Chapter Text
For as long as they remembered, it was just darkness. A comforting one, but a darkness nonetheless. They could walk in any direction and nothing would change. No light could reach this space—for this was not a place. It was the home for those who didn’t belong, a home to those who quite literally didn’t have one. That’s what the child liked to think, anyways. If they couldn’t remember a home—whatever that was—then this had to be a place for them in specific.
Every... Well, there wasn’t a way to tell time passed, but they could feel it, but for all the time that passed they found a rhythm. One step, two step, back step, blue step(that fourth step was a normal step, but it was more fun this way). It was a fun and familiar chant, one they couldn’t seem to place. That’s okay, though.
But this time was different. After doing their chant for what felt like the 100th time before they rested, a boy stared at them. An older one. Well.. they thought he was older. They didn’t know how old they were, so maybe they were mistaken! His hair was shiny—no, shimmery.. splendid-.. y? It was dazzling in this normally vacant expanse—its grey tones contrasting their darkness. As they stared at him, they felt enchanted by the color of his eyes. It was like-.. Like-.. They couldn’t even think of the words. They couldn’t remember what the words they were thinking of even meant!
An aurora. Whatever that meant, those were his eyes. The normal silence stretched on until the boy opened his mouth. He kept moving it, but they didn’t hear anything. It was interesting. What was he trying to do..?
Their feet trotted against the nonexistent ground as they moved closer. Why was he so high up? Well, why was his head so high up? Their head only went up the middle of his chest! It made them feel.. buzzy. Not the good buzzy, but the bad kind. The kind that made them want to hurt.
Eventually the boy seemed to put it together that he couldn’t speak. He watched the child glare up at him, their eyes filled with a weird fire he couldn’t even understand the cause of. Usually when he fell asleep, he’d end up in the dreams of someone he knew. And could at least talk to. This was just… awkward. Were children always like this? Quiet? Judgmental? Off putting? Perhaps he’d be able to forget about this when he woke up.
And it didn’t take long for that to happen. Well, to the child it wasn’t long. They had been within the darkness for what felt like.. like five-ever! They still couldn’t help but be surprised when they blinked and the boy was gone. It was like he hadn’t been around to begin with. They couldn’t help but feel a bit.. sad. Yeah, that’s the word. They liked the darkness, but having someone around was new. It was different.
Thankfully, the current time still had gifts for them. After some more walking, they actually found something. A mirror. A familiar one. Nothing reflected back as they stared, likely because of the mask that appeared shortly after they approached it.
“A reflection of myself, of my non-self. One who can read and see the truths, but cannot leave their cage.”
Unlike the boy, it spoke. They felt entertained by the mirror. How did they even know what this thing was? Who cares. They liked it. It was fun.
“You’d do well to take the guiding hand, for your time is short if you remain.”
The mask slowly faded away, instead replaced with a gloved hand. The child didn’t know what compelled them to reach out and grasp this hand, but they reached out. For once, they saw a little bit of themself—they saw their own small hand grasp the gloved one as they were pulled into the mirror.
☆『 Night Raven College 』☆
They panicked as they continued falling forward, causing the padded surface in front of them to begin falling as well. It landed with a crash as they followed the lid of their shoddy cage. The sound was slightly scary, but they didn’t mind. Why would they? They finally had something other than pure silence.
When they tried to stand up, they kept stumbling. That’s when they finally noticed they were wearing something. Something that seemed much bigger than all of them. It was like wearing a blanket! It was especially hard with the hood that kept trying to cover their eyes and steal their vision. That was when they noticed some items held in the weird shaped box that originally housed them.
Three plushies. They all looked familiar. One was a.. a hedgehog. Yeah, that’s what it was! It was black with a little red. It had a rather angry expression. The second was harder to recall. It had four legs with a mainly white body. There were pink and blue additions as well as ribbons that matched the general look of the plush. The final one was smaller than the other two. It was a bunny. It had a tan head, sewn brown eyes, a pink nose.. oh, and its body was a mini blanket! It had some stuff sewn on it, including some words, but they couldn’t focus enough to read the words.
As they stared at the plushies, their hood yet again fell, obscuring their vision. They huffed angrily, as an idea came to mind. They grabbed the two bigger plushies, stuffing them into the hood. The weird quills on the angry one and the ears on the colorful one would help keep the hood up! The bunny plush got special treatment, though. They held it as they waddled around, trying not to trip over the fabric of the mainly black blanket. It was a blanket, right..? They honestly didn’t know. They liked the purple additions, though. It looked pretty with the gold, too!
When they reached the doors of the room, it took all of their might to push the ginormous doors open. Seriously, who would need doors this big?! Nobody could possibly reach all the way up to the ceilings in this place, right?
The sun blinded them as they stepped into the hallway. The sun..? Right! The warm ball! How could they ever forget the nice way it made them feel?! Their eyes really hurt though. Maybe they had spent too much time in the darkness… Oh well! Not like that could be undone! As they walked down the halls of this maze-like place, they found themself looking down at the ground. They were simply mesmerized by the sounds of their own footsteps. Sound was so fascinating.
