She lay on her bed, staring vacantly out at the blinds as the headlights of night travelers passed by. She rose, unable to take just lying there while her mind was so active. She had to be at work in about six and half more hours. She wasn't looking forward to it, though that wasn't really different from any other day. It wasn't that terrible of a job, though it wasn't that great of a job either. Maia ran her fingers through her short hair, something she often did when she felt stuck. She had been playing with her bangs since she was in middle school, and now without much length to her hair it was much more satisfying. 

One more stretch and then she moved into the living room, hoping that some mindless television would sooth her insomnia. She sat on the couch next to a fluffy white cat creatively named Marshmallow that barely looked at her with bleary blue eyes. She clicked the remote, but was disappointed to find that her internet wasn't working. A number of expletives came to her mind as she sighed and stood once more to reset the router. That's when the power went out. Really? She thought to herself as she illuminated the room with her phone. She felt a chill running down the back of her neck, cutting through the irritation of inconvenience. 

Nothing is wrong, the power would probably be back on in just a second. Or so everyone tells themselves in every horror movie, right? She forced back a nervous chuckle. 

The power blinked back on and she smiled to herself. Her imagination was always getting the better of her. She decided to go back to bed, to be a bit more determined about sleeping. She did lay down. But she clicked open her phone and scrolled through social media. Like, like, like, why, dude. Unfriend. It was only an hour and forty seven minutes before she finally fell asleep. 

When she woke up, her phone was half plastered to her face and it was ringing.. loudly. Time to get up and start this wonderful, normal, bland day, in which she would be invisible and affect nothing. 

It's too bad that today that was completely untrue, because today was the day Maia would change. But, of course, she didn't know that; so, she showered and fed her cat and walked out her door as though it was going to be just another day. 

Of course, she immediately tripped because change doesn't happen automatically and never in the way we think it will. Her face hit the small patch of grass outside of her apartment and she felt the angry tears of frustration well up in her eyes. She lay there in the grass for a moment, letting herself feel the shame and self pity that quite frankly, she should be used to by now. 

She put her hands under her and began to stand up by using a push up, when she realized her hands seemed to be sinking into the grass. She tried to pull her hand away to study this strange phenomena, thinking she must have fallen harder than she realized. But the grass and ground around her hand seemed to grab her and now she was up to her elbows, being pulled face first into the ground. 

She tried furiously to pull her hands out, but it was as if she was being sucked in. She couldn't feel dirt or grass on her hands any more, she couldn't tell what they were touching. Her tears of frustration turned to tears of fear, and she began to scream for help. But her screams only seemed to make her be pulled in faster. And soon she was completely submerged in darkness, holding her breath and yet glad she was wearing pants as she had to be ass-end up at this point. 

This is it. This is how I die. In a freak quick sand… grass? accident after falling on my face. More tears began streaming down her face. Who's going to take care of Marshmallow? She wondered briefly about how sad it was that it was that the only person who would miss her was a cat. And now she was letting even him down by disappearing. Please if there is a god, let someone find Marshmallow so he can be fed again by 8 or let him escape. He was a pretty cat, he would find a home. 

She briefly thought of her family, but they barely spoke to one another except in pleasantries. She had invited her numerous times to dinner, but they were always working or with friends. When they did invite her home, it was always last minute and when she had rare plans. She sighed and realized that she had released the breath she had been holding. 

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She expected to suffocate then, but instead she drew in air. She cracked open one of her eyes suspiciously. It was too dark to see and her legs were still stuck above her. Surely someone would see her legs soon and pull her out if she just stayed like this. But as soon as she had the thought, the darkness pulled her in further, and she felt as though she was now dangling in the open air. 

She reached out and felt something smooth barely brush her middle finger, maybe a stalagmite? Was she going to fall and impale herself? Why was there no light from above? It felt as though her ankles were in cuffs, but if this was a sinkhole shouldn't there be dirt falling all around her? Shouldn't there be light? 

