Andrea A1
RP here. Underneath the <hr> line. :)

---

Andrea sat cross legged on the floor in her room, looking down at some old photos of her and her friend Jenna when they were younger. "Those were the days." She grinned and picked one up. Andrea was seventeen, and lived with her parents in a small house in Massachusettes.

Jenna walked up the long, and familiar path to Andrea's house slowly. She was consumed in a book she was reading about astrology, and didn't realise she was at the front door until she walked into it. "Bugger!" Cursing, she rubbed her sore forehead, and knocked the door.

Andrea was alone in the house and heard the knock on the door. She checked her watch. Four thirty exactly. Jenna was always on time. "Coming, Jen!" Andrea called as she raced down the stairs, jumping the last three as per-usual. She stopped at the door and opened it.

"Your door attacked me again." Jenna murmured, grinning brightly at her friend. "I think you need to ground it or something."

"Hey, you're the one with your nose in a book. Don't blame my door." Andrea shook her head and laughed. "Come on, I've got something to show you." She turned around and stood in the hallway to let Jenna in.

"Blame the book why don'cha? You always blame the book." Jenna rolled her eyes, and accepted the invitation inside, closing the door behind her as she did so. "All right then, what is it you want to show me?"

Andrea merely grinned at her. "It's upstairs, I'll go and get it." She disappeared upstairs. "Why don't you sit in the living room? I'll be down in a minute!" Andrea called down from her bedroom.

Jenna laughed and nodded. "Yes Miss." She did as she was told and waited in the living room quietly, but was soon absorbed back into her book.

Andrea came back down a few minutes later holding a huge book. "Right, then." She sat down on the couch and opened up the book. "Photos!" Andrea beamed down at them. "I spent all day filling this thing."

"Photo's?" Jenna asked, reluctantly lifting her head out of the book. "Of what?"

"Er, you and me?" Andrea raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Jen. Wake up!"

"Oh right. Sorry." Jenna grinned sheepishly and stuffed her book in her bag. "Right then."

Andrea shook her head and sighed. "You and your books. Anyway, look! This one's at your eleventh birthday party! Remember the pool you had? It was so hot that day."

"Remember the sun burn we got after it?" Jenna winced at the memory. "I was peeling for weeks!"

"God, yeah! And this one, when we were six." Andrea looked at the photo closely and then frowned. "What's that you're holding?"

"A book probably." Jenna mumbled, and squinted at the photo. "Err...To be honest? Absolutely no idea. Must have been a toy or something."

"It looks like..our sketchbook." Andrea looked again. "Our imaginary world sketchbook! Remember? We drew ideas for our own dream world when we were kids."

"Oh yeah!" Jenna's face lit up as she recalled the memory. "That was so fun. I remember my mother giving me a row because I was 'obsessed' with it apparently. I wonder what happened to the book..."

"My mum was the same, yet she thought it was sweet." Andrea shrugged. "I don't know where it is. It's probably lost with a load of your books at home somewhere."

"Do you think we should look for it?" Jenna asked, glancing up at her friend. "It would be fun."

"You think?" Andrea looked at Jenna and then slammed the photo album shut. "Okay, let's start in my room."

"Good place to start, there's no telling what's hiding in your room." Jenna quipped with a smirk.

"Oi you, Miss Bookworm." Andrea grinned and walked upstairs.

"I wonder if we'll be able to actually see your bedroom floor today." Jenna shot back and followed closely behind.

"Aaah, you know me. Probably not." Andrea grinned and starting rooting through her bookshelves. She didn't really enjoy reading, but she had plenty of books anyway.

Jenna rolled her eyes and started her search underneath the bed. "My God Andrea! When did you last clean under here?!"

"I..uh, around three weeks ago?" Andrea looked around and glanced under her bed. "Woops." She grinned and carried on looking. "I never even read these things!" Andrea practically tossed the books out of the room.

"Blasphemy!" Jenna laughed, and threw a pillow at her friend. "Thou must not treat those sacred texts in such a way!"

The pillow smacked Andrea right in the face. "THAT is blasphemy!" She called as she threw the pillow on the floor with a laugh. "Hey, look! Is this it?" Andrea picked up a battered black book and looked at the front cover. "Well it says 'A4 sketch pad' on the front."

