ALICE…
When she came too, the first thing that came to mind was that it was cold, much colder than before, it felt like the moment you woke up in the morning and took off the blanket. She opened her eyes and after a quick few seconds, her vision became normal and the reality set in.
Alice was laying comfortably on what felt like deer fur, around her there were candles that lit the stone floor around her, but when she looked for any further details, she found only the ghostly presence of darkness and nothing more.
“Hello?” Alice heard her voice echo twice.
The young girl stood up and shanking legs, parts of her body were sore and aced with a null throbbing sensation.
“Helloo-oo” Once again only her voice was the one to return.
She bent down and picked up one of the few candles that had the small metal handle under it, and started to walk aimlessly through the darkness.
As Alice walked further in the more unnerving he whole situation became, it was dark, cold, and she could not remember is she had been here the whole time, or this was someplace else she never been before. Thinking back on it, she could not remember much at all, she remembered big things like her mother, father, and brother, but where she lived and how she ended up here was gone.
Suddenly she stopped. Alice looked down and saw another deer hide and a mass of candles surrounding it…‘Wait, I went in a circle’ It was true it was the same hide and same candle circle. When you have no sense of direction, it could have happened easily, she concluded. Alice started off in the opposite direction and continued on.
She walked on, her feet ‘pit-patting’ against the solid blackness under her feet as she went, and as she continued the air started to become colder and uncomfortable. When time passed, and she walked a little further, and once more she found herself standing over the candles and pelt.
Alice sighed, ‘Damn’ she muttered. Once again she wondered of with flickering candle in her hand…and again she stopped next to her starting point, and again, and again, and again... the same outcome befell on her.
“What’s going on!” She yelled in frustration and at the moment an almost bone shivering wind came over her followed by a hushed voice unlike any nature human’s voice though.
“L E T I T C O N S U M E Y O U”
Instantly following the voice, another gust of wind whipped passed her blowing out all the candles, all except for the one in her hand. Alice was too far gone for words; she just stood there, shaking in an unreal amount of fear...
The candle soon became, not only a source of light, but her warmth as well as the air stiffened and froze.
“D O N T B E A F R A I D O F T H E D A R K N E S”
The voice withered in her ears…
“Who are you?!” She called out, urging to put a face behind the voice.
“D O N T B E A F R A I D. . .”
“Stop!” Alice demanded.
“L E T I T T A K E Y O U. . . D O N T F E A R T H E D A R K N E S ”
“I said STOP!” she shouted, but another harsh bellow of wind came and pushed her to the ground and her last source of light went with it.
“Oh no, no…no please no!” Alice was on her hands and knees frantically trying to find the candle in a desperate search.
The pain that came after made it seem like her head was splitting right down the middle, she screamed in blood freezing agony.
---<=>---
When Alice awoke, her body was simply numb and lifeless as if it had died, but her soul remained chained like a prisoner to the walls of her cell, locked behind the gated bars and left to suffer. She could hardly see, her thoughts were silent, and vision unclear, the only few things she could process were the colors blurred in her peripheral view.
Most of her eyes were filled with a dull grayish death like void, while the bottom remained a hazy black; the only other object was a ball of pulsing orange that seemed to cut away the death. Alice could not hear any sounds, but could feel not only her heart, but the heart of another beating under her; she could feel the rising and lowering of lungs with the beat like an intertwined instrumental that you felt, not heard.
The repeating song soothed her, calmed her, it made her feel safe and secure as if the beats and movements was her soul-protector in her frail state. The Beats continued making her mind doze and become soft, the rising and lowering movements gave her body comfort and a state of serenity, and she closed her eyes.
Alice slept with peace…
…
I Had laid myself curled up so I could face the open doorway, the young female resting on my chest, asleep and at peace, her beat was barely felt compared to mine, faint but still existent. The young female radiated warmth from her thin, frail body that gave my worn and beaten heart a sense of mirth and compassion.
I laid in here with her and felt sorrow and guilt, why had I caused so much suffering to this youngling without remorse and now just realizing it? Why did the dark one destroy her mind, her thoughts, and her freedoms?
All I wanted was to be free from my torment, my constant pain, the knowing of the blood I spilt, the souls I stole. I am the enemy of myself, and I just sent myself deeper out of my pure selfishness. I am kind, but forced to be vile. My soul is pure, but my skin and flesh are stained with impurities and death. The inside of me is human, but on the outside, I am the bane of my own existence. Why?
It’s the same question every time, the question that can never be answered…Why? The only thing close to an answer is ‘there may not be a reason. It just is’ my live is the way it is and I alone can never change that.
I heaved a solemn sigh and wrapped myself tighter around the female, and in return she woke for a brief moment. I watched with one open eye and did nothing to intervene. She never moved except for the slight gingerly movements she made to look around. The little one was seemingly completely unaware of the world she’s in, the room around her, the thing under her, nothing.
