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Zoe blinked and when she opened her eyes, she fell on the hard stone floor of... Somewhere?
"Ow! Where..."
The rest of her phrase was cut off when she saw two familiar faces.
Dan and Ruby.


"Welcome to the club," Dan said. "We've been stuck in here for, let just say a long time. Ruby's been here for more time than me."


Zoey got up. "For me, I went home and after a while, I went to sleep. I was woken up by weird noises and then saw that I was... Teleported here?" Ruby explained worried.
"The moment I stepped in my house blinding light surrounded me and I fell here." Dan said.
"For me, I just blinked and fell on this strange place."


Zoe started looking around everywhere, for something strange or unusual. Other than the bookshelf which seemed normal despite the bizarre placement, there was nothing to be found.
Then she thought of something.
What if there was some kind of switch, or button, or any other mechanism that was buried deep somewhere?
"Can everyone get up and start searching the walls?"


Dan stood up and felt the wallpaper for any bump or dent, and Ruby did the same. Zoe started stomping on the ground step by step to see if there was any convenient opening.
They all got a headache after two hours of searching for any little detail or any small inconsistency that they just gave up.
"Is there something behind the bookcase?" Zoe asked, having a gut feeling she couldn't shake off.


She pulled every book starting from the top.


Zoe sighed. She grabbed a random book from the bookshelf and started rushing through the pages to see if there was anything weird. But it was simply a boring novel.


Ruby started searching once again where Zoe had stopped when she noticed one book just wouldn't move.
She tried jabbing it out but it seemed to be fixed on its place.
"I think I found something!"


She sucked in a breath when she realized the bookcase started to move slowly, turning open.
Ruby cautiously went in the seemingly empty room.


When everyone got out of the narrow room, Zoe finally said a word after being so dumbfounded.
"What in the world is THIS?!"


"Oh, for crying out loud... Group of teenaged intruders trespass in my own home. What else is new?!"
Zoe wasn't referring to the woman but the bookcase, yet she still stared at her flabbergasted.
"Who... Are you?"


"Actually, I should be the one asking. Who are YOU?"
"Uh, my name is Zoe, and this is Dan and Ruby."
"Thank you very much. Now, WHO are you?"


But something else caught Zoe's attention.
"What are these?"


She walked to the weird table where mysterious, magical looking objects were gathered.
"Yes, that's a teapot containing my tea and some other things you shouldn't care about."


Suddenly the woman snapped her fingers and a table with a dessert tray appeared, fading into sight.


"What..." Ruby exclaimed.


She went to say something else, but Zoe ran to yell.
"Wait a second, you're a witch, aren't you?"


The woman snickered.
"I'm surprise you noticed just now," She said sarcastically. "Seriously, who else would literally be able to hide furniture and create illusions of this type?"
"But... There's nothing here except for the table and..."


"Of course not! Don't expect me to trust you after you barged in uninvited ALSO using my secret bookcase entrance!"


Zoe started to float and ominous green glows started appearing, then escalated to glittering sparkles exploding.


The lights blinded all of them for a second and then Zoe was found on the floor, fallen.
"Ouch! What'd you do that for?!"


"I know you think we're intruders, but seriously, we're not! We don't even know how we got here!"


"Sorry," The woman whispered. "I'm still learning to control my anger."


"Uh, what does that mean? How can you accidentally, well, fling someone with weird lights surrounding them and make them fall?" Ruby asked.


She snapped her fingers and all furniture appeared."Anyways, no time to talk about me. You said-"


"We don't even have your name!" Zoe said.
"My name's Tia. Happy now? Let's continue."


"How exactly did you get here? The entrance from the bookshelf is to be only used by me."


"We don't know! Dan went somewhere and light blinded him and somehow got him here, Ruby fell asleep and woke up here, and I just blinked and teleported here!"


"And coincidentally, all residents of our city have magically disappeared." Ruby added, examining a beautiful fairy statue.


"Wait, wait, wait.. What did you say?"
"All of our city's people have gone missing."


"Hold on, everyone?"


"All of the city? No one left?"


"Uh, everyone except a few. Why do you care so much? As bizarre and scary as it is, it shouldn't technically be your business! We're the ones that are worried."


"Do you know any details?
"No. One day we went to school and only 2 students were there and us. No teachers, no staff. Seriously, what's going on?" Zoe answered.


"This isn't going according to plan." Tia said.

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