"The edge, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
Hunter S. Thompson
~Oh, So You're Alice?~
In.
Out.
In.
In...
And just like that, she was gone. She could barely remember ever being there.
Eyes snap open.
A car.
Yeah, it had been a car. She was driving home from school with someone...they were going to the islands again, it had been so long. School was on the mainland. They were driving to the beach...
The truck. She remembered now. She had looked out of her window at the sound of the sirens to see a large, red fire truck.
Thinking about it, it seemed so silly, a fire truck...but she remembered how much larger and more menacing it seemed when it was speeding straight towards her. The truck had flown straight into her side of the car.
There was something missing to the picture, but the more she tried to remember, the foggier things became. A groan escaped her chapped lips.
Kairi ached.
It was freezing out here, her limbs trembling. She could feel the dirt and woodchips digging into her bare skin. The tiny hairs on her arms stood up from the chill.
Fingers digging into the dirt she lay on, she strained to stand. Slowly, very slowly, she rose onto her feet. Leaves fell from her rustled hair, joining the dead ones on the forest floor.
"Where am I?"
Her voice came out strained and painfully, echoing around the forest.
'Wait, a forest?' she thought. Pangs struck inside of her skull, and Kairi groaned at it all. Where the hell was she?
She looked around, growing more and more wary.
"Why am I in a forest? Shouldn't I be in the hospital?" she swayed unsteadily, nearly falling before she could catch herself.
The frost nipped at her goosebumped skin, making her wrap her shivering arms around herself to stop the shaking It was so cold here.
Where was here?
"Am I hurt? No... The truck hit me in that intersection-so where's the road? Where are all the cars and people?"
She turned in circles, taking in her environment. What had happened to her? Where was everyone?
"Wait...where are my clothes?"
Looking down, she confirmed her lack of clothing and the cause for her chills. She was completely naked.
For a moment, she was glad no one was around to see this.
Holding herself tightly, Kairi began walking. She didn't know where she was going, or where she had been, but starting somewhere seemed like a good idea.
The trees began to close in on her, growing closer and closer to one another. The fear and confusion began to form a tight ball in her gut. It was silly, trees didn't move, she knew that.
A branch snapped somewhere behind her.
She was running now, nudity be damned, because she was sure that the trees were moving in on her now.
'I'm going crazy,' she thought frantically.
Her footsteps grew more rapid as she heard strange sounds erupting behind her in the quiet woods. It sounded like the ground was being ripped up behind her, like wood was being snapped and broken, and old things were moving once more.
Kairi had never felt such a primitive fear before. It was like the feeling she got when she was a little girl alone in her house at night. The feeling that the unknown was waiting for her to slip up, hoping to grab hold of her as she ran to the safety of her bed. Like bad things in the dark were out to get her.
She couldn't hold in the scream when she felt a lone branch slither up her leg.
A root appeared out of nowhere and Kairi tripped over it, flying. She landed hard, the air being pounded out of her.
The noises silenced. The woods grew still again.
Kairi wheezed, shaking all over again. She scrambled up, turning to face the woods behind her, her eyes wild and frantic.
The trees did nothing.
She turned back slowly, only to notice she was in an open space now.
"I don't know what's going on, but th-?" she stopped speaking, noticing something on the forest floor.
On the ground, lay a crumpled, dirty, blue dress.
Kairi's brows furrowed. "What would a dress be doing out here in the middle of the woods? Is there someone nearby?"
She looked around for signs of another naked body before a cold wind rolled through the trees and pummeled her bare skin.
"It's freezing," she gasped, holding herself. The dress looked tempting, now.
She knelt down and eagerly grabbed the dress, looking it over. It seemed to smooth itself out the moment she touched the fabric. The spots of grime that she had noticed before vanished.
She waved off the strange thoughts, reminding herself that it was thoughts like that that made her think the woods were suddenly attacking her.
The dress still had a few blemishes, and a rip in the little apron near the hem, but Kairi was pleased. Better a rumpled dress than being stark naked. She pulled the dress over her head, a strange feeling washing over her. It fell to just above her knees.
As the dress slipped over her head, the bow began to tie itself up behind her waist. She jumped a little, slapping at her back to stop the bow from moving. It just avoided her frantic hands and tied around her.
Kairi swore, swerving around to see the mischievous bow and regretting putting the damn thing on. First the forest was moving, and now her clothes? She definitely should've been in a hospital with all these hallucinations...if she was even imagining it all.
