I... I'm sorry... I need time... to think.
B-But what-where?
Goodbye, Angela.
Chase! Don't-
Alice Is Dead 12
Evil Carnival music. The kind that can send shivers up your spine and back again with the least amount of force. It just comes naturally, like breathing. Fear is a natural reaction, but so is panic, laughter, and love. It traveled along the road, stopping to reach Angela's ears and she bit her lip, drawing blood. Should she go on? She looked like a mess, her hair was ruffled, her face was stained with the tears she didn't wipe away, the only remaining proof that all of that happened. Angela looked down at her arm for an answer, but in return only saw the crown. The crown...
A step. Could the key be there, where the music is coming from? A traveling Carnival, perhaps? It looked like that from the distance, or just a bunch of blurry black things in the distance. It seemed like with every step it got so much larger, and the music got so much louder, that she had to cover her ears. But for some reason, her feet moved against her will. She urged herself to stop, but she just kept moving, much to her dismay.
And the closer she got, the more she wished she turned back.
*!*!*
Standing there, staring at a black Carnival, it was a lot less terrifying then the actual first step into it. The music played a deformed version, like someone smashed it and then kicked it and then poured acid on it to make that ugly warped sound that seemed to be contagious. Looking around at her destination, she noticed that there didn't seem to be much movement. A rat here or there, but there was nothing. Not a breath, not a look, not anything. In fact... being alone scared her a lot more then being near a murderer. Right now, she'd prefer the murderer, because at least she knew what was chasing her and looking at her. Eyes traveled down her body, scanning her, thinking about her, and she could sense it. Call it ESP, but there was something very wrong about this place.
Walking by one of the former tents, a decaying sign hung limply, swaying without a breeze and creaking like a squeaky wheel.
Le Miserable Carnivale.
The Miserable Carnival? Did someone add the miserable part, or had it always been there? Too many questions and not enough answers. How she wished Chase was here, to give her directions, to show her where to go, and who to be...
"Hello"
She screamed.
Louder then she ever had before.
And it felt so good.
After a moment of a blood curdling yelp, Angela looked over at the voice, and stared at a person with brown eyes and two hands over her ears. Angela's memory flashed pictures of what she should do, and she began to wonder why Gill never arrived like he usually did. The girl looked up at her and placed a finger over her mouth, before grabbing onto Angela's arm and running towards one of the tents. A left, and then a right, and then another left, to a little tent in the corner that had a red printing on it, one that looked like a crescent moon. Angela tried desperately to get away, even to clawing at her arm, drawing blood into the girl's arms. She looked pained, but never released her grip, until she pushed Angela into the tent in a sudden decision.
Angela hit the ground with a loud thud and sat up. Something trickled down her face, and putting her hand there and pulling away, she realized she was bleeding.
"Oh just great." She grumbled, and she heard a delicate laugh from behind her. Angela perked up and turned around, scuttling back as far away from her kidnapper as she could. The girl instead just put a hand up to her mouth and giggled again. She seemed okay, but who to trust in times like these? If only Chase could just make a list...
"You don't seem very pleased to meet me. Shall I introduce myself?" Who was this girl? She was so familiar looking, it was almost terrifying... but something blocked her mind, not allowing her to go back into her head... not allowing her to pick out memories, like a large white brick wall. A throbbing began in the back of her head, and Angela wondered how they cured a headache.
"It's nice to meet you, anyway" the girl frowned at the lack of the answer, and Angela wondered if she should of created a fake alias for herself. Not until she knew more about this girl would she place trust in her. Angela stared back at her, almost intimidatingly, and whispered in a voice barely carried by the wind,
"Akari."
The girl smiled, holding out her hand, and when she stepped out of the darkness, Angela got a good look at her face. A brown and white ring around one eye, and ears that were small and perked up.
"I'm Renee, it's nice to meet you."
*!*!*
"This is The Tiserable Carnival, but after the Queen's ruling, she made us change it to "Miserable"." Renee looked down at her hands and fiddled with a ring on one hand, twisting into an unusual shape and a bright blue gem on one end. She sighed and moved it around with one finger, on her pale slim fingers that were so fragile it didn't seem normal.
