Pandora Hearts: The Novel

An Unexpected Conversation

“So,” she whispers, “you came back after all. I’m so happy!”

To my complete astonishment, a slight warmth seeps through me and I feel myself blushing. My knees are still wobbly and my head still spinning, yet it’s not easy to resist the pleading urge inside of me to return her hug.

It is definitely déjà vu. Have we met somewhere before?

No. Of that I am sure.

She lifts her head and our eyes lock. “Everyone despises me,” she says. “No one ever comes to visit.”

That snaps me back to reality and I feel her cold hand tightly clutching my arm. Quickly I push her away from me. “Hold it! I don’t know what’s going on,” my voice holds a strength absent in my heart. “What the heck is this place?”

She tilts her head to the side, her forehead creased with lines of confusion. She looks hurt. “What are you talking about? You’ve always come here.” A smile finds its way back to her little lips.

“I have?” The fact that I’m even considering the possibility that what she says is true worries me.

“Yes.” She turns and walks towards the nearest shelf of puppets. Picking up a creepy looking doll, she brushes her fingers through its hair and continues. “You were always with me when I was lonely. If you’re with me, I don’t care if I can never leave this place.”

The next question leaves my mouth before my mind has a chance to think.“What..are you?” I whisper.

Her fingers stop moving through the doll’s hair. She stands frozen with her back towards me. The doll slips out of her hand and lands on the ground with an echoing thud.

She turns around, her gaze lowered. “What..,” she mumbles, “what..am I?”

Suddenly the floor begins to tremble and the walls close in on me. A violent gust of wind whips at me out of nowhere. Faint echoes of voices blend together to almost sound like a chorus, giggling and whispering lines I will never understand.

I squint and cross my arms over my chest, looking at the girl. Or at least, at where the girl used to be. With a shock I realized that she has disappeared.

The voices grow louder. The whole room is violently shaking, not helping my trembling legs to support me. Then a chilling cold runs down my spine and all my hairs shoot up as the girl clutches onto me from behind and whispers a single line in my ear.

“I will kill you.” 

Her chilly hands form a tight grip round my neck. Panic wells up in my chest and I frantically try to pry away her hands while sucking in air greedily. My efforts only seem to make her grip stronger. I try shaking her away from me, but she doesn’t even seem to notice.

“REMEMBER!” she yells, causing me to wince in terror. “I will always find you, wherever you may hide! I will not forgive you, never, ever!”

“L-Let me go!” I manage to croak.

She releases her grip and pushes me onto the ground with a force I never would have imagined possible. I land with a crash and pain radiates through my back. In a flash she is lying on top of me. My breathing is rapid and I feel beads of sweat running down my face, yet I am shivering with cold.

Her grey eyes pierce right through me. “What’s wrong?” she asks, amused. “Are you afraid of me? Very well. Fear as you wish.” Her fingers are now intertwined with mine.

“Lament,” she whispers, “terror, despair, I shall kindly teach them all to you!” Madness is written all over her face and her grin grows larger and more unfriendly  by the second. “And in your final moment? I shall kill you by my own hands!”