Her feet tingled. She looked down to find her slender legs wrapped in white socks and brown boots. She knew she hadn't been wearing anything earlier and she hadn't put them on with the dress.
"Woah," she said breathlessly. "Things just keep getting stranger and stranger..."
She had half a mind to pull the weird clothes back off, naked or not, but it wouldn't pull itself back up over her head. She tugged and tugged, yet the dress remained. It felt as if it were stuck to her skin. She gave up as soon as she felt the sweat build up on her brow.
Her hands clutched into the front of the dress's apron as she looked around.
Too quiet.
Unnerved, her feet began to move again. Kairi was officially freaked out. Still, she had to sigh happily at the welcoming warmth the dress gave her, the dirt crushing underneath her boots.
The trees began opening up and walking became easier. The forest around her grew in height as she walked by, their leaves blocking out the sky.
"Hello there, red hair."
Kairi jumped violently, turning towards the sound.
A lone smile floated in the air.
"A new day, a new Alice," it crooned. It began to circle her, dauntingly.
"Last Alice had sun hair, new Alice has blood hair, so much blood-like me!" The smile grew into a face, then a body, and before she could blink, Kairi was facing a tall man. Indeed, his hair was a wild red mess. Burn marks riddled his hands and arms, twisting up and down his limbs like a map of scarring. Strange tattoos were inked into his face. His eyes were bright and roved up and down Kairi, like he had never seen a girl before. Kairi was shocked at the sudden appearance, like a magic trick. She opened her mouth to speak before she noticed something twitch on the top of his head.
….Wait a second.
He had cat ears. Actual cat ears. And whiskers. Kairi blinked. Her lips moved to speak but nothing came out.
"What's wrong?" The feline boy asked. "Cat got your tongue?"
Kairi felt something warm and coppery fill up in her mouth.
The man pulled up his thin, scarred hand, his long fingers holding a waggling, severed tongue.
Kairi let out a shriek, clapping her hands on her mouth. When she felt her own tongue hit the roof of her mouth, she stopped.
Oh! Her tongue was still there. She was fine. The feeling of blood filling up her mouth still lingered.
The man seemed much more menacing now as he giggled, waving his hand and making the severed tongue disappear. "Like my trick? I have plenty more where that came from." he ensured.
Kairi shook her head vigorously. She didn't know how the guy did it, but no more weird, macabre, tricks.
"Who are you?" Kairi questioned. She felt an itch in her legs, wanting to leave this place, leave this cat-thing behind.
The creature laughed. "Oh, I used to be an Axel," he smirked, " but now I'm something else! Used to, used to...what's the use?" he splayed his arms out, smiling.
Kairi stepped back. He moved forward.
"Oh, I am a scorch mark on the flame, the spot on a clean cloth, the snap of a broken bone," his voice escalated and Kairi shrank away from the volume of it.
"I am the words from the mouths of dead men, I am the knife tip on a needle's point, the cracks in the glass, the blood that weeps from a wound that was never there-" he gasped, looking far off with burning eyes, before 'composing' himself and smoothing back his volcanic hair.
"-Well, I'm mad. But you can call me Cheshire, The Cheshire Cat," the man crooned, bowing before Kairi.
Kairi could only stare. Was this guy role-playing 'Alice In Wonderland' in the middle of the woods? She vaguely remembered reading the story as a girl, but she only remembered bits and pieces. Her entire childhood was a bit foggy now, like the car crash. She was certain on one thing though.
This guy was a complete psycho.
Kairi considered running away for a moment. The man was much larger than her, with wide hands and a crazed look. He could easily overpower her. He could hurt her badly if he wanted to. Still, where would she run? She didn't even know where she was, much less where she could go. Where was she? Maybe he could tell her.
She decided to play along. "Hello, Chesire Cat. I'm Kairi," she felt her throat close up as she gave her name, afraid to let this guy know who she was. It was too late now, he had heard her. She continued. "Where are we?"
"You don't look like a Kairi, you look like an Alice," he whispered, circling her and watching closely. She turned around with him, not wanting to lose sight of him.
"I-I'm not her. I don't know any Alice. I'm just...I'm just Kairi." she stuttered, growing a bit fearful. This role-play was going too far for comfort.
"No, you're definitely an Alice. A bloody Alice," he smiled crookedly.
She gulped. "Where are we?"
"A forest." he answered swiftly.
