Welcome to Crazytown

Sad Little Oyster

I woke up to being binded to a chair, the only thing lighting the area was a small dimly lit lantern that hung from the ceiling and little strings of small light that came from a blue, glowing plant. I could see a subtle outline of glass jars sitting on a bookshelf.
"Awake, awake, awake. Look Titus! She's awake, I told you that I wouldn't kill her. No, no, no, I wouldn't do that. Never ever." I hear a voice from behind me say. Whoever it was, I'm guessing it was Merchant, stood in front of me. It was kind of hard to see what he looked like, considering the lack of a solid light source.
"Oh, no, don't worry about the light. I'll fix that, I'll fix that." He says. I wasn't worrying? He reaches up and after a couple of clicks, the lantern is now shining brightly, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust. The man in front of me is wearing a worn out, red suit. "There. There, there, there. Now we can get a better look at each other, can't we Alice?"
"My name is Jane."
"Yeah that's what I said."
"No you said-" Why am I arguing with him? "Nevermind."
Merchant then stops messing with whatever he was messing with, and comes to my level. He has shaggy, dark brown hair with streaks of gray. And his eyes were... well they were strangely wide, almost bug eyed, and they were gray. There was the tiniest of scars placed on the corner of his bottom lip.
"Wow." He said. "Pretty, very pretty. Look Titus she looks like her- No! She looks like her father, look at her eyes, you see how green they are, just look at them. Oh and her hair, that white is definitely from her father... no Titus, would you just look at her! Look, you see." He got a little too close for my comfort.
"Who is Titus?" More like where is he?
"You see, I told you." He completely ignored me. I tried again.
"Who is Titus?"
"Oh, well that's a hard question, because it takes many questions to answer it, you'll have to ask differently later." What the hell?
"If you're going to kill me, just hurry up."
"No, no, I'm not going to kill you Alice. That's not what he wants. He needs you alive. He's been helping you, Alice."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, surely you don't think that Mr. Mellows truly fell for the poison right? Or that Duchess Elsabeth wouldn't take the precaution of covering the top of the labyrinth? I mean, she is, was, a smart woman and her high score is... was 600. If it were possible, I'm sure someone would've done it before. Oh, and let me not forget Mr. Dodt, even though he's an absolute idiot he knows not to chase someone down the everchanging hallway. These aren't coincidences. And then there's me, you've heard, haven't you? I wait for the others. I don't challenge anyone." Why is he telling me all of this?
"But you challenged me."
"It's just as I've said, I wait for the others, but not for you, Alice. Not for you. I know very well that I won't be alive by the end of this ordeal. That's not what he wants at all."
"Is 'he' Titus?"
"Yes! Titus Oz, the land he owns is named after him. He's such a grumpy man, that one. He says he'll save us. I think he's wrong. I don't think he's going to save us. I don't think you're going to save us either. It'll be that little seedling."
"What?"
He takes his pointer finger and pokes at my stomach. "There, right there."
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, don't worry, the little seedling won't even be a thought for another 16 years. You'll be much older then, much wiser. Very lovely, very lovely, indeed."
He was silent, he looked like he was losing thought, not like he had much of it in the first place. "If you're not going to kill me then what are you going to do? Because it doesn't seem like you're going to let me go." I said, gesturing towards the ropes that tied my hands.
"Oh, you'll be sitting here until the game is over." Oh, so he's not going to kill me directly but I'm going to lose, and then I'll die anyway. Perfect, I get to die because of a crazy old man. "Don't worry about losing, I'll do everything in my power to prevent that from happening. You will win. I'll make sure of it. After All-"
"It's what he wants, yep, got it."
"You've caught on. Good. Good, good, good."
"But what if I don't sit here?"
He smiled, "You heard about Lory, haven't you? As I've said, you will not be killed, your death is not my mission. And luckily for you, I've been at this long enough. If I need to take extra measures, a missing arm or leg won't kill you."
"Why do I need to stay here, exactly?"
"Well, I can assure your safety. While you sit here, I'll challenge other people, kill them, get you the points and when my time is up. You kill me, and you win. Sounds like a pretty good deal right?"
The word 'deal' stuck out to me, is it possible that Yanelle was talking about Merchant when she wrote the letter? "It would need to sound like a deal in the first place before it sounds like a pretty good one."
"What do you mean?"
"I think you know what I mean, but if you're struggling to form the thought into a comprehensible sentence, I'll go ahead and help you. A deal is when both parties benefit, but this seems one-sided which would make everything suspicious, as I'm sure you know. Not only that but I don't even have the option to accept because you're threatening my limbs." In simpler words, your deal is bullshi- "You'll have to do better than that."
His eyes said everything and nothing. "You see that Titus? That... Is from her mother. So smart, so smart." He started laughing, manically. Then he stopped and frowned. "No Titus, I know who I'm looking at. Much more than you- Well what else am I supposed to tell her? No- Titus, no."
"How are you even talking to him?"
"Oh, it's all up here." He said pointing to his head. "When I die, you'll know what I mean."
I don't think I want to know what you mean.
"And what if you lose one of the rounds?"
"Oh I won't. Titus will help me."
"Isn't that breaking the rules?"
"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean anything if he doesn't know. And I wouldn't  tell him if I were you, because he's been helping you too. Actually, if you were to tell him, he wouldn't do anything. He's a very small minded man, he thinks that  Crazytown is all there is, that there's nothing else. He'll just think it's another one of the voices in my head. Oz knows I don't hear those anymore. I wish I could, I miss them terribly... they weren't as... what's the word... argumentative." He was recollecting something. "And they always said it was a bright sunny day. And they used to tell me right from wrong. But then the Madman stole them. He said he had to do it to win... That recording you took. You'll need that. More than you'll know."
How does he know about that?
"Oh I know everything, from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the mountain. I knew who you were before you were even born. I know how the Old Jester Man and his henchmen are getting the Dragon's Tear. I knew how everything was meant to end for you, for us, for this whole world. It's all just stories, Alice. And when you die, the seedling will find themself in this same mess no matter what you do. No one can escape. Not you, not your mother, and certainly not the seedling. If you don't understand it, we're all dying here, and that's why we're mad as that author would put it."
"How do you know? What if you're wrong?" I don't want him to be right. He can't be, he's not allowed to be right.
"That's the problem. I know everything, I see it all the time. It's written on the walls, on the floor, in the ceiling. It's written within my eyelids, I can't escape it, and I can't change it. Face it, Alice. You. Die. Here."
I. Die. Here. I will never leave, I will never escape. I. Die. Here. Why didn't I realize this sooner? Once I entered Crazytown, I was tied to it. There was no way back out after that.
"I have to go now. I'll be very busy these next few days. Lots and lots to do."
I need to escape. I can't be here. I can't stand it here. Ever since he left, it's been completely silent, you could hear an eye blink. But it didn't help that I couldn't see anything. This was enough to drive anyone insane.
But I think that was his end goal.

