disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all related characters are property of Square Enix and Disney. This scene has been adapted from the play "Alice in Wonder" by Virginia Glasgow Koste.
note(s): I wrote this piece almost a year ago. I still really like it, so I thought you all would enjoy it, too. Feedback is greatly appreciated!
Without a Trace of Malice
by The Eleventh End
The first thing she sees when she wakes up are two people standing over her. They're identical, both with bright red hair and rather plump figures. Their outfits are red and yellow. When she looks closer, she sees that one has "Dee" embroidered on the white collar of his shirt; the other twin's collar says "Dum".
And the first thing Naminé says is, "Where am I?"
The one named Dum shakes his head. "You've begun wrong! The first thing in a visit is to say 'How do you do' and shake hands!" he exclaims. Dee nods for emphasis.
Hesitantly, Naminé sits up, and as she does so, the brothers move away from her simultaneously. She gets to her feet carefully, cautiously. From what she can tell, she's in a large forest. Trees tower over her head, and the grass is quite large, as are the lilypads surrounding a nearby pond. It's a rather strange place.
The twins are looking at her expectantly. Realizing what they want, Naminé tentatively holds out her hand. Dee takes it, and seeing that Dum has nothing to shake, she awkwardly offers him her other hand. Almost immediately after grabbing it, they lurch to the left and are dancing around in a circle, dragging Naminé with them. She can hear them singing something nonsensical, but she's too busy concentrating on keeping her balance to care.
When they stop, Naminé's panting slightly. She feels dizzy, but nevertheless attempts to regain her composure. Unlike her, these two odd boys don't seem to be out of breath at all. Even so, she can't help but ask. "Um... I hope you're not too tired," she murmurs.
"Nohow," Dum answers.
"Contrariwise," replies Dee.
Abruptly, Dum changes the subject before Naminé can say anything else. "Do you like poetry?" he asks. He and Dee exchange grins.
She isn't sure how to answer that. "I... I don't know," she says honestly.
The brothers look disappointed for a moment. She wants to feel sorry for letting them down, even though she just met them, but she can't. It's unnerving, but she doesn't have a chance to ponder it before Dum clasps his hands together in front of his chest.
"Well, we need to give her an opinion!" he exclaims, "Which poem shall I recite for her?"
"The Walrus and the Carpenter is the longest," responds Dee as he hugs his twin affectionately, "Besides, you've already rehearsed a bit when we had a visit with her."
"Who-?" Naminé starts to ask, but she's interrupted before she can finish.
Dum clears his throat and thrusts out his arms, beginning to recite:
"The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might,
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright,
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night."
Dee adds an emphatic cheer, crossing his arms over his chest. Dum doesn't seem to notice, more than a bit engrosed with his poem.
"'The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:'
Of shoes and ships-
and sealing wax-
Of cabbages and kings-"
Naminé sits down on a log, a sense of uneasiness about her. She doesn't really understand this poem at all, and doesn't care much for it, anyways. Yet, the way these two are acting so passionately about it is kind of funny.
"And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings-
-uh-of cabbages-and kings-,"
Dum abruptly falls silent, the poem coming to a stuttering halt as the blare of a horn echoes through the forest. Naminé all but leaps up in surprise, and she almost falls over before the twins can grab her. For the life of her, she can't figure out why there would be a horn in the middle of the woods. What would the purpose be? Then again, she doesn't think she can be any judge of that, considering she doesn't even know where she is.
From the bushes comes a flock of purple birds. Their beaks are shaped like trumpet bells, and they are lacking both arms and wings. When they see the twins and Naminé, they let out a series of honks before disappearing back into the foliage.
That isn't the end of the procession, though. Just as she's turning to face the brothers, Naminé sees the bushes part another time, but what waddles out is quite horrific. It's another one of the birds, only this one doesn't have a head.
She lets out a horrified gasp and looks away, not watching as it stumbles to the ground. It attempts to get up again, but it can't, and so it resigns itself to lying on the grass and bleeding to death.
Unsurprisingly, the two boys don't seem to be unnerved by this. They share a look between them before speaking.
"It's him, you know," Dee says dramatically.
"The one that died-," Dum begins.
"-and then came back," finishes Dee, "He was the Queen's top executioner, so it isn't a shock."
"Nohow!"
"Contrariwise!"
"He's probably looking for you," Dum says, and the twins look at Naminé intensely. She fidgets under the gaze, but at the same time, she's undeniably confused.
"Who's looking for me? Why?" she asks hurriedly, "What are you talking about?"
"We just told you," replies Dee with an exaggerated gesture of annoyance, "But you must not have been paying attention."
"Are you going to tell me why?" Naminé says with a pout. If anyone's annoyed, she is. Their games are becoming tedious, and if someone's looking for her, she wants to know who. Why, too.
"Nope, not at all," says Dum.
"You'll have to guess!" Dee blurts out.
Naminé almost wants to stomp her feet. This is absurd. "Nobody can guess that," she protests.
"Very good," Dum applauds her, "That's why you're guessing!"
She frowns, her confusion only growing. These two know something, and she doesn't know why she wants to figure it out so badly. Maybe it has something to do with the uncomfortable lack of feeling in her chest. "Me? What do you mean?"
"A Nobody, of course!" they say together, motioning towards her.
"You're nothing!"
"Nonexistent!"
Despite her overwhelming perplexion, that hurts. She's not sure how, because she doesn't feel hurt, but she's rejecting the idea. She doesn't like it. She doesn't know how she wouldn't be able to exist, and the fact that they're even suggesting such a thing...
"You know very well you're not real!"
Naminé bites her lip, swallowing thickly. Almost before she can realize it, her shoulders are shaking, her eyes are stinging, and she's barely able to choke out, "I am real!"
Dee almost seems to smirk. "You won't make yourself a bit realler by crying!" he says in a taunting voice.
"There's nothing to cry about!" Dum says matter-of-factly.
They pause, and then Dee starts to mutter, "I hope you don't suppose those are real tears-?"
Through her muffled sobs, Naminé hears Dee cut himself off before they both suddenly let out a gasp. "It's the executioner!"
The sound of them scurrying away across the grass reaches her, but then she hears approaching footsteps behind her. Before she can turn around, a large hand descends on her shoulder, and she quiets down instantly.
"They're right," a deep, sultry voice says.
Naminé inhales sharply, moving her hands away from her face so that she can look up at this stranger. He's wearing a black coat with the hood down, revealing his stunningly beautiful features and his long, feathery pink hair. His dark, navy-blue eyes are narrowed slightly as he leers down at her.
Meekly, she scrubs at her cheeks while trying to formulate a response. "I-if I wasn't real, I shouldn't be able to cry," she says quietly, half-laughing. It's all so ridiculous.
The stranger doesn't reply, but he squeezes her shoulder gently. For some reason, the action is comforting, even though she's undeniably frightened by him. Even so, Naminé finds herself speaking again. "I mean, I know they're just making things up, talking nonsense. It's silly to cry about."
"How else would you explain what's happening?" he asks without warning.
Naminé falls silent. She's entirely unsure of what to say to that, because really, she doesn't have any other way to explain how she isn't feeling truly scared of him, or how she isn't really sad so much as distressed. And so, she says nothing.
Taking her silence for what it is, the man pulls her closer, beginning to lead her away from the clearing and into the shade of the forest. A swirling void opens in front of them, but this stranger doesn't slow his pace.
"My name is Marluxia," he offers as an introduction.
"Naminé," she answers softly, and she enters the Darkness with the executioner.