Okay, Haitus is over. Now if it takes a long time it is beacuse I'm being delayed by life.

Is this the end? Remeber Nora's mind is no typical place! (^-^')

Well, any way...

I knew something was wrong with me. I was feeling tired and dizzy, everything in front of my eyes was becoming a blur! But I kept moving forward clutching her head, not even sure of where I was going. I tried to move where there were less colorful blurs, that way if I fell at least I wouldn't hurt anyone. I didn't taste anything in that tea that would make me do this. What could have happened? I just wanted to stop and stand still. That way I could get my head together and maybe wait for whatever this is to die down. But it was like I was being controlled with no real choice but to keep moving.

"Someone…" my voice was tired, and I was too disoriented to tell if anyone was around. "…help." My legs got weak and I feel to my knees. Uh, this is so embarrassing! Acting like this at a party. Was it some kind of joke by the Queen and King to give me that tea? Why didn't this happen to anyone else then? All the blurs in front of my eyes were already abstract, but they had been brightly colored. Now, around me was dark greys and blacks. My focus was starting to come back, giving definite shapes and the dizziness was going away too. That was the good news. The bad news? I had no idea how I got from the ballroom to the outside of a dungeon.

A narrow opening with two, stone hooded figure marks the entrance to this dungeon. Beyond the crypt lies a narrow, worn room. It's covered in puddles of water, rat droppings and puddles of water. So gross, couldn't they afford to clean the enterance? A torch allows me to see broken vats and flasks, weathered and ravished by time itself. Further ahead are three paths, all three look dark. I take the right passageway. Its twisted trail leads passed pillaged rooms and soon I come into a humid area. Small holes and carved paths cover the walls, it looks like a community or burrow for small creatures. What happened in this place? "At least Coral Grove was kept clean! Wow, do I sound spoiled."

I carefully continue onwards, deeper into the dungeon's mysteries. It's almost a habit that I go on ahead into mysteries rather than go back to the enterance. I go past various passages, some are dead ends, others seem to have no end at all. Eventually I make it to what is likely the final room. An ominous wooden door blocks your path. Ash and soot is all over it, somehow untouched by time and the elements. You step closer to inspect it and… wait.. there's faint sound of footsteps behind me.

"Well, well, well," A typical villain response. Before I even turn I recognize the voice I first heard when I fell into this world. "The Fox knows many tricks, but the Jabberwocky… she just needs one." Turning around, I see Veronica Victoria clad in a green dress made to look like dragon scales.

I know what the Jabberwock is in this world, Lou told me at the Anti-Tea Party. "Why did you bring me here?" my voice carried an air of demand along with the question.

"Oh, I didn't bring you here, Nora-dear." She replied genially. "You followed that Tazelwurm, remember? Or have you forgotten?"

I glared at this woman. I've trusted her back in the real world, but even there I know she has a spotty reputation. "I fell asleep in my room before this craziness happened. I'm perfectly aware this is all a dream, thank you." I can finally say this out loud. I've been thinking it for a while and been playing along, but now I'm getting fairly tired of all this! "So if you could say what you brought me here for I'd like to return to reality."

"Oh really?" She asks folding her arms. "Well, you're so tired of dreaming, why don't you just 'wake up?'"

"I've tried!" I shout at her. Then I cover my mouth, somehow regretting my confession.

The Jabberwock-Victoria smiled, and began a steady pace of slowly around me in a circle. "You have, have you? Well, if you can't change the reality here, Nora, shouldn't you consider that you've already woken up?" I listened as her high-heels clicked on the stone floor, yet I couldn't ignore her words. "They say life is stranger than fiction. Perhaps you falling asleep in your room was really you waking up and coming back to the real world."

"It wouldn't." I told her. "I've grown up with nineteen years of memories, and no one from here even knows me." I have my logic, she can't argue this. She's just trying to mess with my head.

But she's still smiling. "Interesting theory. But how is life here any different than life over there? Sure, we both have Tazelwurms. But Cat men vs. Lizard men? Hypnotizing soda or magic Teapots? Butterfly reporters, and then there's cyborgs run on steam. Really, now? If one world is real, how can you say that the other isn't?"

I…. have no response to that.

Jabberwock came up to me and placed both her hands comfortingly on my shoulders. "I know this can't be easy to accept." She said this in such a kind, understanding, calming way, "Your dream-life has already been enough of a nightmare, Engimaland is a place where people like you can have a fresh start. There's no one to betray or abandon you here; no past to haunt you, and no monsters to come after you. Nora, don't you think you've earned this? You didn't exactly get a hero's welcome when you came home."

