I was standing in the midst of a grey, misty void. There were no real sources of light, no sounds to make out, no distinguishable objects. I stood on a flat, solid surface, which made me feel somewhat better about my surroundings. Even if I couldn't tell where I was, having the ground beneath my feet was a very reassuring feeling. I looked around, finding that I was more curious than frightened of the strange place. This was completely unlike the first dream I'd had here in Wonderland. "Where on earth am I?" I asked, my voice echoing back strangely at me in the emptiness.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, you know."

I turned slowly to find the owner of the amused-sounding voice. A man with silvery gray hair floated a few feet above my head, dressed in a black gentleman's coat. As he drew nearer I saw he wore an eyepatch over his right eye. Something about this man made me incredibly uneasy, and I didn't know what it was. What I did know, however, was that the knowing smirk on his face was doing nothing to ease my apprehensions. "But I'm not talking to myself anymore, am I?" I countered with my own small smirk. "I'm talking to you now."

The man gave a low chuckle. "True," he replied with a slight wave of his hand, "very true." He floated down a little closer to me so I didn't have to bend over backwards just to look him in the eye. I held back a shiver when I finally got a good look at him. He was incredibly thin and pale, with slight hollows in his cheeks. He looked so sickly I was surprised he hadn't keeled over in midair and plummeted to the ground. "I am Nightmare," he said with slight bow. "I am the dream incubus-I rule over all the dreams in Wonderland."

"So, I'm dreaming?" I heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Well that's just fantastic. And here I was thinking that I had died from that stupid head wound and was stuck in limbo for the rest of eternity."

Nightmare snickered behind his hand. "Quite the sarcastic one, aren't you?" he noted, his uncovered grey eye twinkling mischievously at me. "Yes, my dear, you are dreaming-sleeping peacefully as your friends stitch up your wounds." I shuddered involuntarily and his smirk widened. "Ah, not fond of needles I take it? Neither am I, my dear, neither am I." He winked at me, as if we were two naughty children sharing a secret too big to tell our parents. I wasn't sure how I felt with that kind of familiarity.

"Despise them, actually," I responded lightly, trying not to think of a needle tugging at the tender skin that had been torn apart by bullets. As if to distract me, a thought blossomed at the back of my mind and slowly crept forward. I hesitated a brief moment before looking back up at Nightmare and meeting his single eye. "You say you're the dream incubus," I mused to him. "And so, if I'm seeing you like this...I take it Alice has too." It was a lead-in to the next question I wanted to ask, depending on the answer he gave me.

Nightmare's smirk softened into a fond smile. "Yes I have," he replied. "We've had many pleasant conversations." I couldn't help wondering if the 'pleasant' part was sarcastic or not. His expression slowly turned into something resembling a sympathetic gaze. "You're wondering if I know if she's happy here in Wonderland." I nodded slowly, crossing my fingers behind my back for luck as I silently prayed that he did know. "You could always ask her yourself, you know," he chided me softly.

"Oh I do know. Trust me, I do." I took a deep breath. "But if you know anything about her at all, Nightmare, you know that she doesn't like people seeing her unhappy. Even if she wasn't happy here she would still pretend she was-for everyone's sake." I looked down at me boots and shuffled them a little bit. "I know her way too well. I can always tell when she's unhappy, but for some reason I can't tell now." I chanced a glance up at Nightmare again. "It's like she's happy one day, but the next she's unsure."

Nightmare examined me closely, his single eye seeming to pierce right through me. Suddenly he dropped closer to me and I scrambled back so we weren't so close to each other. "And you hate not being able to know, don't you?" he whispered, his warm breath brushing past my cheeks. Startled by his insight but not bothering to answer, I simply looked directly into his eyes. He held my gaze a little longer before floating back a little. "Rest easy," he finally said. "She is happy here, unwanted attentions aside. And I'm not just speaking of Peter White," he added elusively.

I narrowed my eyes at his less than forthcoming comment. "Are you saying that there's someone else harassing my friend?" I growled dangerously.

"I suppose you could say that we do that," Nightmare admitted lightly, examining his fingernails with minute care. He glanced up at me and shivered a tiny bit when he saw I had turned the full force of my interrogative glare on him-I had caught the 'we' in his last sentence, and I wanted an explanation now. "You see, my dear," he sighed, floating back just the tiniest bit so he wouldn't be in my striking distance, "everyone in Wonderland is-to some degree-in love with your dear little Alice."

"Y-y-you-y-you-you all WHAT?!" I hollered, my voice jumping up half an octave. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Everyone here was in love with my best friend? The poor girl! An image of Elliot flashed into my head and I realized he must be in love with her too. A twisting in my gut followed the thought and I roughly shoved it aside. "Is that why everyone here immediately assumes I'm her boyfriend or something instead of presuming I'm a worried relative?" I asked aloud. "Well that certainly explains a lot!"

Nightmare was chuckling amusedly, a proud look on his face. "Yes, it certainly does, doesn't it?" After his initial amusement died away, he settled back in the air, regarding me with a placid look on his face. "I hope you know," he said solemnly, "that you can't stay here. Not for long, anyway, not without something to anchor you to this world." I blinked in confusion and he hurried to explain. "It's a rule of the game-outside pieces can't assist the main player unless they are also made a game piece, even temporarily."

"I am no one's pawn, Nightmare," I growled ferociously, clenching my hands into fists. "And neither is Alice. We are not game pieces that can be manipulated, and I don't ever want to hear you describe either of us as such again."