Jenna crawled out from beneath the bed, and sneezed. "Bloody dust." Rubbing her watering eyes, she glanced over at the book. "Seems like it's the one from the picture. Open it."

Lexi yawned as she turned the corner into a vaguely familiar street, she was out looking for inspiration for an art project but so far she hadn't had much luck.

Andrea did as she ws told and opened up the book. There on the first page was a drawing of Jenna and Andrea in a beautiful field with lots of colourful flowers and a bright blue sky. Jenna was holding a baby rabbit, and Andrea was stroking a fawn. "How cute! We were quite the artists back then, eh?"
Andrea beamed.

"Something like that." Jenna chuckled. "You know, I don't remember any of this, only the basic fact that we made up our own world."

"Me neither, we were so young!" Andrea looked at the picture a little more and then turned the page. "Aw wow! It's the river! The clean and clear one. Remember? We even said dolphins could live in it." Andrea frowned. "Bloody hell. If this really was a world and we were in charge of it, the RSPCA would be after us in a flash. Dolphins living in rivers?"

"What I want to know is how would we get the dolphins into the rivers." Jenna murmured, staring at the book. "Looks really lifelike doesn't it?"

Lexi glanced down the road, there was nothing here that could help her, it was all too normal, too fake. She smiled to herself as she imagined the kind of people who would live here, perfect families with their perfect children and lives that were just good enough. The brief of the project was simple enough; collect photos and make drawings of "your world". But she didn't want to sit around drawing pointless buildings, she wanted something that was both real and un-real. She sighed, she doubted she'd ever find what she wanted.

"Yeah." Andrea nodded. She then squinted and looked down at the picture harder. "Hey, is that me? Behind that tree?" In the picture, there were lots of trees, but there was one huge one and Andrea was right, there behind it was Andrea herself peeping around it. "Hey, Jen! I'm bloody moving! Look!"

"Yes Andrea, that's what humans do. They move, I'm so glad you've figured it out at last." Jen muttered dryly, still rubbing at her eyes. "Bloody hell Andrea, this isn't normal dust!"

"No, no! The picture, look!" Andrea pointed at herself in the sketch behind the tree. "My hand! It's motioning us! See?"

"You didn't stay up all night again did you? Because I know what that does to you." Jen sighed, and glanced at the book. "Hey...That can't be right..."

"Of course I didn't! I'm moving in it! Trust me, animation wasn't around back then." Andrea swallowed. "This is weird."

"Uh huh, you're telling me." Jenna frowned. "Erm....What now?"

"I don't know! I wish I could bloody go there and see why I'm moving!" Andrea yelled as she stared at the picture.

Suddenly, the whole house shook, and the sketchbook turned it's own pages to a page which had just a huge black circle in it. Writing began to form above it.

Hello Andrea and Jenna. It wrote.

"What the?!" Andrea said quickly, taken aback by both the book and the fact that her house just shook.

"This is not funny Andrea!" Jenna stood quickly. "Come on, let's go!"

"I'm not doing anything!" Andrea yelled as her bedroom door slammed shut.

Yes you are. This is your work. You and Jenna created this world. Now this is an oppurtunity for you to visit it, whether you like it or not. The writing seemed to be red..bloodred.

"Andrea MOVE!" Jenna shouted, and ran to the door. She tried to pull it open, but her efforts were in vain. The door was stuck tight.

Come with me. Come to your own world. It will be paradise. The writing suddenly spread all over the book, repeating itself over and over.

"My God..Jen this is blood! It's being written in blood!" Andrea practically screamed.

Lexi blinked she was almost certain one of the houses had shook, she hadn't felt anything and there was no way it could be a freak earthquake, not when it had effected only one house. Maybe she was imagining it but she wasn't sure and her feet were already carrying her towards the house in question. "I'll just see if everyone's alright," she muttered to herself.

"Don't touch the book Andrea!" Jenna yelled, clinging tightly to her common sense. She couldn't let herself panic. "Get away from the book!"

"I can't! I can't let go of it!" Andrea wailed. She was right, the book was stuck to her fingers.

