Black Kitten Chara: Welcome to the new chapter of "Lucy in Wonderland"! This chapter will have some intense moments!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hollow Fields or American McGee's Alice!
Claude woke up with a headache as he groaned and opened his eyes to the dim late afternoon light. He saw that he was back in the penthouse, with the clothes he had put on after taking a shower and the chokers Lucy made for them so long ago on the glass coffee table. He craned his neck around to se that the bathroom door was still open from where he had gotten a passed out Lucy from the floor.
And as he turned his head, he saw that a certain redhead had her head on his lap. Her head was buried into his thighs and he could feel her breathing in and out, her hot breath giving him chills. One hand was curled up to her face while the other hand was right above his belt, like she was keeping herself steady by holding on to his belt. Her legs were curled up to her chest, with her knees touching the outside of his left thigh.
Claude gulped as he slowly began to move her off his thighs, starting with her hand above his belt. But it seem like she had a tight grip on his belt, like she was trying to rip his pants off. After a few minutes, he gently took off her hand and placed it on the other side of her face, but near his groin now. He sighed as he picked up her head and held it as he pulled his legs up on the couch.
He balanced himself on the couch, on his tiptoes as he rested Lucy's head back on the couch and tried to figure out how to get over her without waking her up. He gulped as he streched one leg over her, but he lost balance almost right away as his foot on the ground lost its place and slipped.
The brunette fell backwards on the side table near the couch. Lucky for him, his feet didn't hit Lucy as he crashed onto the floor with a glass lamp brekaing under him. His shirt flipped up, so glass got into his back with side wound showing and his lean, lean stomach that had a slight six-pack showing as well. His feet were propped on the couch and in the air, groaning as his back began to hurt.
"At least Lucy didn't wake up." He thought. But that wish was quickly shot down as the redhead stirred, got up, and looked down at Claude with curious blue eyes.
"What are you doing down there?" She said in an angry tone.
"Bleeding internally, that's what." Claude snappped, looking up as he expected to see Lucy rolling her eyes at him.
But instead, he found her just looking at him with huge eyes. What he didn't know that she was looking at his lean, flat stomach and the side wound he had. "Wow, looks like the years have done some good on this moron. But where did he get that wound?" Lucy thought as she looked up and down at his exposed stomach.
Claude stared at the girl with confusion for another moment before getting up and groaning, "What are you looking at?"
Lucy began blushing wildly as she got up from the couch and yelled, "Nothing, you biggot!" She walked as fast as she could into the bathroom without looking odd, but Claude cocked an eyebrow anyways as he got up and wiped off the glass from his clothes. He looked at the broken lamp and realized how much money that would cost, so he was happy that his mom conviced him to bring that extra $1,000 dollars to London.
He picked up the pieces of the lamp as he placed it on the kitchen counter, and he was happy that the side table didn't break but fell over. He walked back to the side table and pushed it back up as he felt a sudden chill run down his back. As he placed the table back up, he looked around to see what was watching him as he remembered something that he should have gotten out here Lucy was still in the living room.
Once he got the living room decent-looking, he went to the bathroom he used to shower in. The bathroom was big with white walls, a black ceiling, and black-and-white tile floor. The walk-in shower was still streming from his shower and his clothes he first came in were thrown on the floor, like he usualy does with his clothes at home.
He picked up his black leather jacket and went through the inside pockets, finding what he wanted on the first try. He pulled out a small, red journal with the elegant, golden writing on the front that said Property of Lucy Snow. A small, red ribbon bookmark hung from the inside as a golden lock was broken.
He held the notebook in his hands as he left the bathroom and went into the living room. He sat the journal on the coffee table as he heard the shower stopped in Lucy's bathroom. He listened carefully as he heard the sound of feet touching the tile floor and a drawer opening. He gulped and decided to wlak over to the door, but only to listen.
As he got near the door, he placed his ear on it gently to listen what was going on. "I know Lucy would be willing to do anything to stop her pain, but she wouldn't kill herself? Would she?" Claude thought in a scared tone as he kept a brave fave.
He pressed his ear harder on the door as he herad the sound of a bottle opening. He felt his heart jump into his throat as he pressed his ear harder, only to fall right into the bathroom as the door was not lock and he didn't sit on his knees to listen, instead he had to stand up in cas he needed to run away or run for help.
