Wondrous Nightmares
by bloodysword99
Recommended song: Dedma- Abra & Julie Anne San Jose (Filipino song)
Fanart: -
HAPPY 2015 everyone! Sorry for being ass and not updating! Have a thesis to worry about! :3
ARCH 2:
Memento Furor
(meaning Remember Madness in Latin.)
Chapter 13: Infected Happiness
Everything was a whirlwind after Doctor Radcliff accused her of being a pyromaniac. She was practically in a semi-psychotic state when she threw one of his Ming vases across the room before submerging slowly into Wonderland. The last thing he remembered was walking two policemen taking her away and the touch of the Nightmare King's hand.
"Did I rip his head off? I wanted to." Alice muttered waking to Doctor Radcliff's abandoned office somewhere in Wonderland. Taking a good look around the dark and empty house, she let out a dry laugh. She was truly going mad, she admitted to herself.
"What's left of my brain will explode." Alice said before standing.
"Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations? Perhaps I'm fated to expire right here." The girl waited for the Nightmare King to react yet she heard nothing. Searching the room one more time, she was alone. Must have gone ahead. Not likely but possible, he's been doing that a lot lately and Alice was to blame for that. She was like a suicidal cyclone of negative madness; someone that is best to avoid. But don't threat, she was already used to abandonment and isolation. Walking out of the building to seek out the Nightmare King, she was dismayed by the hellish yard that supposed to be her Wonderland. The destruction was worse than she could possibly imagine. She saw a glimpse of the infernal train moving through the sky and obliterating everything in its path. Provoked by the damaged it's caused, she quickens her pace until she was completely stepped into Wonderland. Canyons of lava and ruins, she witnessed all the horror and still no Nightmare King to be seen.
"Oh Pitch, look at this bloody ruin; where are you? It's corrupting all of Wonderland." She muttered. On cue, the Cheshire Cat materialized before her.
"Seeking refuge from the wicked world? Perhaps things only look like they've gone to hell?" The blood in the feline's teeth stood out. Alice never got over it. Why did she imagine such a carnivorous annoying tabby?
"You're not that good a liar and I'm not that stupid. But something a bit less calamitous would be have been welcome." She answered back while crossing her arm. But her wishes were left unheard.
"This unmitigated disaster is your doing and it will get worse. Your train keeps a hefty schedule. Get moving time waits for no one. The change has begun." With the cat's warning, she rolled her eyes. Alice didn't need to be reminded.
"The train is perfectly capable of terrifying me, cat. You should get another job. Like finding Pitch?"
"The Nightmare King is having trouble of his own. And if you don't re-establish yourself then—well let's just say it's not pretty for him." This cat infuriating!
"Where. Is. He?" She demanded while her temper was flaring.
"Lost, Alice, like the rest of us, if you don't keep it together."
"Cat!"
Seeing her rage would be in vain, she swallowed her anger and glared at the feline.
"Is there really so little hope?"
"There is even less. And if fear paralyzes you, we are lost."
Alice watched the cat dissolve. She wasn't sure what to do anymore. The poor girl was at the verge of giving up. But the Boogeyman wouldn't like it if she surrendered; she walked further into the ruin of the Vale of Tears.
'More Tea, Boogeyman?' She offered the tall Nightmare King who sat awkwardly next to her at the Hatter's long tea table. It was their tea time routine. They usually scurry around Wonderland before meeting up at the Vale of Tears for tea with everyone. But today, the Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse, Carpenter nor Caterpillar was present. They said they were running late. But in reality, the little Liddell ordered them to fix up Pitch's soon-to-be domain in the icy plains of Tundraful. She was practically their queen; besides the White queen and Red Queen. Her word is law.
'Tell me, Alice, why –Of course, I like peaceful a tea party without the rabble—but it's rather strange none of them are showing. And I don't believe for a second, the White Rabbit is late, he hates being tardy. So, what did you do?' Pitch inquired while he let Alice pour him more tea. And he did not fail to see the sly smirk she was trying to hide.
'What makes you think I did anything? I am hurt.' She mocked trying to look devastated at his accusation but failed.
'Now, don't be a child, I'm only asking.'
He sipped his tea happily but his face fell when he tasted it. Pitch looked down at his cup; repugnant and perplexed at the taste. He stirred the concoction with a teaspoon trying to figure out why it tasted so—erg. He sniffed it and suddenly he KNEW there was something wrong with it. Nightmare King made a face of pure disgust while placing the cup down as gently as he could.
'Did you—' Before Pitch could ask, Alice fled from the table holding the tea infested teapot.
Sneaky child! She had slipped something in his tea! What was it?
'What was in it? Alice!' Yet despite his yelling and coughing, she didn't stop running with teapot around the table so Pitch wouldn't catch her.
