My eyes slowly slide open, seeing darkness spinning around me in a misty and dense fog. H-Huh ... oh w-wha ... ? Am I dreaming? I sit up and lightly rub my head, trying to gather my senses together as I sleepily stare straight ahead. I blink, spying a man's sleek and rather beautiful face hardly inches away with a smile on his face and an eye patch over one of his eyes.
"Good evening, Miss Avery. My name is-,"
"GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!" I scream at the top of my lungs and immediately lash a jab out and hit him right between the eyes.
"GACK!" He shouts, dropping to the ground as he held his nose in clearly decent amount of pain. I scramble back on my hands and knees, feeling my chest huff and puff in frightened shock as I stare at the staggering man. W-W-W-Who the heck is that?!
"T-That's what I was trying to tell you!" He cries with tears dabbing at his eyes. The stranger reached back and pulled out a familiar looking handkerchief before holding his bleeding nose with it, sniveling and trying to come to terms with his injured nose. I-I didn't hit hard enough to break it because he was so close b-but that must have hurt. His silver hair and eye patch strikes a cord in me. He looks like Nightmare. Oh, wait, could he be Nightmare's dad? So, wait, I'm having a nightmare about Nightmare's dad while envisioning what Nightmare's dad would look like?
"No, no you've got it wrong," the man says before pulling the clean handkerchief back and revealing a perfectly formed nose. He coughs into his hand, standing up tall with a huffy frown. "My name is Nightmare Gottscotch, Miss Avery. It was through my help that you were able to come here."
"W-W-Wait, you put me here? B-But there was this weird black rabbit man thing that did that." I argue, standing up on my wobbly legs. "I-I ... I was walking my dogs ... my dogs and then this little kid smashed a truck a-and then turned to sand and then - oh my goodness this is too weird!" I whine with hands over my head as I crouch down and rest my forehead on my knees. This is too strange, too strange!
"Your strange is our normality, Avery, and vice versa. I hadn't meant to take you from your recurring dream but Ace and Sidney forced my hand. Scary, really scary people." His voice trills. I look up, finding him in the same position as I am in but with his back to me.
"A-Ace? The kid? A-A-And Sidney ... oh, the black rabbit thing." I say, as if remembering that he had told me his name once I had woken up in a forest of some sort.
"What an impolite thing to call me." A voice huffs, sounding aggravated by the insulting but what I think to be a very self explanatory nickname. I whip around, spying the man with low hanging black ears.
"Eek!" I squeak, slapping a hand over my lips as I dance back. "N-No! No more! I've been through enough weird today! S-Shoo, shoo bunny!" I hesitantly cry as I hop back behind the man who claimed to be Nightmare.
"What am I, some pest to be shooed away at your will?!" Sidney haughtily demands in a hard voice.
"N-No, no b-b-but-! No, why, w-why did you take me?!" I stammer, backing away as he approached me. Nightmare glanced over his shoulder before standing up and stepping between us as he locks eyes with Sidney.
"You've broken the rules intruding in my domain, Sidney."
"Away with you." Sidney snaps before pulling out a clock and shifts it into a gun. Waahhhhh nightmare, this is definitely, definitely a nightmare~! "And what choice had I? The foreigner scurried away before I could properly introduce myself and has hidden herself up Wonderland knows where."
"She's doing just fine, Sidney. I was going to explain the rules of Wonderland to her before you interrupted."
"That is no concern of mine," Sidney snaps, clearly getting to the end of his ropes before darting his eye over to me while keeping the gun fixated on Nightmare, "you, woman. Where are you hiding?"
"H-H-Hiding? I'm not hiding," I stammer, completely lost in this conversation, "I ... I just want to find my dogs."
"Forget those mangy mutts. They will be rid of soon enough here. Now, where-,"
"Don't call them that." I snap back at him, feeling my old temper start to flare up into anger. I've told him before not to call them that. Sidney's eyes flash, as if daring me to continue to talk back to him.
"Sidney, stop-," Nightmare starts before Sidney takes deadly aim at him.
BANG BANG BANG
"Eeeeekkkk!" I cry, watching Nightmare flail in the air and dodge the bullets before stiffening up with clear terror.
"You be silent and let me speak with her. My fuse is lit and short." He curtly growls before drawing his gun back and sliding his piercing eyes back in my direction. "It is what they are. You've been awfully rude forcing me to run all through town in search of you. Again I say, where are you hiding, foreigner?" He asks in a voice that hardly makes it a question. I look up to Nightmare, making sure he's alright before fixating my eyes on the danger that's before me. He tried to shoot an innocent bystander.
