Town Of The Nightmare

Chapter 3

The houses were wood and made of what looked like vines and branches. Foxes and squirrels bigger than me were tied up to different houses and posts. Large barrels of water and strange liquid were piled in the corners and alleys. What was the strangest part of the town were the people. They looked human enough, but their ears were long and pointed, their noses were small and round, and their skin was either a dark green color, or a muddy brown. They smelled of grass and dirt, and their hair was white and so long it was either tied back or dragged behind them in braids or freely. I wandered around looking for an Inn or even a small alley that I could stay in, but I found nothing or the sorts. The town was packed with so many people, animals, and products it was almost bursting.

After a while I wandered into a small area that was nearly empty except for a few tents and shacks. It was strangely quiet here, and as I walked by one of the tents a hand suddenly grabbed me and pulled me in. I landed on a pile of pillows and rug, and in front of me was a rather large and old looking woman.

Her skin was a soft brown color, and her hair was more silver than white now neatly kept close to her head. Her eyes were a bright green, and she wore yellow and red dress that appeared to be made of leaves. Matching red slippers were tired to her feet, and hand what looked like gardeners gloves on.

She smiled at me and stood up bowing. "No need to be afraid, my name is Cambria, welcome to my home." she said and sat back down. "Why did you pull me in here?" I asked looking at her. "You are an outsider, someone not from this world. I was simply curious to who you were and how you got here." Cambria seemed nice enough, calm and quiet. I suddenly found myself telling her about my sister and Wendy as well as the four doors and how I came here.

She sat silently and listened through my story, nodding here or there and smiling at some of my descriptions. When I was done Cambria looked at me and sighed, "That blasted rabbit is always bringing trouble into this country."

"Wait, you know Wendy?" I asked sitting up more. If she knew where I could find Wendy, then I could go there and get her to take me back home! And on top of that I could have a chance to knock some sense into that girl for kidnapping me.

Cambria nodded and looked at me "I do, but trust me child, it is not any place you would want to go." I shook my head and looked at her "I have to go see Wendy, tell me where she is. Please!" I said looking at her with pleading eyes. Cambria sighed and stood up walking over to a small table tucked away in the corner of the tent.

She started messing around with something as she spoke to me "Wendy lives in the Castle of Red, a territory far from here. It is run by the Red King and Red Queen. They are not kind people, Anissa. They enjoy killing people and making others suffer. I would not wish for you to go there, but then again, I would not think you would want to go to any of the territories in this country. Violence and crime is a large part of this land, many people carry around weapons and openly fight with others. There is no force used to control the violence, and the leaders of the different territories encourage fighting between the areas. You are in the only neutral area of this country, which is why you were not killed when you walked into town."

I bit my lip and looked down thinking. It was true, I was not a fighter, I didn't even have any weapon to protect myself with. As I thought Cambria came over with a small vial and an even smaller bag. "Here, take these. They will help you survive if you do wish to leave this area."

I looked at the vial, it was a small glass vial with a cork screw top, but the liquid inside it was black and metallic looking. Around the top was a small gold circle and a clasp, Cambria reached over and took the vial, clasping it onto the gold chain around my neck.

"This," she said pointing to the vial "Is shrink juice, a drop of it will make you the size of a mouse, two will make you the size of a spider. Anything more than two drops and I'm afraid I have no idea what will happen."