Eventually, they heard another’s footsteps, so they looked up. It was some.. some.. was that a big kitty? He had ears and a tail, so he had to be a kitty, right? Yes, that was sound logic to the child.
Meanwhile, the lion beastman just quietly stared at the mess of robes. Were one of the ghosts playing a prank? God, that was exhausting. And why was it approaching him..? Yeah, the prince didn’t want to deal with this, so he quickly turned around and walked back the way he came. He didn’t care if he was found skipping, the smell on those robes… He just didn’t want to bother. Maybe having dealt with Cheka for so long made him wary of situations like this…
The child frowned slightly as the big kitty left. Oh well. They’d just have to continue on their own path, wherever that may lead them!
Their wandering stopped when they saw a boy suddenly rush down a different hallway and into a mirror. It intrigued the child as they hadn’t ever witnessed someone go into a mirror, despite having just done so themself! The boy even had bunny ears sprouting from his head, so it made them even more curious. Above the mirror he went through was some writing, but reading still felt hard. There were other decorations around it, though. A giant book sat below the reflective surface as rectangles surrounded the frame. The rectangles had some special name, but they couldn’t remember the name. Some had shapes while others were striped. It reminded them of coins and how they had two different sides.
Before they could stop themself, they followed Mr. Rabbit as they chose to dub the boy who ran by, stepping through the mirror. Hopefully they wouldn’t go back to the darkness, though. That would suck.
☆『 Heartslabyul 』☆
Whatever this place was, it was awesome! There was a giant castle and lots of roses! The child couldn’t help but giddily run around to explore, which did eventually lead them into a.. a… what was the word again? The thing where people would get together to dance, eat, and talk? Oh! A party! Yeah, that’s what they found!
Well, that’s what they originally thought, at least. There were lots of boys, but their attention was drawn to one. He looked buzzy. The bad kind. His grey eyes were searching around the circle of boys as egg dripped down from his pretty red hair. If they weren’t so scared of his buzziness, they’d go approach him. The longer they stared, the more they felt like they saw. A pretty red was a good way to describe this strange boy, so why was it being tainted? Why was the red that seemed to flow so flawlessly around him turning darker and darker?
“Who was it..?” he asked, his shoulders shaking slightly. They began to notice his outfit. It looked fancy, like the kind a prince would wear! Oh, he even had a crown! Maybe he was a prince! “Who threw that egg at me?” the boy continued.
Nobody spoke up. Not a single boy in this circle attempted to even open their mouth.
“Very well. If you won’t come forward…”
Something in the air felt different all too suddenly. The child quickly moved to get under a table, peaking out from under the white tablecloth. As fearful as they were, they still wanted to watch. What was that one saying? Curiosity.. curiosity killed the dog? That sounded right. They weren’t a dog, so they wouldn’t die!… probably.
“… Then I’ll hold you all responsible!” he exclaimed as he lifted the scepter he held up. It looked fancy and made up of several hearts at the top. There was a matching crown laying on top of those hearts. It was mainly gold with the addition of red, black, and a little bit of white.
“OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!” He declared, making a swiping movement. Collars began appearing around the necks of the boys in the circle. It was kind of scary, especially when uncollared boys began running. Nothing seemed to stop the angry red haired boy, pleading, running, screaming... He just swiveled around and faced person after person. He began rambling on about rules, only to get a response from some man. He was definitely an odd one, what with the mask, tophat, and really formal clothing.
“Stop this at once, Mr. Rosehearts! This is no way to keep the rules!” The masked man said, yet made no effort to stop the boy. He just continued to stand there. What a bozo..
The child shifted their gaze, focusing on the ‘Rosehearts’ guy. The pretty red kept getting swallowed up. They wanted to try and stop it, but that’s when they saw the change in his appearance. Black ink was dripping down his face like blood. The child wanted to scream, but they couldn’t get a single sound out of their throat. What was happening right now?! Did the egg hurt him that much?!
Suddenly, the rose bushes they previously were admiring began floating up into the blue sky, yet it didn’t seem like it was supposed to be a fun magic trick. How was this even being done? They knew magic was made of illusions, so how were the rose bushes flying?
“RISE ROSE BUSHES! AND PLUCK HIM LIMB FROM LIMB!” Rosehearts said, a mean smile coming across his face. His target was a boy with ginger hair that faded into blue. The targeted boy had on one of the collars. They couldn’t see his face from their vantage point, but they had a feeling he was scared. Who wouldn’t be?
“PAINT THE ROSES!” a new voice said. Their gaze quickly darted over to the owner of it. A different boy, one with green hair, a funny hat, and glasses. He wore an outfit identical to the targeted boy. Now that they noticed that, there weren’t many with different outfits. It was the Rosehearts guy, the bozo, a cat(but firey), and another figure that had more special clothing! Oh, and themself of course!
Suddenly, the bushes exploded into shapes, the same shapes that were on the rectangles surrounding the mirror that led here. It was an amazing display! Suddenly, the collar that was around the targeted boy exploded into the pretty shapes too. Rosehearts began trying to magic the collars back, but it wouldn’t work. The child didn’t care why, as it just meant getting to see more shapes! All this color was absolutely dazzling!
☆『 To Be Continued! 』☆