A / N . . .
Aaaas usual, - - - - - - - denotes flashbacking. Text that is in italics inside the [- - - - - - -] is a flashback.
--- denotes a scene change. The focus of the story is shifting to another character(s) in a different location.
----
---- denotes time skipping. The scene may or may not change as well.
I have chosen to use "yes" instead of Suiseiseki's "desu,"
"maybe" instead of Kanaria's "kashira"
and "because" instead of Hinaichigo's "nano"
I have done this because I want the story to flow in English. For this reason as well, it's "Father," not "otou-sama," etc. etc.
Yeah, you get the drift.
- - - - - - -
Golden eyes sullenly stared at the beautiful red hair in her Father's hands. No. No. NO. Father should only look at her beautiful blue hair, should only lovingly stroke her lovely sky colored tresses. Not the hateful maroon that ran across his worktable like horrid, usurping blood colored snakes. No. No. NO.
Give me back my Father!! Give him back! Don't take him from me, no!! Don't, please, don't!!
----
----
She had a sister. Father looked at her again, his loving gaze directed only at her, he realized that she needed his love still, and he gave it to her. In return, she gave her maroon-haired sister that same love, having seemingly forgotten the earlier sullen hate that she had harbored for that beautiful hair.
"I'll never replace you. You are my most wonderful Alices."
----
----
So where had she gone wrong? Why wasn't Father looking at her any longer? Instead he was hunched over countless sketches, hanging his head in despair and his blonde hair falling out of its ponytail. Finally, he seemed at peace, and only then would he pay her attention. Yet his love seemed strange.
And one day, while the man who was now known as "Rozen" was out in the city, she saw the sketches. The sketch was of a doll with a harsh beauty, with straight silver hair and piercing pinkish-red eyes, a long and intricate dress drawn onto the paper. Her golden eyes widened with rage, and with tears standing in her eyes, she lunged for the paper, grabbing the nearest object on the table and fiercely scratching at the careful sketch.
"What are you doing?!" The voice of her Father cut through her madness, and the blue haired girl quivered, her beautiful golden eyes shaking and the white eraser still clutched in her hand. She looked up at Father, and she smiled, white teeth showing from beneath her pale lips.
"F, Father, I..." She giggled quietly, before dropping the eraser and quickly walking over to hug his legs. "Father, I love you so very much. You love me too, right?" She tilted back her head to smile wide-eyed and innocently up at him, the look of rage on his face not registering on her unhinged mind. "You weren't going to replace me, were you? It was all that drawing's fault, right? Right? So I took her away. I took it away. It was coming between the two of us, right?" She smiled contentedly, hugging his legs even tighter. Her golden eyes closed and her face was at peace, while Rozen's face was adorned with anger and resent. He looked at the sketch, the sketch that he had slaved over for so very long, seeing that the stomach had been completely erased by his doll's raging insanity.
- - - - - - -
What was she doing down here? No, really, what was she doing down here? One small hand reached out to touch the glassy surface of the mirror, and her green and red eyes were reflected back at her. Suiseiseki stared into the mirror, as if she thought that Souseiseki would appear behind her if she stared long enough.
A lock of blue hair slithered across the reflective glass, and Suiseiseki spun around to see if there was anyone behind her. Nobody. Turning back to face the mirror, the blue hair was still snaking its way across the mirror, reminiscent of Kirakishou's pink hair. Suiseiseki watched the slow creeping of blue tendrils, entranced with some emotion she could not place. Déjà vu? No, that wasn't it. Horror? Almost. Fear? Not quite....just what emotions were pulsing through her body as a pale face began to cross onto the mirror.
Wide, golden eyes, and Suiseiseki would have thought that she was staring Kirakishou's insane smile in the face were it not for the blue hair and the presence of both eyes. Yet it still inspired the same bone-chilling horror as if she was staring into the eyes of insanity itself. A wide, closed-mouth smile. Suiseiseki stared into the golden eyes, unable to look away.
She blinked once, unwillingly, and when she opened her eyes, the blue hair was almost gone from the mirror. Once the last tip of hair had disappeared from the surface, as if the spell had been broken, Suiseiseki's knees turned to figurative jelly and she fell to the ground, heterochromatic eyes wide with that same, unknown emotion.
She could not move.
---
Kanaria stared dully into the mirror as Micchan bustled around, arranging flowers and accessories and ribbons just so onto Kanaria's outfit, occasionally stopping to exclaim "THAT IS SO CU~TE!!" or other exclamations to that effect.