In a flash, the house shook again violently. Andrea and Jenna found themselves falling, down what seemed a black hole. The writing which Andrea had read in the book was floating around them in 3D.

They both fell finally with a thud on what felt like grass. It was cold, very cold.

Jenna had tried to scream as they feel through what she could only describe as a portal, but her voice wouldn't work. It was odd, and looked like something out of Pagemaster. "Oof! Where are we?" She glanced around her, and wrapped her arms around her body.

"Our..world." Andrea felt the grass which was black. "Only, it's different. It's dark and gloomy." She finally stood up. "I never thought this place would be real, or end up like this."

"It can't be real." Jenna muttered, rubbing her arms vigorously. "It's a book."

"Of course it is! Feel the grass!" Andrea snapped.

"We must have fallen asleep." Jenna retorted.

"No way. If you're falling in a dream, you always wake up before you fall to the ground." Andrea shook her head.

"Not true." Jenna sighed. "This isn't funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny." Andrea sighed. "Perhaps we could find someone and ask for help."

"This place looks pretty deserted." Jenna muttered, pulling herself up from the ground.

"Well I guess we were the only people here when we created it. Maybe it follows our rules too?" Andrea sighed again. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed at something moving behind some trees. "Can you hear it?"

"All I can hear, and feel is the wind." Jenna replied sullenly, but squinted to try and see into the distance. "Come on, let's find some shelter."

"No, wait!" Andrea grabbed Jenna's arm and froze. "Look." She whispered.

From behind one of the trees, came what looked like a man holding a dead rabbit. The 'man' drew long, hard, rasping breaths which sounded laboured. It was limping also, and seemed to have wounds all over it's face.

"Oh my God.." Andrea gasped.

Jenna's eyes widened. She didn't know whether to scream or cry. "...What do we do?"

"Just stay, it might not see us." Andrea just watched it as it dragged it's broken foot along the black grass, the dead rabbit swinging by it's side.

Jenna was good at that, so she nodded and fell still. This better work...

The thing stopped and looked around. It dropped the rabbit hard on the ground.

Andrea just stared at it. "What's it doing?" She whispered to Jenna.

It suddenly began to scream, a high pitched scream at that.

"This wasn't in the book!" Andrea yelled over the scream.

"None of this was in the book!" Jenna shouted back. "Come on, I have a bad feeling about this!"

"Gah! Run for the trees!" Andrea ran for it into the trees past the strange looking creature which didn't notice her at all.

Lexi pushed open the door to the house, it was unlocked so that must mean someone was inside, "hello?" she called out nervously. No one answered so she took a cautious step inside, she didn't want to be accused of breaking in or anything. The house shook again and she struggled to keep her balance, she swallowed nervously one foot hovering just inside the house. She took a deep breath and then stepped inside, the instant her second foot was inside the door she felt like she was falling.

Jenna almost choked at the unintended humour in Andrea's words, but did as she was told and ran after the girl, giving the screaming man a wide berth as she did so.

Andrea skidded to a stop inside the trees and watched out for Jenna who wasn't far behind her. Although she did notice another body which was falling from the sky out of nowhere. "Huh?" Andrea squinted.

Jenna collapsed against the tree, and worked on regaining full use of her lung capacity before she attempted to speak. "Huh what?"

"Over there, look." Andrea nodded at the falling body of a girl.

Jenna frowned. "I didn't realise anyone else would come through..."

"Well..she? Has." Andrea squinted again and made out that the falling person was a girl.

"Then there must be a way back." Jenna murmured thoughtfully.

"Did we have a way back? Did we think of one back then? I don't think we did, Jen." Andrea said without any tone.

Lexi hit the floor quite heavily and frowned, grass? Inside a house? She wasn't entierly sure what had happened, she looked around. Everything was dark and gloomy but she was certainly not inside any type of house. Gingerly she stood up and noticed the man, she gulped, "maybe he doesn't know i'm here," she thought desperately.

The man-thing carried on screaming, holding it's head as if it was about to fall off at any minute. It stopped with a groan and looked around, spotting the girl at last. It just stared at her, it's dark sullen eyes looking into hers.

"Why doesn't she move?!" Andrea hissed, watching the girl.

