Note: Previously posted as "fairytale", turned into my take on Alice in Wonderland.

Disclaimer: All Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Just as all characters from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland belong to Charles Dodgson (AKA, Lewis Carrol), both of whose genius I bow down before.

Once upon a time, there was a young girl.

And, as was normal for girls her age, this young girl could often be found in the midst of colorful daydreams. During the day, when arithmetic and history should have had her mind preoccupied, her thoughts were often found in more intimate places- intimate in a way where only she could ever have known them as well as she did. The girl was often called a 'little dreamer' by her parents; 'over-imaginative' by her teachers; 'completely out of it' by her peers. It was not a strange occurrence for her to saunter past with her eyes held in a far-away gaze, as others turned their heads and covered their mouths to speak words she could not hear. This girl held no interest in day-to-day life as her mind held her captive with vivid characters and dreamy landscapes that she could, and would not escape.

A long time had passed, and the young girl was no longer a 'little dreamer'. She had been put to bed, and her worried parents sat humbly beside her, stroking the girl's fingertips in attempt to animate her. Maybe if they did this enough, kept contact with their daughter, she would come back to them from wherever she had decided to hide. Maybe she would wake up from whatever kept her in her mind. But seconds passed, and the clock in her room kept tally as they turned to minutes, and from minutes to hours. The calendar that had once been worn with pencil notes and dreamy doodles had been long since turned past such marked dates, scheduled projects and weekly study groups long since abandoned. Reality unknowingly sacrificed for surrealism, until the only thing constant was the hope the girls parents wearily held out for her.

Time passed again, as it is tend do so, and the family's' lives progressed. The girls' father died. Her brother, who would grip the doorway to the girls bedroom tightly in the past, watching her always, had grown up. Unbeknownst to her sleeping mind, the girl had grown up as well. She was now a young woman, tragic as she was beautiful, still trapped in her own imagination. And once upon these once upon a time's, The young girl decided she wanted to leave the humble home she had created within herself. Or had she really created it? Whatever the place was to be called was, it had dulled her senses. Kept her in with false promises and blackmail. Whereas her magical world had always been brimmed with colorful ideas that splashed like the ocean waves on the coral reef, where children sang songs of tongues stained with pixie sticks, the moment a trickle of doubt was planted, it slowly began to take shape and canopy the illusions around her with an overcoming shadow of reality. That was when her world began to dim.

Now she sat along in the dark. She'd never been exposed to the dark recesses of her mind, but she had had questions that didn't make sense to her, and from what she could tell, the answers lurked just out of her reach, barely silhouetted against the lies that danced dizzyingly about her. She pushed herself onto her knees after some time spent adjusting to this unknown shadowy realm, and caressed the surface of an old mirror that was propped up on the ground before her, fingers leaving clear strokes where dust had rubbed off from the glass. The girls' eyelids lowered, and she regarded the dark mirror, able to just barely make out an outline. Having only known herself within her mind, she did not know then that the outline was that of her own self.

"Who am I?" the question was posed with an audible crack, her voice hoarse as she continued to stroke the mirror, tracing the negative space outside the shadowy profile. The room alit with a dim, otherworldly glow, as a light spread forth from the mirror. The girl squinted, raising a fist to rub gingerly at her eyes, continuing to doubt nonetheless.

"I've forgotten where I've been," She whispered, looking at the area of ground before the mirror, wondering if it was even the ground and not just pure darkness "can you tell me?" Tears began to well up in the corners of her ash gray eyes, and she slowly placed her palms flat against the mirror, a look of innocent melancholy contorting her features.

"Take me away!" She cried, pushing against the mirror hopelessly. The antique mirror, needing only the littlest bit of give, teetered and sparked against the ground with a glass shattering sureness, and the girl could only gaze upon it in silent horror. In the meantime, shards of glass zoomed past and around her with unnatural speed and dexterity. Whimpering, she pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the discovery that a shard had implanted itself into the curve of her hip. Preoccupied by her injury, and confused by such unfamiliar events, the girl failed to realize the bits of glass had become inanimate and fallen, now sparkling like tears in the moonlight around her. Only when the lights finally flicker to a stop did she lift her head, stilling immediately at the sight which awaited her.

"Kagome-chan." The voice was susurrus and buttery, carrying heavily an air of aristocracy and arrogance. It spoke from a sinister shade guised as a man who stood comfortably amongst the ruin she had wrought. The girl shivered at her name, for she had yet to associate it's familiarity with recognition. Before Kagome could draw any further connections, the shadow spoke again, and she felt a wave of sensitivity overcome her.

"Why do you want to leave, Kagome? Don't you like it here?" It asked, moving closer towards her. She looked up at him, shaking slightly. 'No' she wanted to yell.

No, I do not like it here anymore.

"Haven't I given you everything you wanted? Friends to play with when others wouldn't? Places you could only dream of visiting?" His tone demanded answers that he had denied her, and a bitter laugh escaped his throat as he vanished in a smoky mist, reappearing just before her hunched figure, kneeling proudly before her. Black lashes squeezed to hide the girls umber eyes from startling knowledge the lights from the glass had helped her glean.

Red eyes…?

Kagome began to cry in the silence of his question, not daring to look up at him. She felt lost, tumbling and falling through a darkness so thick she couldn't breathe, all the while a reminder of hungry red irises remained trapped in the darkness behind her tightly-lidded eyes.

"Don't question me, Kagome." It spoke, watching her fall from his proud position amongst the shattered mirror.

I want to leave... She thought, pulling herself into a ball as she dropped, refusing to let the darkness in, trying to force it away from her.

"I made you."

Please let me go....

"You asked for this."

Not for this...

"You are mine."

This... this isn't what I wished for...

"I love you, Kagome."

And as she fell without restriction, the girl began to slumber.