Chapter Text
The world was black, Aadhira woke up to the sound of flames, her eyes snapped open. A coffin. She was inside a coffin. Aadhira shifted and lifted her leg, kicking the coffin open, rising like the dead. She looked around, candles with a blueish flame, dark purple walls with gold outlines, she moved to fully get out of the coffin only to trip on her robe– robe?! she thought, I was wearing pants and a shirt!
Looking at the robe more clearly now, it was a detailed hooded robe, an undershirt with gold detailing, stretchy pants, a purple waistband, and a detached waist piece secured by safety pins… it was pretty. Anyways! Aadhira looked around her and saw coffins, and she opened one. Closed it. Opened another one, and closed it again. She sighed, and ran a hand through her and she froze.
There are ears. On her head.
What.
She shakes her head and she opens another coffin, and lo and behold, there was Anaya in it! Asleep.
Aadhira sighs, “Of course…” Aadhira grabs Anaya and yanks her up. And yet, all she does is go spectacularly limp. Aadhira closes her eyes and counts to ten and then she slaps Anaya.
“Anaya! Wake the fuck up!”
“Aadhira??? WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with you. What the hell??”
Aadhira smiles and releases her hold on Anaya and she says, “You wouldn’t wake up.”
Anaya lands back in the coffin with a low oomph, “Where are we? Cause I vividly remember falling asleep in my own room, listening to asmr and eating snacks. Now I’m in a dracula’s castle library looking ahh place with you hitting me. This is NOT the customer service I paid for in my dreams. And I paid like a good amount of money!”
Aadhira stares at her, dead in the eyes, “We’re having a shared dream? Also, you have no money. You couldn’t pay for anything. Get your head out of the clouds. If this was a dream, wouldn’t you have woken up by now? I would’ve slapped you awake right?”
The sound equivalent to a soprano’s highest note and a furious alarm clock rang through the air.
“Oh shoot. That would’ve woken you up Anaya.”
“Shut up bro.”
“GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!” The coffin on Aadhira’s right began making a banging sound, fists punching the wood in a claustrophobic state. “HELP ME!!”
Aadhira stares and starts walking towards the sound, she lifts the coffin top, “Hi, Heidi.” The girl fell over, still trying to hit the lid and falling on her face.
Anaya was struggling to get out of the coffin, her robes twisted around her legs, and called from afar. “Hi, Heidi.”
Heidi only laid in disbelief and shock with a blank stare. “...Hi?”
Aadhira smiles and helps Heidi up. Then Aadhira turns back to Anaya and helps her up. Anaya proceeds to stand up, and she immediately gets thrown off balance.
“So, where are we?” Aadhira asks, looking around.
“I say we are all having a mass hallucination and should go back to sleep. All in favor of sleep. Me. ME! ME!!” Anaya said in a voice that got increasingly more high pitched “All 3 of us? Great! I'm going back to bed.”
Aadhira grabs Anaya by the back of her robe, “You just want to sleep, and this isn’t a mass hallucination. We weren’t even in the same place when we woke up here. Idiot. Heidi, what do you think?”
“I think… this place smells funny. And I’m hungry. And if this is a lucid dream I should pretend this is the 19th century.”
Aadhira slaps the back of Anaya and Heidi’s heads.
She opens her mouth before freezing and she points, “Isn’t that Grim?”
Anaya scoffed “Grim? That troublemaker? Can’t be. Plus, Grim belongs to Twisted Wonderland. Not OUR universe. Now if you told me that was Lance McClain….. Maybe I would have believed you.”
“Twisted Wonderland? You know what that means~” Heidi’s eyes lit up.
Aadhira puts her hand on both their heads and turns their heads to what she’s seeing.
It’s Grim. Using his fire to blow open a coffin.
Anaya looked at the cat. Then she looked at the coffin. She was silent for a second. “I'm a guy now. Call me Anush. Or some shit.”
Aadhira closes her eyes, counting to twenty for patience. Heidi stood in silence yet again, her eyes sparkling.
“I know that look in your eyes. Don’t you even dare. I’m gonna throw you. ”
They hear Grim say, “I better hurry up and find that uniform before someone spots me…”
Grim knocks open the coffin, and a young man jolts up.
“Yo, that’s Yuuken.” Aadhira says, hitting Heidi, who was still awe-struck.