As he fell into the bathroom. he grabbed the first thing he could and fell on the floor with a loud THUD! as he hand tightly gripped whatever he grabbed to. He groaned as he realized whatever he was holding was soft and fuzzy, so he opened his eyes to see a pair of long, slender, and milky white legs in front of him.
He dared to look up and saw an angry Lucy, who was barely holding her towel over what needed to be covered. Claude let go of the towel right away as he felt all of the blood go straight to his nose and his cheeks heat up. He laughed nervously and said, "Um... Sorry, Lucy. I thought I heard..."
"YOU. ARE. DEAD!" Lucy yelled as she kicked Claude in the jaw while wrapping the towel around her body again.
The brunette ran out of the bathroom as Lucy ran after him. But he closed the door as she came closer and held his body against it as she slammed against it multiple times. He covered his nose and slidded down to the floor as the thumping stopped, trying to contain his laughter as he remembered the look on her face as she chased him.
He wiped the blood from his nose as he got up and sat in one of the spinning seats. He laughed as he remembered her angry face, which he found amusing. He picked up her journal and held it gently in his hands.
But he was so busy thinking about her angry face, the brunette didn't notice that the same redhead he was thinking of had just came out of the bathroom with jeans, white sneakers, and a grey sweatshirt on. Her hair was back in its usual ponytail and she looked a cleanier now. But she had a crazed, angry look on her face as she stomped over and saw her journal, making her even angrier.
She took the brunette by the collar and threw him out of the chair. He hit the ground hard as he groaned and dropped the journal, but Lucy grabbed it in mid-air and held it close to her chest like it was a precious treasure. Her eyes teared up as she gritted her teeth and yelled, "How dare you look at my journal! the only thing that had kept me sane in that damn asylum for the last six years, and you had to look through it!"
Claude looked up to the hurt look in Lucy's eyes, so he quickly got to his feet and began rammbling, "No, no, no! I never... I found... This is a misunderstanding!"
"The only misunderstanding here is that I trusted you to come to this damn hotel! You probably going to hurt me like everyone else did so far; emotionally, physically, or maybe try to grab my breasts like those dolt twins try to do! Well, you can forget about it becasue I rather be at the asylum than stay here!" Lucy yelled at the top of her lungs, the hurt behind ever word.
Claude looked at her in shock as he kept his anger about those twins trying to touch Lucy. He waited a second after she was done before stepping closer to her, then waiting again in case she suddenly brought out a pocket knife. When she just stood there still, he got closer again as he held his hands up to show he meant no harm.
"Lucy, I didn't read your journal. I swear! I found it in Kaioh's house and decided to give it abck to you. I promise you that is the honest truth." Claude said in a soft tone like he was talking to a wild animal.
But Lucy caught on to his tone and said, "Why are you treating me like I am some animal?"
Claude was caught off guard now and felt a little offended, thinking he was just being nice. He curled his hands into fists as he glared at the redhead and his mouth became a hard straight line. "I am trying to be nice to you. Why are you acting so rude when I am trying to act at least friendly to you?"
"Because nobody has never been nice to me besides my family. Not any of the kids at the schools I went to, not at Hollow Fields when I first got there, and there isn't a saint at the asylum. I know I had friends, but after six years I thought you moved on so I closed myself off. So that is the damn reason why I am so mean." Lucy said through gritted teeth as he pointed a finger at Claude's chest.
"But we are here now, Lucy. There is a difference in wanting to be here more than anything but can't and just not wanting to come at all. I wanted to see you again. I wanted to take you out of this hellhole and bring you home. But I couldn't. I had school to deal with and my parents were too stubborn to let me come here without a high school degree at least." Claude said in an angry tone with his eyes blazing with fire.
Lucy backed away a little as she held the journal closer. Her eyes began to well up a little, but Claude didn't notice as he kept going with his rant. He had so much anger built up inside of him from coming to London because all he went through in the real world and Wonderland, and now was bad time to let it out.
"You are acting like a conceited, snobby little bitch when we are all trying to help you! For once, shut you damm mouth and let someone else talk before you go on a rant about how life is unfair to you! It is unfair that Francine, Carmen, Simon, and I are dragged into your fantasy world just to save your damn ass! You know, we can just pack up right now and take your scrawny ass back to the asylum and we can leave! So, be fucking grateful that we are here because right now, I am wondering why I ever loved you!" Claude said these words with such hatred and anger, that the air just felt hotter with ever word.
