Chapter 1: A small dream

By The Next Alice

Disclaimer: QuinRose owns the right to their characters. Crypton Media owns the Vocaloid Characters: Miku Hatsune, Kaito Shion, Meiko Sakine and Len and Rin Kagamine, who are all featured in the song Alice Human Sacrifice. However the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland story by Lewis Carroll is out of copyright. Did you know that?

Once there was a small dream. He didn't start out small, no, once he had been a dreamscape of giant proportions. Adventures and mysteries and all sorts of curious and marvellous things went on inside that dream, not all of them strictly 'good' but marvellous all the same.

The dream had a name: Nightmare. Nightmare Gottschalk, to be completely correct, a name he had given himself after a conversation between his original dreamer and his father. The original dreamer - a boy named Charles - had gleefully described one of his nightly dreaming traipses to his parent - who was also named Charles, Nightmare recalled - who had the responded with the hearty guffaw, "Sounds more like a nightmare than a Wonderland to me, boy," and ruffled his son's hair. The dream wasn't quite sure where he had picked up 'Gottschalk' but he definitely knew from where he had found his first name.

Nightmare remembered his original dreamer vividly still, even though it had been many years since they had been parted. Charles Dodgson had been a well brought-up boy, made shy to society by a stammer he was never able to get rid of. Charles had spent many a happy school hour lost in his dream world, and had created the Wonderland, which - when Nightmare really thought about it - was Nightmare. Nightmare was Wonderland, and Wonderland was Nightmare. The two were connected, almost one being but not quite. Charles, in a way, had been the Original Alice. Irreplaceable and perfect. None other could ever compare.

But Charles had to grow up, and grow up he did. He hadn't forgotten about Nightmare, no! Quite the opposite: the man gladly shared his dream with all who would listen, although mostly little children; they understood how to dream best, as their minds hadn't yet been tainted by the so-called 'realism' of the grown-up world. However, the Wonderlands in their minds were not Nightmare, and as Charles's life became busier, plagued with the responsibilities of adulthood, Nightmare was visited less and less. Soon, he felt himself getting smaller, as bits and pieces of Wonderland were forgotten, perhaps not on purpose but still gone. Not only was he getting smaller, but the dream was getting lonely. Oh so lonely…

Nightmare did not want to be forgotten. It was his greatest fear, that one day no-one would remember him and he would just disappear. He spent many hours worrying about this, so much that it was all he could think of once Charles had left.

And then it happened.

A tremendous fire burnt down the Dodgson home, and the entire family perished in the blaze. As the highest flames licked at the moon in the starry night sky, Nightmare stood on the lawn, gazing at the house in which his dreamer lay, unable to do a single thing - he was only a dream, after all - and tears ran down his cheeks. How was he supposed to survive without Charles? Maybe… He could find a new Charles. A new Alice.

"I will bring humans to me, and they will make my world. Your world." the dream promised to the now dying embers. He took one last look at the house, then turned away, scrubbing at his face with his handkerchief. He coughed as he walked away, guiltily spitting a little blood into some bushes as he did (as parts of Wonderland had vanished, as had a few of his insides - he wasn't sure which or what, but it was making him a bit ill).

Where would he find his new Alice? They would have to be worthy of taking Charles's place- no. No-one could ever take his dreamer's place. But maybe they could fill the gap? Just a little. But where…

The dream continued walking until he reached the town centre, a plaza sort of area filled with all sorts of interesting people. Rich, poor, middle-class, farmers, librarians, artists, musicians, flower-sellers - anyone and everyone congregated here, it seemed.

And what better place to find his new Alice? Nightmare smiled to himself and began searching.

/Once there was a small dream. No-one really knew who had dreamt it. Such a small dream it was. The little dream thought, "I don't want to disappear like this. How can I make people dream me?"

For a while, the dream pondered on this issue until it reached a conclusion. "I will make humans come to me, and they will create my world."/

A/N: Hello. This is the tale of Alice Human Sacrifice, which is actually an awesome Vocaloid song. Of course, this features HnKnA characters. I will make the Alices be whomever I believe suits the original song's Alices, but I am open to suggestions, because nothing is 'set in concrete' yet. If, by the fourth Alice(s) - which is where the song ends - people like this, I may make up more verses and input more story, or hold a contest where you, my lovely reader, may do that for me. But that is only if people want me too, and well, we should really reach that bridge before crossing it, hmm?

The English translations to this song vary, so I choose the one I liked best.

Thank you ever so much for reading this and please leave feedback so I may improve!