White Villa~

Zane seemed to know the woman, but Alessia stayed in the shadows. You could never be too safe, she supposed. She found herself wondering if Anisette was worrying yet. She seemed the worrying type.

A gunshot rang out. The maids eyes were huge 'O's of suprise as she fell forward.

At the gunshot, Zane quickly took out his gun and fired, though he could not see who it was and ran at a different direction from where Alessia was.

That moment, he was trying to think of who it was, where it came from and what to do. Sadly, he wasn't really thinking fast enough. Especially when whoever it was ran out - a man, but he could barely see his features - and opened the latch to the safe room. "Crap. No!"

There was a brooch on the pedestal. "It's really pretty," she thought out loud, but she didn't touch it, unsure if she should. "I wonder who owns this? Zane's mom? Dad? Sister? But why leave it here??"

Zane fired and took off down a hallway - probably after where the gunshot had come from. Alessia raced after him and realized it was the hallway with the saferoom door, and then seconds later, that it was open. Thinking that if it was open, it was the only logical place to have gone, she turned into the doorway and dragged the door closed behind her.

She followed the brief glimpse she had caught of someone ahead of her and was soon in the saferoom. No one else was in there besides Zane, who was looking around frantically, like he had lost something. Where was Anisette?? She probably wouldn't have left of her own volition. But it's not like they had been gone long enough for someone to abduct her or anything, had they??

"Where could she have gone??" Alessia turned and asked Zane after a quick glance around the room.

"I'm not quite sure," he said, looking around with his eyes. "This is worrying."

He finally breathed in, keeping calm. "Ah, I hope wherever she is, she's not with the perpetrator. Speaking of which, I lost him. Have you seen him?"

She was thinking if she should take the brooch but as soon as she heard a sound, she quickly took it in her hold, hiding it in a pocket somewhere in her flurry of a dress.

Anisette spun around, hoping to see anything, or nothing, just to make things looking brighter on her mind.

"No," she answered. "Are you sure it was a 'he'??"

This was starting to remind her of rebel and cult methods. Guerilla warfare stuff.
A big attack - to catch attention, then silence.
Another attack, smaller this time.
Then hide.

Logically, another attack should be just around the corner unless they have their objective. Which she couldn't be sure if they did or not. In her ponderings her eyes had been slowly sweeping the room for any details they may have missed. Apparently they'd missed a big one. "Is that a door??"

He shook his head. "No, I cannot be sure. Whoever it was, was cloaked."

Zane nodded, now fully calmed down - whatever happened, he was going to be rational about it, he was definitely going to find Anisette.

At Alessia's words, he looked up and then switched his gaze towards the direction she was looking at. There, in a corner of sorts, was a small door that could only fit someone who would crawl.

"The latch's open," he said. "Did she go in there?" He walked towards it and crouched down, opening the door, barely missing a bullet, and whoever it was that tried to shoot him was gone in a matter of seconds, disappearing.

"What the--,"

Anisette walked back, hitting the pedestal. This woke her up from her reverie and maneuver around the pedestal, turning her body around... only to be faced with a cloaked person, making her yelp.

"Uhm," she looked at the cloaked person with anxiety, unsure of what to do, and she didn't know how but the next thing she knew she was being engulfed in blackness, like a shadow.

Once she was sure it was clear she crouched down and entered the small tunnel. It's during situations like this that it's good to be small. It was far too dusty in there for her liking, but the dust had clearly been displaced by what must have been Anisettes full skirts. An easy trail to follow.

Zane watched as she went in. Honestly, he wasn't sure how he was going to fit. Probably, he would but with great difficulty.

He peeked in, watching as Alessia's form crawled further in.

It was a weird, floating feeling that swelled in her chest. All she could see was black and black and black.

What's happening?

Alessia peeked around a corner in the tunnel, then turned her head as well as she coud in the cramped space to see if Zane was following. Once she was sure he was, she continued along the anti-dust trail and found herself in a glittering room. Dusting herself off, she looked around at her strange surroundings. There was nothing in here besides a pedastal with nothing on it.

"Zane??" she called towards the tunnel opening, "What is this place??"

He dusted himself as soon as he got out of the cramp entrance. He looked around and his sight landed at Alessia.

"I don't know," he answered. "It's my first time seeing this place as well."

One thing disturbed him for sure. "Where's Anisette?"

Anisette looked around her but nothing changed. It was all still black. "HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?" Manners aside, she just wanted to get out of here.

"I don't know... I don't see any way-"

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Acting on pure instinct Alessia charged towards Zane and then ran slightly past him - pulling him with her - away from the source of a short burst of gunshots.

She swore under her breath. "He must have gone down a different path and then doubled back," she said as she heard what might have been the person in the crawlspace scurrying away. She stared at the opening apprehensively before glancing back to the pedestal. I wonder if there was anything on it... There had to be...

He cursed under his breath. He didn't feel that coming.

Zane looked at the space they came in from. "I see," he thought about it. It made sense. The room they're currently occupying had no one in it when they came inside.

There was just something bugging him that he couldn't shake off. He followed her gaze and it fell on the pedestal. Without much thought, and trusting Alessia to cover his back, he walked towards it.

Anisette only walked around the blackness. She was really unsure of what's going on.

"Hum! Where am I, really?" she blinked when she thought she saw a flash of white.

Alessia looked warily from Zanes back, to the opening in the wall then back again. But when she looked back, there was a small flash of white light and then Zane was gone. Or maybe it was she who was gone. She couldn't tell, there was a strange unreality about the room all of a sudden - It might have something to do with two people disappearing... - it was like trying to remember a dream.

Now, this was odd.

Ignoring the onset of disorientation, she walked towards the pedestal.

Zane blinked. Suddenly, she was gone in a flash of red light, making him tense and alert.

"What the," he murmured and seeing only the pedestal now. What's with this room?

A resounding 'wooosh' made her turn back. She blinked. Someone appeared.

"...lady Alessia?" she murmured as she watch her move towards the pedestal.

Her fingers were inches from the pedestal when she heard Anisettte say her name. Something about the reality of hearing a familiar voice in this place stopped her short, and as she turned her head to find the source, Anisette came into her view.

"Lady Anisette! We were looking for you! What happened?? Where is this place?? How did we get here?? And what happened to Zane??" the questions tumbled from her mouth one after the other.

Zane narrowed his eyes. It was weird and suspicious. If Alessia disappeared just like that, was it possible for Anisette to have had happened the same to her? He wasn't sure and although it was too wild an option, he stored it at the back of his mind as a possibility.

He turned when he heard a small clang and saw a cloaked figure.

"Lady Alessia!" she said in utter happiness and ran towards her, happy to see someone she knew when she thought she was lost in some different kind of dimension never to go back again! "I don't know! I'm not sure where we are either! I just, I just saw this pretty brooch--," she finally remembered and took it out from her pocket and showed to it Alessia. "And, and... things went weird from there on..."

Alessia realized her hand was still raised towards the pedestal that had been there, and she dropped it. She focused on the brooch Anisette had produced from somewhere on her person. The lady had been right, it was beautiful indeed. Perhaps it could be used to get them away from...wherever they were.