When he was done, he instantly felt horrible and realized that he had cross a line. He looked at a now-hurt Lucy, remembering the horrible words the Jabberwock said and realized that monster they faced was an embodiment of Lucy's guilt and hatred towards herself. Even though a monster in her mind said to her, that it what Lucy thought about herself when the fire happened.
Lucy's eyes were watering now as she dropped her journal. She began crying, not loudly yet, as she kicked the journal towards Claude. Now, with her journal away from her, she wiped her eyes and sobs began racking her body.
"Is that what you think of me?" Lucy cried.
"Lucy-"
"I guess it is because you won. You fucking won and now you can look at my journal all you want. You can take me back to the asylum, leave London, and forget about me becasue that is all you want. You don't care about me anymore, so just go and take that damn journal with you. In fact, you can forget about going to the asylum because I can deal with myself." Lucy said through tears.
She pushed pass Claude and went back to the bathroom. When she opened the door, it finally clicked in Claude's head what she was about to do. He turned to see Lucy pick up a razor and a pill bottle from the sink as fear ran through his veins.
"Lucy, don't!" He ran to the bathroom and got the redhead in a hug-like grip from behind. The pill bottle dropped, but she still held the razor close to her wrist.
"Let me go, you bastard!" Lucy screamed as she began kicking him. "You said that I am not worth fighting for anymore, so I will take myself out of your world!" As the razor got closer to her wrist, Claude grabbed the razor and threw it on the floor. "Hey, give that back to me!"
"And let you kill yourself? Yeah right!" Claude said as he dragged the redhead back into the living, locking the bathroom door behind him, and sitting her down on the couch. She struggled still, but he sat on her legs so she couldn't run away.
Lucy continued to struggle, but she finally stopped after she realized that it was fruitless in trying to get a strong boy off of her. She placed her face awat from Claude as she began sniffing again, trying to stop herself from looking weaker than she already shown to the brunette. Claude felt her trying to turn away as she closed her eyes and her lips trembling like crazy as she kept herself from crying.
Claude looked at her and felt awful, just horrible, about what he said. Like she didn't have a shattered reality as it was already, but now she was just broken into a million pieces because of him. For the past six years, she believed that nobody cared for her since her family died and now he just comfirmed that another person is not willing to deal with her. He just made a complete ass out of himself because he was angry at not getting answers for her that he took it out on her instead.
"Lucy... I'm sorry." He said as quiet as he could, trying to cut the tension slowly.
But she didn't answer back. He sighed, leaned back, and ran his fingers through his hair. Lucy pass a glare at him doing this, and for some reason her fingers twitched as she wanted to do that. "No, after all that he said to you, all you can think of is running through fingers through his thick, soft, beautiful hair? Wait, why I am thinking of his hair like that?" Lucy mentally yelled at herself as she curled her fingers so they woudl stop twitching.
She let her tears fall on the white couch as she felt something watch them. The hairs stood up on her neck as her hand absently went under the couch and began feeling under it. Her heart stopped as her fingers curled around something and she pulled it from under the couch as her hand began shaking.
She lifted up a long, light grey sherherd's crook with a G-shaped crook that had a glowing, ornage orb in it that had twines wrapped aorund it to get it in place. Her eyes grew wide as Claude gasped in shock. Lucy dropped the Jabberwock's Eyestaff as the orb began to glow a whitish-blue.
~0~
Meanwhile, as Claude and Lucy argued like a set of 2nd graders, three teenagers were already in a cab as they headed off to Whitfield's house. They were in the back of a stinky old cab as Francine read the directions on a map and spoke in a soft tone even though she was 99.9% sure their cab driver was deaf.
"Okay, let's go over the plan one last time. I will distracted Whitfield and maybe his family if they are there as I pretend to be a college student doing a report on him and I heard his name from Lucy's asylum, where Lucy is my friend there. While I do that, Simon will ask to use the restroom as he unlocks Whitfield's office, which he will show us when I ask for a tour, and Carmen will ask can she get something to drink. After that, you two grab the notebook and get back to the front door as I wrap up tlaking to Whitfield." Francine explained as she showed the driver directions again.
