Chapter 1-Sweet Dreams

1 Year Later…

The night was dark and stirring with a storm in its embrace. The lighting flashing and illuminating the darkness that settles in the corners, the constant booming of thunder enticing a rhythm that can be turned to a song with drums. Rain falls from above and drowns the world in its wake. The people below taking shelter within the buildings and looks out from the window, watching the dark weather stir more in a black cauldron of nature. Though, not all seemed to notice it in the asylum at this time, too pre-occupied with tending to the mentally unstable or the patients themselves lost in a world of their own mind.

One patient in particular lied on his bed, bound tightly down with a blanket was thrown over the lithe, thin form. Fresh new bandages stained a rosy red around the wrists from where the tainted innocence is spilt from the flesh; another attempt at death.

There are many a rumors that circle around this child.

The whispers that centered on the mad child, the insane child, the poor child; talking with a hint of pity in their voices, or weariness when stories around the child are brought up, of violent tendencies when feeling upset or threatened to suddenly burst forth or the random mutter of words behind one's back, becoming silent when they turn around to face him. And the never ending nightmares that come almost ever night, his screams and shrieks catching everyone off guard and frightening many them for at first, it sounded as though it were a banshee making those sounds instead of a traumatized, brooding boy. But what garnered the most attention on the boy are his eyes. Those blue eyes that sent chills down the spine; gleaming with cracked sanity and madness within the depths; reflecting the state of mind the poor soul is trapped in. There is only a time of sincere affection, when a smile appears on the broken child's face, in the arrival of his guardian and friends come visit the house of the insane. And even then, it was hardly seen.

There have been many suicidal attempts with the patient during his first stay here at St. Mary's Home. Filled with guilt and grief over the death of his family in the fire and how only he was the one to only make it out alive. Always placing the blame on himself and no one else, thinking that there could've been something that would've saved their lives. Something that would've spared his poor mind from the insanity it has been subjected to. But there wasn't anything he could've actually done, for he was asleep at the time the fire started and barely made it out alive in the night with a scarred, burnt body and a broken mind.

After being hospitalized, the boy was sent to live with his Uncle Vlad Masters, a friend of the family. The man had tried everything in his power to make the boy comfortable and help ease his mind from the fire that took the lives of family haunts him so, from hiring many psychologists to reading books based on the human mind. Though the efforts were vast and widely spread, they were in vain however. When the boy slashed his wrists in the bathroom, upon which his Uncle stumbled on him in a pool of blood, the man had no choice but to send him to an asylum, no matter how much it pains his heart. Especially when it seems the boy was finally recovering only to have a relapse of some sort.

And so there he stays in an asylum, on his bed with fresh new bandages around his wrists stained with blood from his latest attempt at his life. A nurse unwrapping his binds, seeing the patient docile enough to not try and slash them again, having removed all objects from the room that would aide in hitting a vein through the skin. With a sigh, the nurse looked down at the boy in a pitying way, getting up and grabs a stuffed toy rabbit from a table nearby, having found it in an old room at the asylum.

To herself, she speaks out loud to air to no one in particular, deeming the patient of inaudible skill and sensibility to really respond or react to the nurse's musings.

"Poor thing….after all this time since he lost his family to that horrible fire…"

The nurse sighed as she held the stuffed rabbit in her hands gingerly before stepping over to the teen boy's bed. His eyes staring off into space and gave no indication whatsoever that he noticed her there. The nursed eyes his wrists once more, wondering how he managed to get that knife from the orderlies before shaking her head at the memory.

The nurse placed the rabbit in the boy's arms.

"Maybe that old rabbit will help a bit."

Without a glance behind her, the nurse closed the door to the patient's room as she stepped out, leaving the boy to stare off into the darkness, the lighting providing the only illumination within the shadows of the room.

There was a long pause of silence.

And then, the arm brought the rabbit close to the rise and fall of the chest. Heart beating steadily within the caged darkness as a sigh broke the air of silence.

For a moment nothing happened…

And then, the rabbit turned to him and said in a grave voice.

"Save us Danny!"

A gasp and then a scream filled the room.

Then silence…

"Sweet dreams are made of this

Who am I to disagree?

Travel the world

And seven seas

Everybody's looking for something"

He can still remember the look on Vlad's face when seeing him in the bathroom, the shattered glass strewn all over the stained floor as he held a shard tightly in his grasp. Blood pooling below in rivers from his slashed wrists and the shard digging into his hand, the horrid smell of it filling his nostrils and making him dizzy-or maybe that was from blood loss? He didn't really care. He crossed the point of beyond caring. Now he just wanted to bleed.