Kairi shook her head. "I kind of meant in a specific way. Like the name of a neighborhood or a county, or even a larger scale like a city or a state or-"
"Scales?!" the man erupted, his cat ears perking up. "Weighing the good bad, reality and fiction, life and Wonderland..."
"Wonderland?" Kairi interrupted.
"Why yes, we are here!"
Kairi shook her head. This couldn't be Wonderland. That place didn't exist, and even if it did, it wouldn't be as cold and eerie as it was here.
But then there had been the moving trees. There had been the strange clothing and sudden hallucinations, there had been the man that was sort of a cat, named Cheshire. She couldn't explain that.
'I am going crazy,' she thought.
"How do I get home?" she whispered.
The Cheshire Cat sniffed the air a bit and licked at his hand before answering. "Which you wishes to return to which home? Two different you's, two different homes.
Which one do you wish to return to?"
Kairi shook her head, confused. "There aren't two of me, there's only one. There's just me. Please, just tell me where to go," she was begging now. Begging some rambling, deformed stranger in the middle of nowhere.
"But I see two of you. The you now, and the you before," the Cheshire cat argued.
Kairi wanted to scream, she was so frustrated. "No, please stop the rambling! I just want to get back home, now!"
The cat looked her up and down, a solemn look breaking through his smile before he plastered it back on again.
"That-a-way, Alice," he pointed through the trees behind him.
Kairi grinned. She had an answer and a direction. She nodded her head to the man, and moved past him towards the trees.
"Don't stray from the road and watch for the wolves," the Cheshire Cat called out.
Kairi tripped. "Wolves?" she sputtered. There were no wolves on Destiny Islands. There were no forests.
The Cheshire Cat shrugged. "There's a lot more than that, babe. And I mean it, watch for the wolves. They can get pretty nasty. I wouldn't worry too much about them, if I were you. I would worry about the shadows."
Kairi stopped to look at him. "Shadows?" she asked.
"Yep," said the Cheshire Cat, pointing to his head. "Got it memorized?"
Kairi blinked, and he was no longer there. She looked around.
Gone. He had vanished. She rubbed her eyes,
What a weird guy. What a weird place.
She began walking in the direction he had pointed out earlier. Before long, she had walked out of the twigs and stones to a large, dirt road. She sighed in relief and stepped out onto it.
Though the trees still loomed overhead, she had enough space to move comfortably and didn't have to dodge rocks or branches every five seconds.
'Where does the path lead?' she thought. The sky was growing dark as she trudged along. Shadows of the trees began to spill out onto the road and the sounds of things moving in the woods grew louder.
Kairi shrieked when she felt something run into her foot. She looked to see bundle of brown fur breathing rapidly.
'A white rabbit?' she thought.
It zipped up, trying to leap away. It stumbled and fell, probably dazed from the impact. She smiled. At least something here was nice to look at. The cute thing was still falling all over the place when she saw the blood on it's leg. Her smile fell. The leg looked mangled.
A twig snapped nearby.
She froze. Something heavy moved through the trees out onto the road far behind. Turning, she saw a heavy body, panting and drooling.
A memory hit her for only a second. Kairi was at the zoo with an older woman, her mother maybe. She was looking into the wolf pen, marveling. The wolves were only a bit bigger than dogs, tromping around and playing with one another.
She came back to reality. This wolf was massive. It had sharper eyes and giant rolling muscles underneath the furry skin. Its paws thudded heavily on the ground and it's teeth were too big for it's mouth to contain. Even all the way down the road, she could tell it met her eye to eye. In it's claws, a patch of white rabbit fur was stuck. It's ears laid back, a growl thundering in it's throat.
Kairi's feet moved on her own.
She thoughtlessly swooped down to grab the rabbit and clutched the trembling thing to her chest as she raced down the road.
The wolf bounded after them, effortlessly sprinting at great speeds.
Her breaths came out rasping as her legs pushed forward. Her lungs burned and her chest hurt, but the adrenaline dulled the pain as she heard the wolf closing in behind them.
The rabbit scrambled from her fingers and leaped out onto the road. It zoomed to the side of the road and bounded into the woods, leaving Kairi. She didn't stop to grieve, knowing that she could feel claws digging into her back at any second now.
Kairi made for a tree and leaped with all she had, gripping onto the lowest branch. She vaulted her legs up just as the heavy paws came down onto the trunk of the tree, digging claws into the wood. Kairi sat on the branch, looking down at the massive wolf that was snapping and biting at her, trying to sink it's teeth into anything it could. More than once did she feel its paws brush past her legs. Kairi silently prayed for a miracle.
