching bunny slippers I got last month!" Ashley grinned as she took out the two pairs of matching bunny slippers: one red pair and one blue pair. Jessica slipped on the blue slippers with glee and Ashley also slipped on her red ones.

"OH! These are so cute! Thank you! Thank you!" Jessica cried joyfully as she embraced Ashley, and they both jumped up and down. Ashley and Jessica regularly bought matching things for each other, such a bracelets, sunglasses, and even shirts. Both of them had in their bag Harry Potter-themed t-shirts they were planning on wearing tomorrow.

"Anyway, with that aside, look at the book," Jessica said, then Ashley hovered over her, observing the book. "It looks really old," she stated.

"Well, yeah, I'm pretty sure it is," Jessica answered. "But, get this, it's not actually a book."

"What is it, then? A turkey?"

Jessica shook her head. "No, what I mean is … it's a journal." Jessica grinned as she opened the book to the first page, and written in it was a large paragraph of small, cursive handwriting. In the corner was the date of the entry, which only stated "7/16".

"Whoah, I guess we really do have to give it back then," Ashley responded. "Who does it belong to?"

Jessica shook her head as she flipped through various pages. "Doesn't say, at least I don't think. I think it has some names but it's all in French and a lot of the writing is blotched out."

"Let me see it." Jessica handed her friend the journal. Ashley flipped through the dusty pages, squinting at the writing.

Jessica continued to stare at her friend. "Do you understand any of it? I'm pretty sure it said something about 'j'aime les bonbons' in there."

Ashley shrugged. "It's too worn out, I can barely read or understand any of it."

"We should ask your mom tomorrow," Jessica replied. She then exclaimed something before searching her bed.

Jessica held up the torn parchment, almost triumphantly. "And look at what I found in the back! It was on the very last page."

Ashley snatched the paper from her friend's hand before examining it. All of the words seemed to be cut off, and only some of the ending letters were visible. "It's impossible to read."

"Yeah, and I couldn't find the rest of the pieces in the journal," Jessica responded as she flipped through the journal again.

Ashley shrugged and gave Jessica back the torn paper. "Oh, well. Just put it back in where you found it."

"Yeah." Jessica paid little attention as she continued to examine the book before raising her eyebrows. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask you," Jessica called to Ashley again, "can you make out what this says?" On the very last page was one sentence, written in French and still barely visible, but maybe a little more clear than the other sentences in the diary.

Jessica gave Ashley the journal. As the girl tried to analyze it, she shook her head. "Touch…earth…him…is it something about recycling?"

"Yup, recycling in the olden times. Sure thing, Ash."

Ashley then gave up on trying to make out the sentence. Jessica continued to try to analyze the words, but it was nearly impossible. The handwriting was very small and close together, and Jessica could barely understand a lick of French. Not only that, but the journal was extremely worn out, and most of the inked handwriting was either covered in stains or completely faded out.

The girls went to bed around one after a slow-paced night of lounging around. Sometimes, Jessica would keep on trying to attempt to read the pages but with no luck. Ashley had tried a few more times, and she could only understand maybe one or two words every four pages.

Soon, the girls were both asleep, Jessica with the journal by her side.

Once her brain was soon in a state of unconsciousness, Jessica began a very intense dream. In the dream, everything was black and nothing else was visible except thin smoke, swirling agonizingly slow in all directions. Jessica soon felt a stinging pain in her chest as it began getting harder and harder for her to breathe. Panic soon came over the girl before an abrupt sensation of numbness surged through her. The numbing feeling was gone as soon as it had begun, and then Jessica felt like something was pulling at her: first at all of the hairs on her body, and then her skin. Jessica continued to feel tightness and pain as the unknown force continued to pull at the girl, as though she were being sucked through a vacuum.

Jessica couldn't take the pain much longer as the force continued to try and rip off her skin.

"Stop! Stop!" Jessica cried before suddenly awakening from her nightmare to a horrendous shriek.

OK yeah I know bad way to end the chapter but I wanted to see what you guys thought of the new story first. And more exciting things will be in the next chapter, including Tintin! Oh yeah and I know the bunny slippers thing was really weird, but the slippers might be important to the story, not SIGNIFICANTLY, but at least to Jessica and Ashley they are. Yeah, it's hard to explain but in the next chapter you'll find out! So I also know you guys are probably thinking "ugh I'm so sick of this teenager bullcrap/matching slippers t-shirts no one cares." Sorry about that, very stupid I know but I won't put in anything like that again!

And if something doesn't suit right please feel free to tell me, I'm NEVER offended by anything. You can even say "your story is a croc of shit" I don't care. Oh yeah, and if you don't like the swearing please tell me too. I don't mind getting rid of it if you guys don't like it, totally fine with me. All suggestions appreciated!

Also sorry if this is such a long author's note but I usually repeat a lot of words because I can't find the right synonym for them or the right words! Just putting that out there if anyone noticed!