I woke up falling. It was such an odd sensation. I knew that I was falling. I could feel the wind rushing against my body, trying to cushion my decent down to only God knew where. The fall took ages. I didn't dare open my eyes. I was too terrified of what I'd see below. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Wonderland beneath, rushing up to greet me with bright colors and a little white rabbit to follow. The odd thing was, I didn't remember the actual act of falling off something. Last thing I could picture myself doing was walking to my next class for the day, Biology 200. I was running. My political science class was let out late so I only had three minutes to get down the street to the science building. I ran. I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and the next thing I knew, I was falling at a rate of 120 miles per hour.

The fact that I had been falling for almost five minutes was made more unsettling by the fact that I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't even hear the wind rushing by my face. Had I gone deaf? Was I dying? Is this how dying feels, a never ending fall? I don't know how but I could sense some kind of ground getting closer. The air turned bitter, a sharp chill. It smelled of smoke and ash and something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then it hit me. It literally hit me. I finally landed.

That other smell? It was the unmistakable stench of human refuse. Vomit and piss and other excrements. Thankfully, I only landed in a pile of rotten cabbages and tomatoes. It wasn't pleasant, but anything is better than a puke-piss cocktail. "WWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" a woman, I think it was a woman, screamed. I tried to stand but the ground was too slippery. I fell back into the pile of grotesque vegetables. Someone ran to me. I heard the clacking of heels approaching. "Are you alright?!" There was a pair of hands on me, pulling me up. "You fell outta nowhere!"

"I'm okay." I brushed bruised cabbage leaves and mushroom slices from my hair.

"You're a girl!" The woman who helped me up was very loud. Her accent was the thickest cockney accent I'd ever heard in person. She was dressed in Victorian garb- a dark blue dress with a white apron that connected to her skirt with black buttons and a high frilly collar. Her hair was red, almost purple, and pulled into two pigtails on either side of her maid's cap. The most noticeable thing about her, though, was her gigantic glasses. They took up nearly her entire face and they were fogged up. There was no way she could actually see out of them.

"Of course I'm a girl." I huffed leaning against a wall. I had fallen into an alleyway that was apparently behind a restaurant. I could hear the banging and clanging of an active kitchen. The food couldn't be very good because it smelled like the wrong end of a mule.

"Well I couldn tell 'cause a what you're wearin', no I couldn't." She blushed a deep purple. For some reason this ditsy girl seemed very familiar.

"It's okay. Where am I?"

She looked a little stunned at my question. "Why, you're in London, miss."

"LONDON!?" If I was the kind of girl who fainted all the time, I would have fainted. "But I was just… at college… in California…"

"Cali-for-nia? I ain't ever heard of no such place. And a woman? In college? Ain't ever heard a that neither, no I 'aven't."

I just stared at her. How can someone be so… so… so stupid! Even English people should know about California. Hollywood. Disneyland. It's kind of a big deal. A breeze blew through the alley. "Fuck!" I hadn't realized how cold it was. I was dressed for summer in Southern California with my jeans rolled up and loose tank top. The girl took my hands and pulled me into the street. "Miss, you're awful cold. Come on! I'll take you 'ome and draw up a nice bath for ya."

"Um, okay." I just went along.

Then I saw the street. Horses. Carriages. Ladies in large bustles and feathered hats. Men in tailcoats and top hats with walking sticks. There was no pavement. Everything was stone. The street was lit in the purple twilight by gas lamps. Store fronts were lit with candles. One store window in particular caught my eye.

Bradley's Toybox

Now Introducing the Funtom Co.'S

BITTER RABBIT

Funtom? Bitter Rabbit? Showcased in the window was a gorgeous display of little white, floppy-eared bunnies wearing eye patches. I'd seen that somewhere before. The girl with the huge glasses pulled me into a carriage. I didn't notice that I'd been shivering until she threw a fur blanket across my shoulders. "Thank you." It felt odd to sit in that seat. Like something was pressing against my back. Something was pressing against my back, my backpack. I still had my backpack! I had never felt happier to have that shapeless green sack covered in buttons and patches in my life. I had my backpack and that meant that I had my cellphone and my tablet… and my book. My manga book. My Black Butler book…

"How rude I am! I didn't introduce myself properly. My name is May-Rin!"

"May-Rin," I whispered to myself. I'm in Victorian London. There are Funtom toys and I'm in a carriage with May-Rin, a ditsy girl with ginormous glasses. We were headed to her home. The place where she works as a house-made. The house… of the Phantomhives. I was in a world where Black Butler is real. The world turned pink. I fainted.