"She's just fallen through a hole in the sky, I'd say she's more than a bit winded, and shocked." Jenna replied drlyl.

Lexi gulped as his eyes fixed on her, she felt frozen, disorientated by what had happened and majorly freaked out. His eyes were like pits, drawing her in, she shook her head and backed away from him.

"Psst! Hey, you!" Andrea hissed, trying to get the girl's attention. "Over here, quick!" She motioned for the girl to come to her with her hand.

Lexi saw Andrea out of the corner of her eye and realised she was trying to get her attention. She took one last look at the gruesome man and then ran towards her, she vaguely recognised her from one of her classes.

"Bloody hell!" Andrea gasped as the girl ran towards her. "Jen, it's Lexi! From our Psychology class!"

"Eh, oh my God, and it is!" Jenna's eyes grew wide. "What the hell is going on?"

As she got nearer Lexi realised that there was another girl with Andrea she recognised her as well. She frowned what on earth was going on? She glanced over her shoulder glad she was putting distance between herself and the guy. "What is going on?" she panted as soon as she was within hearing distance of Andrea and Jenna.

"Don't ask that now! Get over here!" Andrea cried, watching the man as it began to drag it's feet after Lexi, groaning loudly. "Bloody hell, it's coming now." Andrea swallowed as she spotted the man.

"I think that would be our cue to run." Jenna murmured, her eyes watching the man fearfully.

Lexi glanced over her shoulder and immidiately sped up, she looked around for better shelter than the group of trees. "This is great" she thought to herself, "I try and be a good person and i end up being chased by some freak. absolutely greaaat."

"Lexi? Are you alright?" Andrea asked her.

Lexi rolled her eyes and gave Andrea a half hearted smile, "well he didn't get me, so i guess that means i'm fine."

"Good." Andrea smiled back. She didn't know Lexi very well, since she hardly talked to her at school. "So..what now? That freak will be looking for us, we can't just stay here."

Andrea was right, the man was rooting through bushes for the girl that had just ran straight past him not very far from them. He was grunting horribly.

"Like I said, we run." Jenna hissed quickly. "I don't fancy being beaten to death or whatever he plans on doing."

"I agree, i don't particularly want to be beaten to death by some deranged man. Lets get out of here." Lexi whispered edging away from where the man was searching.

Waiting for the right time, Andrea nodded at both of them and ran for it through the trees until she heard a rushing river.

Lexi didn't need a second invitation, the minute she saw Andrea start running she followed. The sound of the river was reassuring, if nothing else at least they would be able to have a drink and maybe if they were lucky they could cross it and hide on the other side. 

---

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, a tall girl with black hair and quite a pale face was sitting on the grass, looking out into the woods. "I can hear you, Andrea. Running away from your own creation." The girl said with no tone whatsoever. She smiled into the river, looking at her reflection.

Barada walked up with his hands in his pockets with a smirk. "Like they say... 'You can run but you can't hide...'" He then gave off a dry laughter.

The girl nodded. "But of course. They aren't far now. I can sense them. Andrea, Jenna, and another girl who I don't know."

Barada grinned. "I know, I can sense at least one of them... The 'good' variation of me.." He shuddered at the thought of a good version of him and that it was a girl.

The girl laughed and it was very high pitched, which was quite unexpected for her serious tone of voice when speaking. "It's not as if she's ugly, you know. She's quite bright, too. She loves her books. Not like Andrea, oh no. I'm glad that I have her as my other half. Although she does need to be taken care of. So does Jenna. That is your job, Barada."

Barada smirked viciously. "Oh and I will..." The other he didn't even bother with a comment as she knew how he felt about his other 'brighter' half.

"Good." The girl smiled.

---

"Argh! Bloody nettles everywhere!" Andrea cried as she could finally see some light. "Are you two alright back there? Jen? Lexi?" She called behind her as she began to slow down, whilst rubbing her arms from the nettle stings.

Lexi winced as a nettle leaf caught her skin but carried on running, making sure she was keeping Andrea in sight. She nodded and then realised Andrea wouldn't be able to see the movement. "I'm fine, whats up ahead?" She glanced over her shoulder to see how Jenna was doing.

