It was only a short walk down the road to Wonderland emporium but the tension between Vesper and I seemed to stretch the minutes into hours.

Emma seemed to notice the awkward silence between us and attempted to break a silence.

“So, um Vesper how are you liking Eden so far?’” Emma cheerfully asked. Vesper turned to Emma and replied, “Oh yes it really reminds me of my hometown”. Both Sophie and Emma nodded thoughtfully at that.

I, on the other hand, was ready to be sick all these holding hands and smiling at each other was so sweet it was giving me a toothache I knew that the reason why Vesper said it reminded her of her hometown was that this was her hometown!

Ah, it was so frustrating to not be able to announce it to everyone but I couldn’t because I was still disguised as Anne which made the consequences of doing something rash all the greater.

The feeling or guilt rose in my gut as I remembered what I had done to that boy only moments before. I had to get Anne out of Eden quicker than I thought but I couldn’t do it as quickly with Vesper close to finding Anne’s whereabouts.

The pressure was enormous and I was about to snap and just kill Vesper right then and there not caring about the consequences it would create for Anne. But thankfully we had arrived in Wonderland Emporium just in time.

I had never been before but its whereabouts was still known to me after. all this was the spider's web.

As we entered the establishment the temperature seemed to drop and a musty odour was emitting from the furniture It smelled like death and decay with an afterthought of greed. I scrunched my nose up at it and looked around.

Two boys around the ages of 17-18 were sitting at a long rectangular table with bits and bobs of herbs and charms strewn across it as well as many books.

One boy got up from the table and greeted us. “Well hello, its lovely to see you guys again!” He said with a voice full of vitality. He had stark white hair and blue eyes I cringed away as he peered down at me from his tall frame. “Hi Anne, I trust your doing well?” He smirked at me. I then realised the smell wasn’t from the furniture it was coming from the boy. He smelled strongly of death interesting very interesting…

I smiled brightly up at him and said in my most innocent voice “Good and yourself?” He gave me a mischievous grin in response.

Vesper walked up to him and patted his shoulder lightly “How about you go make us some tea Isaac?” She asked him.

He gave her an easy smile in response and walked off towards the kitchen area at the back of the shop.

Sophie and Emma were now sitting at the long table chatting away and leafing through the random witchcraft books which lay in piles all over the table.

I decided to set my sights on the annoyed looking boy at the other end of the table with a scowl on

his face. “Hey” I waved at him.

He grunted in response.

Wow, what a charmer! I thought sarcastically. Changing tact I decided to go for the more sentimental approach.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked with genuine concern.

“Oh yeah, sure it’s not like I wanted to spend some quality time with my boyfriend or anything” He snapped at me.

“ Boyfriend? Who’s that?” I questioned. He gave me a funny look.

“You already know when you rudely interrupted us why don’t you remember?” He answered.

“ Oh Oh! Sure, I do yeah absolutely!” I announced.

“You're acting funny Anne are you sure it’s you in there?” He teased a ghost of a smile evident on his lips.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA your so funny HAHA” I laughed a bit too hard and loudly to sound genuine.

Gosh this whole pretending to be Anne was a lot harder than I thought I must think of something quickly before someone realised it wasn’t her. Someone other than Vesper of course.

The boy leaned close to my face and whispered: “If you’re really Anne then can you tell me what my name is?”

“Oh yeah sure that’s easy…. Um” I tried to recall if anyone had said his name before as I scooted back from him.

“Okay, guys the teas ready!” Isaac announced cheerfully while Vesper trailed behind him. He set down some plain white tea cups and poured tea into them from a large teapot. But he only poured tea into three of the five tea cups. Not thinking much about it I took a sip of my tea is smelled heavenly.

However, when the tea met my taste buds is immediately spat it our alarm bells rang in my head as I looked around to see who else had drunk the foul-tasting liquid. It was too late though as Cain and Emma had already swallowed their tea and started to cough widely.

I turned around and glared at Vesper as I also began to cough widely too her minions stood behind her Sophie and Isaac smiling triumphantly at our suffering.

The coughs were strong enough to shake my body violently and I fell to the floor too weak to support my body weight anymore. It seemed as Emma and Cain were struggling too and fell to the floor in masses of spluttering and coughing.

Vesper approach my thrashing body and placed a hand on my forehead and whispered “I’ve got you now Lilith and it’s time to pay”

********

Anne’s POV

I had been sitting in this room for what seemed liked ages time stretched on and on and without any sort of clock or time telling device in sight it made the whole ordeal even more painful. But it all this time to myself had given me time to think so for that I was grateful.

I concluded that this was all some sort of hallucination nothing that had happened in the past forty-eight hours had been real because that was just not possible.

Strangers from out of town, my best friend trying to drown me and that strange girl who appeared in my kitchen claiming to know me was obviously a load of rubbish.

However, as I sit here trying to convince myself these things a small part of my brain the less rational part tells me that all this has truly happened but with all might heart I hope it’s not true because that would mean my only family member is gone forever.

I sniffled at that thought trying to hold back my tears it felt like there was a big black hole in my heart a vacuum that sucked all the joy and life out of everything. I sank back down on the bed and wallowed in my misery a little more.