I watched her without moving, nor making a sound. I allowed the young female to do as she pleased, which was not very much in anyway, her eyes were hardly open, and her breathing was so feeble I almost mistook it as my own. In just a few moments of waking, she started to fade and drift, and in turn, I curled tighter around her, and soon the female relaxed and was unconscious once more.
I had did not remember what the dark one said her name was, to me she was little one and it suited me well enough not to be bothered about her ‘real’ name. I laid and watched her sleep for less than an hour before I felt heavy and soon drifted asleep as well.
---<=>---
Some hours passed before the little one came to life again, she was curled up in the fetal position in between my chest and tail. I laid still and let the female unravel herself. She was sitting strain with her head sunk into her knees that pressed up to her chest.
I watched steadily and silently as she groaned and looked down at my tail, which she reached for and stroked softly. The little one looked at my tail and paws for some time, before following them, up my back, turning her head to see my shoulders and eventually came to look me dead strait into my eyes. From here I did not know what see saw in me, but the look of utter confusion was the only emotion that came from her, no anger, fear, or even surprise, just the blank stare of confused eyes.
“Uh...um…h-hello?” The young ling asked in a timid yet firm voice.
I was silent.
“C-can…can you talk?” My voice was not one for her ears, so I lied and shook my head.
“…But you can understand me…” It seemed more like a statement rather than the normal question, so I did not respond.
“Well…could you…is there someone I can talk too?” I nodded.
“Can you…show me where he is?” I looked into her eyes for a brief moment, and then I tensed my stiff muscles to stand.
When I was at my full height over the female, she shied away slightly as I was in the process of standing, so in a less intimidating manor I lowered myself…even if it was only by half a foot. The little one cocked her head as I did this but no more, so I turned my back to her and walked under the archway before us; she followed at a restrained distance.
My lumbering steps equaled to about two or three of hers so I kept my pace slower than I usually would. The stone walkways we traveled through where dimly lit with the dark purple flamed lanterns the dark one had placed here long before my arrival.
I looked over my broad shoulder to see the little one, who was looking around the pathway, transfixed onto the lanterns. I huffed and returned to looking down the endless hall; after so much time, this place became more and more of a prison to me.
“So, do have…a…right…” She sighed as I, yet again looked over my shoulder at her.
We spent about another handful of minutes, and numerous twist and turns before I came to halt with the little one stopping to my right. Before us was the mass chamber, and it was bitch black from here on in making it one of the most intimidating rooms in these caverns.
I stepped to the side and pointed into the abyss, and the look the little one gave me almost made me wince…
ALICE…
When Alice woke, her heart was beating in her head which made the headache which made it even worse as she rose to a sitting position. Alice widened her vision and saw the stone…everything, but out of the corner of her eye, the candid like legs, then human like body shape, and lastly, the piercing light red eyes of the wolf’s head next to her thigh.
The wolf-man slipped its gaze from hers, and unwound its self from around her and stood high above her by three feet! Alice back away from it, trying to keep out of its way and in response to seeing her step away, it lowered itself by a couple of inches. Alice tilted her head thinking that it must have thought she was scared of it, which made sense; the creature was no little leprechaun.
Alice tried to talk with the wolf-man but it, or most likely him, only would nod or shake his head in response to her questions, but finally she was able to get him to take her to someone, or thing, that could communicate with her.
They pair trudged down the hall, with the strangely lit lanterns that Alice saw as unique and particularly strange at the same time, but she did not let them hold her up to look at them. As she studied each passing lantern she could see a shimmering red eye peer over to her for a brief second.
The silence started to get to Alice as they continued the dim stone halls, so just to say something she tried to ask the creatures name, it even had one, but the look he gave her said more than enough to let the question slip from her mouth and die.
It was a little longer before the wolf-man stopped in front of her, so she walked to the side and was met with the darkness, the darkness just like from her dream which was just a blurred memory now, but at the same time there was hardly anything to remember from it.
Except for the voice, so it was easy to freeze in place when the wolf-man pointed a short, yet sharp black claw into the void. When Alice started to retreat from her fear, the creature stopped her with it’s broad hand to her back with other still raised.
“I…no, I-I can’t go in there…” Alice told the creature who looked down at her with a slum look.
“W-would you come with me?” He shook his head. “Can…can you come with me?” He did not respond to her question this time. “Please…” He still did not answer.
Holding down the lump in her throat, and trying to cover the gap in her gut, Alice took one step forward before freezing up again. With her head to her chest, she barely heard her own voice plead again.
Nothing, except for a light nudge to her shoulder that urged her to go, and finally sucking in the little tears, she slowly, step by step, walked into her nightmare...