A Fool's Guide to the In-Between [A Twisted Wonderland Fanfic]

Chapter 5

Y/N swung back and forth on the branch, hanging by nothing by her knees. Her arms hung down around her head swaying with her body.

"Do you want to meet all my monsters... think you're tough, I know they'll drive you bonkers... meet them once and they'll forever haunt ya..." 

The bone-chilling caw of a raven echoed through the misty clearing, and the girl giggled a little. 

"There's no heroes or villains in this place... just shadows that dance in my headspace... leaving nothing but phantoms in their wake... there's parts of me I cannot hide... I've tried and tried a million times..." Y/N reached up and pulled herself up onto the branch, swinging her legs around to lie down on her stomach. 

"Cross my heart and hope to die... welcome to my darkside..." 

Y/N had changed over the few days that she had spent in the Nowhere. Her skin had turned to a pale shade of s/c and her skin seemed to stick to her bones, lacking any sort of nutrients. Her eyes lacked all of the joy that they had held days before, and her clothing was torn and shredded. Her tail swished calmly, giving the illusion of a calm little kitten, but her flat ears told her a different story.

"To my da-da-darkside... to my da-da-darkside... to my da-da-darkside... to my da-da-darkside... take a step into the havoc... look around, this ain't even the half of it... walking the line between panic and losing my mind..." 

Y/N allowed her body to roll off of the branch and she fell to the floor below, landing on her hands and knees in a crouched position. She remained there for a moment before slowly getting to her feet and stalking forward. Every motion was stiff and yet seemed to flow like water, an odd sort of half-there half-elsewhere motion. Like her heart was just... gone. 

"Embracing the madness..."

She walked toward the edge of a small river and kneeled on the edge of it, stretching out her hand toward the water.

"My devils they whisper in my ear... deafening me with all my fears... I'm living in a nightmare... there's part of me I cannot hide... I've tried and tried a million times..."

Y/N felt the cool kiss of water against her fingers and giggled like a child. She flicked the surface of the water and a single strand of black seaweed reached up, ensnaring the tip of her finger. Had she been in the normal world, she might have hissed and jumped back, frightened by the odd plant, but here, nothing made sense. And the slope into madness... was a steep one...

"Cross my heart and hope to die... welcome to my darkside..."

. . .

Days had passed and the group of boys who had been searching for a way to get Y/N back were at their wit ends. There was hardly anything in the book that they had translated, and Riddle could think of nothing else. He often retired to his room before the rest of the group, hoping for some peace and quiet alone, but visions of Y/N slowly slipping into madness haunted him every time he shut his eyes.

Darkside... the words that she had whispered as she swung from the tree in a world of shadows and madness. How was Riddle supposed to cope knowing that she was slowly decaying in that world of shadows and mist? Every time he closed his eyes, he could see her lifeless face staring back at him, sometimes with the dry lines of tears running down her face, other times with a grin that would have been joyful if she was safe in the normal world. 

"This is all my fault," Riddle whispered. He sat on his bed, his back oddly hunched. "I never should have told her to go..."

"Riddle?" 

The redhead hummed, quietly telling whoever was on the other side of the door to enter. It was Trey. He wore a smile on his face, though it was a grim smile. "We found something."