'Come here, young lady, I—hic—oh dear, MiM, what's was in there?'
She laughed as the Nightmare King begun to hiccup at a rapid fire pace and belch out purple bubbles. Damn it's that small purple potion! It's made of pleasant thoughts and sweet dreams; Pitch was highly allergic to all those things.
'Alice!' He cried; trying not to puke.
But his rage was covered by her laughter. And she kept dashing through the Vale of Tears with a very special teapot.
Alice opened her eyes and stared down at the teapot canon feeling a little isolated at the memory. She wasn't surprised when she saw a teapot, here of all places. It was sentimental, a milestone in their friendship. So, it was no shock Wonderland had mirrored her special thoughts into a weapon to fight. This teapot symbolized Pitch in many ways. Not to mention the Hobby Horse, she found in Tundraful, Pitch's supposed domain. She always loved his horses. They were always kind to her; treated her like a princess. So it's still no shock Wonderland crafted a weapon in Pitch's honour. The Nightmare King's inklings didn't just give her weapons; it gave her hope, memories, wonder and dreams. Pitch was as much a part of Wonderland as she was. And if she couldn't save it, then, Pitch would fall with it. And she can't have that!
With a new found purpose, she glared at the slowly forming Ruin monsters and gripped her teapot cannon tight.
"I will fight." She declared quietly and attacked.
Montaging through the ruins of Wonderland fighting, jumping and floating, she finally found what she was looking for. Alice opened that door memory not knowing what to expect. She held her breathe as she stepped into the fire of her past and replayed the horrors.
'Don't leave the Lamp just anywhere. You'll burn the whole house.'
Alice remembers Pitch saying that on the night of the fire. She recalled being half asleep in his arms as he grabbed the lamp took it and her upstairs and placed it on the hallway table in front of Lizzie's room. She also remembered Dinah curling up at Pitch's foot when he was tucking her in. Alice remembered the light touches of the Nightmare King's hand as he patted her and waited for her to fall asleep.
"Pitch saved my life. I survived because he helped me escape. I didn't leave lamp in the library and Dinah didn't knock it over. Pitch took the lamp upstairs with me and Dinah when he tucked me to bed. Dinah is the room with me when the fire started!"
Flashes of Lizzie's door, the lamp, Dinah, the spreading fire and Pitch coming to her rescue, instantly clicked before her. The little Alice witnessed, wide and teary eyed, the Boogeyman racing to her side, pulling her and Dinah out through the window in his shadowy embrace.
'Alice!'
'B-Boogeyman!' A tiny Liddell cried into the arms of the Nightmare King that night.
What caused the fire wasn't Dinah. The feline wasn't in the library nor was the lamp. Pitch was a witness to this.
"It can't be…Did Pitch knew I—"
It soon dawned her why the Boogeyman was so agitated at the early years since the fire. He was constantly mad at everything and everyone around her. Pitch seemed bothered like nothing made sense or something wasn't right with Alice's predicament. She said back then to Pitch she deserved this crummy life since she abandoned her family and caused their deaths and the Boogeyman would scold her just saying it. He kept saying it was not her fault or you can't think like that or it wasn't right. She admitted her guilt for the Fire but why can't Pitch accept it? Alice never found out Pitch's reason but now she knows. He strongly believes she wasn't the criminal. Pitch knew she wasn't guilty. Pitch believed in her innocence when she couldn't.
"Pitch." Cringing at her past acts of disrespect towards the Nightmare King, her protector and her friends; the only one that seemed to give a damn, Alice grit her teeth in self-hate.
She was sick and tired of the people who cared for her suffer for her sake.
She needed to find the Caterpillar for help. It's not just her Wonderland on the line any more.
"The Boogeyman has no place in children's lives besides under their beds!"
"This ruin! What have you done, Pitch?"
"The horror! The destruction! You monster!"
The Boogeyman woke from his standstill just in time to dodge the katana that nearly impaled him. But despite his best efforts to stay in the heat of battle, voices rang through his head like a thousand wind chimes caught in a hurricane.
"You care for no child!"
"Children stopped fearing the monster under their bed, Pitch!"
It was just the voice of the Guardians at first but now it was joined my screaming children and non-believers. And every cry was like ghost haunting him and robbing his strength.
"Demon!"
"He's not real, sweetie, go back to bed."
"No one will ever believe in the Boogeyman! A bad dream is all you'll ever be!"
"I don't why Manny let you roam around free! We should have destroyed you centuries ago!"
"It's just a nightmare, dear."
"Pitch, w-why did you abandon me?" It was Alice's little voice that finally broke him.
"ENOUGH!" With one dominant slice of his scythe, the Insidious beast were cut down and dissolved.