"River I think." Andrea called over her shoulder. "About time we saw some light. My arms hurt like crazy."

"yeah same here, i'll be glad to get out of these nettles!" Lexi called back and rubbed her arm, she could hear the river more loudly now and she was glad. Her throat felt raw and dry, she needed a drink.

Jenna stumbled behind them, trying to touch the sharp nettles as little as possible. "This...Is...Beyond!"

"Tell me about it." Andrea groaned as she pulled away some branches so she could walk through.

Lexi glared as another nettle stung her, Jenna had it right this place was beyond.. beyond what she had thought was real and beyond anything that she had ever experianced. she followed Andrea pushing aside branches and wondering what they were doing here in the first place.

---

Enzeru yawned, walking down the neighborhood street with his hands laced up behind his head. His long black hair swayed a little as he walked and in the breeze. He looked down the road and stopped. "What the-?" he asked himself at the sight of the ruined house. It didn't look burned, or charred as if it had been in a fire, nor had there been an earthquake. He ran to the ruins of the house and stepped inside the threshold, looking around. "Hello? Is anyone in here? Anyone hurt?" he called, stepping through each room, or what would have been a room before the collapse. He pushed aside the larger pieces of rubble in search of people or animals, coughing when he accidentally dropped a long beam kicking up dust. He waved it away and turned to his left, going into another room. "Hello?" he called again, a little quieter this time.

He looked around. The room he stood in now didn't seem as badly crumbled as the rest of the house, in fact, there were still four walls and a good portion of the roof intact. He slid his feet on the floor instead of lifting them, pushing aside debris with his booted toes. A lonely bookshelf occupied one of the thin walls, tall and light. He blinked, seeing most of the books had been knocked off except a few. He went to it and sifted through the titles of the books, running a light finger along their spines as he mouthed the titles. They were rather feminin books.. obviously they belonged to a young girl. He stopped his hand as it reached one particular book. It sounded like it was.. buzzing. Felt like it too.. like it was eminated some sort of energy from the binds. "What.. is this..?" he muttered, leaning closer to the book. He gently reached out to it, stopping a few inches short, hesitant, then pulled it off the shelf.

The book began to shake violently, it was THE book, the book Andrea and Jenna had created. The whole room began to emit a bright white light and soon Enzeru wasn't in the same place as he was before.

Enzeru let out a shout as the light blinded him for a split second, then was gone, leaving him in a totally new world. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, then looked around frantically. "What just happened?!" he asked himself. "Where-?"

"Now he's a cute one!" A girl giggled darkly from the shadows. "Hey, Barada. Come and look at this guy."

Enzeru spun around frantically at the voices. "Who's there?!" he called, clentching his fists. He didn't want to fight, but if he had to, he would.

Quite a tall girl with a pale face and black hair swept back into a side ponytail walked out from behind the trees. "Oh, just a teen. Like you really. Only.. Slightly different."

Enzeru relaxed a little. A girl.. it's only a girl. "Where am I? What is this place?"

"Welcome to my world." The girl said with outspread arms, half ignoring the young man's questions.

Enzeru looked around again, as if trying to find something he didn't see before, then turned his gaze back on the girl. "Who are you?"

"I'm Andrea, and you are?" Strange, this was a straight answer from the girl.

Badara grinned cruelly from a distance. "My name is Badara, nice meeting you stranger..." He said with an attempt at a friendly tone.

Enzeru looked between the two of them and suddenly got an uneasy feeling. Why? They're just a girl and some guy.. right? "Enzeru.." he said a bit softly.

"Where's your halo then, Enzeru?" Andrea smirked. She knew most languages off by heart. She was after all, a creation.

Enzeru blinked a bit nervously, watching them. "Very funny. Like I've never heard that one before." he scoffed. "I just wanna know what the hell is going on. One minute I'm standing in a broken up house, and the next, I'm here."

"Ah bummer." Andrea clicked her tongue and then seated herself crosslegged on the black crass and started picking at it. "You must have come across my book."

Badara seats himself silently in the lotus position.

Enzeru eyed her a bit more. "Yeah, bummer, now how do I get back?" He was beginning to grow impatient, what with being transported to a new world through a book and all.

