Sorry this chapter took so long to come out.

ATTENTION READERS!

Before you get into chapter 3 I would like to adress one thing.

Someone pointed out to me that Jack's last name is Vessalius.

And yes it is. But only in the manga. As I said before, this story is based on the anime since I did not read the manga yet. For some unknown reason, the anime changed it from Vessalius to Bezarius. Sorry

Just wanted to clear that up first. And now to the next chapter!

Alice slowly opened her eyes. Most of the night had consisted of the escape, so she was very tired. She sat up slowly and glanced around, with her body still enveloped in sleepiness. Then she remembered where she was and what she was doing. She sprang up quickly, now wide awake.

"Abby."

"Mmm..what?" Abby mumbled tiredly.

"Wake up."

Abby groaned.

"Abby!"

"What?"

"We're trying to find Jack, remember?"

Abby snapped awake.

"Yeah. Okay so what's the plan for today?"

"For starters, I really wouldn't mind if you took over for a bit." Alice hinted.

"Okay."

Alice sat back down and shut her eyes. She slumped back against the tree limply. After a few minutes, Abby slowly opened her eyes. She sat for a few more seconds, then shook her body awake.

Then, noticing how hungry she was, she grabbed the backpack next to her and dug through the items Alice had stuffed in there. She found an apple towards the bottom of the bag.

"Hey why is this in the bottom of the bag?"

"Uh because I put it in first?" Alice answered innocently.

"Alice, food goes in last so it's at the top so we can get to it easier. It's a foreign concept known as 'common sense' you've probably never heard of it." Abby tried as hard as she could to keep herself from laughing.

"Whatever."

Abby took a large bite from the apple. She wiped the juice dripping down with the back of her hand. As she ate, the two girls planned their next course of action.

"Okay. That's a pretty good idea. Just one more thing."

"What's that?" asked Alice.

"You brought that map with you right?"

"Uhhhhh."

"Alice, Tell me you brought the map!"

"Check the bag." Alice offered frantically.

Abby threw everything out of the bag. If that map wasn't in there, they might have to go back to the tower to get it. It was a map that Jack gave them, it led to the village he lived in. He had written his home address on it too. They would be totally lost without it.

She reached the bottom of the backpack, the map wasn't there. Abby freaked out for a moment. Then she remembered that there was a pocket on the inside of the bag. She unzipped the pocket and felt around. She felt a folded piece of paper. She snatched it, then pulled it out of the bag. When she unfolded it, it was the map.

"I guess we were all worried for nothing, then." Abby said relieved.

"Let's go Abby, we're wasting too much time."

Abby shoved everything back into the bag, pulled it over her shoulders, and walked back towards the road with the map in hand. When she got back to the road, she looked around.

The narrow dirt road was surrounded by woods on both sides. Which wasn't all that surprising, Baskerville manor was literally in the middle of nowhere.

Abby started walking in the direction that she'd been going the night before. She walked beside the road for a long time, without seeing anyone else. After a while, she got to a fork in the road. The wind started blowing hard, and Abby had to hold on tightly to the map.

She fought against the wind. Then, the map blew out of her grip. The wind carried it over to a nearby river. Abby freaked out and started running after it. She almost had it in her grasp, she touched it with her fingertips, then a big gust blew it further away.

With all luck against her, the map landed swiftly into the river. She knew it was ruined and unreadable, and even if it wasn't, it was too late now. the current carried it away.

"ABBY!" Alice screamed.

"Oh my god!"

"I can't believe you! What the heck are we supposed to do now? That map was our only way to find Jack. It was our only chance!"

"I know, I know."

"Wh-what do we do?"

"I don't know. But, someone's got to come this way eventually, right?"

"Eventually?! Abby, we don't have time for this!"

"I know that!"

"Abby…"

"What should we do?"

"Finding the village on our own will probably end in us getting lost so…" Alice trailed off, she had no idea what to do now, and neither did Abby.

"So what?"

"I-I have no idea."

"..Sorry."

"It's not your fault Abby, and besides, it's over now, nothing we can do about it."

"Okay."

"So now what?" Alice asked for the hundredth time.

"Well, this is the road to a village, multiple actually, so someone's bound to come down here soon right? I mean unless you can come up with something better."

Then as if on cue, a horse drawn carriage came down the road, it looked as if it were heading in the same direction they were.

"Oh. My. God." Alice said.

The carriage came to a stop in front of Abby, who stood nervously on the side of the road. The man driving wore a dark red cloak with a golden lining. He looked down at her curiously.

"Hi there."

"Uh, hi." replied Abby, smiling shyly.

"So what's a kid your age doing in the middle of nowhere by yourself?"

"Um well I'm heading to a nearby village and got lost." She confessed truthfully.

"Can I ask where you're going?"

"Malton village."

"No way that's where I'm headed."

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a little too convenient?" asked Alice.

"Yes." Abby said inside her head to Alice. She was so relieved that someone came along.

"Well if you want I can give you a 's not a good a idea for a kid like you to be wandering around the woods alone you know."

"Thank you very much."

"No problem. My name's Sona. What's yours?"

Abby was afraid someone would ask this. She didn't know what to answer. Which name should she give? The Baskervilles were probably looking for her, so she probably shouldn't say 'Alice'.

"I'm Abby."

"Well then Abby, just hop in the back there and let's go." Sona said cheerfully.

Abby nodded and walked over to the door of the carriage. She jumped in and shut the door behind her. She sat down on a soft leather seat that was much nicer than the ground Alice slept on last night.

The carriage started moving again, and Abby was getting irritated with Alice.

"He could be a Baskerville coming to find us." Alice persisted.

"I don't think so."

"Abby, it's way too convenient that the literal second the map goes into the river, a guy comes along in a carriage heading to the same village we are."

"It's called luck."

"Yes but this isn't luck Abby. Doesn't something about this feel off to you?"

"Yeah."

"Told you."

"What feels off is that we finally have a guaranteed way to find Malton village and you're trying to talk me out of doing it. That's what's off here!"

"Abby I-"

"No! Alice we'll be at Jack's door in less than twenty minutes…...Oh that's it isn't it?"

"What? What's it?"

"You don't want to find Jack because you think he left because of you don't you?"

"WHAT?!" Alice shrieked.

"That's it isn't it?" Abby said suspiciously.

"N-n-no! No Abby I swear it's not."

"It is. Alice I've known for a long time how you feel about this. You think he likes me better, you have for a while now. That's why you always tease so much."

Alice was shocked that Abby had figured this out. Abby was the nice one. She was gentle and quiet. Alice was the mean one. She was rough and wild. Anyone in their right mind would like Abby better than her. She knew Jack did. Although he never showed it, not in the least, she could tell. Jack treated them equally, pretended to like them the same, told them he liked them the same. But he didn't. If you looked deep enough, you could see it. Abby was a more preferable person, and that was a fact.