Alice into Darkness

What you really Are

Amelia remained silent for some time, and Alice would not speak to her again since it seemed to her that the broken woman was reliving every happy memory that she had of her daughter... Amelia's frozen blue eyes had started to recover some light, and she even smiled at Alice when they looked at each other just a few minutes later.

"We are d-departing, Alice" Amelia said, still displaying a shy smile even though she had started to cry- "We need some t-time away from the house and the town, so we shall be living with Stephan's brother, Stanislas, at Landon..."

"I know that Catherine shall always be with you, in your hearts..."

"That's true" Amelia accepted, and at that moment she just sighed and stared into the fire- "I know that, I can feel her in my heart, but... What are we going to do, Alice? How on Earth are we going to rebuild our lives?"

"Think of Catherine! She would have wanted you and Stephan to get through this together, to move on..."

Amelia would not speak again, and Alice just witnessed in silence as she finished with both the peppermint tea and the strawberry biscuits. It did not take long for Alice's glass to be empty as well, and after that, realizing how sleepy Amelia was getting thanks to the infusion, she proceeded to help the woman to lay down on the couch and she covered her with those soft and warm blankets.

"T-thank you Alice, you are too kind! I... I am falling asleep... Good night!"

"Good night, Amelia" Alice said, now looking down into her eyes as she stood tall and proud beside that bright orange couch- "And please do not worry about our safety, Albert and Logan have installed the very best locks and nobody can get into the house..."

At that moment, Amelia did something that Alice was not expecting at all.

It was quite surprising for Alice to see that Amelia was displaying a broad smile, and on top of that she was actually laughing... There was for a moment a spark of brilliance in those shattered blue eyes, and yet it would not take a long time for the laughter to die off as the lively moment was replaced by deep angst once again.

"What is it?"

"Alice, the Guards are lying to everyone! I know... I know that the Elric story is a lie, you see... That night, we heard something growling inside of Catherine's room, it was some kind of animal... Just... What it was? How did it get into the house? All of the doors and windows were locked Alice, nothing was either tricked or broken..."

"What? How come they would be inventing a story?"

"Just what happened, Alice? What the hell happened that night? We don't know, the Guards don't know, just nobody knows..."

"Amelia, please calm down..."

"We are not s-safe Alice, nobody is safe in this cursed land as long as there is Magic around!"

Alice waited in silence for Amelia to calm down, since she did not want to upset the woman any further by questioning her story about the animal... It was quite a relief for Alice to see that the peppermint tea sent Amelia to sleep, and after that she hurried to get upstairs trying to be as quiet as she could.

At least, everybody was sleeping and surely nobody else had heard Amelia as she talked about what had really happened to Catherine that night...

"Calm down, Alice! Nobody is going to question what the Guards have told to everyone!"

Alice was quick to get into her bed wearing just a silvery cloak, her room was freezing despite of those flames glowing happily at her fireplace and she could not stop thinking about Amethyst, and Color Wolves, and the Guards telling fragile stories and a mysterious danger to Wander's Land that lurked somewhere out there in the sea...

The idea that she would eventually lose her color vision was like a dagger piercing right through her heart, and then it came... a voice that talked to her mind all of a sudden, a voice that came from somewhere up at those snowy and distant mountains.

"If they just knew what you really are..."

Alice would not reply to Amethyst since she really had nothing else to say to her, the storm continued to howl and cry at the other side of her window and after that she slowly fell asleep...