She still didn't know why she was here or how she got there. She could barely remember her life before waking up in the woods. She couldn't die now, without answers, at the teeth of this monster. She wouldn't.
A sharp pain stung her hand. Kairi looked up. A large magnificent key lay in her hand, cutting into it. She released the blade edge and gripped the blue and gold handle. Flowers curled out of the top of the key with edges as sharp as kitchen knives.
"Woah," she exclaimed, mometarily forgetting about the wolf until it slammed into the tree again. The branch shook, and she had to hold on before she fell off.
The key was longer than her arm, and pretty heavy. She gripped the handle and stared the wolf down from the branch. It snapped ferociously at the sight of her new weapon, enraged.
Kairi stood on the shaking branch, holding herself steady against the tree trunk. Leaves brushed past her cheek.
"I don't know how where this…keyblade….came from," she said to herself, voice shaking, "but I'm not afraid to use it."
The wolf's guttural growls and barks drowned out her soft proclamation.
"I'm telling you," she warned with a stronger voice, "don't make me do this!"
The wolf didn't acknowledge the warning, jumping even higher than before to bite at the branch she stood on, making it tremble.
Kairi breathed deep as she looked into the eyes of the wolf. It hungrily looked back, barking louder than ever. It wanted flesh, preferably hers. This was it. Now or never.
She let go of the trunk, both hands gripping the keyblade. She leaped off, aiming her weapon for the wolf's maw. It jumped, baring it's teeth so that it could rip into the falling girl.
Kairi closed her eyes and screamed, pushing down.
She felt the blade dig into muscle, warm sprays hitting her face. The ground came fast, and she tumbled on impact. Quick to gain consciousness, Kairi leapt up and looked around.
The wolf lay on the ground, twitching. She made her way over to it slowly, stepping over it's large legs. She had been right. The thing was colossal.
Her blade stuck up out of the eye socket of the wolf, the brains spilling out onto the dirt. It heaved irregularly, it's tongue lolling and muscles jerking. Blood was everywhere.
Kairi felt numb. She couldn't help but feel some guilt. The once ferocious animal looked pathetic now. She shook her head softly and reached out to grab her keyblade. She didn't miss the blood on her hands as she pulled at the handle, jerking it.
It wouldn't budge. Kairi placed her boot onto the body of the wolf, pulling with everything she had. The blade slid out with a disgusting sound of tearing meat, swinging blood and brains everywhere.
She backed up, looking at her handiwork. The wolf was dead.
Despite all the blood on her, she had no injuries from what she could tell by patting around her body. Everything was in place. The dress didn't get any blood on it, even when her slick, red hands touched it.
She held the pretty keyblade close, wiping it off on her blood-resistant dress. She could see her face in the metal's shine. It had saved her.
"Woah," a voice called out.
Kairi turned, keyblade ready. "Oh!"
It was the rabbit. It began to grow, muscles expanding and fur shrinking, until Kairi was looking into the face of a boy. The boy still had rabbit ears poking out of his messy brown hair, and the same bright blue eyes from before. They were so bright, they seemed almost neon.
The boy looked at the dead wolf, and then at Kairi. His eyes flicked over to her weapon. "Roxas, come look at this," he motioned behind himself, calling someone over.
Kairi lowered the blade, looking on amazed. The rabbit that she had tried to save was really a boy?
A little, horned, black sheep clambered out of the trees and into sight. That grew too, until it was a messy blonde boy with black horns sticking out the sides of his head. He frowned at the wolf.
"Sora, I don't think she needs help." He pointed to her weapon.
"I know!" The brunette bounced around, pointing at Kairi. "Would you look at what she did to that wolf? I only left her for a few minutes to get help, I didn't think she would take it down all by herself."
Kairi tilted her head to the side. "You ran away to get help?" she inquired.
'Sora' nodded energetically. "Yeah! I was hurt already, so I knew I couldn't take the wolf out by myself." He motioned towards his jeans at one of his legs. The fabric was torn as well as the skin, blood dried on his pants. "I went to get Roxas, here. He's got one of those too." Sora pointed to her weapon.
Kairi's gaze lingered on his injured leg before she looked over at her weapon.
"Oh…this thing?" she held it up. "The keyblade?" She looked at them curiously. They had keyblades like her?
