hall·way | (hôlwā) | n. An entrance hall.
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door | (dôr) | n. A means of approach or access: looking for the door to success.
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Chapter 2
Eat me, Drink me
The things you knew
All fall away
The things you had
All disappear
As if you
Were never here
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Everything was black.
The darkness that folded around Sakura covered her eyes like a thick blanket; the only sense she could make out was the feeling of being suspended in air as she continued her downward fall. Her short locks batted at her face, the wind rushed up and howled in her ears while her shift beat at her sides.
Sakura didn't know how long she'd been falling for, but the extended sensation quickly built up panic within her. She couldn't see the walls, but it felt as if they were there, on all sides, pushing closer and closer around her, squeezing her lungs.
Breathe, she thought to herself, as she pushed the claustrophobia away. Replacing it, instead, with a small spark of confidence. Not in herself, of course, but in Dinah.
The pink-haired girl had forgotten about the previous feelings of distrust she had felt toward the guide of her consciousness. She was so sure, that if her time of need came, Dinah would take over and protect her from harm, a routine that had lasted through out her childhood and teenage years. Sakura was fully confident that wherever this shoot was taking her, she wouldn't be in any danger.
Because Dinah would never do that, she told herself.
(And so the tale begins)
A sudden over flow of light jolted her from her thoughts, and she shut her eyes at the intensity. Something hard slammed against her from below, knocking her head in the process.
Groaning from the impact, which should have killed her, she briefly thought, Sakura sat up on, what she realized, a marble floor. She clutched her head in her hand.
"In marble walls as white as milk,
Lined with skin as soft as silk;"
"You could have at least warned me," she hissed to Dinah, blinking her eyes open as they took to the light.
Receiving no reply, Sakura frowned.
Green eyes, finally adjusted, looked around at their surroundings. She was in another hallway, except this one was much different than the hospitals bland corridors. The marble ground, beneath her, was designed with a black and white pattern, like the layout of a chessboard. The ceiling was arched above giant pillars where thick heavy curtains cascaded down into deep rivers of red. On either side of the ornate hall were a variety of doors, and as Sakura stood, she realized that each one was a different shape and color.
Sakura gave her head one last rub and looked above.
A dark hole made up most of the ceiling above her, no light apparent from the other end.
Sakura looked towards the long room again.
"Now what, Dinah?" she asked. Her voice echoed slightly off the gray walls.
Like before, there was no reply. The pinkette started to panic.
"Dinah?" she asked again.
Receiving the same silence, she strained out, "Dinah, please answer me," but her attempts at communication were futile. Dinah simply wasn't there.
The familiar feeling of the presence in her was gone. Vanished. All that remained was Sakura.
(I am so close, and yet you are so far)
And that scared her more than anything.
Never before had she been alone. Never. Even in her earliest memory Dinah was there, whispering lullabies and fairytales in the pink-haired girl's ears. Instructing her on what to say and what to do, and even when she didn't, the presence of her was always near. The secure feeling in the back of Sakura's mind that she could almost physically touch.
But now, without that familiarity, it felt wrong.
Sakura felt her eyes prickling and her chest suddenly feel as if a weight was dropped inside.
She knew she was panicking, knew that her heart was beating much faster than it should, that her breathing was loud and rapid. But what could she do? Without Dinah, Sakura was nothing. An empty husk of a previous girl.
(Who are you?)
"Damnit, I'm so late!"
Sakura's head snapped up at the familiarity of the voice. "He can help me", she whispered, remembering the strange fox boy, "Maybe, he can help me return." Though his voice was not the one she desired to hear, it still helped to fill her with a sense of purpose, now deciding on what to do.
Her legs moved forward cautiously, down the hallway.
"It's like I'm turning into the Hatter!" his voice laughed down the corridor.
Sakura moved her pace faster and called out, "Excuse me! Hello?"
No sound yelled back to her, except that of her feet against marble, as she continued her fast paced walk down the hallway.
"Within a fountain crystal clear,
A golden apple doth appear"
Doors flowed past her, some catching her attention with their odd shapes and textures. She continued walking until the hallway ended, a turn to the left the only other way. Sakura rounded the corner and stopped, a dead end.