"You.. Don't." Andrea smiled. "Once your here, you are trapped. There are three girls here already. Struggling to get free. Now you are the same as them."

"We should have burned that book." Jenna muttered darkly.

"Oh, look what crawled out of the nettles." Andrea smirked at Jenna. "Glad you could join us."

The other Andrea however was not far behind. She could hear voices however, and one of them belonged to Jenna. "Jen?" Andrea called out as she moved a branch out of the way so she could move forwards. She looked behind now and again to see if Lexi was keeping up.

Enzeru looked between Andrea and Jenna, then jutted a thumb at Andrea. "Friend of yours?" he asked with a raised eyebrow at Jenna. He was obviously trying to make light of the situation; the idea that he may never go back hadn't struck him yet.

"Where else would I be?" Jenna retorted, clearly irritated. "Where's Lexxi, and who's this?" she asked, pointing at Enzeru accusingly.

Aerdna(dark Andrea) raised an eyebrow at Jenna. "Questions, questions, questions!" She moved slowly inbetween Enzeru and Jenna. She almost looked like a cartoon character, and not human..

"Bloody hell, JEN!" Andrea yelled at the top of her voice. She could now see light and wasn't far from the exit.

Jenna's eyes narrowed. "What's going on?" Frowning, she moved backwards slowly. Whoever this girl was, she certainly wasn't Andrea. The question was then, where the hell was Andrea?

"Argh!" Andrea plummeted out of the nettles and landed on her back on the cold black grass metres away from the others. "Jesus.." Andrea winced as she sat herself up and rubbed her elbow.

Enzeru stumbled backwards at Andrea's arrival and the uncanny similarities between her and Aerdna. "Bloody hell!" he gasped. "What is going on here?!"

Badara got up with a grin. "Oh my... She finally made it.. I thought it was going to take forever... You want to introduce yourself or should I Aerdna?" He asked with a smirk.

Aerdna didn't say anything. She was looking at the girl who looked almost exactly like her with a horrified stare. "My creator." She gasped. "Badara, away. We must get away from her."

Andrea looked up and saw the group of people staring at her. "Jen!" She called out. She smiled until she noticed a girl staring at her. "What the hell?" The girl looked a lot like her. The eyes, the hair, the height. Pretty much everything apart from her clothes. Andrea got up. "Who the hell are you?"

Badara was surprised by the fear in Aerdna's voice. "Huh? Creator?" He blinked surprised then shook his head and nodded. "Allright then.. I suppose I'll get an explanation later on.."

"I am you." Aerdna whispered before disappearing into the shadows.

Andrea was left standing there, dumbstruck with her mouth wide open. She looked at the teenage boy with a puzzled glance.

Enzeru was just as stunned as she was, staring into the trees where the neco-Andrea had disappeared to. He then shook his head and cleared his throat, bringing a hand to his head. "Oi, I need to lay off the smoothies.." he muttered. "This is the weirdest dream ever-" he stopped when he looked to Andrea. Somehow, she seemed.. different than her twin counterpart.. more alive. More stunning. He blinked, wondering if she was a dream as well.

Badara grinned. "Later people... Next time it might be a little longer and little more amusing.."

Jenna stood in silent shock for a few moments before she turned to face Andrea and began shouting. "What the hell was that?! Who was she?! Where were you?! This is not even funny Andrea!"

"Hey, hey! I'm just as confused as you are, Jen!" Andrea waved her hands in front of her. "That girl looked too much like me for this to be real." She sighed. "I've lost Lexi too.. What's your name?" Andrea looked at Enzeru.

Enzeru blinked a moment, then cleared his throat, stammering. "Uh.. m-my name is Enzeru. Who're you? And where are we?"

"I'm Andrea and this is Jenna." Andrea smiled weakly. "I've got a feeling that we are in a world that me and Jenna created as kids.. How did you get here?"

"I.. I'm not sure. I was walking down the street.. and I came upon a crumbled house. It looked fairly new, so I went in to see if anyone was hurt or trapped. I found a book in a back room, and as soon as I touched it.. I was here." Enzeru explained, feeling a little foolish the more the words came out of his mouth.

