"Mila wake up, you need to wake up now" I heard a familiar voice saying "Megan? Is that you?" I opened my eyes but all I could see was darkness. "What is going on? Where am I?" I asked. "You're in the afterlife Mila, you found us." "I don't understand, did I? Am I… dead?" No you are alive, but you are here, I don't know how." "Alicia, it was her, she made me go through a door and then she closed it, I don't understand why she would do that, why is it so dark here?" "None of us are dead Mila that is why we have been looking for a way out, we are trapped here, in the afterlife, in a place between heaven and earth, and we have been trapped here for years with no way out. You are our only hope, as far as we know, you are the only living Invoker left." "I don't understand, how can you be trapped here, you died, I went to your funeral, how is it that you are here and not in heaven?" I asked, "I wasn't with my family that day, I was supposed to be, everyone thought I was, but I wasn't, I was at Whimsy Village, my mother went to school there and she took my dad and I to come and see the Village, I was taken by someone while we were there and pushed through this door. The very same one you have just come through, when my parents couldn't find me they left in a hurry to go and lay a missing persons report and that is when, well, you know the rest." Megan said as she began to cry, "That is why we so desperately need your help to return home, we are missing persons, we were never killed, and we don't belong here just as you don't." I couldn't believe what she was saying, who would do this to people, and why? I know who tricked me through the door, but what was the reason? Why were all these other people taken also? This place was so dark and cold, "what happens in here?" I asked Megan, "we get taken from here too," she said, "in the three years I have been here, over two dozen have come through, and half have been taken by the darkness, just pulled away into the shadows, I don't know what happens to them after that, but they never come back." Her voice was trembling, and she began shaking. "We never know when it is going to be our time, we need to find a way out again, you have to try and help us." I had no idea where to begin, I didn't know how to help myself let alone all of them, I racked my brain trying to come up with a way out, a solution to all of this, but it was useless, "I don't know how to help any of you." I said feeling a little disappointed with myself, today was my Thirteenth Birthday; this was not at all how I had imagined it would be. There were only 3 days left before Christmas break. I had three days to find a way out. And then it hit me, I remembered one of the articles I had read in one of the Whimsy Newspaper clippings; "Mother and child left abandoned after Father was arrested for tampering with the dream world, evidence shows that Nick Smallwood, Father to Alicia Smallwood, and husband to Nadine Smallwood, had attempted to create a passage way into the afterlife in order to bring back his son, Dominick who tragically passed away in 2006 after a boating accident. Nick had begun to develop a passage way in Whimsy Village using dreams that were deemed unsafe for reality. Sadly thereafter, Nick lost his mind and was soon institutionalised with no chance of release. Wife Nadine and daughter Alicia will continue to follow on the work of Whimsy as valued members of our community." HOW had I not pieced two and two together, I had never asked Alicia what her surname was, that was it, this must be where he began his work but he never completely broke through to the afterlife, he must have been using all of these people to see if it worked. And now Alicia and Miss Smallwood must be trying to complete his work. I needed to get through to Principal Rose and tell her what I know. She would help us return. "I know what happened here, I know who has done this to all of you, and I know who can help us get back home, but in order to get through I need to sleep," I found a quiet section and sat down, resting my head against the wall, it felt as though hours were passing and I couldn't fall asleep, I tried to clear my mind and focus all of my energy onto Principal Rose, but there was nothing, I couldn't fall asleep. Just as I began to lose hope there she was, not Principal Rose, but Parker. "Mila where are you? I have been trying to find you for hours why is it so dark where you are?" "Parker, how did you find me?" I asked, it made no sense, she wasn't an Invoker, or was she? "I don't know, I just focussed on you and there you are." She said, "where are you, what happened?" "I am in the afterlife…" "WHAT? You're dead? What do you mean you're dead, you can't be…?" "Relax Parker, I'm not dead, Alicia did this to me, she forced me through a portal when we were at Whimsy Village, listen to me carefully, I need you go to Principal Rose, tell her that myself along with a dozen others are in the portal, the one that was created by Nick Smallwood. Tell her that Alicia and Miss Smallwood are attempting to continue his work and that we need her help to get back, go straight to her, do not talk to anyone else, please Parker, you are our only hope." I said, hoping with all my heart that Principal Rose could find a way to get us out of here. "I'm on it, hang tight my friend, we will get you out of there in no time." She said, and then she was gone.