A small door, the height of her knee, sat against the wall directly in front of her, a glass table to the side.
Sakura sighed in frustration. She was sure that she had heard the boy from here. She stared at the small wooden door.
There was no way the boy could have fit through there, she thought, as she walked up to it. He had looked a full two heads taller than her.
She crouched down and fingered the tiny doorknob. It was locked.
(whereisityouarewantingtogo?)
Feeling dismayed, she stood and turned around. Briefly, she forgot about the glass table that stood off to the side, and bumped her hip into it. Something slid against the glass pane.
Sakura looked at the table.
On top sat a key. She reached her hand towards it and picked it up. Her fingers rubbed over the smooth bronze surface as she examined the heart shaped bow. Sakura was sure that when she passed the table, nothing had been on it. Thinking she must have overlooked it, she walked back towards the tiny door. As she crouched to insert the key, the pinkette realized that the size of the lock was way too small.
"Maybe it's a key to one of the other doors?" she mused, as she stood once more and turned back the way she came.
"No doors there are to this stronghold -
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold"
The first door she approached was her height with a dark wooded stature, adorned with a silver handle and hinges. Inserting the key, something blocked its full entrance. Sakura shook the handle. Locked.
She approached the other door besides it. A full head taller than her with a clover cut frame. Like the first, it was locked.
Sakura moved on to the next, and then eventually the next one, and the one after that, all receiving the same result. Locked.
Frustration bubbled up in her. She was tempted to rip all the doors open.
(ripthemtearthemcrushthem)
Smoothing a hand through her pink hair, Sakura walked back to the little door and the glass table, knowing she'd have to figure out what to do next.
When Sakura approached the table again, she momentarily froze. Innocently on top the glass sat a porcelain case. Sakura clutched the little box, placing the key on the table, and lifted the lid. Inside was a tiny little cake that, scripted on with pink icing, read 'Eat Me'.
(EATMEanddie)
The pink-haired girl raised the little cake to her lips. She took a bite. It wasn't sweet like it appeared, instead being tasteless.
Sakura set the cake back in the container.
Suddenly, the room around her started to shift and quake. The walls started growing smaller and smaller until Sakura's head hit the ceiling above. With a start, she realized she had grown.
She looked back down at the glass table that now looked like it was meant for a dollhouse. On top sat a blue bottle with dark liquid inside.
Sakura carefully picked it up, accidently knocking the tiny key off the table, and flipped the little tag over that hung at its side. Squinting her green eyes, it read 'Drink me'.
(DRINKMEanddie)
"Well, I have nothing to lose", she murmured as she tipped the little bottle back into her mouth, only gaining a small drop of liquid in the process.
The dark substance had just touched her tongue when she realized that she was shrinking. The walls on either side grew taller, her head soon passing below the table.
Sakura examined her new size. "At least I don't take up the room anymore," she sighed.
Something bronze glimmered in her peripheral. The key lay a foot away, and to her astonishment, it had shrunk along with her. Sakura went and picked it up. Facing the tiny door, the pink-haired girl realized that both her and the key were now just the right size. She walked up and inserted the key into the lock.
The satisfying sound of a click made Sakura smile. Placing her hand on the handle, she opened the door.
(Welcome home)
Red eyes gazed down upon the landscape that surrounded the black walls.
No grass or trees, the only existence of plant life being the sea of red roses that decorated the barren ground. Empty riverbeds were deprived of water. No birds flew overhead, except for the occasional caw of a raven. In the distance, beyond the gray fog, green finally touched the cracked brown earth. A white fortress prodded the never-ending sky beyond it.
The red-eyed man narrowed his eyes at it.
A raven gracefully landed on his shoulder, ruffling its painted black wings, and crowed. Its caw intrigued the man, snapping his attention from the view to the bird, just noticing it for the first time.
He upturned a crooked smile, and uttered two words that sent the Heart cards and Red pawns around him scurrying off to alert their superiors.
"She's here"
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disclaimer: i do not own naruto, alice's adventures in wonderland, mother goose riddle, or "the passenger" by stars.