Sora nodded while Roxas remained silent. "Funny," Sora said. "We call it that too!" he smiled and Kairi couldn't help but smile back. Sora's smile was infectious. Roxas turned away from them, shaking his head. Kairi's smile fell and she self-consciously pulled her hair out of her face.
"More will come," Roxas reminded them. "They'll smell the blood." He looked to the fallen wolf and then stared over at Kairi. She remembered that she had blood and guts all over her and looked to her feet. Great. She made a first impression similar to a serial killer. Hey, at least she was alive and not dog food right now.
Sora grabbed onto her arm. She jerked away.
"Easy," he said. "You don't want to be on this road at night. Come with us."
Kairi shook her head, remembering Cheshire's instructions.
Don't stray from the road. Got it memorized?
"I can't…" she tried, pulling from Sora. He just grabbed her again.
"No, seriously." He said, smile gone. "There are wolves and Heartless crawling all over this place."
"What?" Kairi asked. What was a Heartless? She felt the questions bubbling up inside of her.
"Nevermind now," Roxas called out to them, exasperated. "Sora, let's go. We don't have a lot of time and I can smell them coming now." He looked over at Kairi with a unpleasant look on his face. "If she wants to stay and get mauled, let her."
Kairi gasped. Who the hell did this guy think he was?
Sora shook his head. "Ignore him, c'mon," he pulled her insistently. "We know a safe place. Roxas, help me out here!"
The blonde boy frowned before walking over and taking Kairi's other arm. Together, the two boys steered her off the path and into the woods.
"W-wait," Kairi stammered. "My keyblade is gone! Did I drop it?" she looked back only to be yanked forward again.
"It only reveals itself to you when you need it." Sora supplied. "Hey, what's your name anyways?"
"…Kairi. But why is it gone? Where did it go?"
"You don't need it anymore so it left," Roxas muttered wearily, as if Kairi were the most annoying thing in the world.
She frowned at him. His explanation didn't make sense and his tone was pissing her off.
"Your name is Kairi?" Sora asked, stepping over a branch. "You look like an Alice."
Kairi swerved her head to the other side. "Why does everyone keep telling me that today?" she asked.
The trio was walking towards a large tunnel into the ground, a dirt cave.
Kairi gulped.
"Who is 'everyone'?" Roxas asked with a serious expression.
"The Cheshire Cat," Kairi explained, "he said the same thing."
Roxas's jaw dropped. "Sora-" he began.
"Here we are guys! You were right Rox, I can hear the wolves now. Head on in Kairi," he cheered, pushing her into the tunnel. She tripped and fell, scrambling to stand again. Her head hurt and her legs ached.
"Where are we?" Kairi faced them to ask, for the millionth time that day.
Sora zoomed past her, not hearing the question. He bounded into the tunnel and his joyful shouts grew more and more quiet.
She looked back to Roxas, silently pleading for an answer.
He just looked at her, unsure.
"Where are we? Please." She winced at the pleading sound in her voice.
Roxas firmly grabbed her arm and walked them to the end of the tunnel. "Wonderland," he replied softly.
Sora came into view and waved them over. They stood at the end of the tunnel at the edge of a large hole.
"Rabbit holes are so much fun. You ever been in one Kairi?" he asked, ears perking up. She weakly shook her head. Sora grinned. "Well, you're gonna love this one. Wait till you meet Riku!"
"Who?"
"Oh, you know. Riku. He wears a big hat, hangs out with March Hare a lot, drinks way too much tea? No? Well, you're gonna love him, trust me."
And Sora hopped in, falling away into the darkness.
Kairi froze, watching Sora disappear down the hole. No, it couldn't be. Talking animals, mega-wolves, rabbit holes? She knew she was crazy now. Insane.
Kairi looked to Roxas, shaking her head. "Wonderland? Really? I can't believe it…I'm going crazy."
She could hear the sounds of wolves pushing into the tunnel, barking and snapping behind them.
She looked in his face, desperate for a smile, a sign that he was only joking and this was all some giant prank, that she had dreamed up the whole thing, anything! Roxas shrugged.
"Yeah, I didn't believe it either when I found out. And I wouldn't worry too much about being crazy. Everyone is crazy here."
He gripped her hand tightly before pulling them both into the rabbit hole. The hot breath of the wolves was whipped away by the rushing wind, and Kairi felt weightless.
The last thing she remembered was Roxas, looking back at her.