Chapter 3: False Things

Ariella was spat out of the teleportation portal and landed right on her face. She tried to control a groan that rose in her throat; that was the second time in the last five minutes she had been thrown to the ground and she was starting to get sick of it. Although she couldn't forget the agonized expression on Jack's face before she left. Ariella thought about it as she stood up.

"Did you have fun?" a female voice asked Ariella.

Ariella spun around. Of course they would be here. Two figures cloaked in pristine white robes stood before Ariella. Both wore white masquerade masks that hid their faces and curved sharply into points at the tips. The woman had a bundle of white feathers on one side of her mask and Ariella thought she must have assumed they looked good. The feathers crumpled under her hood and made her look like a goose.

Their hoods were pulled low over their heads and cast shadows over their faces but Ariella could feel their piercing gaze on her. They were always there, waiting, watching. They didn't trust her one bit, and Ariella thought bitterly, the feeling was mutual. Although, if anything was going to work as it should, she had to be at least cordial with all the white-robed freaks. Ariella narrowed her eyes out of habit but forced a pleasant smile on her face.

"Dietri. Warrigan. How lovely to see you again," Ariella said in what she hoped was a cordial-enough tone.

Warrigan had the audacity to laugh. "Are you enjoying your little dance?" his mouth twisted into a sickening grin as he taunted her.

This was common, seeing as how she had been the one to volunteer for the position that no one wanted. Suspicious, they all thought. Strange.

"I was making progress," Ariella said, not caring enough to bother with the details.

"You've been summoned," a third voice stated.

Ariella looked at the woman standing high above them on a floating bedside table as if it were some sort of pedestal. She wore a long black dress that made her look like some sort of human spider with all the black tendrils dripping down her form and over the little table like a toxic waterfall. Mattrich always was one for theatrics. And arrogance. But Ariella supposed that was a thing that made up all of them, especially the Magjistare, the leader of the Ciasstolas.

Mattrich gracefully stepped off her pedestal—literally, never metaphorically—and walked over and placed and arm around Ariella's shoulder. "Come, Elizabeth, I will show you what our next move shall be." Her tone was dripping with sadistic excitement and Ariella found it absolutely dreadful.

Mattrich led Ariella over to the wooden gazebo, the ivy covered headquarters of the Ciasstolas. A small headquarters, yes, but there weren't that many of them to begin with. Ariella figured Mattrich could have recruited more, with the popularity of what they were doing.

Revenge always was such a tempting treat, Ariella mused.

The gazebo was filled with a gathering of masked figures with eerie smiles, all wearing the same hooded robes so that Ariella couldn't tell the difference between them. As Ariella and Mattrich drew nearer, the figures silently moved to the side and gave the girls a wide berth to pass through. They didn't speak, only stared blankly at Ariella and Mattrich as they passed. What looked like a stone well sat in the center of them, with a silver dish filled with water and smooth stones balanced on top. The looking glass, as the others called it.

Mattrich waved her hand over the surface of the looking glass and Ariella almost fell forward into it when Mattrich harshly slapped her on the back. She pushed on her back and made her look in the water, forced to watch it swirl with color until it finally settled on the scene that Mattrich had conjured. Ariella gasped, horrified.

"You can't do that!" she cried. When she joined them, this was not how she had wanted it to be.

Mattrich, and many of the others, smiled evilly.

"Oh, oh yes we can," Mattrich said, looking down at the water with fascination.


Jack, cursing with every painful step. He was right, that tunnel had certainly left a whole lot of blisters on his feet and the bottoms of his boots were almost completely gone. He sucked in a breath, feeling the sharp pain shoot through him each time he placed his foot down. It didn't help that he was walking none too gently, just stumbling on through the emptiness and wishing that blasted child would show up already.

Fate was never so kind to him.

There was nothing in sight, only the endless wavy landscape for miles. The chains had since dispersed, and now there was not a single one in sight. There wasn't even any floating furniture in the atmosphere, which only aggravated Jack even more. He had always found the randomness of it so entirely pointless, but now all he wanted to do was rest. Figures; that would happen the one time he needed the Abyss to cooperate with him. Jack needed to find Ariella in order to find Lacie because—he was reluctant to admit—he had absolutely no idea where he was going. He didn't know where Lacie was, and the Abyss was so expansive that Jack could wander around for a hundred years and never find her. Not to mention she could be in any number of secret dimensions with hidden entrances. Lacie could be hidden away and trapped in the nothingness of the Abyss and Jack would never know. Ariella had said that she was located somewhere secure, although Jack had no idea what that meant. He didn't even know if Ariella was alive or not; he hoped she hadn't gotten eaten by a chain. Even if she had survived, he had lost her in the swarm and had no idea where she was now. He didn't even know where he was. That portal had dumped him in some unknown part of the Abyss and he had no clue if he was any closer to finding Lacie.

And his feet hurt. The acid had burned through the soles of his boots, although mercifully left the heels intact. But the adrenaline of the chase had worn off and sharp pain shot through Jacks nerves every time he took a step. He was exhausted and angry as he limped around, and all he wanted was to find Ariella quickly and get on with their search. Of course, that still meant he had to walk, but at least he would have some direction as to where he was going and all the pain in his feet would at least be worthwhile.

