Change of Plans--A Heart no Kuni no Alice FanFiction

Chapter 08: Déjà vu

Alice didn't find us on our way back to the house, much to my chagrin, so Elliot carried me out of the maze and all the way up to the manor. I tried ignoring him the whole way there (note, I was not sulking or pouting-I was ignoring him), but found that being stiff as a board was both A) uncomfortable and B) causing my knees more pain because of the way I was twisting away from him. So I slowly and reluctantly relaxed into his grip, keeping my arms tight across my chest.

Elliot didn't try to make conversation, which was fine with me. I had talked enough in my opinion, so I was good with not saying anything. I suppose the only problem with the silence was that it made me realize how tired I was all of a sudden. My adrenaline had disappeared completely, I was emotionally drained on top of that. Against my will I found myself starting to fall asleep in Elliot's arms, relaxing even more into his arms than before. Before long my cheek was resting against his chest and my eyes were drooping shut.
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A dream started as soon as my eyes slid closed. In my dream, I saw a man in a small prison cell. He appeared to be sitting on a cot that looked too rickety and unstable to hold all six feet of him. In the cell's dim light I couldn't see exactly what he was doing, but he seemed to be completely comfortable. I couldn't see his face very clearly and I moved closer to get a better look at him, stepping on something that crinkled beneath my feet in the process.

I glanced down at where my foot was and saw a crumpled piece of paper underneath my boot. I bent down to pick it up, squinting at the faint image on the page. I could barely see it-the charcoal was too smudged and faded for me to see what it was in the dim light. Straightening up quickly I tiptoed to the door of the cell and held the picture in the lantern light filtering into the dark room. Squinting at it I was barely able to make out a face in the smudges. The face was female...I think...with a very odd haircut-it was short on one side and fell to a little past their shoulders on the other.

Hold on a minute... I bent down closer to the paper, squinting at the odd-looking girl. There's something familiar about her... There was something about the way he had drawn her mouth quirked up in a self-satisfied smirk that I recognized. As I searched my memory bank for where I had seen that look before I heard a quiet gasp behind me. I started to turn around but was suddenly yanked forward into what I thought would be the door-instead I found myself falling through empty space. I fell so fast that it felt like my stomach had been left above me in the cell.

"You can't be here yet-I'm not ready."
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My body twitched violently and my eyes flew open in time to see Elliot jumping back from me in alarm. He looked almost flustered and embarrassed as he met my gaze and then quickly looked away again. I cocked my head at him, frowning slightly. "What's wrong, Elliot?" I asked, sitting up to get a better look at him and noting that I was laying on a small couch. This time I knew I wasn't imagining the red on his cheeks and couldn't help wondering where it came from.

"N-nothing," Elliot said hastily, coughing to clear his throat. "You just startled me, that's all...I'd just come in with the bandages and you suddenly just..." He did a rather over dramatic impression of my awakening flinch, eliciting an amused snicker from me. "Anyway..." He coughed again. "I'd better patch you up..." Still looking a little flustered he sat down next to me and picked up a small box off the floor. He kept his attention fixed on the box, which I gathered to be a first-aid kit of some sort. He pulled some bandages out as well as a container of...something.

"Salve, I'm guessing?" I asked him. Elliot nodded, scooping some of it on his fingers and taking one of my hands in his free one. As soon as the cool cream touched my red palms I winced a tiny bit-not only was it cold, but it kind of stung. His grip on my hand tightened a little when he felt the sudden movement, but he quickly relaxed it when he realized I was just startled. Again I noticed how small my hands were compared to the hare's, though they were both calloused and rough. We were both quiet as he applied the salve, not really having anything else to say to each other.