Drowning Sanity: The Waves of Madness

She was crazy, you see. Completely mad. She was out of her mind and perfectly comfortable with that. She walked between worlds of sanity, a broken link in a uniform chain. And it drew people to her, like moths to flame.

"Sane?" she asked, in genuine confusion. "Why on earth would anyone wish to be such a thing? After all, sanity is just a one trick pony, and common sense isn't much of a trick to begin with. But ah, to be mad!" Her eyes gained a lightness and sense of nostalgia to them. "Would that we all were out of our minds - such interesting things we might see and agree upon!"

Falling

Chapter One: Who am I?

"Hey - why are you crying?"

The girl looked up into a pair of emerald greens eyes, and tried to contain her sobs enough to talk.

"I don't... remember anything. I don't even know where I am..."

"Do you know your name, at least?" She focused a bit more, and realized that the eyes belonged to a boy with blonde hair, and his voice sounded concerned.

"...Alyss."

"Alyss," the boy repeated, seeming to test the name. His eyes grew soft and almost dream-like. "That's really pretty."

The girl blushed, but didn't know what to say to that, and so she kept silent, looking up at the boy from underneath her white bangs.

"You said you don't know where you are?"

Alyss shook her head, still somewhat hesitant around this blond-haired, emerald-eyed male before her. He felt familiar, and comforting, but she didn't know him - and not knowing scared her. She knew little enough as it is.

"Well, I have to admit that it doesn't look like I thought it would, however, apparently, both you and I... are in Abyss."

The girl tilted her head to the side in confusion. "...Abyss?"

"You don't know what that is?" The boy asked quietly. No scorn, no teasing, just a gentle query to confirm if she needed him to explain. Alyss relaxed a little more in his presence.

"No. I don't know what it is. Will you... tell me?"

The boy smiled, and Alyss blinked as her breath caught a bit. Whoever this boy was, he shone very brightly - she hoped he smiled often.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know much, but... well, according to legend, the Abyss was a world where only the worst criminals were banished to. It's supposed to be filled with suffering and horror, but, well... as you can see, that legend doesn't really mesh very well with everything around us, does it?" The boy smiled again, and Alyss listened to his voice, somewhat enraptured. "However," and suddenly, the boy frowned, and Alyss mirrored the expression, but for a different reason. This boy should never be anything but happy. "what I do know is that there are monsters out there that apparently like to eat people like you and me."

"Eat... us?" And suddenly, Alyss had a new fear - she didn't want to be eaten.

"...Yeah. Sounds nasty, doesn't it?" The boy's smile was grim, but at least he wasn't frowning anymore. Alyss suddenly realized that she didn't know the boy's name.

She opened her mouth to ask, but was interrupted by a screeching sound, and she clapped her hands over her ears. She didn't like it, whatever that noise was - it sounded horrific.

"Alyss! Grab my hand, quickly!" She obeyed without question, screwing her eyes up in pain as the noise grew louder and louder. It hurt and she hated it, she was so scared -

She felt warmth encircle her, and she grasped at it tightly, burying her head into it in hopes of blocking the sound out.

It began to fade, and she relaxed a bit, but the air felt different, and the warmth she was holding on to was getting heavy, and -

Everything went black.

"...is Alyss? What have you done to her?"

Alyss woke up slowly to the sound of a familiar voice, but it took a few moments to place it. That's right - it was that boy. That emerald-eyed boy. He sounded angry, but she couldn't see him.

She sat up and looked around, but began to become scared - where was she? She had never been anywhere that looked like this! Where was he? The boy, she needed him - he could help her. He could explain what was going on.

She got up unsteadily, and headed towards the sound of that familiar voice - it was coming from the other side of what looked like a very ornate door. She reached for the handle and peaked out - there!

She ran and wrapped her arms around him, her entire body shaking. She heard him grunt in surprise, saying her name worriedly, but she shook her head - she was too overwhelmed to speak. She just wanted him to hold her. He was so very warm...

As if he had heard her thoughts, she felt that warmth from before wrap around her again, and slowly, she felt her trembling settle down.

"Take some deep breaths, Alyss - it's okay. We're both alright." The combination of his soothing voice and the warmth of his arms was almost therapeutic. She had never felt this safe before, and she hoped it never ended.

"Alyss?" He called her name, and she looked up - into those green, green eyes - as he tilted his head questioningly. He smiled at her, and she automatically smiled back, feeling his body relaxing a bit. "Would you like to sit down?"

