Chapter Text
A gentle breeze blows through the park, lazily rustling the leaves above Edwin’s head. The dead boy detective sits criss cross applesauce under the tree, his back parallel to the trunk. As the breeze passes through him, he lifts his head from the book in his lap. Looking up at the dancing leaves above him, he watches the sun rays sparkle through the openings.
Edwin slowly closes his eyes, taking in a big but unnecessary breath. As he breathes in, he can almost imagine the feeling of the wind tickling his cheeks and rustling his hair. He feels the phantom warmth of the sun rays beating down on his face. He logically knows he isn’t feeling any of this, but he allows himself a moment to enjoy the memory of these feelings.
With his eyes still closed, Edwin can faintly hear the sounds of laughter from nearby. He can make out Niko’s giggles and Crystal’s good-natured complaints and Charles’ excited shouts as his friends play a game a little ways away. Edwin smiles at the sounds, feeling a warmth in his chest.
After he takes a moment to just enjoy the feeling of peace and safety, Edwin slowly opens his eyes. Before he can look back to his book to continue reading, a black blur dives from the tree. Edwin startles at the sudden dark figure darting past his head, clutching his book in the process.
Looking to where the blur landed, Edwin finds a large black crow standing a few feet away. As the crow stares back at Edwin, he takes note of the appearance of the strange bird. A golden ribbon wraps around the crows neck, which isn’t completely strange. What really catches Edwin’s attention are the small white spots across their body. They are clustered in a way that makes them look almost like constellations in the sky.
The crow hops a step back, causing Edwin to look back at their face. Two intelligent, almost familiar, eyes stare back at the ghost.
“What-“ before Edwin can finish his question, the crow caws back at him before flying off toward a row of trees at the edge of the park. Curiosity quickly outweighs logic, as Edwin stands up and races after the crow.
The crow doesn’t lead him too far, landing on a low branch a few yards into the trees. Edwin slows to a stop, a little bit away from the tree so he can clearly see the bird. Edwin takes a cautious look around, trying to see if he can sense anything off with the area. Nothing stands out, so he looks back at the crow.
The crow lets out a loud caw, before launching themselves into the air once more. Instead of going away, the crow flies high into the air. As Edwin watches them fly up, the sky begins to darken, and stars start to blink into existence. They begin to blur together, the small dots of light becoming blurred lines that begin to merge into each other to form rings upon rings in the sky. All as the sky begins to spin.
Edwin stares up at the sky, confused and intrigued by whatever magic could make such a phenomenon. He is so distracted he doesn’t notice the earth begin to shift under him until it is too late. Edwin feels himself slide across the ground, shoes forming lines in the ground as they’re dragged through the dirt.
And then he is falling. Falling into the sky, hurdling toward the center of the spinning circle of stars which is nothing but a black void.
Right before the void swallows him whole, he hears a familiar voice call out.
“EDWIN!”
~ Down(?) the Rabbit(?) Hole ~
Edwin feels the wind rush past him as he falls in the void, the darkness around him feeling suffocating. The darkness doesn’t last for long as glowing objects begin to fly past him. Books, a magnifying glass, a cricket bat, a desk with papers, a giant eyeball, a tea set, butcher knives, skulls, stuffed animals, and so on and so forth. The items are all scattered around and floating by, every item surrounded in a bright glow like Jenny’s butcher sign in Port Townsend. Just as quickly as they arrive, the items leave turning into mirrors until that’s all that surrounds Edwin.
And then the fall ends. Edwin lands on his back, colliding with a solid ground which knocks the breath out of him momentarily. Edwin lays there, slightly dazed and disoriented from the who knows how long fall. Taking a moment to orient himself from said fall, he remains laying on the ground, staring up at a glass ceiling. Edwin blinks in confusion, taking in the still intact glass ceiling, no hole in sight. He slowly looks around, taking in his surroundings from the ground.
A hard gasp leaves his mouth as Edwin quickly scrambles to his feet in a panic. He furtively scans the room, taking in as many details as he can. Two walls stretch out into the distance, various kinds of mirrors line the walls, looking almost like windows. The hallway is bathed in low lighting and is terrifyingly reminiscent to the Dollhouse.
“No,” he whispers hoarsely, tripping over his feet as he backs into a wall. The impact once more knocking the breath out of him. Edwin takes in a deep breath, holding it as he listens closely for any sign of something else being here with him. At first all he can hear is a pounding in his head that matches the pounding in his chest.
After a long moment of nothing but silence, Edwin slowly releases the breath as the pounding in his head quiets too. Once no longer panicked, Edwin stands up straight, moving to tug at his sleeves before abruptly stopping. Looking down, Edwin finds a strange sight. Instead of his typical grey jacket and knickerbockers, he finds a light blue jacket and knickerbockers with a plaid pattern on it and black fingerless gloves covering his hands.
“This is highly peculiar,” Edwin says as he moves his hands around, looking at the new wardrobe. “At least this means I’m not actually in Hell.” He pauses, looking around at the hallway once more. “I hope.” Looking up, Edwin steps forward to look at the mirror in front of him, which surprisingly shows Edwin.
