I'm almost done with FS chapter #14. I've just had a lot of stuff and been lazy. I'M NOT DEAD. Not yet, at least. Sorry.
It was a funny thing, to be tortured into madness. Not that she could remember that. All Alice knew was that she lived in a world of white with a man, and a boy who kept visiting her.
Sometimes she drifted in and out of awareness. Peoples' voices droned on in the background. The memories she once held were just out of her reach, far above her head, slipping through her fingers every time she jumped up to get them. It was moments like these when she was almost sane again. But then her head would ache and spin and the near-clarity of the world would disappear. Then she would go back to being the insane--insane but happy--woman that was mercifully unaware of the troubles in the universe.
In these almost-memories, Alice would glimpse brief snapshots of her former life. They never lasted long. Her fuzzy brain would push them back, back, back into the corners of Alice's mind where unused thoughts were stored, where all that she had held near and dear and cared about was gone.
Her favorite part about her empty world was the man and the boy. They both had similar-looking faces: warm and happy and content. The only part that bothered her was that there wasn't any color there, the place where she lived. Color was everything to Alice. Without color, she wouldn't be happy.
From time to time the boy would come in and look unhappy, too. Alice wanted to reach out to him and give him some color, because after all color did bring joy to her.
Yet the room was all white. No color except for some packaged items these people had brought in. "Here Alice," they had said, "these are some treats for you. It will be rather nice in here, won't it, with all these pleasant things?" Alice just smiled and nodded, unaware of what they were until later.
Now she forgot the name of them. They were all wrapped up in bright, colorful stuff and inside them were sweet-tasting things. Some were chewy, some were hard, some make her lips pucker up and her eyes water, and some made her sigh in delight. She kept unwrapping them and unwrapping them, delighted each time at the treats and the shiny packaging. Those she found most exciting, though, were the soft, round, pink-colored ones. They lasted quite a bit and when they lost their flavor she could sit for a while, marveling at the colored paper it came in. There were words on the wrappers but she couldn't read them; they didn't matter.
So when the boy came in seeming dejected one rainy afternoon, Alice knew what to do. Popping another treat in her mouth, she shuffled over to him. The lady that usually came with him was looking at her curiously. "Oh, did you like our presents, dear?" she asked.
Alice ignored the lady and took the boy's hand, opening it so that his palm was facing upwards. She put the paper in it so that he could finally have some color in his world too.
Glancing down at it, he stood shocked for a few moments before a smile stretched across his face. "Thank you, Mum."
His words didn't register to her; she silently padded back to her bed, grinning back at the boy. Even if she was stuck in a white paradise, even if she never did reach her memories, Alice knew that the boy had some color in his world. And that was all that mattered.
This is my very first HP fanfiction, so please review to let me know how I did! Thanks for taking the time to read it. I don't really like the ending, but whatever.
~etherealloveliness