Vanessa's world melted around her, the four walls around her solidified into the rock of an underground cave. She was surrounded by darkness, but it was the sudden rush of cold air that Vanessa was shocked into reality.

How in the world could you have forgotten the cave! Vanessa chided herself. It had been so long since she had crossed over. Only once since her grandmother died. Fear had kept her from visiting this new world on her own. She feared leaving the comfort of her world, her friends, her home. She feared the utter newness of the light of the two moons.

Even when she went with her grandmother, she had never ventured far into this strange world. The cave's mouth lead to a dense forest with terrors that would fill the nightmares of any little girl. Crows with shimmering wings that would tear out your eyes if you looked at them for too long, trees that slipped poison into your veins as you touched them. Horrible dangers filled this world, and her grandmother loved it as much as her grandfather and father hated it.

She felt around the cave, just underneath where she assumed the mirror was located until her hands found a metal tube. Fumbling with the gigantic flashlight, she found the switch and illuminated the three walls of the cavern. It was an old flashlight, probably from the 1970's or 80's, that her grandmother had left long ago.

Covered in layers of grime and dust lay a few mementos that her grandmother left behind. In one corner there was a small stack of books that barely reached up to Vanessa's knees. Each journal was filled to the brim with her grandmother's musings. Vanessa was assaulted with nostalgia as she studied her grandmother's legacy.

The oldest book in the stack was written when her grandmother was 19 years old. Upon opening the slim volume, she stopped to study the perfect handwriting on the page opposite of the cover.

Property of Miss Virginia Carnavale

This volume detailed Virginia's first impression of this strange world. It contained most of the lessons concerning the dangers of this world. It was the volume she would take as she took a glimpse at the world behind the mirror.

Without much thought she picked up the book in one hand and the flashlight in the other, humming the march her grandmother used to navigate out into the open,

Left, Left, Left, Right, Left

Five tunnels in ten minutes.

As she started seriously making her way towards the mouth of the cave, Vanessa started doubting the sanity of her plan.

What the hell are you doing Vanessa! Her mind screamed at her. You can't just run away from your problems, you will need to face your ex sometime.

I need to get away from it all just for a day. A less rational part of her mind answered.

It felt better listening to that part of her mind. It felt good. It felt easy. She compromised with herself;

I cannot hide from the pain, but I can step away for a small while. Somewhere where no one can contact me, somewhere I can sort my thoughts.

Reason tried to argue, but before it could remind her of the dangers, her fears, and her grandmother's warnings; it was interrupted by the light shining from the mouth of the tunnel, a couple hundred yards away. Now the wind brought new smells of a strange world to her senses, and excitement drowned out the doubt as she ran to gaze upon the world that she had not seen for nine years.

With her reason properly shut away into some distant corner of her mind, she made her way towards the light of the late afternoon.