...

I don't know how long I've been here, I think I must've dozed off but it didn't feel like it I felt blurred. Regardless, I am now awake, or something like that, to the worst screaming I've ever heard. I think what was worse was the silence that followed immediately after. I feel sick. I hear Merchant walking. His steps are careful, he's mumbling something to himself. He walks into the room I'm in.
"I thought you'd be hungry." He says, there's blood on his face and clothes as he extends his hand forward. "I got you some Dragon's Tear. You like that, don't you alice?"
I don't move. "How many?"
"I don't know, about 5 now. That last one was quite loud, wasn't she?" I still don't say anything. "Not very talkative today huh? Say, would you like to know about this little fruit?"
I already know about the fruit, I grew up on this fruit, which I've learned is odd. He waits for the response I don't give him before nodding.
"Well, this is a special fruit, you eat its skin. And it's only good to eat when the insides are completely rotted. Yet for some reason, despite the inside being rotted, it smells very fresh. You already know this, though. Let's get to the more interesting bits. This fruit grows native to Crazytown, and doesn't grow anywhere else. So that begs the question, how did that Old Jester Man get his hands on it? Well, the answer is a little less simple. I'll give you the short answer, he's stealing magic. If that's not good enough for you. You might want to ask your grandmother. I think that'd be the perfect bonding moment."
"Why are you telling me any of this?" He told me so much, and for what?
"Because I love the Madman like an older brother does a younger, but I hate him more than anything in this world. But I suppose the reason I'm not stopping anything is because this has to happen. It's already been decided long before any of us were even a concept." He starts peeling the Dragon's Tear, being very careful not to leave any remaining fruit. He is able to cut off the skin in one go. "You may not like it now, but Titus has big plans for you. Big, big plans."
"The way you describe him makes it sound like you're in a cult."
He looks at me and laughs. "You've caught on... Say, tell me, Alice. Do you know how many people come here from your world every year?"
"No." I imagine it wouldn't be a lot. I'm pretty sure that Michael is from my world. Michael... I kind of miss him...
"Lots, lots and lots and lots. That's why Crazytown is so populated. Who do you think those people are?" I stayed silent. "They're refugees, criminals, murderers. Of course half of them don't have a single bad bone in their body but they are running away from something. That's the beauty of Crazytown. We take in all strays. One day, you will too. Four of em'. You're going to be someone Alice. That little seedling will take after you. And it's all tied together. All tied, you'll see. Well maybe you won't, but others will. You have a long way to go. I don't even think Titus knows who he's just unleashed. No matter what you face. You will always be the most dangerous. But you won't do anything too terrible. No, no, no you're not like that. And I find that to be the scariest thing about you."
He lifts his head like he's heard something.
"Here, you can have this." He tells me as he sets the skin in my lap.
"How am I supposed to eat this?" I ask, my hands are literally tied.
"You'll figure it out." He's not paying attention at all, his focus is entirely somewhere else. His eyes were hungry. He was a very march man.