"A lot of us died when her troops came by, but those who lived, lived in pain." Angela just stared at the ring. Something just seemed to capture her attention, a face inside that ring... some kind of illusion...
"Come walk with- oh wait, your clothes." Angela looked down at herself. She seemed unusually clean, despite everything and everywhere she had been. Renee's nose wrinkled, and Angela figured she probably smelled bad.
"You smell like purity. And your clothes have been made by some divine power. This will not do. Not at all" Renee stood up, and Angela tried to make sense of what she said. What was wrong with smelling clean? And the vibrant yellow was a put off... you could spot it a mile away, if you payed close enough attention. Renee walked across the room (which looked a lot different on the inside- a desk, a seat, a couch, a small cotton bed in the corner, and a few other small trinkets) and kneeld in front of an old looking chest. She pulled out some black and white clothing, resembling her brown and white clothing slightly, and shut the chest with her foot.
Walking over with a pile of clothes in one hand, she set them down on the table they were sitting at. Angela frowned at the thought of changing. She liked her clothes...
"We're kind of the same size, I think they'll fit" She smiled and tilted her head. Angela wondered which animal she was, and took them in her hands, looking around for some kind of dressing room.
"There's a bathroom in there. It would be a good idea to take a shower, and use the black bottle in there, not the white. The black. Remember that" She looked intently and Angela shuddered at the thought of what the white one was/did. She walked by and looked at her white flats with pink flowers. She looked down, and frowned, wondering where she went from here.
*!*!*
Running a hand through her wet hair, she felt much better. Clothes tossed to the floor and a glass shower, it almost seemed like a dream, to be in such a nice bath, without having eyes on you (Vaughn came to mind) and she leaned her head back. Looking around, she finally spotted the black bottle well hidden despite the coloring, and put some of the red liquid in her hands. A scent flowed around the room almost immediate, and she smiled. It smelled so nice, like... vanilla and something else, more bitter, but they tangoed in such a sweet way, it made her linger a little longer before realizing the set out task.
Running her fingers through her hair, she sighed at the feeling. She almost forgot that feeling, which must have sounded absurd. She looked around, first to the pure glass sidings, and then to the black shower head. She tilted her head and didn't think for a moment- as if there were something in that strange thick glassy-red liquid that she was sure made her a little... tipsy.
Taking a second she leaned down to turn off the tap and step out, rubbing her hair down in a black towel, not noticing the trail of red she left behind her.
*!*!*
"Thank GOD, shorts. I was getting tired of dresses. Do you know how hard it is to run in those things" Angela smoothed out her white blouse and looked at her black shorts, and started to think she liked this girl. Renee smiled and clapped her hands, laughing a bit.
"I'm so glad you liked it! You won't stand out very much around us now, so I think now I can take you around to meet my fellow Carni's." She smiled. Angela- Akari- cracked a smile and tried not to seem worried. Carnival people always made her feel out of place, ever since of that incident when she was 7 with a clown and some fire... and other then that, the fact that any of them could recognize her as Alice in a line up...
She groaned to herself.
Long, long days.
*!*!*
"Everyone, Akari. I saw her wandering around here so I gave her directions." Renee lied... for a girl she never met?
Angela's eyes scanned the room for any familiar faces, but didn't notice anyone. They looked like faces that were kind of familiar, but her brain just wasn't working today. One of them shuffled. Another man looked out the window. A female just stared at her feet, but the one looking out the window stopped for a second, and snapped his head over to her. His mouth twitched as he stared at her, before taking a step towards the girl, and Renee immediately stepped in front of her.
"She smells... weird."
"What are you talking about, Gray? She's just like the rest of us." Her phony smile seemed to convince him, but he still pushed on, pushing her delicately out of the way and leaning down to examine the short one from his height. She felt his breath as he came closer, it almost made her shudder, but she suppressed it. Gray's mouth hovered over her mouth and hesitated, his breath tickling her ear. The other three watched intently. In her ear, where only she could hear, he growled a bit and nibbled. They didn't notice, his hair was obstructing their view, and he hesitated there before pulling back and leaving 'Akari' there wide-eyed and confused.