She looked over to the chairs that he gestured towards. She did want to sit down, she was getting tired, but... if they sat in those chairs, she'd have to let go of... she suddenly remembered that she didn't know this boy's name. She looked up at him, questioningly.

"Alyss?" He asked, confusion lacing his voice. So even he did not know everything. For some reason, this surprised her. She couldn't grasp why, however.

"Your... name..." she said, suddenly feeling so very embarrassed that she was hugging someone whose name she didn't even know. But he felt so very familiar, like a long lost friend who she met again after years of not seeing each other.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I never did tell you, did I?" She saw his eyes sparkle as he grinned, and she felt a warmth come to her cheeks. He really did shine so very brightly. "My name is Oz. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Alyss."

Oz. The name sent a shiver of happiness down her spine, and she clutched the boy tighter, feeling a little possessive.

"You can sit with me, if you want, Alyss - but we need to talk to these three so we can find out where we are and why we're not in Abyss anymore. Okay?" She looked up at him, then over towards where his eyes flickered, noticing for the first time that there were other people in the room. Two men and a woman. She looked back at Oz and saw his eyes were serious, so she nodded and stepped back, almost immediately missing the warmth.

He reached out and grasped her hand, before leading her towards one of the chairs, sitting down and opening his arms out to her. She smiled with delight, and nearly jumped back into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck to balance herself on his lap.

"Well, that certainly looks cozy - and look, Oz! You're precious Alyss must have heard you yelling and come to see what the matter was!" said one of the men. He had white hair that fell over one eye, but his other one was a bright, vivid red that reminded Alyss of blood. He had a strange doll on his shoulder and a smile that was large and creepy - whoever this man was, she didn't want him anywhere near her. She buried her face into Oz's shoulder and tried not to tremble.

"Break..." she heard Oz growl. She felt a tingle pass down her spine at the sound of his voice. "You're scaring Alyss. If you refuse to play nice, I'm going to hurt you."

"Ah, am I scaring her? Pity."

"Break, play nice. After all, we still haven't talked to these two yet." Alyss turned her head a bit so she could see the woman who was speaking - at least this person wasn't terrifying. She actually seemed quite nice, although oddly young when standing next to the other two in the room. Alyss turned her attention to the last man who was present.

Black hair curled around his head from beneath a black hat, and gold eyes stared out from his face in what seemed to be a perpetual glare. His coat was black with white lining, and he had two guns in holsters within easy reach. There was something about him, though, despite his rough appearance... something soft and slightly desperate...

She raised a hand and pointed at him. "Who... Who are you?"

The man started and looked at the white haired man - Break? What an oddly dissonant name - seemingly for assistance, before looking back at her. "Raven. Raven Nightray."

She tilted her head, white hair falling over her left eye as her eyebrows scrunched together. She shook her head. That name didn't sound right. Something about it clashed with the man before her in a decidedly unharmonious way. "No... no, that's not right..." she murmured.

"Alyss?" She heard Oz ask quietly. She looked back into his green eyes, her own unfocused.

"That name doesn't fit him. It clashes with... with..." she shook her head in frustration, unable to find the words to explain what she meant. "It is not his name," she finally said. "No person's real name clashes like that." She looked at Oz, hoping he knew what she meant. She caught a flicker in his emerald gaze, and smiled, knowing he understood.

"No... I don't imagine that it does..." the blonde whispered softly, staring hard at the raven-haired man for a moment. "But, if that's the name that he wishes to use, then who am I to argue?" Here, he smiled, and his eyes gained a hard glint to them. "After all... I'll find out soon enough."

Oz was in a state of confusion. The girl he had met in the Abyss was - how did one put it lightly? Well, she was surprisingly... clingy. She had barely met him, hadn't even know his name, and she had already attached herself to his hip. After she had run out of the room she had obviously been staying inside, she had practically tackled him, and didn't seem to want to let go anytime soon. Even if they were sitting down, she was reluctant to sit in her own chair.

Honestly, Oz wasn't sure what was more confusing about the situation - the fact that she was possessive of someone she barely knew, or the fact that he didn't mind it at all.

And really, there were several moments when he questioned whether they really didn't know each other - there was a sense of familiarity that he got from her, especially when she hugged him. It was like... like seeing a long lost friend that you hadn't heard from in years and being able to act like no time had passed between you at all.

Truly, it was astounding - he never grew this close to anyone so quickly... well, except for Gilbert, but then again, his manservant had been such a pathetic thing when they had first met, Oz couldn't really help himself at the time. Plus, the boy what just so much fun to torture...