My vehement statement amused Nightmare more than any of my other responses had. He threw back his head and laughed long and loud, much to my further irritation. But suddenly, his exuberant outburst turned into a pained fit of choked-sounding coughs. His hand flew up to his mouth and he hacked into his palm. "My apologies," he croaked, slowly lowering his hand. My blood ran cold when I caught a glimpse of something scarlet on his skin. "My body is rather weak, so I am occasionally reduced to these painful fits."

I fished into my trouser pockets out of habit, but found them to be lacking in handkerchiefs. I glanced back up to apologize but found him drawing one out of his sleeve with trembling fingers. As he wiped at his hands and mouth with it I noticed a set of monogrammed initials on one corner-A.L. "Alice gave you her kerchief," I observed quietly, nodding at the cloth.

"Indeed she did." After reassuring himself that he no longer had blood on his face or hands he slipped the kerchief back into his sleeve. He straightened his jacket in an effort to regain his composure. "Now, back on our original topic, I understand quite well that you are not the type of person to accept being a pawn in anyone's plan-you're a very independent young woman. However," he said, a sly smirk appearing on his face, "I never implied you were being manipulated-I only said you needed to become a piece to play the game."

"Now you've confused me," I groaned, rubbing my temples to try and ease an oncoming headache. "You talk of a game and pieces like someone would talk about chess. Why are you comparing us to that? And what's with this stupid rule that 'outside pieces' can't help 'current players?'" I asked. "It's not like I know the rules to this supposed game anyway, so I can't really help Alice cheat or something."

Nightmare chuckled softly. "I do not make the rules-I simply tell people to play by them." I noted uncomfortably that he didn't say that he played by them himself. "You, my dear, are a very special piece," he murmured. "You play by different rules. Not only here, but in your home world as well. You break normal rules so you can use your own. An Outsider in both worlds."

I winced a little-his last remark kind of stung.

"You will need an anchor," Nightmare continued. "Something to tie you to this world. Something like-" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crystal vial. "-a potion perhaps. But not one like Alice's-yours will only be a temporary fix. Unlike your dear friend, you will need to drink the potion every day in order to stay here." He tossed it to me and I snatched it out of the air, turning it over in my hands suspiciously. "Missing a day will make you mildly nauseated, but go any longer the consequences may be more...serious."

"I'm not sure if that was a warning or a threat," I muttered warily. Nightmare rolled his eyes but didn't reply. Instead, he gestured for me to drink from the vial. I slowly uncapped the vial, taking a quick whiff of the liquid. It had a strange, fruity smell with an underlying hint of what I thought was vanilla. Well, down the hatch I guess. I downed the vial like it was a shot, wiping my lips with the back of my hand when I was finished. Strangely enough, it tasted very strongly of vanilla with only a hint of the fruit I had previously smelled. Wonderland food is really weird...

A cat-like grin slowly spread across Nightmare's face. I shivered slightly as a chill shot from the base of my skull down to the tips of my toes. "Excellent," he murmured, obviously pleased. "You may now begin playing the game." I really didn't like the way that sounded. "I think it is time for you to wake up now-you've been asleep long enough." As I opened my mouth to thank him, he suddenly cut across me. "Before I forget though, I have one last thing to tell you." His smile seemed to get creepier, if that was possible. "Your brother is alive."

I stumbled backwards, feeling as if a ton of bricks had landed on my chest. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't speak, I couldn't think straight. "H-h-how-?" I choked. "How do you know about my brother?!" Nightmare said nothing, starting to disappear from sight. "What do you know about Donovan?! Answer me! NIGHTMARE!" I lunged in his direction and swiped at his coat, but my hand passed through thin air-he had vanished. I fought to stay asleep so I could stay in my rapidly fading dream. I screeched his name again, but by then it was useless.

I started to wake up.

I slowly opened my eyes, blinking up at the person who'd been shaking me so violently just moments ago until their face came into focus. "Oh good, you're awake!" Alice's worried expression dissolved into one of relief. She sat down hard next to me on the bed I was lying on and I realized that we were back in our room at Blood's mansion. "You had me worried there for a little bit," Alice murmured. "One minute you were still and quiet, and the next thing I know you're thrashing and yelling about-er, a-about Don..." She leaned over and put a cool hand on my clammy forehead. "Were you dreaming about him?" she asked tentatively.

"Not really." I sat up, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. Someone had taken the pins out of my hair and now it was falling in my face. "I was talking with Nightmare." My chest tightened as I remembered the last thing the dream demon had told me. "It wasn't until the tail end of the dream that...that he mentioned Don." Alice gasped quietly, covering her mouth with her hands. I swallowed hard to try and dislodge the lump in my throat. "Alice..." A single tear slipped down my cheek. "Alice, Nightmare told me that Don was alive."

"H-he's alive?" Alice was just as shocked as I was. Her big blue eyes were wide and slowly starting to get a little wet. A relieved smile slowly crept on her face as she lowered her hands from her face. "Ron, that's wonderful! Where is he? Did Nightmare tell you anything else about him?"

I shook my head slowly, still displeased with the way he'd chosen to give me that information. If Nightmare hadn't been such a drama queen and used his revelation as a parting shot, I just might have been able to get it out of him. "He disappeared after he told me that," I explained. "I might as well just start at the beginning and explain everything from there."