Pitch exterminated all the Samurai insects in his path but as he progressed further his strength was starting to wither away. His scythe was getting heavier at each swing. Just by shifting through the shadows drained him. It was fortunate the Origami People found him in a passive waste after fighting off the Ink wasps.
"Thank you, General, for saving our brothers." Origami ants bowed to Pitch but he was too bashed up to care for his new title. The Nightmare King leaned against a very convenient wall of the oriental village that he saved. His hands met his tired face and tried to steady his rapid breath but no matter how much he rested he was just too tired.
"General, you are weak." The Ant Elder spoke as the paper insects parted ways to let their leader through.
"I've had better days." He shrugs but the weariness was pulling him at a state of total exhaustion. Pitch's strength was at its limit.
"This corruption is toxic. It is consuming you." Monks warned the Nightmare King yet he had to press on. He needed to locate Alice and Caterpillar. Pitch pushed away the Origami people and presented himself; pretending to be strong. But after a few steps, he crashed to the stone floor. No matter how much he stood his body gave into the gravity and clashed to the ground. The ant monks aided him after a few tries until the Elder could not take the sight.
"You must leave this place. You must leave Wonderland! It's destroying you, General."
No, he couldn't leave. He refused to abandon Alice. Pitch refused to surrender to this corruption. He can fix this. He can—
"The great Caterpillar will reward your efforts but at what cost? The damage has been done. There is little you can do here." It was the wisest advice he had ever received but it was also the dumbest. Pitch snarled at the paper people and shooed them away. He limped to the nearest stone seat and took a moment.
"I have heard enough patronizing from the Hatter, the damn cat, the Duchess, the Carpenter and Alice herself. So, I do NOT wish to hear it from you."
The result was the Monks and the priest ants exploded into lectures and warnings and even more lectures.
"You hear yet to fail to listen."
"The great and powerful Caterpillar will tell you same. At the top off the mountain, he waits."
"Finish this journey, but heed the warning. After you speak to him, you must never trespass into Wonderland until you understand your limitations."
"Fair warning, General. Good luck."
With a huff, he fled; completely ignoring the heed of the paper ants. They were wise like their leader, The 'great' Caterpillar. He indeed taught them well.
Caterpillar, Pitch grumbled while seeing the temple in the distance.
Caterpillar was one of Pitch's oldest friends. Unlike other Wonderland folk, they actually had adult conversations and get along very well without being complete asses to one another. But like all residents in this godforsaken ruin, he did have kinks.
"Really Caterpillar?"
He almost laughed when he discovered a Hookah in the midst of the chaos; how typical of Caterpillar. The Nightmare King wasn't a smoker. He never dabbled into that sort of addiction. Though the scent was inviting and soothing, it wasn't worth damaging his lungs. And for that, he had constantly warned Alice against it. One time, he caught her playing with her Papa's pipe and Pitch snatched it away before she huffed one more. He remembered scolding her. She said she was curious. Well, curiosity did kill the cat.
But I guess now, there is no other way to see the Caterpillar then to get high. So being a hypocrite, he drew a sigh, placed the pipe between his lips, inhaled the smoke and exhaled.
"MiM's sake, that was ghastly!" Pitch coughed through the smoke he huffed. Once the thick fog cleared, he found himself in a different place. The Caterpillar's new sanctuary; a temple no less. But instead of finding the real wise and great Caterpillar, Pitch noticed a simulacrum of him. Life-sized but less life as he pictured him.
"Hardly captures your likeness, old friend. I never knew you were this gaudy."
Caterpillar—or rather, his simulacrum didn't bother to replying. And Pitch didn't wait a minute longer. He conjured his mighty scythe, lifted at high as he could and stabbed the stone ground. It cracked at impact causing a tiny slit into the secret darkness below; just enough to slither in with what remains of his Nightmare powers.
"Just—just a little longer…" Pitch begged to his weakening state before slipping through the crack into the Caterpillar's secret hideout.
He crashed into the trench with a loud thud. Bruised, battered and exhausted, Pitch remained there; feeling full toll of his draining powers. He grunted and moaned at the ache and throbs of his physical and spiritual body. Not caring for his pride or decency, the Boogeyman crunched his stiff body into a ball to ease the unbearable agony. To the point where it was so painful, Pitch started to feel unnaturally numb. MiM, everything about it made him disoriented. So, this is what it likes to fall into madness? It seemed enjoyable when it came to nightmares but—he had control back then. It wasn't fun at all to be a victim of it.
Cringing and clawing to rise, he trembled when he could barely stand. And as he finally did, his eyes were wide and hypnotized by the beautiful webbed chrysalis hanging above him.
"Metamorphosis stage, eh? I would have come at another time but—" Pitch sighed; exasperated realizing the Caterpillar might be asleep.
