Everything was darkness. It was all around me, and I couldn't escape it. Why would I? There was nowhere for me to go. And I wished with all my heart there was.
Memories floated towards me, but floated away before I could grasp them. They were only indistinct senses, a sight, a sound, a smell.
The memory that was most regular was just screaming. Several voices, all raised together in a perfect chorus of terror. There was a roaring in the background which I couldn't identify, but I knew what this memory was. The day I died. Or had I died? I suppose I had. What was this darkness, if not death? What else could this darkness be, the darkness that was my prison?
That particular memory floated away, and suddenly I was in my father's study. It was crystal clear memory, I had been leaning over my fathers shoulder to watch him capture images onto the canvas, pointing the various things as he did. My father. The Hightopp gifted with visions of the future. The one who had prophesied the Frabjous Day."You see," his voice came. "There will be four bearers of the Vorpal Blade." The four figures on the canvas had all been carrying the same sword, and I had looked at each individually. "The first-" A orange haired figure, wearing a high top hat, holding the blade casually at his side. "The second-" A dark haired girl, holding the blade over her head, like she was an executioner. "The third-" A pretty blonde girl in armor, a look of grim determination on her face.. "And the fourth has yet to be decided." My fathers voice had become mournful, as if he knew that he would be dead before his prophecies would be completed.
Then the darkness pulled me away from the memory, and once again, there was just indistinct shapes. Snow... A sword... A hat... A big headed woman...
A sudden stabbing pain appeared in my chest, and I twisted in the darkness, struggling to get away. The pain gradually receded- and I opened my eyes.
All around me was destruction. Trampled tents and chairs knocked askew. Ash and the rotting remains of bodies. A few metres away was the long body of the Jabberwocky, perfectly preserved. Hesitantly I got to my feet, and began to walk towards the corpse. I paused here and there to pick up something from my past, and I avoided the bodies of my parents carefully. Finally, I reached the head of the monster, which had separated from the body, and just beside the head was a purple hat. My brother's hat. I picked it up, and brushed off the dirt, before settling it on my head and setting off into the woods. I had to find my brother. If he was alive.