"Say Cheese!"<br/><br/>Alice smiled as her friend Jane took a photo of her with the Tower of London in the background.  She had spent the last few days exploring the city with her good friend and her trip was nearly over.  They still had some plans to eat, drink and be merry over the next couple of days though.<br/><br/>"Onward?"  Jane asked as Alice rejoined her.<br/><br/>"Yes, but there was a tiny little shop full if tourist trinkets back there, I'd like to get something for my brother.  Would you mind waiting here for a second?"  Alice asked.<br/><br/>"No problem, I'm gonna take a few more pictures.  See you in a minute."  Jane wondered off into the crowd and Alice went off her own way.<br/><br/>Her feet still hadn't adjusted to the cobblestone roads that peppered the city, but she did her best to make her way quickly toward the shop.  She had nearly made it there when the sky seemed to suddenly darken.  Alice looked up towards the odd phenomenon, only to suddenly see the sky pull away from her.  She wasn't falling, at first, it just felt like the world was shifting around her.  And then she was falling.  The wind rushed by as her mind went into a panic and her hair whipped about her face, making it near impossible to see the ground below.  The fall felt almost eternal, as if it had no beginning and no end.  It did meet an end though, eventually, but it was not the kind she expected.<br/><br/>Her body did not collided with rocky ground or pavement.  Instead she stood in the middle of several glowing symbols that appeared to have been carved deeply into the ground.  It was very dark, but the light from the symbols made her suddenly aware she was not alone.  Those thoughts were confirmed a moment later when her mind recognized the sound of voices chanting.  She looked around in confusion, noticing that the small group of people around her all wore dark robes, which made them seem almost invisible from her vantage point within the circle they had formed.<br/><br/>A sudden gust of wind blew through the them and it made her acutely aware of the fact that clothes were gone.  She lifted a hand to feel for the necklace and earrings she had been wearing and found that they had also disappeared.  Her arms moved to cover herself and she let out a soft but embarrassed cry that suddenly brought the people around her to realize she stood before them.<br/><br/>"What in the name of the seven Hells?" A man gasped.<br/><br/>"It didn't work.  It was supposed to siphon the power of the girl, not bring her here.  This is bad.  This is very bad."  Another said.<br/><br/>"We can still use her power, but we can't do it if they catch us here.  Give her your cloak, we need to move."  A woman barked, clearly some kind of leader among them.<br/><br/>One of the men stepped forward and drew his cloak around her shoulders. Alice took it, still in shock.  She clutched it closely around her form, only half aware that she was the woman they were speaking about. The glow from the symbols around her went out a moment later and though they urged her to move with them, she stayed still for a moment as her eyes adjusted.  The landscape was somewhat the same from the world she had left, but still different.  Instead of a dark black or gray sky, there was an almost purple haze about it.  The buildings around them were almost the same, but some of the components seemed different, as if they had been forged and built in a different way.  All of it was overwhelming and felt impossible.<br/><br/>"Carry her if you have to.  If his men catch us here, we'll be arrested...or worse."  The woman who seemed to be some sort of commander urged once again."<br/><br/>The man pushed Alice and she stumbled in the direction he urged her, her feet following automatically as the others around her began to scurry away from this place.  The man who gave her the cloak grabbed her by the arm and continued to guide her away from the spot where she had landed.  They were making some kind of escape, but she had no idea what they were running from.<br/><br/><a class="username" data-user-id="200" data-username="@Crazy Shady" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/200/">@Crazy Shady</a>