And then Maia fell on her face for the second time that day, and actually that hour as well. Thankfully, the fall only felt like a few feet. She managed to catch herself with her arms, and toppled over. 

"What the actual fuck." She said nursing her quickly bruising arms and sitting up on her knees. She tried to look around, but her eyes couldn't adjust to the dark. She put her hands on the ground in front of her, and felt not ground, but some sort of… floor? Had she fallen in some sort of old bunker? She began to crawl slowly forward, when she noticed a thin line of light in front of her. 

The line turned to a column as a door swung open revealing a tall, thin silhouette. 

"Hmm.. it's been a long time since we have had a guest." The figure murmured, then addressing Maia, "It's alright, young woman. Please come out of there, and we will send you on your way home." The person speaking was an elderly woman with the cheekbones and bearing of a queen, whose gray eyes shone with interest as she peered down a long angular nose at Maia on the ground. Beside the strange woman was an animal that resembled a ferret. Maia searched for the word she was looking for (it was stoat), but considering it had long bat-like wings, it was unlikely she would know it’s real name. 

Maia sat up and stared dumbly at the woman and the creature, as I’m sure anyone from her world would after such an experience, and questioned how hard someone would need to hit their head to have such a vivid and weird hallucination. 

“Uhhh… hello?” Maia said as the strange small creature bounded towards her and the woman crouched offering her a hand. Maia took it shakily and inhaled a scent of allspice and comfort that you might find with a cup of tea by a warm fire, if you are comforted by such things. In Maia’s case, she was. The woman pulled her up, and studied her as if Maia was the strange one, which Maia would later find out was the case. Maia stood before her in her work clothes, a button up with a sage green sweater vest and some dark jeans over ankle boots. Her messenger bag was still hanging from her shoulder, and her brown hair was currently an uncontrollable short mess of cow licks. 

Unused to being studied so intently, Maia shifted from foot to foot, and murmured, “Thanks.” The woman smiled slightly and gestured for Maia to follow her through the lit doorway she had entered from. 

The door didn’t lead to something as sinister as Maia expected, unless you find stone hallways sinister; in which case, this story may not be for you. It was lit with scones, full of a warm glow, and the floor was lined with purple carpet, which seemed to have been used for many, many years. The woman walked a few steps ahead of Maia, who walked as though she was going through a haunted house and expected someone to jump out at any moment. She was so skittish, when the woman did speak, she jumped an inch off of the ground. 

“I’m Clara.” The woman said, “You’ll have to excuse me if I seem a bit surprised. I didn’t expect to find anyone.. Well, a human, at least.. down here.” She looked at the stoat-like creature who had flown up to sit on her shoulder and had begun chittering next to her ear.

“Yes, yes. We should find out how she came to be here, but first, the dear looks quite frightened. Let’s take one thing at a time.” Clara turned at a fork in the hallway, and opened another large wooden door. 

“Please, come in, and have a seat.” The room looked as though it had combined several decades of styles, though none more recent than art deco, and as Maia had suspected, had a large fireplace behind the tufted velvet couches and chair. Clara went to a cabinet, and began rummaging around, returning with two glasses of an amber liquid, one of which she handed to Maia. Maia sniffed it dubiously, as is wise to do when you are handed a glass of anything by a stranger; however, she unwisely took a sip. Thankfully, Clara had no ill intentions or our story might have ended there. 

Maia coughed, “What is that?” 

“Sundrop cider, one of the strongest you can get around here nowadays.” 

Maia, ever the intellectual, replied, “Huh..” She gingerly took another sip though, and though it burned a bit, she did feel as though she was laying in a spot of sunshine like Marshmallow loved to do. 

Clara smiled knowingly, “Despite your patience, I suspect you are wondering where the hell you are. I’m hoping the cider eases you into it a bit. I know I wished I had a drink when I first arrived.” Maia nodded, the cider easing the knots of tension in her neck. 

Clara leaned forward and said a bit ominously, “Well, my dear. I’m afraid to tell you, but you’ve slipped Between.”