Simon and Carmen nodded their heads as the cab halted to a sudden stop in front of a three-story, bright yellow Victorian house on a corner. Surrounding the house was a black iron fence and on the bottom of the house were tons of red rose bushes. The windows and door were painted a bright blue with a black roof, giving the impression of a dollhouse.
Simon gave a look of surprise as he said, "Out of all of the houses, she thinks we couldn't find one that looks like my sisters' old dollhouse."
Francine opened the gate as they walked towards the front door. She knocked on it three times before a gruff voice on the other side was heard and locks were being undone. A tall and stocky man in his mid-fifties opened the door as he coughed harshly. His white hair was sticking all over the place and his grey eyes were sickly-looking. He wore a yellow nightgown as he said, "What do you need?'
Francine whipped her head to her friends as she instantly felt bad about coming to a sick man's house just to get a notebook. But Carmen saved her at the last minute and said to the man, "Are you Mr. Whitfield?"
The man coughed again as he said, "Yes, I am. Now, may I ask who you three are?"
Carmen laughed as she said, "Why, sir! How can you not remember three college students who loved and admired you?"
Whitfield cocked an eyebrow up at the lie and said, "Excuse me, young miss?"
"Sir, we were medical students that admire your work. We came to the asylum where you worked at one day, but you were too bust to answer questions for our reports. But now that we have graduated, we wanted to come and see the man who inspired us to go into the medical field, or at least his house!" Carmen lied with confidence and a charming smile.
Whitfield's eyes were huge in shock as he smile face created a small smile at the teenagers. He coughed again before opening his door wider and said, "Come in and I will give you a quick tour."
The three teenagers nodded, but Francine grabbed Carmen's elbow as the dark-skinned girl turned to see Francine giving her a 'Not-part-of-my-plan' look in her eyes. Ignoing their original plan, Carmen waved off the girl as they walked in, trying to seem like college students.
The house was simple with only two couches around a coffee table and a TV on a long table. A set of stairs led to the other two levels of the hous eand many pictures were hung around the house, basically of cats and a group of children with Whitfield and a woman. The doctor started up the stairs as he said, "So, what do you want to see?"
Francine gulped as she said, "Um, we would like to see where you keep your notebook. As a great doctor, we have to at least see your notebook and your office."
The doctor nodded his head, not seeing the ruse under his nose as the three teens followed him upstairs. He gave a few coughs every once and a while, but he was able to get up the stairs as he opened the first door near the stairs and entered it.
The teens followed him into a small and green-walled office with boxes set everywhere and papers scattered all over the floor. A small desk had a black binder journal on it, and a book shelf was empty as many of the books were already in boxes. More pictures were in here, but they were on the ground with open boxes ready for them to be put into.
"I'm sorry for the mess. Moving is hard when your wife leaves for even a day." Whitfield said in a harsh voice as he cleared his voice.
At this point, Francine saw her moment and smiled kindly. She grabbed the man's arm and smiled gently at him as she said, "Sir, you cannot even stand up. How about we leave and you go back to bed? In fact, I will take you to your bedroom and make sure you are comfy before we even leave."
Whitfield smiled kindly as he said, "No my dear..."
"Please, let us do you the favor since we got you out of bed." Francine said as she led the man out of the office. But before she left, she glared at her friends and pointed at the binder before leaving the room and going down the hallway.
As Francine and Whitfield disappeared down the hallway, Carmen jumped towards the binder and grabbed it. She stuffed it in the black backpack she had brought and zipped it up tight. She grabbbed a random book from a box and palced it on the table as she covered it with papers so Whitfield may just throw it in one of the boxes without thinking twice about it.
"Okay, let's go..." Carmen was about to tell her blonde firned to come on when she turned around and was instantl embarrassed, even though it was only them two in the office still.
Simon had his hands behind his head as his upper lip turned into a duck bill-like shape so he can balance a pencil on his upper lip. Even though he was doing this trick, he smile a little and murmured, "Carmen, look what I can do!"
Carmen felt her eyebrow twitched as she slapped the pencil off his lip and grabbed the blonde by his sleeve. She dragged him out of the office as Francine came down the hallway on her tip toes, placing a finger over her lips so they could stay quiet. They nodded their heads in agreement as they silently went down the stairs.