"Wow, you came through the book too. What a surprise." Jenna muttered sarcastically. "We should leave. It doesn't seem right here. There has to be some kind of village or something..."

"We did make a village.. I remember." Andrea nodded. "My house.. In ruins? I never knew it would come to this. We've lost Lexi too."

Enzeru went to Andrea and slowly took her hands in his. "I'm sorry about your house. And your friend." he said sincerely. He was amazed at how he didn't want to take his eyes off her.

"Yo, don't get me wrong, I'm as straight as a plank, but right now I want to go home." Andrea smiled and patted his hand. "Thanks, though."

Jenna snickered. "I don't think he meant it like that Andrea, you fool." She circled the two trying to peer through the nettles. "Well, wherever Lexxi is, I hope she's all right."

Enzeru blushed a little and gently dropped Andrea's hands, nodding. "Of course, I want nothing more than to be home right now too.." he said ernestly.

"We can look for her on the way to the village." Andrea said before smiling kindly at Enzeru. "Let's go."

"Yeah all right then." Jenna replied absently. There had to be a reason for the duplicate of Andrea...Or Aerdna as she called herself. Did that mean there was a duplicate of herself? She laughed suddenly. Oh brilliant, her duplicate would be called Annej. Now that was a mouthful. "I'm hungry. I hope we find a village pretty quick."

"Is it far?" Enzeru asked Andrea. All the confusion had made him honestly hungry and tired too.. odd for a dream.

"I can't remember. If only we had the book with us as a map." Andrea sighed. "I'm starving too."

"If we had the book we'd probably be back in our own world." Jenna remarked, moving forward carefully. "Think about it, if that was the portal that brought us here, it should take us back...Shame it didn't come through with us."

"But.. you- I mean.. the other you.. the one that looks just like you said we can't go back." Enzeru said to Andrea, confusing even himself.

"And you believe her?" Jenna snorted. "Please, that's obviously just some kind of tactic to scare us out of our wits. There's always a way back. Always."

"You don't sound too sure." Enzeru said, now turning his eyes on Jenna.

Jenna glared at him. "I'm sure, believe me." She snapped coldly.

"Hey guys, cut it out." Andrea said quickly. "I just heard something."

She was right, a rustling could be heard from behind the nettle bush.

Jenna glared at Enzeru for a few moments longer before turning her head towards the sound. "What are we standing here for then? Let's move."

"Reaaaargh!" A huge groan could be heard from behind the bush.

"Bloody hell! Lexi if that's you, quit it!" Andrea shuffled backwards close to Jenna.

"I don't think that's Lexxi." Jenna whispered. "Come on, let's go, and don't make too much noise."

Enzeru eyed the bushes warily and gently placed both hands on Jenna's and Andrea's shoulders, guiding them the other way, never taking his eyes from the bushes. "Yes, let's hurry.." he whispered.

Jenna shrugged his hand off her angrily and began dissecting a path through the dense bush. She just hoped there weren't anymore nettles.

A huge lumbering figure limped out of the bushes holding a dead animal which seemed to be a deer. It groaned loudly, will sniffing the air.

"It's our friend again." Andrea winced and began to run.

Jenna grimaced and picked up pace. "He must have caught out scent or something. Damn!"

Enzeru didn't ask questions, just began to run, staying close behind the girls. "You two have some pretty disturbed minds to make something like that!"

"We didn't make it!" Jenna snapped over her shoulder defensively. "Christ, we were only children at the time! Our creation was flowers and sun!"

"Yeah, and we didn't want the grass to be black and cold!" Andrea panted as she ran as fast as she could.

The lumbering zombie creature was not far behind them.

"Or to have weird, evil duplicates!" Jenna added, barreling through the bushes.

"Alright, I get your point, stop talking and keep running!" Enzeru panted, looking over his shoulder at the ugly zombie. "God, this is like a badly made horror movie!"

"Well rest assured, we'll never become movie directors!" Andrea forced a smile over her shoulder. "This way!" She sprinted round a tree and it led into a huge forest.

The zombie creature lumbered along past the forest, not noticing that the three teenagers had disappeared out of sight.

