Disclaimer: I do not own Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or D. Gray-Man. Those belong to Lewis Carroll and Hoshino Katsura, respectively.
Day 2
She doesn't understand. The townspeople won't look at her when possible. They avoid her when they can. Sometimes, Lenalee thinks, they don't even notice she is there.
She tries to ask them if they know who the little girl is. They ask, "who?" and she tells them of the little blonde girl in a blue dress, and a strange look passes over their faces, as if they were just told that the sun is blue and the grass is red and that their parents have been brutally murdered. They quickly shake it off and laugh, telling her that they've neither seen nor heard of a child like that.
She asks them about the hill. They look confused and say the land is flat for miles around here.
Lenalee walks around the outskirts of the small town. No, she refuses to believe it. She wanders around and checks every side of the town, speaking to people as she meets them.
Eventually, she has to accept it. There is not a single hill in sight. It has vanished, just like that.
She calls Komui to tell him she may have found something. Innocence always does cause peculiar events. Whatever is happening in this place surely counts as an odd phenomenon. Komui doesn't answer. Something's wrong. Komui always answers. He's suppose to be babbling and crying and begging for her to come home. But now, there's silence. She checks the phone and her golem. They seem to be working fine.
"Hello?" she ventures.
"Lena-" and then silence. The lights of the gas lamps outside flicker. She wonders if this town can contact the outside world. Who knows what this (maybe) Innocence can do?
It's late. She should take a break from investigating for the day. There's an inn across the street. She crosses the street and she's struck by how suddenly cold it is outside. It seeps through her skin and cuts right into her bones. She hurries into the establishment and breathes a sigh of relief when the warmth hits her.
She quickly gets a room, and as she's about to go leave the main room to get to a bed, she decides to ask the owner about the girl and the hill. She turns toward him, and she's about to ask, but he speaks before she does.
"I've heard from others that there's been a traveler asking questions about Alice. Please, don't mention her. We don't understand it either, and it's best if we just forget."
The man's words strike something in her.
"You people let this girl wander around monsters and you just try to forget?" She can feel anger start to boil in her chest. This is wrong. Very wrong.
"Her mother tried to take her home once."
The anger freezes. The man looks weary. His shoulders droop. He bows his head.
"We didn't even have a body to bury."
There's something tightening in Lenalee's chest, constricting her lungs and heart and soul. She's heard this same story so many times before, but it never fails to make her heart ache.
The man sighs.
"Goodnight, Miss."
She hears the clock chime midnight, and she thinks she see a little girl with clouded eyes and an irritated expression outside the window.
Lenalee finds that she can't sleep.
