The woods were just as creepy the second time through. You'd think that they'd be less scary, seeing as I'd had to deal with them less than an hour ago, but nope. I swear, hey just got creepier as the night goes on. I was literally only a few steps into the trees when the wind started doing that thing, where it shakes the leaves, and makes the trees creak. And for the icing on the weird-cake, I swear I could hear voices and footsteps, both near but far. But it's like the sound wasn't really there, as though I was listening through a filter.

Then a branch decided to snap, only feet away from me.

I pretty much ran for it after that. And I was still in the Victorian dress. Needless to say, I was doomed the moment I entered the woods with bags so that make me unable to see my own feet. You can probably guess what happened after I started running. I tripped, dropped all of the bags, flailed my arms trying to get my balance, and still somehow managed to hit my head on a rock. I tried to get up, but my vision started to get foggy, and I lost consciousness almost instantaneously.

I woke up the next morning, confused as why I was in the woods. But, I could tell these weren't my woods, but at the same time I knew they were. Though it was slightly different: The air smelled cleaner, where it normally always felt dirtier, more polluted...

I remember leaving the party, grabbing my things from the library, and heading into the woods to bring Alice her things. After that.. it's kind of fuzzy. I sit up and look around for my things.'There's my dress-bag, and my phone. Nothing's missing.' I grab my gear, and head back out of the woods, towards the library.

'Alice is probably wondering where I am.' I think, trying to find my way through the overgrown underbrush.

The woods are thicker, and the trail is less traveled. Hell, it's barely even there. It takes a bit longer to navigate back to the road, but I get there nonetheless. And instead of seeing the paved gravel road for cars, I found a giant expanse of dirt road, the library right at the center of it, though it looked more like a mansion then the library I was used to seeing.

I hid the all the bags in some bushes, so I could move around easier. Hopefully I would be gone before somebody else found it. I walk up to the fountain in the middle of the driveway, which was definitely not there when I left last night.

Reaching into my corset, I felt around until I felt the key I had stuffed in there. I pulled it out and walked right up to the front steps, and just stared at the house. Gathering up my courage, I walked right up to the front door and tried opening it. It was locked. Crossing my fingers, I inserted the key into the lock and turn it.

*Click*

Yes! Slowly opening the door, I sneak into the library-turned-mansion, scanning the room for any sign of people or servants. I had expected that with such a big house, it would be bustling with servants. But it seemed empty. Well it did, until I heard a clock start to toll, and feet started running towards me. I hid behind the main staircase, a place I'd hidden in many times as a child. The only way you could see me from here was if you were looking at me, from the stairs directly on top of me.

Which thankfully, nobody did. As soon as they were all upstairs, I decided to follow them upstairs, silently, to see what the commotion was all about. I went all the way up the stairs and to the right, where they had gone. After that I just followed my ears to what for me was the computer lab, but a quick peak in showed me that it was a dining room. The set-up was similar to the lab, you know, minus the servants, butler, and the kid sitting at the head of the table.

The boy, obviously the owner of the house, looked strikingly familiar. Searching my head, I couldn't come up with a good match on who he might be. I would have been caught, had I not been knocked out of my thoughts by somebody yelling. I had just enough time to hide in Brooke's office, which was still an office, just with no technology. At all.

Brooke's office still looked like her office, although her desk definitely wasn't as ornate, her chair was not giant and green, and the curtains weren't so... fluffy.

On the desk, there was a small pile of paper on the corner, and what looked like a fountain pen and an inkwell next to it. A larger stack of paper was on the opposite side of the desk, in a messier pile then the other one. Once again, I was caught in the feeling that I'd seen this somewhere before.

As I was sitting there gawking at the... well, now I guess it's a study, footsteps neared the door. And I did possibly the stupidest thing I may have done in my entire life; I hid myself behind the closed curtains of the bay window, like how I did playing hide-and seek with Alice as a kid. Anybody would be able to see me outside, but I was more worried that whoever had come in was gonna find me.

I could hear them talking, but I couldn't distinguish what they were talking about over the blood pounding in my ears. My heart was beating so loud I was positive that whoever it was could hear it too. I was mentally freaking out. That is, until I heard someone, a male it sounded like, suggest 'opening the curtains and letting some light in'.

Frozen in fear, all I could do was wait, and listen as the footsteps drew near.

Sorry that this took forever, I've been working on some other things... ~IAE