"Avery, don't-," Nightmare starts before Sidney shuts him up with a side glare.
Avery, don't antagonize him. The Prime Minister of Diamond is no one to try and overpower. Nightmare's voice rings in my head. I ignore the words in my mind and size up the shorter rabbit, trying to decide what to do first. He's so haughty and acts like he's on top of the world. Which would be fine but he's using it to intimidate others and that's simply not right.
"I'm at the Train Station right now." I say, looking him right in his mismatched eyes. That's right, come and find me bunny man thing. If you have a bone to pick with me then so be it.
But the moment you involve bystanders you will not walk away from me so easily.
"I will be by promptly to pick you up. You will be staying at Diamond Castle for the duration of your stay." He curtly says before vanishing into thin air. I blink, startled before looking around.
"H-How, what? Invisible?" I ask, walking to the spot he was just at and feel around the area. How did he disappear like that? Oh man if he can turn invisible at will then I'm in trouble.
"No vanish, but left. He interrupted me just when I was starting to look cool." Nightmare huffs.
"Left?" I ask, looking back up to Nightmare.
"Yes. normally Role Holders cannot enter the dream realm but he must have found something that temporarily overrides my blocking to seek you out." Nightmare says before heavily sighing, "what a troublesome guy."
"Role Holders?" I ask, curious about the name. "What's a Role Holder?" A smile spreads across his face as he takes my hand and kisses my knuckle. A streak of blushing red slaps across my cheeks as he looks up to me with a surprisingly endearing eye.
"Just sit back and listen and I shall explain Wonderland to you."
MURRRRRMURRRR TIME SKIP STILL CAN'T PLACE A LINE MURRRRRMURRRRR
My eyes pop open as I jolt with a start, feeling my heart stutter before resuming its natural rhythm. Light barely filter past the dark curtains in the room and practically leave me in the dark. A bed ... have I actually woken up now? I look down and spy child Nightmare cuddling up to me, fast asleep. So ... this is the same Nightmare, but just younger. I find that hard to believe and I'm dead set that this little Nightmare is the older one's kid. I mean, how is it possible to have a younger and then older version of the same man?
I jump as the curtains suddenly fly open, bathing the entire room in a near blinding light. My eyes squint as I turn partway over, spying a near black figure near the window and heading towards us. After a moment of adjusting, I recognize Gray walking up to us.
"Wake up, Master Nightmare. It is time for you to get ready for the day." Gray says with little sympathy about blinding us both in the morning light.
"Nngh ... ," Nightmare grumbles, snuggling closer and trying to hide his face from the sun's reach.
"Master Nightmare, now." Gray orders with a harsher voice.
"Give him a few minutes to wake up, Gray." I say, gently stroking Nightmare's hair to help gently wake him up rather than abruptly. He shouldn't be so rough with him because he's only a kid.
"Are you trying to interrupt my job?" Gray crossly asks.
"Your job isn't to be so rough with him." I say in a polite tone, patting the top of Nightmare's head before sitting up. I'm glad Nightmare in my dream told me his name while explaining Wonderland. So many strange rules ... I feel like over half of what he said flew over my head.
"Mnnghh ... ," Nightmare huffs, turning over in the bed and trying to savor the last few moments of sleep.
"Time to get up, Nightmare." I smile and pat his head. He smiles and nuzzled closer, sliding his eye open before sitting up.
"Hrm ... morning ... ," he sleepily mutters.
"There, see Gray? It's better to wake them up gently. While they are being obedient, anyway." I tack on, remembering a few times I had to literally flip the mattress of my brother's in order to get them up.
"Do not lecture me. Master Nightmare, wake up. It's time for breakfast."
"You made breakfast?" Nightmare curiously asks as he looks past me.
"I have." Gray says before heading towards Nightmare's desk. I slip out of the bed, deciding to leave Nightmare be and go find a place to shower. I'm sure I don't smell too pretty right now and I need to go find my dogs as soon as I can.
"There's a room on the first floor down the hall and to the left you may use." Nightmare says before his face turns green. I follow his line of sight, noticing strange lumps moving in the soup Gray is holding up for him.
Oh that poor boy.
"Thank you, Nightmare." I quickly say with a smile before leaving. Sorry, Nightmare but I need to go find my dogs. And then I can come help you. I-If you aren't knocked out by that strange soup, anyway.
"Gyaaaahhhh that's no edibleeeeee!" Nightmare cries.
RAWRRRRRRRR END OF CHAPTER STILL NO LINE DARNIT RAWRRRRRR
10 REVIEWS for the next chapter~ Awe, poor Nightmare lol getting the short end of the stick. What do you think is going to happen during the next chapter?