Ciel followed the direction in which the rabbit had fled, yet to no avail was the furry creature found. He slowed his pace, catching his breath as he peered over the hedgerows. To his dismay, it required standing slightly on tiptoe, and he mentally cursed for his small size at such an age. There was no sign of the rabbit, tangles of long grass noting together like a clump of newly arranged bed hair. He gave an irritated sigh. Wandering over to the rather large and towering tree that was growing tall out of the ground before him, he reconsidered his sanity once more, classing this as his mere imagination. Rabbits didn’t wear waistcoats. Nor did they have the ability to share human attributes such as glaring. It was all childish nonsense.
As if to respond to his thoughts, his angle was snagged by a fluffy white paw, jerking him down. Though no ground caught him as he continued to fall, further and further as the grey light of the day faded through the circler cast of sunlight the hole he was dragged into provided. And down and down he fell…
~Down the Rabbit Hole~
He tumbled head over heels further down, echoes of his boyish screams bouncing off the craggy walls of the everlasting tunnel as he fell. The dirt an rocks and roots that made up the walls eventually faded, every inch of them being replaced with oddly lopsided paintings in multicoloured frames, ancient maps that lead to nowhere within his world, cracked mirrors sure to bring bad luck to whoever last looked through them, masks and faces grinning and frowning around him. Books of all sizes and colours flew past him, or rather, he fell past them, broken jars with the remains of the sticky red strawberry substance they once held gleaming through their chipped class. The oddest of things found themselves flying by, a crystal ball that shone with the future and past, a badger claw swiping at thin air, a monkey’s hand and dirt covered human skull frantically falling out of his reach. The light faded even more, as if day was suddenly transforming into night, and still he fell. After what seemed like an eternity of falling…
CRASH!
He hit the floor, the wooden panels beneath him knocking the wind from his lungs as he gasped for breath, sitting up with a groan and rubbing the back of his head in annoyance. He lifted his irritated gaze, giving a glance around what appeared to be an open room filled with many doors, hiding secrets behind every one.
There was something strangely familiar about the circular room. All of the doors, were locked. What was the use of so many doors if you couldn't go through any of them? In the middle of the room, there was a three-legged glass table with a tiny gold key sitting on top of the glass tabletop. In between two doors, a thick velvet curtain hid a small door, with a pattern of vines carved into the wood.
Ciel lifted himself from the floor, dusting himself off as he gave a glance around him.
The round hall was mostly empty, the mismatching tiles on its polished floor climbin up to its dark coloured walls that vanished into thin air from where he fell, the darkness of where the ceiling should have been consuming the fading wallpaper.
The boy wandered over to one of the many doors, its peeling paint curling into twirls after being neglected for so long. He leaned forward, knocking gentle on its chipped surface, the sound echoing throughout the hall. He gently pressed his ear to it, hearing nothing on the other side. Tch. He turned back, returning to the glass table.
The key was examined, its golden winding handle tinted slightly rusty in the very corners of the pattern. He let his eyes travel from door to door.
Well then. It seemed obvious enough what he had to do to get out of this mess.
He lifted the key, going around each other the doors in turn. Too small a key for the first lock. Too big a second lock for the key. Tch. How bothersome. After all the doors in view had been tried, he gave an irritated huff. What was the point in so many doors if they didn’t open?
BINABASA MO ANG
