Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter One

All around the tower, long dewy blades of grass danced in the wind. Clouds chased each other across the deep blue sky and mice scampered on the ground below. It was springtime and the world was waiting to be explored.

"Daddy!" called the little girl with white blonde hair. She started to make her way down the spiral stairs of the tower. "Dad?"

"In the printing room, Luna!"

Luna walked down to the printing room and stood in the doorway, struggling with a sketchbook and paints under her arm as she tied her hair into a loose ponytail. Strand of hair framed her round face and large, inquisitive eyes.

"Yes, Lunabell?" Xenophilius glanced up at his daughter. His wrinkled face held a gentle smile as he looked at Luna. Love and adoration filled his sad, tired eyes. It had only been a year, but to him it felt as if several lifetimes had passed since that fateful day.

"I'm going out to paint." She lifted up her sketchbook, her paints tucked under her arm. Painting had become her escape from the world. Her escape from the demons within.

"Be careful, darling." Xenophilius took several hurried steps forward and gently cupped her face in his cold hands. She shivered slightly at the unexpected contact. Ever since he had lost Pandora he had been cold and detached, living in the fantasy world of his words. Living in better times and better places.

"I always am, daddy. I love you." She kissed his cheek and turned to leave, tears trapped in her eyes. It was the anniversary. She wouldn't let them fall until she was outside. He had enough pain to fight without seeing her own. She had to get out. To get away from where it all happened.

"I love you too." Xenophelious turned back to the clacking printing press which was spitting out copies of the Quibbler. "Stay safe."

Luna shut the door and ran across the field outside their tower home. The wind blew through her hair, the ponytail streaming behind her. She held her sketchbook and paints close to her, making sure that they wouldn't go falling down to the wet grass. Tears flew off her cheeks, finally freed from their watery cage. Her mood began to soar up once more. She was happy that she could finally free the emotions she had bottled up the whole morning.

Luna stopped, bent over with laughter. The world always seemed like a better place when she was outside. She smiled at the world. The dewy morning grass tickled her bare ankles. Outside had become her safe space since her mother died. Her smile faded as she saw the moment again; her mother's insides making their way to the outside world. The screams. Then the silence.

Luna's breath became ragged. She had been sitting under the table when it had happened. She struggled to breathe as the sight kept flashing in front of her eyes like bright birds swooping down on insects. It felt as if it had happened only yesterday.

Her eyes flickered shut. The body. The flesh and blood. Her scream. Her dad's hurried footsteps. Her tears blurring the horror in front of her. The most heart wrenching sound she had ever heard. Her father's scream echoed around her mind over and over as it had around her mother's workshop.

Her paints fell to the ground with a clatter, bringing her back to reality. Her body was tense, her fists clenched and shaking in the warm spring air. She blinked her silvery eyes, the sun warming her cold mind, bringing back some light to her dark thoughts.

A white hare hopped across her path, its snowy fur seeming out of place against the dark green backdrop. It stopped, noticing the girl, and stood braced, ears reaching up towards the swirling clouds. Its nose twitched, taking in the early morning scents of dew and pollen, never taking its eyes off the young girl, her eyes wide with wonder.

The hare cautiously lowered its ears, pricking them again up when Luna crouched down. She sat still until it slowly moved over to a nearby patch of grass, watching her closely.

Luna slowly opened her sketchbook and pulled out the pencil she kept within it. She sketched out the shape of the hare, which had started to relax slightly in her company. She opened her paints, flinching as the lid creaked open, but the hare seemed fully immersed in its meal and didn't give her a second glance. She gave a sigh of relief and staring mixing paints on the paint lid. She carefully started to dab and swirl colours across the page, trying to capture the bright white against the shadowy dark green hills. As usual, the picture didn't truly capture the moment. She sighed.

The hare threw up its head once more, glancing at the rising sun. It hurried off. Luna groaned. She threw her paints together and hurried after as fast as she dared, her sketchbook open to the skies above. The hare hopped under a large bush, and when it didn't reappear after some time, Luna stuck her head in after.

She found herself falling, falling down into a deep hole, the branches smudging the paint and getting caught on her yellow dress and in her messy hair.

They grabbed and scratched at her like long fingernails, but that wasn't enough to stop her. She was falling, and she didn't know where to.