"...there's still something off" He said, backing up and being overtaken by the other three. The other boy hit his arm playfully and smiled.
"You think everyone's suspicious."
"That's because... after all that we've been through... you still believe there's good in the world?" His voice got louder, and he stalked off.
"What did I do.." The long haired boy looked ready to cry. Renee patted his arm.
"It's okay Cliff, he's just moody..."
And nobody noticed her slinking in the shadows, still feeling his breath and his teeth on her ear, and her heart throbbing from the fear.
*!*!*
The wolf stopped, raising his head and sniffing the air three times. He looked down at the ground, his saliva dripping from his mouth, eyes cold and cruel as he stalked with his forearms rippling in excitement and adrenaline. In a painful cry, the wolf raised his head, and let out a long pained cry into the stars. The inhuman scream wailed off trees, hitting them with a great force as if by a rock slide, and somewhere to the north the tents shook. The wolf bent his head down, and screamed again in another inhuman gasp.
The scent of the next Alice had been lost to the wind.
*!*!*
Punching trees wasn't helping. Sure it released the anger, and it allowed him to breath, to release the pent up regret on the man that stole everything he saved for himself. He tried to meet her amends, he figured if he waited and she wanted to give him her first kiss, her first everything, that it would happen. And look what happened now that he waited. Gill got it, Gill got everything, and Gill was the base of all his problems. It all began with her first visit to Wonderland. He found her first... then why did Gill get everything else...
Another punch to a tree, and he felt the blood from his fingers drip down his clenched fist and in between his fingers, making a squishy sound. His arm shook violently, trembling in anticipation, in the thoughts of what he would do to Gill if he got a hold of him right now...
But punching trees wasn't helping.
*!*!*
"Keep the clothes, you must leave, right away!" Renee almost yelled. She tried to get her out the door as fast as she could, but Angela still probed on. Renee shivered at what could have been coming for them, that unholy inhuman scream...
"What's up with that ring?" Angela stared down at it. It seemed to be staring at her, too, which made the atmosphere eerie.
"I... It's my fathers. Before he died." Renee stopped for a second to look at it and sigh. Another scream in the distance.
"You must go now, Akari, before the spirits of the damned come for you. As you can hear" She stopped and looking into the air, as if waiting for another scream, but none came. Angela didn't mind it at all, for some reason it felt a little comforting, in an odd way, it was like a song that only she could hear. She didn't dare say that, they might have thought she was insane and tried to kick her out by force.
"... It was nice meeting you, Renee." Angela looked at her feet and thought about what direction she should move in.
"You too, Akari. Maybe you can come by, sometime? I like your company. It feels... as if we were friends. In a past life. Like a long bond between two people. But ah, I'm sounding odd." Renee laughed a little and Angela smiled back before responding.
"We're all a little odd sometimes." Renee nodded her head at that statement and watched Angela leave out the door.
And into the hands of the wolf; who's mind had shattered along with his soul.
*!*!*
"Chase you love her."
"Thanks for stating the obvious."
"No, I mean, like you really really love her. Like more then life itself."
"..."
A stare. Gill stared back with a blank expression.
"From now on" Chase prepared himself for the worst. Gill was a very cold-blooded person, and he could be icy when he wanted to be.
"The bond is now broken"
Transparent chains, that were tinged a little green, appeared on Chase's wrists, and in a flash, shattered into millions of pieces floating in time itself.
Pieces drifted in front of his face, all around them in green-shard like drops as if given by the gods themselves. They passed through them, around their eyes, floating by their face but never touching.
Chase just stared wide eyed, not noticing anything other then Gill's face, his half-smile and as if it couldn't have gotten any stranger, he winked at Chase.
"Let's play fairly this time"
I worked a lot faster then I usually do. This started from nothing and then fell into place as I wrote. I was listening to Nicky Manaj's "Super Bass" but I totally got her name wrong. I don't really like her, but it's on channel 902, so ya know.
And I said I was gonna stick with TOT/AP characters but there's too many characters for just them D:
Anyway, thanks guys.