My head shot up at her. Tears stung my eyes, and this time I let them fall. Using my free hand, I covered my eyes and tried to stop myself from crying. As much as I might try to deny it, Jabberwock's words were hitting home for me. I let Jabberwock pull me in closer and stroke my head. "It's all right now." She shushed me. "No one's really there for you when you need them are they? Your father's done this before hasn't he? Avoiding confrontations is the easiest before, hasn't he? When you were fifteen, and you needed him most."

There.

I broke into a sob right there. Everything that could break me down was right here in this dungeon: My past, my present problem, and the overall fear of what future was waiting for me with this. Dad barely talked to me some of those days, and now he's not even coming home just so he can avoid me about Coral Grove. "Why is he doing this?" I outwardly project my thoughts. "He's supposed to be the adult! Everyone else got their parents back when we came home, why not me?! I gone way longer, and just leaves right before I come home?"

"Shh." Jabberwock pulls me tighter. "It's okay now, it's okay. That nightmare is over, Nora-dear. It's time to have some better dreams. You've made so many friends since coming here already! Why leave now, when it's just begun? There's still a great party to enjoy upstairs. Let's go together, and tomorrow we can discuss finding you your own house to live in. The Queen of Hearts seemed quite taken with you, perhaps you could even find a job in the Castle!"

Acceptance, or something like it, seemed to be cooling down my burning eyes. A looked up from Miss Jabberwock's shoulder to see a mist was rolling into the dungeon. "Follow me, dear." She beckons. "There's an exit over this way." Silently, I follow behind her.

We don't talk. So I follow Jabberwocky with my thoughts. Which world is really real? I thought I had a grasp of reality when I went to A. Nigma High. But then again, weird stuff had been happening to me way before that.

I remembered being a kid, playing with my mom and with Alex. It would be kind of nice if that never really happened. If Alex was really a dream, then that means I was never really hurt or betrayed. I see something replace Jabberwocky out in the fog. It's a bed and it looks like there's someone sleeping there. As I get closer, it becomes clearer that I'm looking at a hospital bed, and the older version of Alex is staring blankly at the ceiling in it.

The next second, the boy in the bed vanishes, leaving the bed empty. "Don't wander off, Nora!" Jabberwock calls off from the side. Alex wasn't real. I follow the sound of the woman's voice. "No time to waste, the Party will be over soon."

I can't see Jabberwocky anymore, so I try calling out to her. But then I see a figure standing to the side of the wall. The fog surrounds him like a cloak. His hair is kind of shaggy and he stands staring up at me with an angry look. It's odd because I don't even know who this kid could be but… where have I met him before?

"Nora!" Jabberwocky calls out urgently. "Come back this way! You'll get lost in the fog!"

"There's a kid here!" I call back to her.

She calls back. "Leave him."

That's cruel! Ignoring her demand, I get down on one knees and face the boy. "Hey, I don't think you're supposed to be down here." I tell him. "Why don't you come with me and Miss Jabberwocky? We're both going to the Party upstairs."

The boy glares at me and crosses arms, clearing refusing to move from his spot. It doesn't feel right leaving an eight-year-ish boy down in a confusing, dark dungeon. I tell him. "We can find someone to take you home. But c'mon, this isn't really the funnest place."

He just stared at me. Then slowly, he reached out and took my hand. "No…you stupid girl." All at once this kid had amazing strength he pulled me so hard I had no choice but to start running with him. I heard Jabberwocky calling from behind me. "Nora? Nora, don't go back there!" I couldn't tell if her voice was getting closer by her coming after me, but it sure was getting loud enough to rattle the stone walls! "You! You dead memory! Bring her back this INSTANT!"

Perplexed, I ran along as the boy picked up speed through the thick fog. I didn't say anything, mostly because I had no idea what to say. But the kid had plenty.

"How could you fall for those lies?!" I wonder that myself. That, and why this kid had an Asian accent. "I swear! Fifteen years later and I still pull you around like the bull and the cart! It's this fog… It's poison. I need to get you out."

I could hear both his voice and Miss Vic… wock's calling me. One of them violently demanding I break the grip from the boy's hand, the other berating me and telling me to ignore the other and keep moving. I felt a major headache splitting both sides of my brain, stretching and twisting my mind in every direction. The kid pulling me on was the only reason my legs were moving. I was in some kind of daze, and just let it play out. The fog thinned out at a light grew brighter and brighter in our way.

