This was it. Eliza stepped out of the cab and surveyed the barren landscape around her. The address she had given the cab driver was right; she knew it was right, and yet, at the same time, it was all wrong. She stood now on the doorstep of what should have been her cousin Isadora's home, but the only thing she could see was dirt and rock. Miles and miles of dirt and rock.
How could this have happened? People didn't just disappear. Houses didn't just disappear. Unless, of course, you were a DiPotere...
But Eliza didn't want to think about that. The curse wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Eliza was here to prove the whole thing was all just a silly myth, although that already seemed to be proving more difficult than she'd suspected.
Picking up her cat Jupiter, Eliza tried to convince herself of her own strength. "It's just the two of us now, Jupiter," she said, "but we'll be just fine. Just fine." Inside, however, she wasn't so sure. Strangetown was far worse than she had expected. A dull, dreary red mud covered the town, and the people...well, the people were more than just strange. But she had no time for self-pity. Yes, she had left behind a fabulous job in Sim City, amazing friends and a spacious loft apartment, but Eliza was here for more than herself.
She was here for family.
Eliza's great Aunt Bella Donna's entire lineage had been wiped out several generations ago. Isadora had once sent Eliza this picture of Bella Donna. The whole clan had been beautiful and successful, and also plagued by a series of unfortunate accidents, ending with their complete and total disappearace. Not only had the entire family been declared missing, but their home had vanished overnight. The story was now one of the great urban legands of Pleasantville. Eliza was going to prove, once and for all that the story was just that: Legand. There had to be a reasonable explanation for the disappearances, and Eliza was determined to find it.
Isadora had been beautiful, but tortured. As the first female DiPotere to be born since the disappearance of Bella Donna's progeny, she had spent her life in fear of the DiPotere Curse. But Isadora's ambition finally over came her fear, and she had come to Strangetown to boost her career at BellTech Labs. One year ago, Isadora had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, bravely named Bella after their long lost great Aunt.
Isadora was a prolific letter writer, sending Eliza long accounts of the bizarre inhabitants of Strangetown and of her new life. Then the letters stopped. For over a month Eliza had heard nothing, and now her greatest fear was being realized. Isadora had disappeared. Here Eliza stood at Isadora's last known address, and there was nothing. No buildings, no furniture, not a stitch of clothing. It was just empty. Isadora was gone.
And Eliza planned to find out why.
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