"Timing is always spot on, isn't it, old friend?" Echoed voice of the wise insect rang through the cavern. And the Boogeyman's face split into a tired grin. Grateful for many reasons.
"So, this is where you've tucked away from the corruption? Not much of a sanctuary, Caterpillar."
"One can shroud themselves from it in only an extended period. Not long. No one is safe. You are no exception." The wise cocoon's words sounded like a heavy lecture which Pitch was too weak to fight against.
"You've seen the signs, Boogeyman. I expect more from you. When have you been so ignorant?"
It's not that Pitch was blind or anything like that. But he refused to see; chose to be ignorant; unintentionally, of course, but chose none-the-less. Look where that's gotten him. The Nightmare King was part to blame for his short-sightedness; so, he can't deny the Caterpillar's scolding.
"I—" He finally found his voice yet lost it too quickly.
Gritting his teeth from another wave of pain through his body, he crumbled to floor once again and started to cough out black masses. Pitch prayed it was blood but the immortal don't bleed. Something vile and chunky oozed from his mouth, he grasped his throat to ease the irritation yet the taste was so revolting that all his attempts to relieve it was shrouded with disgust; whizzing and gagging from the black bile. What the hell was this!?
"Don't you see?" Caterpillar's voice bellowed while Pitch continued to spew out more and more insidious mock.
"You pressed forward regardless of the corruption. Endangering yourself and now, you are deteriorating from the inside."
Was he turning into one of those things? Was he really so weak that the insidious disease has infested him? Pitch had fallen into this too far too deep. Ignorant to his demise; the ruin poisoning is him; slowly. Coughing the last of the bile vomit, he cringed at both the pain and taste. Pitch wiped the black mock dripping from lips and spits most of them out. That was unpleasant.
"But I might have overestimated you, my old friend." Caterpillar's disappointed voice rang through the cave. That wasn't helping Pitch one bit.
"Time changes us all, I suppose. It's peculiar what happiness can do to a mythical being such as yourself. I'm sure the Guardians would share the same perspective."
Pitch glared up at the cocoon; fatigued. He didn't like where this was going.
"You have to find your own path in this mayhem, my friend. Swallow your pride and seek out the Guardians. They know more of Alice than they wished. Mention her and you may find the odds are in your favour. "
"For the sake of Alice's happiness and yours…"
That was the last thing he heard from the caterpillar before he slipped away from Wonderland in smoke and shadows.
Alice hasn't felt that sensation in the longest time. She had thought she was happy when she got out of the asylum and finally claimed back her sanity but she was just relieved and nothing more. Not joyous at all. Like an end of a horrible chapter in her messed up life; there was more to come.
And, was, well, Pitch was never meant to be familiar with 'happiness', 'joy', or 'love'. His very nature forbids him to. It was Alice who taught him how to break away from his origins and be her friend. It was her fault that he harboured strange and painful emotions. Though, if the Boogeyman was completely honest, he doesn't really mind with these feelings. It's like a deep warmth that woke from Its long and deathly slumber. Pitch experienced the sweet joy of friendship whenever she saw her smile upon his visits, whenever Alice addressed him with such familiarity and comfort and whenever she given him her utmost trust. He was...happy. For the first time, he was very, very, happy.
He was rendered voiceless when the caterpillar noted this happiness. Time changes us all he quoted. He did change. And even though it isn't a good kind because of his Nightmare King status, it was good for Alice. She made his change worth accepting.
In their little cell, Alice was still fast asleep while the Boogeyman studies the child. Never in a million years, Pitch could be changed by a child, especially this one.
"You have to find your own path in this mayhem, my friend. Swallow your pride and seek out the Guardians. They know more of Alice than they wished. Mention her and you may find the odds are in your favour."
Caterpillar was right about one thing. This chaos was bigger than they anticipated. They needed more insight. And he can't find anything in Wonderland while it's in shambles; only Alice can do that. Pitch has to be more flexible in uncovering the truth to save his believer in time from madness. As much as it sickens him, Pitch has to seek the Guardian's counsel. They know more about children and their psychotic problems.
"It's about time the Guardians answered their calls."
Glancing at the girl to see if she was asleep and sure enough she was. He glided towards her and pushed away the stray hairs from her face before conjuring up a dark blanket from the shadows. He draped it gently over Alice before Pitch left through the darkest corner in search of the Guardians of Childhood.
"Ngh." Alice groaned waking up to a horrible horrible migraine.
"That was unpleasant. Every single one of them practically leading me around like some kind of—Pitch?"
Fear rose from her very being when she discovered there was no sign of her Nightmare King. Cold and alone, she curled herself against a dark silky blanket.
YEAY! GUARDIANS ARE GOING TO BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!