“Curious,” he says, taking in his reflection. His hair is styled as he assumes is normal, slicked up and perfectly in place. His outfit however is nearly completely changed. While the style remains, the color has changed and there are now new accessories. A white collared shirt under a pale-yellow vest, under the blue jacket. A black bow tie in place of his grey and a yellow pocket square peeking out of a breast pocket. His jacket also has puffy white shoulder pads over top it. His knickerbocker matches the blue and plaid pattern of the jacket, with black bows at the bottom of each leg. They rest overtop striped black and white socks and his black boots.
“Very curious,” Edwin says as he finishes straightening out his clothes, brushing over the new outfit a little slower than normal. After a moment of assessing his new outfit, finding comfort in the familiar weight and textures, Edwin straightens himself and begins re-investigating his surroundings. He looks down the hallway, taking in the long stretch of walls and mirrors.
“I suppose there is no way but forward,” Edwin says to himself. And then he begins walking, examining the mirrors as he passes by. Each mirror is different than the last, with different frames and shapes and sizes. Each mirror reflects back Edwin as he passes by, but every now and then a different image flashes behind him startling the ghost.
After walking for seems like miles but merely took minutes, Edwin comes to the end of the hall, where it leads into an open room. Entering the room, Edwin takes in the layout and décor. The room is fairly bare; with white walls, a desk in the middle of the room covered in various items, and a full body mirror on the back wall.
Slowly walking around the room, Edwin looks curiously at the desk first. There are papers scattered around the desk, as if whoever was sitting there was trying to find something in a hurry creating a mess. A leather-bound notebook lays on the edge of the desk with a set of spectacles on top of it. Next to the notebook but on top of the papers sits a teacup with what Edwin presumes to be tea in it and a scone on a small plate next to the teacup.
Edwin carefully picks up the notebook, running his fingers over the leather as he opens the book. Inside are pages with nothing written on them, but little doodles of birds and flowers and hearts and other little images drawn on the edges of the pages. Looking around, Edwin sees a pen lying on the other side of the desk. He picks up the pen and puts both the notebook and pen in his pocket.
“Never know when one may need to write down notes,” he mutters to himself. As he turns to try to open one of the drawers, a flash of something bright flashes in the mirror. Turning toward the mirror, Edwin catches a glimpse of rose bushes that surround what looks like a field set up for games. The scene changes and Edwin sees Charles, a frown on his face.
“Charles!” Edwin steps forward to touch the mirror, trying to get to wherever his best friend is. The mirror ripples as he touches it, but it remains solid and closed off to him. For a moment Edwin just stares at a blurry image of Charles’ face, before a new face appears.
Edwin stumbles back as the face of Despair fades into the mirror. The previous images fade away until it’s nothing be empty space behind her head. Despair stares back at Edwin, a small smile forming on her lips.
“What is this? Where is Charles?” Edwin demands, glaring at the face of the woman in front of him. The face merely grins wider at him. “Why won’t you answer me?” There is no vocal response, instead the face shifts and begins to change. Despair’s face remains, but it shifts from grinning at Edwin into a look of an open mouth scream. And the image shifts from that of a human face to one made entirely of metal. Chains began appearing crossing over the mirror and hooking into the face from the side with fishhooks.
Edwin stares at the transformed face, not knowing what to do. As desperate as he was to get to Charles, he was not sure touching the mirror would accomplish that. He turned back to the desk, frantically looking through the papers and drawers to try to find something that would get him either through the mirror or out of this room.
The longer he looks, the more frustrated he becomes. As he begins his third sweep through the desk, he notices the teacup and scone on the desk once more. While he had frantically looked through the papers on top of the desk, neither the teacup nor the scone have moved.
“Curious,” he mutters, moving over to the two. He leans over, back straight, to look closer at the two food items, noting a strange pattern on the teacup and the plate of the scone. The longer he looks, the more the pattern stands out. Within the design of the teacup the words “Drink Me” are hidden, while the words “Eat Me” are hidden on the plate of the scone.
Edwin snaps up straight, the words hidden on the dishware striking a chord in his mind. As he begins to make connections, not just to the words but also some of the strange occurrences, he feels something tap him on the shoulder. And then another thing taps him on the head.
Looking up, Edwin’s eyes widen as he notes for the first time the circular mirror on the ceiling. The very same mirror that was dripping liquid down onto him. Before he can react, the mirror seems to open up and the liquid rushes through, filling the room quickly.
Edwin quickly propels himself up, gasping for air as the water, as that’s what he was fairly certain it is, rushes down on him. The water is cold, and his chest seems to hurt with the effort to take in air.
“Of course I need to breathe here,” he gasps, treading water quickly to try to stay afloat. Looking at the mirror, there didn’t seem to be an end to the water. Before long the room was nearly completely full. Thinking quickly, Edwin takes a deep breath and dives into the water, shooting for the opening in the mirror.
As soon as he is close enough, the current in the water sweeps him up and pushes him through the mirror.
~