Lexi could have sworn she only looked away from the others for a second or two. She had seen something out of the corner of her eye, it was like the edges of her vision were shimmering and changing. Sometimes it appeared that she walked through a medow but as soon as she turned her head to get a better view the nettles were back solid as ever and causing her just as mich pain. She put a finger in her mouth as a thorn cut her skin, her blood tasted metallic, real. If she could bleed she could die. The thought chilled her.

She carried on forward hoping to find Andrea and Jenna, after all she could see the light ahead, it couldn't be too far to freedom. Sure enough it took her about five minutes to break free of the nettles and thorns. As she struggled into the light it felt like the thorns and nettles were grabbing at her, like they didn't want her to get free. She lumbered forward and tripped, falling heavily to the ground. She winced and realised she was free, "small mercy" she thought to herself and got to her knees. She didn't seem injured just scratched and batter. She glanced around Andrea and Jenna had to be nearby, she hadn't been lost that long.

She couldn't see either of them but she could see the man from when she had first arrived. She froze, what to do? She was on her own, lost and in plain sight of anyone or anything and she didn't know what was safe in this world. She looked around for anything to use as a weapon but there was nothing. She got to her feet slowly hoping she wouldn't be noticed, the safest place would be in the forest, at least then she would be sheltered. Then again she's be alone and easy prey. She shivered, she didn't have much choice, she would keep to the edge of the forest and see where she ended up.

The zombie creature froze and sniffed the air. It turned and spotted fresh meat, another teenager. He was hungry, and needed food. He roared and began to pound after the teenager.

Andrea heard something. It wasn't clear, but she heard something. "Jen? Did you hear that?" She whispered, incase the zombie was close by.

"Hear what?" Jenna muttered back, rubbing her hands together. "These nettles hurt!"

The roar was enough to tell Lexi she was in trouble, she gave up trying to be inconspicuous and ran as fast as she could towards the trees. Keeping her eyes open for a weapon, just in case.

"That roaring noise, and now I can hear someone or something running." Andrea frowned. "Lexi?" She looked around a tree.

Enzeru panted silently, trying to get his bearings on his racing heart. This was all just too much. He looked around. There had to be a hiding spot.. or a weapon at least. "Dammit."

"What do we do?" Andrea said quickly. "I don't know my way around this place!"

Tyr smiled to himself. "PPPSST! Over here!" He whispered from his place behind a tree. His twin Lily stood behind him in fear.

"What the?" Andrea turned her head and spotted a well known face. "Tyr? Lily? What the hell? How?"

"Nevermind that!" Tyr exclaimed. "Get over here! Quickly!"

"It's either that or die," Lily said in her usual depressive way.

"Oh hush," Tyr scolded her.

"Eh, alright." Andrea hurried over to the two, almost bumping into Tyr. "Sorry." She mumbled.

Tyr blushed, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. He lifted his head skyward, gently moving Andrea behind him. "Got yourself into trouble again I see.."

Andrea blushed too. Why was she so pale? The redness showed too much in her cheeks. "I sure did.. How, I have no idea."

When he was sure that the blush was gone, Tyr looked down at her. "Well, it's alright. We might be able to help you."

"We know our way out," Lily added, almost smiling.

"You do?!" Andrea turned and looked at Lily. She grabbed her hands. "This place is so dark, it's like a horror movie! We have to get out."

Lily smiled. "Dark in my forte. Of course I know how to get out."

Andrea returned the smile and let go of Lily's hands. "Thank God, I was beginning to lose hope." She looked up at Tyr and then back down again.

Tyr cleared his throat, then said, "Well, we had better get out of here..and quick."

"That's the best idea anyone's had all day." Jenna said, glancing over her shoulder worriedly. "Where to?"

Lexi was breathing heavily as she neared the tree line and she saw no sign of any weapon she could use against the monsterous creature that followed her. She knew hiding was her only option but the forest didn't look like the best place to be wandering around when you were on your own. "Somehow this always seems alot more heroic in stories, in real life it kinda sucks." She muttered to herself as she dived between two trees and almost tripped over some tangled roots, saving herself only by luck.

Andrea turned and watched Lily, waiting for an answer. She gave Tyr a few glances too incase he knew.