a/n; Aaaand we have another one. Because I felt bad about being a month late. D: I'M SORRY. I HAD COLLEGE STUFF GOING ON, OKAY?! *cough* Well, anyways…aside from college stuff, I also took some time out to work on my drawing skills a bit (as in, that's all I've been doing since March), and in the process I managed to create some more 'official' art for this fanfic. So yeah…the links are on my profile page, which will take anyone who cares over to my new deviantArt, where you can look at pretty pictures of Lily in all her blood-covered glory. Oh, and Fai. Fai's there too, just so you know. *cough* Sorta…

Anyways, since I'm hoping this revamp has attracted new readers as well as old, I may as well include some chapter stuff as well (because that's what a/n's are supposed to be for, right?). So yeah…to paraphrase my original a/n, I know it doesn't seem like the story is progressing very quickly right now, but it will pick up during later chapters. Said later chapters will also begin to include the 'horror' element of this mystery/horror, though I'm still wondering on how good a job I've done with it. My mind may be warped, but without illustrations there's only so much it can do on paper. Oh, and to response to a question I've been asked before, this story is taking place at any point between the Oto/Edonis arc and the Acid Tokyo arc. It doesn't really matter when, for reasons that will not be explained until the finale. Also…can I get a review or two? Please? They feed me more than food. ._.

"So we ended up in different places again..?"

Fai spoke aloud to himself as he leaned against one of the many dead trees around him, his thoughts disappearing into the empty air. He shook his head lightly, trying to clear away the few remaining cobwebs from his mind. "It's happened before, but…back then, I ended up with Kuro-pon. Now, I'm alone. I wonder if the others are on their own as well…?"

He turned his eyes to the cloudless sky, where the heavy rain from before was already pattering out to a pale drizzle. The stars above were shining brighter than ever now, as if the water from before had been seeping into the heavens to dampen their spirits. A fat yellow moon sat serendipitously in the sky like a bloated crystal ball, but it's rough surface held no answers for the magician no matter how many times he scoured its surface, remaining as a baleful reflection in his bright blue eyes. The moon's image quavered quietly there in his irises before he finally sighed and turned his head away.

The missing clouds weren't the only mystery about the world Fai now found himself in. The trees that made up his surroundings were all, as he soon discovered, the same texture of a walnut shell, hard and smooth to the touch. The leaves that covered the ground were like soft, crumpled sheets of paper, and upon looking closer at the water that had accumulated on them he found it to be more of a powdery blue than clear like normal rain.

And the blood.

Looking at the rain-washed splotches of blood he had found gave the magician a bad feeling. It wasn't as if he were afraid – no, he had seen far too much to be afraid of something so simple – but being alone, in a strange world he knew nothing of, with blood covering the ground…it all made him feel very nervous. And what was more…

He looked down at himself, examining the clothes he wore. A brown petticoat, filthy with mud and rain, covered the black turtleneck he wore beneath, which so far seemed undamaged and clean. The same could not be said of his trousers or shoes, both articles of which were just as dirtied as his coat, if not more so. He shook his head.

Perhaps he was mistaken, perhaps he wasn't remembering things correctly, but…Fai was almost certain that he had not been wearing these clothes before he came to this world. On the contrary, the last thing he remembered before ending up in this world was jumping into Mokona's mouth wearing the clothes from his original world. And yet now, he was wearing clothes that he had not only never seen before in his life, but which also felt very awkward and unnatural to wear, as if everything were a different size that was just not quite right. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to push the clothes from his mind and think about the bigger problem at hand.

Everything about this place feels wrong…, He thought. The sky…these woods…even myself. The longer I stay here, the more I start to get a horrible feeling about it…maybe I should start looking for the others, after all…

Fai pushed off from the trunk of the old tree and started to walk away, intending to search out his companions on his own, but before he could even take two steps a thin, high-pitched scream tore through the night and split the air around him. As if on instinct, the magician froze and threw up his hands to cover his ears, the faraway howl sounding as if it were being generated directly next to his head, the torturous shriek piercing through him like a knife. His head throbbed.

What the hell is that?! The singular thought disappeared quickly as the scream grew louder, his vision blurring as he was forced to drop to his knees in pain, fingers digging desperately into his skull. He didn't know who was screaming or why, but for the love of all that is holy, make it STOP—

And it did.

Just as abruptly as when it came, the shrieking ceased, the air growing still as silence took over at last. Hesitantly, Fai uncurled his stiff fingers from around his ears, dropping them quickly as the pain slowly began to ebb from his throbbing temples.

What…, he thought slowly, a headache rapidly forming to take over for the pain the scream had caused. What in the world was that? It sounded like a girl's voice…

A sudden stab of panic overtook him as he thought back to the scream, his mind going back to the moment the shriek had finally been cut off—

Cut off.

That's right…, he thought, the bad feeling from before starting to arise once more. That shriek…it hadn't faded out like a normal scream would. It had just…stopped, abruptly, as if something had stopped it—

A pit of dread began to rapidly form within his chest as images, dark and silent, flashed quickly through his mind: a faceless girl, a featureless monster, the blood…

Fai picked himself up and started running toward the source of the scream.