ALiCE in WoNDeRLaND

-43-

"Miyka'el?"

He was standing over some one, but it was too dark to tell whom it was. It seemed... no, it couldn't be, I told myself. Was Miyka'el's hair bleached blond?

I tried to get closer to investigate, but slipped and fell in what I quickly realized was blood. As I studied the bloody redness on my hands, my vision came back to me in full force. Reality became fuzzy and muffled as the voices in my vision became clear to me, desperately trying to impart what they had been unsuccessfully trying to tell me all along. The voices... they all sounded like Adèle. She was whispering, mockingly, at me.

"Blond. Red."

"What?" I murmured back.

"Yellow's for betrayal. Red is for anger."

She wasn't making any sense. "I don't understand."

"You will be betrayed by a blond one, and you will be saved by a redhead."

"Miyka'el and Zale?" I shook my head. "What happened to Miyka'el? What did you do to him?"

"You will be betrayed..."

"I know! But why?"

No answer.

The images kept coming, clearer now, but dark and just as unreadable as before.

This was wasting my time. I tried to shake my head, to rid myself of the nightmare.

I closed my eyes, and opening them, found myself still on the floor, staring at a definitely blond-haired Miyka'el. I slowly rose to my feet as he approached me.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I was having trouble standing, in all the blood. "I killed a Jabberwock. What have you done?" I snapped.

He stared down at me, then gripped my arms and pulled me up and away from the blood. "You killed the Jabberwocky?"

"No thanks to you."

He was still holding onto my arms.

"What happened with Adèle?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"You're blond."

Miyka'el paused. I guess he hadn't been aware of this. "I am?"

I nodded.

He stared off for a moment, before looking back at me with an odd look in his eyes. "Have you seen the others?"

"Have you seen Zale and Nam?"

"What are you saying?" He didn't seem to like my accusatory tone.

"Whose blood is that on the floor?"

"It was there when I got here."

"Why should I believe that?"

He had no response.

The figure on the floor groaned. It was Nam.

We both looked toward him. I pulled myself free and went to him.

"ALiCE, wait..." Miyka'el began, coming after me.

I slid to a kneeling position next to Nam. "Are you okay?"

He looked up at me. "Where's Miyka'el?"

"Right behind me."

"Get out."

"What?"

"Get out of here," Nam whispered.

Miyka'el had stopped a short distance away, waiting to see what we'd do next.

I stood, looked from one blond to another, unsure of who to trust. What was going on?