Anaya was closing her eyes, resigning herself to a fate of overblots, fish- mafia, and everyone licking the boots of Malleus Draconia. Eugh.
Aadhira tilts her head, “Should we make ourselves known? How does Crowley find us again? Should we run? I think we should run. Leave Yuuken here, he’ll figure it out.”
“Uhh, I vote to go back to sleep, Crowley will never find us there”
Aadhira side-eyes her, “Anaya, he probably will find us.”
At the mention of the headmage, Heidi snapped back to reality. “Huh? Wait, why are we cussing?”
Aadhira rolls her eyes and looks at Heidi, “Is saying the Headmage’s name a slur now?”
“Yes.”
“I honestly agree with his philosophy. Be as lazy as you need. Let everyone else do the work.”
Rolling up her sleeves, Aadhira lifts her hand to hit Anaya, “How about I beat you–”
Anaya shrieks and dodges to the side “WHAT THE FREAK. LEMME BE BRO–”
They hear, “WHO ARE YOU?!”
“YOU ARE YOU”
Aadhira closes her eyes. Sevens, give me patience. She turns back to Grim and Yuuken, who were staring at the three of them.
Heidi, finally realizing the situation, turns back as well, her face turning to one of bewilderment. Her voice lowered to a whisper-shout to the other girls. “When did they get here??”
“Heidi please, they’ve BEEN here”
“I’m putting you two idiots up for sale.”
“Hey, now, we’re YOUR idiots.”
Grim spits out fire, “DON’T IGNORE ME!”
They scatter.
Aadhira grabs Heidi and Anaya and they run. Yuuken followed close behind, trying to get far away from the pyromaniac at the moment.
“LEMME GOOOOOOOOO. I DONT WANNNA RUNNNNNN. I’LL TAKE MY CHANCES WITH THE POKEMON LOOKING AHH CREATURE”
“SHUT UP ANAYA AND HEIDI GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE CLOUDS GRIM ISN’T YOUR BIG BACK BABY!”
“NOT YET HE ISN’T!”
After running through what looked like a courtyard, through the hallways, and then into a library.
Aadhira’s eyes widened, “Woah. We really are in Twisted.”
“No Shit Shelock"
“I’m sorry, I was just thinking maybe this is a hallucination– or well, a dream, I’d I just dreamt you too up!”
“I SAID IT WAS A HALLUCINATION WHEN WE FIRST CAME. AND WHAT DID YOU TELL ME? OH THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE BECAUSE WHY WOULD WE HAVE A SHARED HALLUCINATION. WHO”S IN THE RIGHT NOW?”
“Well, now, I said a shared hallucination. I thought I was the only one hallucinating at this point and just dreamt you two up and I was actually in a mental hospital… or something. But you know what, that’s besides the point.”
“If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up…” She smiled slyly. “You know what I’m thinking?”
“Of course you don’t. And no. I don’t know what you’re thinking, Anaya, do you know?”
“If it has something to do with Rook Hunt, I'm going to jump out the window”
“Valid.”
“Well, what have we here?”
Aadhira turns, and stops because Crowley is there.
“Oh.”
Aadhira elbows Heidi and Anaya.
“It’s the thing” Anaya whispers a LITTLE too loud.
“You’re too nice. It’s an it.” Heidi whispers back.
Crowley turns to look at them in offense .
Aadhira hits both of their stomachs, and she bows and straightens up, smiling, “Headmage Crowley, we got lost on our way to orientation, and since you are such a gracious and kind Headmage, you can lead us there?”
Crowley puffs his chest in pride, “Yes, since I am a kind and magnanimous Headmage, I shall lead you to your orientation.”
Aadhira sighs in relief before turning to glare at Heidi and Anaya, “We need to be on his good side, okay?”
“‘Its’ good side,” Heidi corrects.
Aadhira kicks Heidi’s shin, right where the swim bruise is.
“Ow! What was that for?” She rubbed her leg, frowning.
Aadhira stares at Heidi.
“Guess who woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Or coffin I guess.”
Aadhira kicks the back of Anaya’s knee.
Anaya proceeds to go sprawling to the ground.
“Anklebiter time i guess”
And lunged.
Aadhira dodges, she grabs Anaya by the hood of her robe and starts dragging her and Heidi.
Anaya proceeds to fall asleep.