"Glassy shards the window did splay.
One thing he was certain;
It was not a fairy coming out to play."

Their curiosity knew no bounds. With a source of light in hand, the two children set out to explore every room of the manor in search of their missing guardian.

They saw a great deal of things that hadn't been there before. Door that led to unfamiliar hallways, walls blocking some of their previous routes, it was changing into a completely different place.

And that led to some unexpected surprises.

They'd lost track of each other twice, straying into separate hallways yet somehow bumping straight into each other again.

Alice swore that she could see rabbits everywhere. Hidden in paintings, sitting amongst the wooden carvings of furniture, sometimes peeking out from the wallpaper.

A lion sculpture became a sprinting rabbit in her eyes. There was a white bunny tucked away behind the translucent crystals of a dusty chandelier.

She must be going loopy! Was Trick's ultimate conclusion, as he was made to stop and sufficiently prove that there was no rabbit hiding behind the pendulum of a tall grandfather clock.

Unlike the clock's spindly hands, his patience wasn't frozen in time. In fact, he was losing it faster than something sinking to the bottom of a murky pond.

"Hey, Alice?"

The little girl stopped scrutinizing a painting and looked sharply over her shoulder. "Is there something behind me?" She wailed, waving about the flower as if it would protect her from unknown forces.

Trick sweatdropped. "No offence but... Maybe you should sit down for a while."

"I should?" She blinked in confusion, as if the concept was foreign to her.

"Yes..."

Trick gestured towards a relatively cozy-looking armchair. His annoyance towards her pause was poorly masked.

Alice lightly treaded over to the comfy chair. Then she paused again. Trick gave her a little push of encouragement. "It's not gonna eat you."

The meaning behind her smile was unclear. She half-clambered onto the seat, taking her merry time to curl up on the pushy padding.

Trick couldn't hide his relief.

"Now wait there."

"W-What?"

"I'm just going to check out the study, okay? If it's still there, I mean."

"B-But what if the door disappears? Y-You can't leave me here in the dark!" She said, her face falling with dismay. She looked terrfied at the prospect and clung onto the front of his shirt.

Trick grimaced and wiggled himself free of her grasp. He held up the luminous orb and tore it in half, dropping one of those halves in to her outstretched hand.

"Take care now; I won't be long - I promise. And besides, Coryn must be looking for us too. He wouldn't abandon us. You know that."

Alice looked at him with pleading eyes, as if begging him to forgive her for being so jumpy. Trick had no idea what to say to her. "Look... It's not your fault, but we'd probably find him sooner if you stayed here."

"... I trust you," she said, her voice a mere whisper. "Please... Just stay s-safe, o-okay?"

"I will. You stay safe too. Just remember that rabbits are cute and cuddly, they aren't out to get you and if you feel like something is wrong, just come running towards me, yes?"

A weak nod. She clutched her flower, a pretty reminder of the outside world. Determination shining in her eyes. Alice nodded again, but her movement was much firmer.

And just like that, Trick was gone. Melted away into the expanse of black that surrounded their lights.

His footsteps were inaudible to her now. 

She heard her own breathing and nothing more.

Did something flicker past the ring of light around her half of the orb? No. Trick must be right, it was just her jittery imagination.

Alice was small. Her fragile body curled snugly into the armchair. It was old and creaky. She liked the creaks. It sounded like a rocking horse moving forwards and backwards.

She remembered her old rocking horse. He had been blue, with a long white mane and she had named him Soul. Together, they'd galloped past the meadows, all the way across the sea and into the stars.

Soul would toss his head, his special way of waving to the moon. Sometimes, they'd stop to trot over a path of rainbows. It was so fun.

Alice stroked one of the flower's petals and pretended that it was the silky mane of her sky pony.

Soul was up in heaven now. That's what Cory had told her. Now he galloped through beautiful clouds, like the kind she saw during sunset.

She was content to know that Soul wasn't feeling lonely. Her momma and pappy were there with him. Everyone had gone after a big fire in their house.

It had made her feel sad that they left without her, but Cory's momma and pappy had gone a long time before that, and he'd been very sad as well.

I was twelve, and Trick was just a baby. They had to leave because they were called away early, but they still love us very much. Yours do too, Alice. And they always will.

Alice wiped at her eyes with one of her sleeves. She didn't want to feel sad.

Whenever something made her sad, Cory would comfort her. But he wasn't there.

She was scared that he had decided to go too, and gone to heaven without her. When someone goes there, it's so nice that they don't want to leave. But they'll always be there for you in your heart.

The little girl hugged her knees, wishing and wishing and wishing that Coryn would come back and give her a hug and tell her everything she needed to hear-

And then she saw him.

He swept in front of her without a word, his robotic eye glowing completely red.

She couldn't see much of him - but was so relieved. With a happy yelp, she jumped to her feet and hugged his leg.

"C-Cory!"

It was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay now. Trick would be happy too. They would go trick-or-treating, and get to wear costumes made just for them, and afterwards there'd be lots and lots of candy-

But... Why was Cory being so quiet?

Alice let go of his leg, in case it was annoying him. She looked up with an innocent smile, and he returned it with a smile of his own.

Alice faltered. She didn't like that smile.  "C-Cory...? Are you mad at me?"

Coryn smiled again, reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder.

Of course I'm not.
Do you know where that little boy went?

The little girl looked around in confusion, left to right and then back at Coryn.

She could hear his voice - but his lips weren't moving. Or were they? Was it just the heavy shadows? Yes, that had to be it.

"Um... Trick went somewhere..."

His grip on her shoulder suddenly tightened.

Where?

"I-I don't know..."

WHERE?

"C-Cory! Stop it! You're scaring me!"

She couldn't see his eyes, they were shrouded in shadows. But she did see something else. Sharp blades, gleaming in the orb's light.

Alice wrenched her shoulder from his grip and darted backwards with a scream, realizing that it wasn't her guardian at all.

It hissed and bore rows of sharp teeth at her. She fell over her little feet and back onto the armchair, sinking down low, covering her eyes as the tears leaked down.

"TRICK! THERE'S A SCARY MONSTER IN THE HALL! PLEASE, HELP ME! PLEASE!"

[Y-Yay for more cliffhangers? It's a lonely world out there. Twinkle, twinkle, little star... With love, from Phantom.]