Then I saw the door.

The same one that I had seen Jabberwocky outside of when I was talking to her. Only now, the kid and I were on the inside of it. A massive doorway… Darkness on one side and on the other… "Oh no, you don't!"

My head was suddenly cleared, and I finally got the message! Now it was me dragging the kid along as I too off at top speed! "SHUT THE DOOR!" boomed through the air. The light began getting smaller, and my feet kept moving faster. The door was closing. If I didn't make myself move faster, The Beast was going to have me trapped inside here. This must be what this whole dream was devised for! She wanted to lure me in, and then take over my mind again. I don't know what or where the kid came from, but he's like a defense mechanism, I guess. But where did he come from?

We reach the end, but the door's just a liver of the way open. I whirl the kid to get in front of me so I can push him out first. "Go!" I tell him.

"No!" He spins himself behind just as we reach the door and roughly pushes me through. I scrape by the door and fall flat on my face outside. I lift my upper body up and frantically look back to see if that kid had time to make it. But all I see and hear is the giant door slamming shut. I ran back to the door and pressed both my hands on the wooden surface. I thought of reopening it again, but then remembered what was on the other side.

"It knew I was weak." I said to myself, as I slid down to the floor. "The Beast knew I was at a low point, and it lured me here." I realized this when the fog started clearing up behind the doors. And right now I was calling myself utterly stupid for even listening to that ridiculous figment of my imagination! Speaking of which! "Is that what this was all about?!"

Somehow I knew I was being watched. As for how I guessed who: he smelled like cat! "Well.. yes." The Cheshire Cat replied, there was no smile on his face. "At first this was your playground. But you swim with sharks, you get bit! Ha-ha-ha~!"

I wasn't laughing.

He cleared his throat and continued. "You should have finished your tea, it was yours after all."

"What?"

"You said it yourself. Hypocritical! You are a two-faced coin, Nora Prowler. You need to be consistent with which side you keep up, and which side remains down. No quitting or do-overs in the middle!" he said. "You choose between good and evil. By choosing nothing and letting evil have its merry way, you are choosing evil! You want to be good girl? Good girls get to work."

Now I was sure I'd gone crazy! Cheshire Cat (A/N: Everyone remembers who he's the counterpart of right?) was giving me a lecture? I sighed. Maybe I deserved that for what I've been through. He offered a hand to help me up. I accepted it and dusted myself off. "And you still don't get it." He shook his head. "C'mon, the trial is starting."

He started walking away. Following, I asked, "The Trial for the Duchess?"

"Nope." He replied with a hint of glee. "She's already in prison. The next trial is for the crimes of Gryphon the Royal Magician."

I gasped. Then I cast a look over my shoulder back at the door. I may not get another chance, so I'll have to ask Cheshire. "And… can you tell me who that little boy behind the door was?"

Without stopping, Cheshire Cat looked over his shoulder at me with a grim expression and said nothing. I tried to make it simpler. "Will he be okay? Can he get out?"

Cat turned his head back so I couldn't see. "He is a product of that fog. He is part of that monster's world and part of the one here, thus he is possibly out there."

"Riddles." I sighed. "All of you look like people I know, expect for him. Look, he saved me back there. If I can't save him, I at least want to know who he was and what he's supposed to be. That way I can try to remember him."

I caught up to the Cheshire Cat. He looked at me, and I wondered if it was being down here that made even his smile disappear. "He is something that was taken." The Cat said. "He only exists where that fog exists. He is…" the joking smile was back, and with it the joking voice. "Schrodinger's Cat."

"Ha. Ha." I said, and I let the matter drop.

As we came out of the dungeon, the events with the Jabberwocky and the door seemed to become even more of a dream to me than Enigmaland itself. I could feel I was already starting to forget it as thoughts of Gryphon's trial began to take their place.

Okay, yeah it went dark.

But there has to be a point to all this.

I went crazt with references like Schrodinger's Cat (a cat imagined as being enclosed in a box with a radioactive source and a poison that will be released when the source [unpredictably] emits radiation, the cat being considered [according to quantum mechanics] to be simultaneously both dead and alive until the box is opened and the cat observed), and call backs from my other stories. (which I hope most of you have read and enoyed.)

Tell me your thoughts, beacuse I'm interested! Bye!