It has been three years since I originally wrote "True Bloodstained Black Rabbit". It was one of my most viewed and popular stories during it is prime as well as the longest one I ever wrote and one of the first I had ever truly finished. Upon going back and looking into it I found myself cringing at some of the writing. Since then I have grown and gotten better, enhancing my skills. I can't outright say what made me decide. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that now I am in my graduating year of school. The point is that I have decided to re-write that story.

The plot will still likely hold some similarities, but there will also likely be differences born of my growth as a person and an author. I know a bit more about the world and about people. Either way, for fans of my original story, I hope you can find it in yourself to enjoy this new reboot.

Well without further ado, enjoy the re-write!

-With Luffles, Aureux

I. Prologue

"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

But life isn't one of fairy tales. While the boy sought to answer the warmth behind her smile when his own was so dull, he came to learn things that were better left bound and thrown into the endless Abyss. For by finding out why he felt so safe there, he guaranteed he would never feel safe again.

"Once upon a time there was a girl born into a far away land. Whether she was a child of love or a child of deceit was lost in the wake of time. All that anyone can say was that she always seemed to be alone. But if asked if she was lonely, she would simply giggle as if it was some sort of inside joke. With a smile like the sun she'd say, 'Who said I'm alone? My best friend is right here,' and then with a cryptic bow she was run back off into the fields to play. Some say they never saw again after that day,"

War clamped onto the fragile tattered pieces of the young boy's mind. In their grip, doubt and unease festered. He continued to try to smile and push past it as his smile became more and more warped. Until finally he collapsed like a puppet whose strings were rended free from their sockets leaving them to fall in an gangly spread of limbs.

"Once upon a time there was a boy who met a girl. They fell in love. The rest beyond that is ancient history,"

"What's going on!? Where am I!?" He cried out in his mind, his soul shaken to the core with anguish. Even if such a thing wasn't already awake it would have been stirred to by the shriek. But rather this thing, this dark lonely shadow merely responded with a calm measured tone.

"You are trapped in your own mind. In your own memories. In your darkness,"

Again he cried, his tone a tad bit indignant. "This can't be real can it!?"

"It is," the darkness replied with that calm silky voice.

Something about it seemed so inviting. Its tone was without malice. If anything it sung of acceptance. Of peace. The folds of darkness, while wispy were almost soft like a blanket of night to wrap him up and lull him to sleep. It was comforting, unjudging. Like the song of a siren that promise everything as it slowly leads you to your final dream.

"Everything is so dark… Is this really my truth?" The boy couldn't help but ask, fighting the waves of rest that threatened to drag him under. But even so, his question was little more than a whisper in that shapeless limitless room.

"It is," Once more the voice spoke in affirmation.

"How can you be sure?"

"You question me despite already knowing the answer. Despite already knowing it is true,"

With those words the boy paused, the weariness evaporating for a single heartbeat before coming back with twice the force.

"I can't help, but question it. Even though little by little the fog is clearing, I can't help but be apprehensive. Will the answers be what I want them to be? Will they help everything finally make sense? Or will they only bring more questions I can't bare to find the answers to?"

The boy was answered with a silence so profound it was suffocating. Then all at once a deep sigh echoed all around him, as if the unseen walls were all releasing a held breath. Then finally, rattling along with the gust as if expelled with the air was a single phrase.

"The truth is rarely what you wish it to be,"

And then he felt himself drown.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge of a field that no longer exists, where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could be a sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle. Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a house across the field, from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was queen and he was king. In the autumn light her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls, and when the sky grew dark, and they parted with leaves in their hair.

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

"Every arrow is pointing in the direction of reality…

Every memory is echoing the words that I hold…

My chest… It hurts…

As though it is telling me that what he said is true…

I am so confused…

So scared…

I fear that if I accept it I will no longer be me. If I agree to this past being my own that maybe it may change me.

I.. I don't want to go,"

Two voices blended, two sentiments that intermingled for different reasons. These words sang through the boy's entire being as the two sides crashed together, everything hidden behind that dark door rushing free.

"Once upon a time there was a very special boy in a very far away land. He spent his whole life searching for his other half, following the unique purpose that his special birth placed across his shoulders. He slain monsters, saved lives, fell in love…

And at the end, he died,"

And from the ashes of this fairy tale boy… a new story was born.

I am… Oz… Oz B. Rabbit…