There was a lot of background noise. The odd men had put some sort of children's show on. It wasn't a particularly big TV and the reception wasn't too good. Her blood had also spattered across it making it hard to see. Normally she wouldn't pay it much attention, but there was nothing else to look at. It looked weird, all of those bright colors moving around in front of her. All the colors of the rainbow flitted across her field of vision. She watched each character hitting the other with hammers.
Cat was starting to fear that she was losing her mind. The pain coupled with her lack of heroine and being apart from her body for so long was making her doubt her own senses. She knew that she hadn't always been the most mentally stable person. Yet, she had never really considered the possibility that she was seeing anything other then what was real. Well, other than the scenes from Alice in Wonderland. At least she knew that those were hallucinations.
It appeared that the two men were playing some sort of poker game. With all of the noise it was difficult to tell what exactly it was. They were betting something that she didn't quite seem to be able to understand either. She saw the one called Hazel slam his cards down triumphantly. Cha-Cha scowled but picked up a baseball bat and handed it to his compatriot. Cat realized then that they had been competing to see who was going to give it a go next.
She didn't really care. A few hours ago Cat had started to feel that she had become numb to pain. Hazel pulled the baseball bat back. Rather quickly she heard a sharp snap. Well, she didn't hear it as much as feel it. There went the theory about not being able to feel anything. The pain was still as terrible as it was when they had started hours ago, not lessened at all by the course of time.
Of course she screamed when it happened. That was the natural reaction to this kind of pain. It came out rough and hoarse. The rush of air grated on the agitated tissues of her throat. Yet, she couldn't help screaming. Screaming was the only thing that she could do. From how soft it came out Cat knew that soon she wouldn't even be able to do that anymore.
"She is sooooo going to die soon," Cha-Cha said tiredly, "Let's get this over with so I can go and get some pie."
"Dude, there's something called professionalism. Now, are you sure you don't know anything else?" asked Hazel.
His question didn't quite process into her mind. All around her the world was starting to distort and fade. She saw the cartoon characters start to run together in front of her. It was like a rainbow sherbet glazed over with blood. Even if she had been withholding something she wouldn't have been able to tell it at that point.
Once again her pain started to slowly subside. Her mind was becoming fuzzy. Right now she felt like she did when she had bottled Vanya's memories sans the splitting headache. There was only the sense of unreality and haziness. It felt rather pleasant. In all truth it actually felt like someone had given her heroine. She knew that couldn't be possible though.
The only other answer was painfully clear. Cat was going to die. Well, she'd figured that out hours ago. Now she just knew that it would be happening rather soon. Yet as much as she had welcomed it she was also kind of frightened. Cat didn't feel ready to leave the world quite yet.
Her siblings would mourn her. That made her feel like crying. She would miss them. They had all always been close. All of them had grouped together out of self defense and now she found it difficult to be without them. Cat needed Alchemist as much as she needed her. Reaper, Reaper needed her in an entirely different way. And she needed him back. A kind of heaviness came over her body.
So this was how death was then. If it was then it didn't seem bad. As a matter of fact, dying seemed almost soothing.
"I asked you a question," Hazel frowned.
Once again his words didn't quite register. The colors that had started to swirl around became softer. Soon afterwards the swirls started moving into familiar shapes. The perpetual gloom of the room subsided. Light poured in and at first she squinted. When her eyes adjusted to the light she blinked.
Cat was in a rose garden. Well, rose garden wasn't the right word for it. It was more like a hedge maze where roses had been made to grow on the leafy walls. The sun shone warmly on her hair and the sky didn't have a cloud in it. A flamingo walked casually by her, chased by what looked like a Jack from a deck of cards.
Off in the distance she could hear sounds of a croquet game. Cat wasn't quite sure how she knew that was what they were playing though. A loud crack issued through the air and she heard a clink. Apparently someone had had a particularly good shot. Almost immediately after this she heard a faint cry of;
"Off with her head!"
Cat smiled as she took in the Queen of Hearts garden. If she was dead then this was heaven. All it needed was her family there. Arkady and Helene had to be around here somewhere. She always knew that Helene would love Wonderland. She turned around and tried to look for them.
As she turned around she was shocked to see Hazel's face. Yet it was becoming less scary with each passing second. His face was starting to distort and change. In no time at all it had turned into the friendly face of a portly middle-aged woman.
"'Tis so," said the Hazel, now the Duchess, "And the moral is that 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go round."
"Somebody said that it's done by everyone minding their own business," Cat frowned.
"Ah," smiled the Duchess, "Well it means much the same thing."