"Ariella!" Jack screamed with growing frustration. He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides, and ground his teeth together.

"Ariella!" he snapped. "Ariella can you hear me! Answer me! Ariella!" he screamed at the sky.

"Dammit!" he cursed, and kicked the ground. The watery substance sprayed up around him and his foot scraped something sharp that had been lying underneath the surface. That, combined with the acid burns, had Jack doubled over and hissing in pain.

An eerily smiling doll with glass eyes lie underneath the waves, staring back up at him. That must've been what he had kicked. Could've just been his imagination, but it looked like it was laughing at him. Jack reached down into the water and plucked the doll up, holding it by the neck and squeezing a little too tightly. The head bulged with stuffing as Jack strangled it. He ripped its head off and threw it as far as he could, then screamed again into the sky.

He bent down and rested his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He tried to get his anger under control but was struck again by the feeling of "so what?" and just stood up and continued walking.


It had been hours since he had last seen Ariella. At least, it seemed like hours. He couldn't really be sure; he could never gauge how much time had passed in the Abyss. Time here was a flowing as the watery floor he walked upon.

Jack was panting from the effort of just keeping himself upright, and the wild colors of the Abyss started blurring together. He didn't know whether it was actually happening or if his mind was playing tricks on him.

That's when he heard the laughter.

Jack whipped his head around to see who was there—maybe Ariella had found his way back to him—but he saw only the bleary landscape of the Abyss. Not a body in sight.

He shrugged it off as another symptom of his exhaustion and kept walking, although he was a little more on edge and kept looking over his shoulder.

He heard it again.

It was an odd and faraway laughter, yet it sounded as if it were right next to him at the same time. It was haunting and familiar; the giggle of a little girl causing mischief, the playful laughter of a girl Jack used to know in a past life.

A girl that was dead now because of him.

Jack hadn't realized he had been clenching his fists until that last thought snapped him back to reality. He also noticed the laughter had continued to drift in and out, fading away and then reappearing from some other angle. He couldn't see where—or who—it was coming from, which made him more than a little nervous. He spun around and looked at the sky of the Abyss, then at the direction of where the laughter last came from, but every time he tried to catch where the laughter was coming from, it changed. It echoed all around the overwhelmingly large space of the Abyss and seemed to swallow him in its sound. Jack spun in all different directions, turning left to right, looking up and behind him, and his braid swung wildly around him.

"Ariella?" Jack said cautiously, breathlessly.

He hoped it was just Ariella playing a prank; another one of her childish antics. Even though Jack was in no mood for games, that was a far more savory option than the other thought that plagued his mind.

The laughter was suddenly very loud behind him. Jack whirled around.

And there she was.

He didn't know how many times he had wished to see her again, so he could apologize to her, tell her he didn't mean for it to happen. Jack wanted to tell her that he had never wanted her to die—

Lies.

She would have died in the tragedy of Sablier anyway.

She died because of him.

And now she was there, standing in front of him, her back to him. In all her former glory, Jack could see, with her long chocolate hair flowing down her back and wearing the elaborately poufy dresses she loved. Jack had always complimented her on those when he would visit, telling her how stunning she looked. She would always smile so brightly when he complimented her, and even just from seeing him visit. Jack felt his heart physically ache.

She had been so young, so full of life. She was Lacie's daughter and Jack had killed her. She had been Lacie's own flesh and blood and he had heartlessly, carelessly stood there as she plunged those scissors into her jugular and bled to death on the cold marble floors.

"Alice?" Jack asked meekly.

He half-hoped she wouldn't hear him. At the same time, he hoped she would. He needed to tell her he was sorry. He knew that wouldn't make up for it, but he needed her to know that he didn't hate her. He had always been a little annoyed with her, but he had only wanted to use her to complete his plan. Terrible, yes, but he was just a manipulative bastard that wanted to achieve his own selfish goals; he didn't want her dead.

Apologizing to her would not make up for what he did and had tried to do. Would it absolve him of his guilt? Probably not, but he certainly hoped so. If nothing else, he wanted to at least let her know. She deserved that much. And she was right there; this was his chance.

So why was he so terrified?

Alice stopped giggling and made a hm sound.

Jack was stunned by the silence that followed. It rang deafeningly loud in his ears and he knew he had to say something, he just didn't know what.

What does one say to a person they've killed?

Jack noticed he was wringing his hands and shoved them into the pockets of his coat.

"Alice…I'm sorry."

Alice giggled again, though the sound was oddly lopsided.

"Oh Jack," she cooed, "Being dead isn't so bad."

She twisted her neck around to look at Jack and he gasped. Her face was gaunt and bony, her cheekbones stuck out like knives and her grayish-white skin was pulled taut. Her full lips were blood red and stuck out against the oldness of her skin. Most unsettling were her eyes. They had no iris, no pupil, no white. Just solid black, as if her pupils had been ink blots and they swallowed her eyes in the darkness. It was so unbelievably terrifying. She smiled from ear to ear and just about ripped her paper-thin skin.

"You should try it," she whispered.

Jack turned and ran.