Was it just her imagination, or was she seeing maroon waves of hair creeping up the side of the mirror? Perhaps it was a lack of sleep? Kanaria rubbed her eyes, still staring at the mirror as more hair slowly encroached onto the mirror's surface. Micchan continued to add accessories to Kanaria, taking no notice whatsoever to the maroon hair that seemed ready leap out and strangle Kanaria at any moment.
Kanaria was frozen, staring at the hair as it continued to stain the glass maroon with hair, and a face began to appear in the very corner. Kanaria stared at the face, sweat breaking out, willing it to appear so that she could know the face of her enemy.
The hair slowly began to recede, the face disappearing off of the edge. The mirror slowly reverted to its normal state, and Micchan had not noticed a single thing. Perhaps...perhaps because Micchan, her Medium, was there, the whatever-it-was was afraid to show its face?
Micchan scurried out of the room to find something, some ribbon or hat or other accessory, and in a flash, there were fingers on Kanaria's shoulder, pale, small doll-sized fingers lightly brushing against her shoulder. Chills ran up and down the doll's spine, and she slowly turned her head. But the doll was only in the mirror, it wasn't a tangible horror, was it?
A pale face loomed over her shoulder, vivid purple eyes soft and enticing, pale lips parted in a tantalizing whisper. Maroon hair flowed freely through the mirror.
"Father, Father," she whispered into Kanaria's ear, "Alice, Alice."
"...Father, please, g---" Kanaria's green eyes widened with absolute horror and she clawed at the air on her shoulder where the doll's face should have been. Her hands cut through the air, but no doll. Mouth wide with terror, Kanaria turned towards the mirror, where the doll seemed to be smirking. The green-haired doll bit her lip and seemed about ready to lunge at the mirror itself.
"Kaaa~naaa~!" Micchan swept back into the room, and in an instant, the doll was gone from the mirror, leaving Kanaria still frozen in her ready-to-lunge. "Kaaa~na-....Kana?" Micchan's voice turned curious and she lightly touched Kanaria's shoulder.
"Don't touch me!!" screamed Kanaria, shaking her head wildly. Micchan recoiled in shock, her brown eyes wide.
"Kana?"
"M....Micchan...." Kanaria panted, realizing who she had just screamed at. "M, Micchan...I...maybe...."
"I, I'm sorry, Kana," Micchan apologized, her face flustered. She ran one hand through her ponytail, obviously shaken by Kanaria's outburst.
"N, no, Micchan, don't apologize!" Kanaria exclaimed, turning around to look Micchan in the eye. "I, it's not Micchan's fault, maybe," she added, averting her eyes.
----
She was terrified.
----
As time went on, the terror receded and it became perverse fascination with the dolls appearing in the mirror. The whispers were no longer terrifying, instead, they tantalized Suiseiseki and Kanaria. As they drifted away from those around them, Shinku, Jun, and Micchan, Kanaria and Suiseiseki found that nobody else could see or understand what they saw.
Perhaps they were insane? But in insanity, they would at least have each other.
----
----
"What is it that you want, yes?" Suiseiseki whispered to the mirror, hands lightly pressed against the glass. "Are you searching for your Father, yes? And...do you want to become Alice, yes? Please, answer my questions, yes?"
But the mirror would remain silent, save for the whispers of "Alice," "Father," and "Father, please, g---," the ending of that sentence never ended.
---
"What is it that you want from your Father, I wonder, maybe," Kanaria pondered, staring at the brilliant purple eyes in the mirror. "Won't you please tell me, maybe?"
----
----
The others were worrying about them. Shinku had tried to see what they meant, but while Suiseiseki stared, entranced, at the pale blue hair in the mirror, Shinku had simply seen the blonde pigtails of herself and the brown curls of Suiseiseki. And while Kanaria had gazed longingly into the purple eyes in the mirror, the only eyes Shinku had seen were the green and blue eyes of Kanaria and herself reflected back at her.
Jun was worried as well, and he was much more irritable, spending more and more time in his room, muttering to himself. He lost all regard for his surroundings, simply eating the food that Nori brought to him, and moving for hardly anything else. His eyes were constantly on the computer, and the air in his room became stagnant.
Micchan was affected as well. She began to find excuses to work longer hours at work, and her exclamations of Kanaria's cuteness seemed weaker and less frequent. She sighed a lot more, and seemed much more stressed, although that could have been the extra hours she was putting in.
But on the "bright" side, Suiseiseki and Kanaria seemed to have gotten over their melancholy of missing Souseiseki and Hinaichigo.
...but then again, was that a "good" thing or a "bad" thing?
There, Chapter II's done. _;;
If I've made any mistakes, which I'm sure there are a few seeing as I speed-wrote this, please let me know~ 3
Reviews are always welcome, too!