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[sub][color=tan]April 3, 2021, Saturday, 11:43PM
Highway 37, By the Pembina River[/color][/sub]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/N7UIscO.png[/img][/CENTER]

Zionne let out a deep sigh. She had been sitting in her car parked beside the Pembina River for over an hour, trying to muster up the courage to drive all the way to Caulder's Hollow. It had been easy to agree to her father's request. Pass by Caulder's Hollow, go to Peter's house, pick up the painting and then go on her merry way. It sounded so simple but it was anything but. If it were, she would have done it already and would have been on her way to Michigan hours ago. She stared at her hands gripping the steering wheel, her knuckles white from the effort. Though it had already been two years since her godfather disappeared, the pain and shock that she felt was as strong as it had been when her parents first told her of his disappearance. The familiar unanswered questions surfaced in her mind. Where was he? Where did he go? Why did he go? Why so suddenly? Was he coming back? 

She thought back to her godfather's last email. She had just told him that she was coming over to visit and he had been so excited about it. He asked so many questions about what she wanted to eat and what she wanted to do during her visit and for a brief moment, it felt as thought the old man was his old cheerful self again, back when Rose was still alive. She laughed bitterly. There was no excitement now, no happiness, no cheerfulness. All that was left were bitter thoughts of how the man she thought of as her second father would just up and leave without saying anything. 

Did she still want to know where he went? Would she even care to find out? Would it even matter anymore? Maybe he left some clues to his whereabouts and all she needed to do was to look for it. Maybe he was waiting for her to find those clues and find him. Or maybe all of these thing were better left alone. 

With a firm shake of her head, she reached for the ignition of her car, deciding that it was better for her not to go digging into something that she might end up regretting later on. With determination shining in her eyes, she told herself to just go through the chore her father gave her as fast as she possibly could and then leave without looking back. Two years without any word from her godfather was proof enough that he no longer wanted anything to do with her. Her hand barely touched the car keys when she noticed something shimmering in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and was surprised to see her car door shimmering and pulsating as though it was alive. 

She narrowed her eyes, the pulsing of the door seemed like it was following the rhythm of her heart. 

[i]Lub dub. Lub dub. Lub dub.[/i]

[color=salmon][i]Am I imagining this?[/i][/color] She felt her heart quicken its pace and with it, so did the pulsing of the door. It was both disconcerting and mesmerizing. Without thinking, she reached out for the handle and carefully opened the door. As soon as she did, the pulsing stopped. She gasped when a [url=https://i.imgur.com/nJjHo2l.jpg?1]flight of stairs[/url] met her gaze instead of the gray concrete of the highway. 

[color=salmon]"Of course it has to be something like this,"[/color] she muttered, not particularly bothered by the fact that scenery before her was anything but normal. She looked up the stone steps to the door at the top. It was wide open and she could feel a strong pull towards it. [color=salmon]"Story of my life... reach for the top and get to that door and then when I go through it, it'll just be another flight of stairs, another door to reach,"[/color] she shook her head. [color=salmon]"But what the hell,"[/color] she said, throwing caution in the air and letting that strange sensation pull her. She grabbed her phone, automatically tucked the penlight into her pocket right beside the small swiss army knife that she always carried with her, slammed her car door shut and then began climbing the stairs.

Surprisingly, she got to the top in a matter of seconds. She stared into the door, trying to see what was beyond it but everything was too bright for her to make out anything. For a brief second, she hesitated and looked back down the stairs, contemplating on going back to her car. [color=salmon]"Too late,"[/color] she murmured when she saw that the vehicle was no longer there and replaced with nothing but gray mist. [color=salmon]"I guess it's down the rabbit hole for Alice,"[/color] she chuckled despite herself and wasted no time stepping into the light in the doorway.

[hr]
[center][sub][color=tan]Location: ???[/color][/sub]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/N7UIscO.png[/img][/CENTER]
Zionne blinked as she waited for her vision to adjust from the glare of stepping into the door. As soon as it did, she looked around, a mixture of horror and wonder on her face. She had no idea what to expect from walking through the strange door but the place she stood in now was far from anything she'd ever imagined. It was as if she'd walk into some sort of post apocalyptic scene from a movie. She made a quick survey of her surroundings. She stood in a huge, dilapidated, abandoned hall with light streaming from the cracks overhead and rusted wires hanging haphazardly here and there from broken machineries. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of the words written on the tattered banner on the walls, quickly dismissing it when it didn't make any sense. She looked up, blinking at what appeared to be several bright moons peeking through the larger cracks in the ceiling. The last time she checked, the night sky only had one moon. Did sitting in the car for a long period of time made her start hallucinating? Exactly how much carbon monoxide did she inhale? 

She looked to her right and her eyes fell on an unfamiliar brown haired girl standing a few feet away from her. The girl was slightly taller than her but appeared to be younger. Was she a hallucination too? 

[color=salmon]"The car wasn't even running..."[/color] she murmured to herself as she stepped forward, her attention automatically snapping towards her feet and at the strange consistency of what looked to be normal tiles. [color=salmon]"What the--- Do you know where we are?"[/color] she asked out loud. She figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Maybe her hallucinating mind may somehow know exactly where she was. 

But before she could determine if the girl was indeed a hallucination, one of the television pillars came alive. Her head snapped towards the screen. Though she paid attention to what the blue man labeled "Mr. Reid" was saying, his words barely made any sense. Tyrant's empire? Unicorns? Personal doors? Glass Wind?

[i][color=salmon]Carbon monoxide toxicity may include agitation, confusion, depression, lethargy, impulsiveness, hallucinations, confabulation, distractibility, memory problems... There can also be visual disturbances, syncope and... seizures,[/color][/i] Zionne enumerated the symptoms in her head. There really was no other explanations to where she was, what she was seeing and what she was hearing. And she seemed to fit most of what she enumerated: she was confused and agitated back in the car, then came the impulsiveness of getting out of the vehicle and into the bright doorway and then now this place, the girl, the pixelated blue man... What was next? Was she going to faint? Would she go into seizure?

And then a clearer person came into focus on the tv.

“I only have a few minutes before the cameras cut back to me. Sarah, Z, listen to me. Get the fuck out of here. Change your name if you have to.”

[color=salmon]"W-what? Did you just... talk to m-- us?"[/color] she asked, feeling extremely foolish for talking to the television.