1 Well into the well

Oh no, I shouldn't have fell asleep, was the first thing I thought when I woke up on the empty buss. The lights were still on but the driver was missing. Did he leave? Why would he ditch while there still was a passenger on board? What an ass...

Where am I? I thought as I looked around me. It was pitch black outside but I just managed to see the outline of what looked like a small town, there was no light emanating from it and it looked abandoned. I checked my phone, dead, I groaned.

I stood up and groaned as a painful headache hit me and I sat down again in the uncomfortably hard buss seat.

I noticed a book on the ground, my book. It was called The Reckless Princess, a cheesy book my friends made me read. It hade the same agenda as any other fairy tail book; A damsel in distress being saved by a prince, the only difference is that in this book there are several princes. My friends always used to make me go to these fan-conventions with them and made me cosplay as the villain of the story every time because they said 'Since you don't like the book, you might as well play the worst character' and I never minded it.

I picked it up and put it in my backpack that was already on the verge of exploding from all my things and gathered my breath and stood up, the headache was still hurting but I couldn't stay in this buss any longer.

Luckily the door was open so I didn't have to go to the front to press the open button. It was freezing cold outside which was weird since when I left Tokyo it had been piping hot so I only had a skirt and a t-shirt on. How far could I have traveled?

I walked towards the small town with my arms hugged tightly to my torso, trying to keep at least some of my body heat to myself.

Maybe the towns people will help me?

I knocked hard on the first door I saw, nothing. I knocked again and yelled , "Hello!" To which I received no reply. "Is anybody here?!" I yelled and yet again got no reply.

I sighed, of course nobody would answer. It's probably past midnight and I sound like a lunatic.

"I can help you, little lady." I jumped at the sound of a voice behind me and quickly turned around to face the source of it to see a burly built man standing a few feet away from me. "Oh, um, do you know when the next buss is coming?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from quivering. I know you shouldn't judge people based on their appearance lbut this guy looked like a junky, a dangerous and strong one that easily could overpower me.

"The buss doesn't come until the morning." He said in a dark tone that made me even more nervous. Oh shit, that's bad. So I won't be able to make it to my station until tomorrow. "W-well, do you know any inn that's open at this time?" He took a step forward. "Sorry, miss, they're all closed. But I know a place you can sleep in."

It seemed suspicious. Everything about this guy seemed off. N-no, it's fine. I'll find a place myself, thank you though." I tried to swiftly walk past him but he grabbed my wrist and leaned in towards my ear. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave just yet. I need someone to take my place." He said menacingly.

When he started dragging me away, towards a run down house in the distance I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Let me go! Help!" But either nobody heard or nobody cared. What did he mean by 'I need someone to take my place'? I clawed at any part of his body I could reach but he ignored me and continued pulling on my wrist. "I'll give you whatever you want! I don't have much money on me but I can get more! I promise!" He pushed me inside the house and closed the door, looking down at me with pity before he continued dragging me. I hit his arm and back and kicked him on his legs but nothing made him stop in his tracks.

He let go of me and I darted towards the door but it was closed and locked. I expected him to be brought into some weird torture room but he brought me into an empty room...almost empty. There was a well in the middle of the room with a wooden lid on it. It looked like he had some problem with moving it and I took the chance to jump on him. He struggled with me for a while but managed to grab my waist and threw me into the well.

I screamed to high that I was afraid that my eardrums would burst. I pulled my limbs close to my body as I waited to be met by either water or rock but neither came for me. I opened my tightly shut eyes and looked around me. I'm floating! The air around me was no longer cold and it wasn't dark anymore, there were small light orbs around me. How is this possible?

But suddenly I was ripped out of my amazement and started falling again and started screaming again. There were light beneath me, it looked like the end of a tunnel and it was getting closer. The light was burning my eyes so I had to shield them with my hands. I yelped in surprise as I felt the softness of sheets on my body instead of air. I sat up, covered in glistering sweat.

A strange lady walked into the room, seemingly shocked to see me laying on the floor. I mean, why wouldn't she be? "Who are you? And where am I?" I asked, my eyes wide and my face in a frown. Something's wrong, seriously wrong.

"Oh no, the accident must've harmed my lady more than we thought." She whined and proceeded to placing a tray with bacon and eggs on it with a saddened expression on her pretty face. And then took out of a towel to pick up the glass pieces that were laying on the floor, her fingers shaking whilst doing so. "Your name is Jacelyn Blankley and I'm sure your memories will return after you're well again." A sweet smile spread across her lips and gently grabbed my arms to help me up on the huge bed. She laid me down and put a wet cloth on my forehead.

"Don't you worry about anything, my lady. Me and the other maids are here to take care of you to the best of our ability. It's an honor to serve you." It's an honor to serve me? Since when? Who is this lady and why is she so kind to me? "What's your name?" I asked as she was picking up the broken glass from the ground, "My name? Oh, right, it's Lilith, but you do not need to remember the name of someone as insignificant as me, my lady." Lilith made a small bow and swiftly moved out of the room and closed the big doors behind her.

That's...odd.

The room I was in sort of had an old Victorian style to hit with baby blue walls and white furniture. There was also a bunch of teddy bears on the huge bed. That many teddy bears wouldn't even be able to fit on my old bed even if I wasn't in it.

There was a tall mirror on the other side of the big room. I set my feet down on the cold stone floor and walked slowly towards it and my heart stopped when I saw my appearance, my clothes were changed, I was now wearing a long night gown. My entire face was different, my eyes were blue while they'd always been green and my hair which was usually dark from had now changed to a much lighter version of it. But that wasn't the worst of it, I was a child again, a small child.

"What the hell is going on?"