Then, the wooziness and weak, weariness of his body takes it toll and he falls over from the counter. The thought of hitting the upcoming floor flashes briefly in his thoughts before being caught in strong, secure arms. A voice asking in horror struck despair in his ear as he falls limp in them.

"Daniel….why?"

What a silly question to ask. It was so silly, it wasn't even funny.

"You know why…" was all that was replied before darkness took over the vision. The sounds of shouting and screaming filling the mind while memories of the fire and the screams of his family echoed, reminding him once again of that horrid night.

"Some of them want to use you

Some of them want to get used by you

Some of them want to abuse you

Some of them want to be abused"

Then he remembered Dr. Hartman. Not the first psychiatrist the boy met but certainly the first person he came to know when coming to Rutledge. He was the only psychiatrist to ever have the boy open up, even just a little, and talk about his experience over the fire.

"Something…is broken…"

"What is, Danny? What's broken?"

"I am…!"

There was only one incident that caused Danny to react violently towards him and that was when Dr. Hartman brought a candle to his room, due to a blackout from the storm. The teen froze when catching sight of the flames then began to scream. He dove out from his bed at the doctor and wrestled him on the floor, reaching out for the candle. A howl of panic and fear rumbled from the boy's chest as he burned his hands a little but managed to smother the flames and wretched the candle free form the doctor's grasp.

Danny immediately scurried over to a corner and sat there in a fetal position, rocking back and forth while muttering nonsense under his breath. The boy did not have a fondness for fire at all. In fact, he loathed the very sight of it.

Dr. Hartman inquired his Uncle if Danny reacted negatively to fire before and the man confirmed. Reciting several times Danny went hysterical whenever spotting any sort of flame.

But even after that incident, Danny began to talk more. About how he sometimes saw things out of the corner of his eye and how one time, he saw a woman in his reflection. When inquired of who is this woman, the boy merely said he saw her picture somewhere but doesn't quite remember where. He did not go in detail on it. No amount of prying would get the boy to delve further onto the matter. It was after that session he began to close off to the world and go into a catatonic state. Rarely responding and communicating with anyone, not even when his friends came to visit.

"Sweet dreams are made of this,

Who am I to disagree?

Travel the world

And seven seas

Everybody's looking for something"

One night, he began to draw.

Of creatures and characters straight out of Lewis Carol's Wonderland only darker and more twisted; grinning cats with blood stained teeth, mushrooms with jaws to eat bones and flesh, a Mad Hatter that turns organisms into twisted, grotesque machinery, and others that looked as though they came out of Carol's nightmare version of Wonderland.

It was unclear of when this fascination with Wonderland began. For surely the boy did not manage to get his hands on a 'Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass' book. Not with all the orderlies watching his every move incase he became violent and a danger to both himself and the patients around him. Perhaps while he was living with his Uncle, browsing through his vast collection of novels and books, and stumbled onto it. Perhaps he would grow out of this phase soon and move on to other things that catch his interest.

But, as time wore on, it became evident that it would not end anytime soon.

Then, the story began to take form and shape.

Danny began to go into dreaming.

And there was an invitation to journey with him in a place where there is no such thing as time. Take them into a world in his mind that has taken residence and where they may see him take on a blade to ready himself and fight for his sanity. For madness is not a state of mind. It is a place that many may go to if they so wish it. Only those who have rightfully inherited it may go to Wonderland…

And for the descendent of one Miss Alice Liddell, it is time to put the Vorpal blade to work.

"Some of them want to use you

Some of them want to get used by you

Some of them want to abuse you

Some of them want to be abused!"

A crescent moon appeared in the darkness. Rotating around and around before settling down in the shape of a smile; two large yellow orbs appearing forth from nothingness; a dark chuckle of amusement and knowing something no mortal knows of.

Bright, emerald eyes stared down at the still form on the bed, studying the boy and contemplating thoughts within the owner's mind. A smile graced the pale features. A blade produced out of the white apron with suspicious red stain on it and astrological symbols on the pockets. The figure walked to the bedside, smoothing out the skirt of the blue dress they wore before bending down and petting the dark hair of the sleeping teen, a soft look crossing the face before placing the blade in the teen's open hand, stepping back and then turned and walked away into the shadows; vanishing from sight in a flurry of beating blue wings of butterflies.

The smile and eyes vanished from sight as well. Leaving no trace whatsoever that anyone was there.

Except for the blade gleaming with a smile in being held in its new master's hand…