Dancing on Strings

Lady Nightmare

         

"So, did I scare you?"

Mai's eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright on the bank of her dreams, only this time she wasn't alone.

The Black Rabbit sat cross-legged beside her, hands on the grass behind him as he leant back, gaze fixed on the distant palace.

She swallowed a gasp and moved away from him.

"Oh come now, it's been a week since we last saw each other, I won't do anything," he said.

It was true; a week had passed since the chaos in the tower between her sisters and her last dream when The Black Rabbit seemed to warn her about himself.

A week and things had grown worse because neither Geneviève nor Fleur had woken from their sudden comas. Mai knew The Black Rabbit had been called upon to explain things seeing as he had apparently been the one to send them into their sleeps in the first place but he had assured them that it was neither magic nor potion that had caused their sleep.

He simply knew something of the human body and how to hit pressure points that could cause a faint. If they hadn't woken yet, it was a result of whatever sickness they suffered, the same one that sent them mad.

No one else seemed to remember that he had not touched Geneviève when he had commanded her sleep. Kazimir had but not him. So that explained one coma but not the other.

Physicians suggested some unknown disease has gripped their minds.

She knew one of those golden apples had been tested after her 'passing comment' in breakfast but it came up as nothing but an apple. An impressive prop and people wondered after how The Midnight Troop could turn the apples golden in colour, but it was still only an apple. No poisons to be found – not ones they could detect at least.

"So," The Black Rabbit said, snapping her back to that moment. "You invited me to show you horror, did I scare you?"

"I'm not scared of you," Mai shot back, which was no longer true.

He just chuckled. "Well, no matter, the best horror is yet to come. Though I can't take credit for that."

"What are you talking about?" Mai snapped.

He shook his head. "I cannot say."

"Why not?"

"Because I am not allowed."

"Why not?!"

"Because I am not the one in charge," he said simply, looking at her. "And I am not in control of my own actions, words or mind. I cannot elaborate because I am not allowed."

"So why tell me riddles?"

"I can throw a warning your way when I see my chance," he replied and Mai stared at him.

"I don't know what's going on," she said.

"Of course you don't. What's going on is hundreds of years in the making and involves many, many more people than you could realise. I'm just trying to avoid you becoming one of them. Not that I'll succeed."

"Tell me something."

"I probably won't but go on."

"Am I dreaming?"

He looked at her. "You are dreaming," he confirmed.

Mai turned away. "I do not like these dreams," she muttered.

"I'm sure but you do not have a choice but to dream them. You have as much control there as I do. You'll be forced to come back here again and again."