The air was sucked out of his lungs, like he had received a strike to the chest. An invisible force had pulled him backwards. He thought that he was falling, but there was no ground that he could hit, there was just this incredibly overbearing feeling of levity.

He never liked travelling.

The process hurt. His bones felt like they had been shattered and then glued together again, the blood in his veins were burning and in his chest there was a flower of panic blooming, watered by adrenaline.

He never would get used to it.

His sight started to clear up and the blur started to vanish.

He had arrived.

The traveller was standing in an alleyway, dark and dingy, not the sort of place anyone would choose to be, which made it the best place for him to appear. One time, he had ended up in the middle of the road, a car hurtling towards him at a blistering pace. That was a very near miss.

First things first, he would need to change. The clothes he was wearing, although typical in his previous location, would make him stick out like a sore thumb here. It had always been an inconvenience, but there was nothing that could be done about that.

He slipped off his jacket and pulled off the cravat that had been tight around his neck. Thank God the clothes in this place were so much more comfortable. He didn't have anything to carry them with, so hopefully he could walk through the streets like this without catching many people's eye.

He remembered at that point that he was still wearing the mask. He took care to remove it slowly, taking a moment to observe it in it's exquisite beauty before putting it with the rest of his clothes. Although it wasn't the only mask of its kind, it was the only of this design, the dark swirls and patterns that were captivating to the eye.

Once he was ready, he headed out into the street, hoping to gain a more general sense of where he was. He usually ended up in the same general area whenever he travelled, but the specific location usually depended on where he had been standing.

He saw a street sign, and his face relaxed into a smile. Grandma's apartment wasn't too far from here. It was more of a family apartment, that anyone in the area could use, but in recent years, she had taken up a more permanent residence here. He began to walk again, glad to be able to move at a leisurely pace, not having to look over his shoulder every few moments to check he wasn't being followed. For now, he was safe.

It was always incredibly fascinating, the difference between the two worlds. It was something he often thought about when he travelled, and it crossed his mind again as he weaved his way through the streets. This world was in a state of constant cacophony - a steady stream of vehicles along the roads, the never-ending chatter of voices. The other world was much more peaceful, calmer, more 'old-fashioned', for lack of a better word to describe it.

He didn't know which he liked best.

He came to a stop as he reached a building in the centre of the city. It was a typical apartment block, a similar style to the rest of the buildings in the street. What was inside one of the rooms, however, was anything but ordinary.

He didn't ring before entering, instead just entering the building and moving towards the stairs. He had done this several times before, although previously there had been better circumstances for his visits. Before, they had been visits for advice, visits for the sake of visits. This was a visit of desperation.

The first thing he noticed that was off was that the door was ever so slightly ajar. It surprised him, for he never thought that Grandma was the type of person to leave her door open, but maybe she was in the middle of something. He shrugged it off, moving forward to push the door open and enter the room.

Chaos.

The room was a mess.

Books, that were once neatly organised on shelves, were now spread across the floor, dented or crumpled. The furniture was all moved, tilted at odd angles or broken completely.

Grandma.

The traveller hurried to her room, only to find it in the same state as the rest of the apartment. He could feel his heart racing, as if it could burst out of his body at any moment.

The rest of the rooms were all the same. Damaged and destroyed, with no trace of Grandma.

His eyes widened as a thought flew into his mind, and he rushed back to her room. She had once told him where she kept it, in case of an emergency where he might need it. He walked to the chest of drawers, tipped over onto the side, and opened one of the drawers, third from the top.

It was empty.

He closed his eyes, a long breath escaping from his lips. This meant one of two things. Either she had managed to escape with it, or she had been caught, and whoever had found her had taken it too. He knew which of those options he hoped it was.

This was his fault, it had to be. He thought he was safe here, that being here would at least give him some time. But this situation could only mean one thing, and that was they they knew where he would go. And they weren't happy with him, either.

He took a step back, putting his hand to his head. They knew where he was, they caused the only person he knew that could help to disappear, and he didn't even have a place to stay. This was not good. If he had a list of things that he would not want to happen, this would place at the very top.

He needed another plan.