Her routine consisted of waking up, eating, going to work, going home, feeding the cat, eating  and then sleeping. Nothing very exciting. But that night, after leaving the building of the law firm where she worked, there seemed to be a peculiar smell in the air, metaphorically speaking. She blinked her eyes as if she was distracted for a few minutes, though it seemed a lot longer, and then looked up at the starless night sky. Never noticed the lack of the stars, perhaps because she did not have time to lose with these trivialities. In any case, the lack of stars in the sky was not really a surprise in a big city like that, where the buildings and skyscrapers covered the it most of the time. On the other hand, the crooked half-moon seemed to be closer than usual, and shaped like a macabre smile. For a moment, it seemed to be smiling to her. A shiver ran down her spine, but in the end, young woman shrugged and begun to walk back home. Meny curious faces stared at her as she passed by them, and maybe because of her exhaustion, she did not notice that neither of them was known by her.

Afraid to stay out of home so late, she walked fast. Her naivety often put her in danger, and the nightlife never were nice to her. She had her traumas and just wanted to go home, finish her routine and throw herself in the bed to regain energy and restart all of that again.

In the distance, a huge shadow with hungry eyes followed her.

                                         ....

Sighed and finally reached the door to her apartment. Searched for the keys in her huge, all-messy, purse. Grunted for not finding them until finally getting the right one and putting them in the door lock. She tried to turn it once, twice, three... four times. The door would not open. The young woman was too tired to think of anything, so she just cursed and tried to force the key in the door lock one more time, maybe it needed a little oil? "I do not think I've ever put oil on that that”, thought.

She kicked the door irritably, and that was when footsteps were heard coming toward her, from inside her house. With only one attempt, the door opened from the inside, revealing a sleepy middle-aged man, very slender, with a large, round nose that looked more like a doorknob.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I should ask that! What are you doing in my house?!”

“Madam, I have lived here since I came to this city..."

“Stop lying! I have lived here for three years!” said the girl, almost shouting, actually.

Not very patiently, she folded her arms and waited for an explanation, holding the purse firmly in one hand, as if threatening to use it to strike the man. He tilted his head in confusion and then made an expression of someone who finally understood what was happening.

“Oh my god… I'm so sorry...”

“Are you? Dude, if you do not leave my house now I'll call the police!”

The doorknob-man sighed.

"Look ... You're new here, you're still confused, but you have to understand- "

“What the fuck are you sayin! Get out of my house!” she cut him off and broke into the house, driving the man out and locking the door between them.

To her surprise, this was really not her apartment. The structure and all the furnishings were different. But what attracted her attention the most were the numerous quantities of doors, all of different sizes, materials and styles. She could not count how many were in that room. There were also doors where the windows of the room should have been, something dangerous for an apartment in the 12th floor. She stood staring still at the place for a few minutes while the possible owner hitted the door with kicks and punches. When the young woman finally realized that this place was definitely not hers, still not knowing how, she turned to unlock the door that the man kept hitting. When she opened it, he fell into the room’s floor.

“See? This is not your home” he said, standing up and cleaning the floor’s dirt from the striped robe he was wearing "but do not worry, you'll soon find a new one. Or not, it can take a while. But that does not matter, you have all the time in the world for it in this place”.

She did not say a word, just continued to watch the strange room. When opened her mouth again, she could only do a few stuttering sounds until finally manage to form a sentence.

“What is this place?”

He bit his lip.

"Look, you would better find out by yourself. When I discovered it, I did not react very well and I was very disoriented. Walk around, get used to the neighborhood. Eventually you will understand what is happening”.

As he spoke, the man directed the young woman out of the apartment. His tone though gentle, showed that he was very annoyed by this whole situation and that he only wished the unwanted visitor to leave as quickly as possible, so he could go back to sleep.

She distractly left the place, reacting only when she heard the bump of the door behind her, startling a little. The woman walked slowly to the elevator, trying to figure out what was going on. It would not be surprising if all of that was a dream, her creative imagination had already put her in the most bizarre situations to only discover it was not real when she opened her eyes in her room. But it was all too realistic even for her weirdest dreams. She went into the lift and pressed the ground button. Meanwhile, she slapped her own face, pinched herself, and tried her best to wake up. Nothing worked.

Fear filled her. Even her own footsteps in the quiet lobby of the building scared her. The sound of the closing elevator door made her jump scared. She understood nothing of what was happening. As soon as the woman stuck her two feet outside, she sat on the cold sidewalk. There was no one in the streets anymore.

The shadow that was previously following her now stared directly at the young woman from the other side of the road. It was the first time she'd noticed the monster: A dog, or a hyena, two feet tall, with a mouth full of teeth that smiled at her, probably because she was the creature's next meal. The demon dog then jumped towards her.

The girl barely had time to react, only managed to scream and shrink on the floor of the sidewalk, closing her eyes and hiding here face into her heands so she would not have to see that animal ready to devour her. But the moment did not come. First she heard the tires on the asphalt, then a loud thump and then a dog's whine that sounded more like a strong draft through a metal barrel. She opened a space between her fingers to see what had happened.

In front of her was a white van, which strangely had no scratches on the front. The dog was thrown about a kilometer away, crying monstrously and trying to get up. The dark glass on the driver's side was lowered to reveal an even more bizarre figure: a rabbit with a human-like shape wearing sunglasses and a Metallica jacket. Enter Sandman played loudly on the car radio.

“I don’t have time to explain, get’n the car, Alice!”

The fact that that thing knew her name did not make the situation any more comforting. Alice's immediate reaction was to get up, scream and run to the opposite direction where the first monster was thrown.

From the back of the vehicle, a pair of red-haired twins wearing circus acrobat clothes came out with a gracefully synchronized jump. The two men ran toward the girl who stumbled and fell in the ground as she looked toward her pursuers. The twins' arms swiftly warped in hers like snakes, each one got one of her arms. And then, the two of them lifted Alice and carried the screaming girl into the back of the van. They place her gently in a corner. She only had a few seconds of freedom when then the weird duo tied with a colorful cloth her legs and hands and, at last, one of them gagged her mouth, which was still screaming. The one with the free hands put them in the ears and made an annoyed face, while the other one laughed loudly. When they had finished the service, they sighed, pretending to wipe the sweat from their foreheads in a mirrored motion.

Even in that state. Especially in that state. Alice continued to scream and struggle.

"Calm down, we're here to help you" the rabbit-man said through a small window that separated the driver's compartment from the rest of the van.

"Yeah, we want to help" said the twins at the same time. She tried to kick one of them with her tied feet, but he swerved with an almost inhuman movement.

"We'll explain everything when you calm down" the driver said.

The other two nodded. She continued trying to break free, but soon got tired. Alice was already exhausted from her workday, and all this crazy situation only left her exhausted. The young woman ended up lying in a corner of the van and falling asleep. When the redheads realized that she could no longer hear them, one of them jumped through the window to the car seat beside the driver. The other leaned in the little window, it was only possible to see his arm and his head lying on them.

"You're sure..." said the one at the window.

“… You know her?” finished the other.

"It's kind of hard to recognize some people who comes here" they said together, and then looked at the rabbit-man from top to bottom, as if they wanted to use him as an example.

"Yeah. I've known her since she was a kid. She may not remember me now. But I remember of Alice very well”.

The van was driven away from the center of the city, moving closer to the suburbs.

                                       Now I lay me down to sleep

                                                    I pray the Lord my soul to keep

                                                                   If I die before I wake

                                                                           I pray the lord my soul to take

Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the car in the rhythm of the song, the Rabbit was singing along with the song: "We're Off to Never-Neverland".