Authoress's notes: Well, anonymous reviewer, you convinced me to get my butt in gear. Sadly, I was still stuck… but just to let you all know, I DO intend to see this fic through. I'm just having a difficult time writing it.

Something was sitting next to me, squeaking annoyingly at me like an oversized rat.

"Go away," I mumbled. "I'll wake up when I'm damn well ready, thank you."

The thing stayed there, squeaking a bit more insistently.

"I said go away." That one kid at the island, a few houses down from me- he was always capturing the weirdest animals and trying to keep them as pets. One of them must have escaped again.

The thing responded by biting my nose.

"OW!" My eyes snapped open, and I found myself staring into a pair of huge, glowing, yellow eyes… just like the eyes of those bug things that tried to attack me on the island. The creature itself looked a little different, though: taller, much less cutesy-looking, the antennae replaced by long ears. It gave another annoying squeak, vaguely pleased-sounding this time, and bounded off.

I slowly got to my feet and looked around at my surroundings. Where the hell was I? This definitely wasn't the island; it was… blue, and cold, with waterfalls that were flowing upward. I had woken up just underneath a crumbling archway, on a chunk of tiled stone that seemed to be floating in midair. Damn. This world defied physics. This world… I was in another world!

And I was alone.

"Kairi! Sora! Where are you?"

No answer. Only echoes.

I climbed up the icy, light blue rocks, nearly slipping a couple times. It didn't take all that long to reach the top. I could see a huge castle in the distance. Half of it was a marbled light peach color, the other half copper, but that was all I could tell from where I was. In front of me was a large green-and-gold circular platform. Gold-colored bars curved upward from the edges, making it look sort of like a fancy birdcage. I stepped towards it, there was a flash of light, and suddenly I was standing right in the middle of it. The platform shuddered, then started moving upward, like it was on some sort of invisible cable.

I watched in awe as I got closer to the castle. There was a weird symbol carved into the front of it: a stylized heart with a cross over it. The copper half of the castle looked like it was made of pipes or something, while the peach half was normal stone.

The platform stopped at a balcony in front of the castle gates. I stepped off onto the marble tiles, and the platform drifted back down to the rising falls. I approached the castle gates, somewhat cautiously; there didn't appear to be any guards, but I wasn't taking my chances in a strange place. And "strange" described this world perfectly.

I was right to be cautious. Just as I reached the huge doors, a creature materialized out of a cloud of darkness. This one was humanlike in shape; it wore blue-and-purple armor, and carried a large shield with an animal face on it. The visor on the thing's helm wasn't down, but its face was in shadow; all I could see of its face was its eyes, which had no pupils and glowed eerie yellow: just like those of the Shadows.

Then its shield snarled at me.

"What the hell?!" I took a step backward and drew my sword, glad it was still with me. It was a child's toy, unlikely to be of any use against the… whatever the heck this thing was; but I felt better having some sort of weapon. I got into my fighting stance. The monster flicked the visor on its helm down.

Then, the double doors opened. Someone stood in the doorway.

"Flare," she- the voice was definitely female- said quietly.

I jumped back as a burst of flame shot up from the ground beneath the monster's feet. When the fire subsided, the monster was nowhere to be seen.

"Thank you," I said.

She said nothing, but gestured for me to come inside.

The castle doors shut behind me; they swung back into place slowly, so they didn't make much noise. The room we were in was pretty large; two sweeping staircases led up to the second level of the room. Between the staircases was a small fountain; it didn't appear to be working.

"Welcome to Hollow Bastion," the woman said.

"That's the name of this world?"

"Yes."

"Um… who are you?"

"My name is Maleficent." Weird name, but it suited her. She looked like either an evil witch from the bedtime stories Mom told me when I was little, or a zombie (her skin practically looked green!). This lady was creepy- but I had to admit she did just save my life. "I am the… substitute ruler of this castle, I suppose you could say." She paused. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully.

"Hmm." She frowned. "Nothing?"

"There was a storm, and I got sucked into this pool of dark stuff. Then I woke up here."

"Interesting. Very… interesting." She started to walk away.

"Hey, hang on a second!"

"What?"

"Has anyone else shown up here lately?"

"No." She walked up the stairs; I was surprised she didn't trip on her robes- she didn't bother to hike them up or anything.

I followed her. "But- I need to find my friends. I thought they'd have come with me."

She didn't even turn around. "There may be a way. I don't think you'll like it, though."

A/N: I think I'll cut it off at a cliffhanger right there. Sorry for making you wait so long for such a short chapter, but it's a good stopping point and I'm not sure what to do next.
 Maleficent is hard to write.
See you next chapter!