"Curious. Quite curious…"
When L opened his eyes, he was met with darkness. Not the regular sort of darkness that still let slip through fragments of defiant light, but a complete and utter darkness. The immediate effect, oddly enough, was that he felt that he was suffocating. There was nothing there— nothing that he could see—and so it was immediately logical that there was nothing there that he could also breathe. For all L knew, he may have been trapped inside of a black hole (which would explain the lack of light); he could have been sucked into one which had spontaneously appeared in his bedroom and drew him in unknowingly, while he was fast asleep.
But no. That wasn't quite right. L never slept. The almost charcoal colored rims underneath his eyes were proof of his insomniac status. How then, had this happened?
Had he passed out? Was he dead? Were these the last few moments of his life as his body failed him, and his mind kept meandering in a dream-like state into the vast bounds of his sub-conscious? That would explain why the seconds passed like minutes. He was sure, that he had only been screaming for a few.
With a thud, it stopped as quickly as it had begun. And it had begun, he was sure, even if he couldn't remember the beginning. A pea-sized glow hovered above his head, in front of his eyes, and his eyes danced watching it curiously, feeling that with having found some sort of central gravity that he could inhale and exhale again.
The glow moved forwards. Flickering and illuminating L's pale, almost white face. He had spent too many hours hunched over at a computer. No—not enough! His mind screamed. There were criminals that needed to be caught. Justice that needed to be served! And who else could do it? Wasn't he the only one?
A faint memory tugged painfully somewhere, and as if in answer, the glow touched onto his nose. L's body shook as he felt it traveling through him: his whole physical being illuminated by that tiny drop, and then it spread onto the ground around him.
Suddenly, there were trees appearing; grasses, lilies, and fronds. A whole forest of enchanting beauty lay around him in comparative splendor on all sides. And also, a path.
L's eyes edged towards the path. He knew that he should be expecting someone soon. Even if he didn't know who.
Tick-tock-tick-tock
The birds chirped to this rhythm, and there were birds he noticed, high up in the trees, glancing down inspecting the small, scrawny man below chattering to one another: "Looks quite ill, doesn't he?"
"Needs a good bath," The other agreed.
"Do you think he would taste any good?" Asked a crow, as it sat down to join them. The others looked at it in disgust, then flew off.
"Why…" L began, then shook his head. "That I can understand what they are saying… I am ninety-eight percent certain that that shouldn't be possible." He brought a thumb to his full bottom lip, as he always did, and swept it across. "Curious. Quite curious." Taking a step towards the direction of the path, for that was where his fate was urging him, he plucked off a leaf hanging from a golden, magnificent tree. Once being torn from its stem it crumpled and turned to ash in his hand. Tilting his head to the side, and with an overwhelming rush of mild disappointment, he went to blow it away. The breath escaped his mouth, wisping change into the air, and as the ash flew, it slowly danced into become the soft, pink petals of a rose. He watched as they waltzed gracefully away into the wind; his almost charcoal colored rimmed eyes seeing for the first time, something which had been truly beautiful.
But no. That wasn't quite right either. He had seen something truly beautiful before. What had it been?
Taking another stride forward, he recalled a certain ugliness in that same thing as well. A hatred, a horrible, wretched thing. Two faced. Manipulative. Pretty. Stale. Death.
Was it a mirror? A mirror he recalled? He was sure that he had never come across one which revealed such accuracy about its tangible occupant.
"Is this what I am in now?" L wondered aloud, feet silently padding against the compressed dirt path. It was cool on his soles, and as he ventured into the forest it darkened. The chattering of birds was replaced by a loud cawing of the friends of the crow which had landed on the branch before. He could see their cold, judgmental eyes peering out from the tree tops, watching as this stranger violated their own increasingly murky world. Gnarled tree roots, twisted and writhing up from the ground reached out slowly to L's legs. He picked his way around them carefully, almost stumbling backwards a few times, but he never fell. He had a feeling that if he did, they could manage to sweep him away. Growing increasingly impatient with his surroundings, for he was, he realized, walking around in an impossible circle, the same footprints being stepped over several times, he called out.
"Is anyone else here? Where am I?" Then more meekly: "Hello?"
A glimmer in the trees appeared before him, and he paused in his stride, glancing upwards. A mouth. A large, toothy mouth, forming a Cheshire like grin. And what an accurate word to describe that expression, for it was, in fact, a Cheshire cat. Something in L's mind clicked. And it was all starting to seem familiar.
"Why hello there unfortunate stranger." The Cheshire cat greeted, and with another shimmer, the rest of it's body appeared. It was elegant, and long, completely black, with only a tuft of white on its left ear. "What are you doing in my forest?"
L stared at it in contemplation. To call it a 'cat' rather than a 'beast' would be to disregard its unusually large proportions - its ability to talk - its human-like stare. Yes. Something about this creature was definitely human, in the way that it possessed the qualities that a normal human, usually, did not. And these things, he could even tell at first glance.
"I seem to have stumbled in here." L noted, speaking in a voice that was louder than his usual one. "Could you tell me the way out?"
"Is that what you want?" The beast replied, with a curl of the tail. It let out a deep and languid sigh before it vanished, re-appearing on another branch a little further away.
"I will never understand these emotions that you humans have. You wanted to come here, didn't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, dear Ryuga."
"Ryuga?" L repeated, taking a step closer to the Cheshire smile, which was the only thing that he could now see. "Why are you calling me that?"
"It's your name, isn't it?"
"I...don't remember. I can only remember a letter."
"Oh?" The beast mocked, appearing in full view and changing its body completely white. "Names aren't that important. For instance, I have had many, and people call me many, but that doesn't change who, or rather, what, I am. A name is merely a label that we give ourselves, I could call you Tea Pot or Slipper, it wouldn't make a difference now, would it?"
"I would object to being called 'Tea Pot'." L mumbled, as he tried to get closer again to the beast still, but it insisted on disappearing.
"Hm, then," it replied, "that is what I shall call you. Ryuga Tea Pot, do you know why you are in the Land Of Wonder?"
"I do not know where I am, or why I am here. And please do not call me that."
"Well, would you like me to at least tell you why you are here?"
L waded his way through the darkness, searching the tree tops for the source of his companion who kept on disappearing.
"Yes, please do that. I haven't got an idea of where this is."
"My my," the creature muttered, appearing before him, with bright red eyes glowing, "you don't listen very well, do you? For I've already told you the answer to that."
L had jumped at seeing the beast so up-close, but then quickly composed himself as it disappeared.
"If you would like to know the truth, my dear lost traveler," came a voice from somewhere that he couldn't locate, "it is that you are lost. And I am not going to help you." And then, "Good luck, be wary of those who try to fool you."