Twisted Wonderland: Yulia

Prologue: Gracious Headmaster

After looking through countless books, Yulia's head was spinning. Nothing she read about sounded remotely familiar to home. She had the urge to lay down and cry when another one of the floating books flew away like it was mocking her.

Dire Crowley had also flipped through several books. A large world map was sprawled out upon a table too. With a heavy sigh, he let the book in his hand flutter away to return to the shelf from whence it came. "There's really nothing. Your home isn't named in any history or map. It's almost as if you're..."

"From another world?" Yulia asked miserably. That had to be it. It's not like magic exists where she's from.

"The very idea is absurd, but that seems to be the only possible explanation. While we were looking over these books, you did mention something about magic being absent from where you are from. While it wouldn't be odd for a place to have a lack of magic, you'd have to be 'living under a rock' as they say to not know of it. Say, did you have anything on you when you came here?"

Yulia reached towards her head with one hand and took out the hairpins that she always wore. With her other hand, she held her bangs back so that they wouldn't fall over her eye. "All I have are these, but I doubt they'd tell you anything."

"Hmm, no I'm afraid these won't prove useful."

"I see, well..." Yulia put her hairpins back. She looked straight at the floor. "I guess I'll just have to... find somewhere to go." But there was nowhere. She knew no one and she had nothing.

Dire Crowley cleared his throat, "Ahem! As an educator AND as the GRACIOUS headmaster of Night Raven College, I simply cannot just let a teenager with no money or home walk out of here with no knowledge of the world."

It wasn't like she could attend school, so Yulia just stared at him as he pondered. "Oh!" He said suddenly. "There is a vacant building on campus. It was once a dormitory in its past, so if you do a bit of cleaning, it should end up looking rather nice!" The joyous tone of his voice seemed very suspicious.

"Thank you, sir." Yulia then thought to ask a question. "May I ask where the female students are? I was just wondering because I didn't see any. Surely, they were separated for the entrance ceremony, right?"

"Oh, did I not mention that this is an all-boys school?"

"It's a what?"

"Night Raven College is an all-boys school. You won't find a female student here. Ah, don't tell me that—."

Yulia fully removed her hood. Her hair was short and she was a bit tomboyish so she understood initially being mistaken for a boy. Her voice, however, should have given it away. "You couldn't tell, sir?" She asked, slightly perplexed.

"To be honest, it crossed my mind but—."

Yulia interrupted him again with a half-hearted smile, "it's fine, I won't be attending school anyways, so it doesn't really matter." While this whole situation was stressful for Yulia, she guessed that it must be the same for the headmaster. She was just some random kid from a whole other world that he had to deal with now on top of everything else.

Dire Crowley coughed, "You can live at the unused dorm for the time being. I will begin my search for your way home as soon as possible, but for now, follow me." He led her out of the library and back outside. It was a little darker now, and the stars were shimmering brilliantly. Yulia focused on them, trying to see if one cluster matched any constellations she knew.

By the time she was finished star gazing, she realized she was standing in front of what looked like it could very well be a haunted house. Dead, gnarled trees crept up to the windows, some of which were boarded up. What little shrubbery there was didn't help its looks. It was definitely charming alright, charming to a ghost maybe.