They got out of the house as Carmen hailed a taxi and they got inside the cab before speeding off, leaving Whitfield blissfully oblivous to the fact that his own notebook was stolen by three teenagers.
~0~
Back at the penthouse, Lucy and Claude sat in uncomfortable silence as they stared at the Eyestaff, which Lucy had place on the coffee table. Claude had remove himself from Lucy's legs, but the redhead didn't have enough energy or spirit to run back into the bathroom to kill herself because she knew that Claude would be behind her again. They stared at the orb, which was a bluish-white now, as Lucy moved to comfort her hurt shoulder.
What Claude didn't know is that when he put her on the couch, in a very rough manner to be exact, her shoulder was bruise on impact. But she kept her eyes from watering up again as she brushed some hair back and gripped the couch with such fierceness that it may rip if she let go. Now, the hurt and sadness in her eyes were still there but fiery anger had taken over in her eyes to mask her pain.
After a moment, Claude bit off another piece of skin from his lip and looked at the redhead, who had curled her legs so her feet would not touch his legs. He sighed as he heard the door open and his spirits lifted up a little, but Lucy growled as Claude's friends came through with a flushed look on their faces.
"Sorry, it took us so long." Francine said as she sat in the seat near the door.
"Yeah. But it wasn't hard getting the notebook!" Simon said in joy as he sat in one of the spinning chairs, which was near Claude. The blonde saw the sad look of Claude's face and Lucy's angry face. He looked at Claude and cocked an eyebrow at him, which was an instant but silent question between the two.
But before Claude could answer, Carmen smiled wildly as she dropped the notebook in Claude's lap. The brunette looked at the notebook and picked it up gently. A smile came on his face as Simon got up and began going towards the kitchen. Carmen followed him as Claude got up as well.
"What kind of soda do you guys want?" Simon asked as he grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge.
"Same as you have." Carmen and Claude said at the same time as Simon grabbed two more sodas and threw them to his fiends. Claude put then notebook on the counter as he sweeped the glass remains of the lamp into the trash without anyone noticing and opened the notebook with great care.
As the three teens in the kitchen began looking over the notebook, Francine watched the sad look on Lucy's face and but her lip. She looked at the Eyestaff, which came to no surprise to her that it was here because she felt like it would be here. But she was confuse on the new bluish-white color in the orb.
She got up and kneel down at the coffee table. She gently touched the Eyestaff, wrapping her fingers around it as Lucy watched her and nodded her head. Francine could have sworn she heard Lucy say something along the lines 'Kingdom of Diamonds' but she ignored it as picked up the Eyestaff and held it in both hands.
But back in the kitchen, Carmen was amazed at the notebook. She pointed to four drawings and said, "Whitfield wrote right here that Lucy made these drawings based off her friends. What could that mean?"
Claude shrugged his shoulders as he took the four drawings from the page. He spread them out to see which one was different but in the same child-like manner; the first one had a drawing of a girl that looked like Francine, but she had white hair and blue eyes. The second one had a drawing of a boy that looked like Simon, but with ginger hair and yellow eyes. The third one had a drawing of a girl that looked like Carmen, but she has wavy dark brown hair and green eyes. The last one had a drawing of a boy that looked like Claude, but he had black hair and red eyes.
"Well, each one has a drawing that looks like one of us. But what does that mean?" Claude asked.
Simon pointed to the messy handwriting at top and said, "Maybe these are the names of the drawings. My little sister always name her drawings at the top, so it is a good chance to know what Lucy was thinking of at the time."
Claude and Carmen nodded their heads in agreement as they tried to look at the handwriting, but they were almost to the point were the handwriting just looked like scribbles.
But after a second of looking, they were distracted when they heard a small THUMP in the living room. They turned to see Francine sitting on her knees, holding the Eyestaff tightly in her hands and her head hanging low. But what shocked them was the fact her eyes were clsoed and her entire face was covered in bluish-white-silver swirling marks.
"Francine!" They all screamed as they tried to run to her, but Lucy got up and kneel down to Francine's level.
"Stop. She is in the Kingdom of Diamonds, and I must follow her. I need to meet the Queen of Diamonds as she saves the Kingdom. She will be fine, don't worry." Lucy said in a monotone voice.
The three teens stopped as Lucy took in a sharp intake of air and fell on her back on the floor, passed out as the three friends just stood there in shock.