III. Eloise in Otherland

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How long has it been?

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How long has it been?

The boy barely remembered anything from before the darkness. Had it been days? Weeks? Months? Years? The darkness was endless, and the water beneath his feet was just as endless. Strangely, his feet did not plunge through the foam, nor was the darkness too dark; for light radiated off of him, that wasn't too blinding nor too faint.

He could barely remember his own name, let alone his own face. He had hands similar to a human boy-and he was sure he was human-for he had five fingers and five toes. He knew he had two arms, and he knew he had two feet. He knew he had two eyes, one nose, one mouth and two ears and he knew that he had hair growing on top of his head.

But what struck him as odd was its color. Whenever he thought he recalled a happy thought during the rare times he spotted land instead of water, he knew his hair was the color of gold that was almost too blinding. On normal days however, his hair was an odd color of... pink. Or was it a faint red?

And when he was feeling lost or confused, like now, his hair would lose its luster, almost appearing white or gray. The light that radiated off of his body seemed to fade...

What would bring him out of this inexplicable melancholy however, was the girl he often called Alice. The little girl was beautiful, with lush golden hair that curled at the ends and amber eyes that gleamed against the darkness. She always wore a dress made of sky blue silk, with sleeves that puffed at her shoulders and had a black lace overlay. Her feet wore simple leather shoes and white socks trimmed with black lace. On her head was a fancy black and white ruffled headband that accentuated her doll-like features. But in spite of her queer beauty, she seemed to him a very sad young girl.

She seemed to him like a literal doll.

Her name was not Alice. She was not a curious little girl who followed a time-conscious rabbit down the hole. She was a girl forlorn, who like Alice, dreamed of nonsensical things and told nonsensical tales. For some inexplicable reason, the boy knew that her name was Eloise Gallagher: a girl who had been trapped in this world for god knows how long. He somehow knew that she was trapped far longer here than he ever was.

His prime motivation was to get her out.

How did I meet her again?

"Alice," he called for her. His voice echoed through the darkness, expanding the light from his body. What the light unveiled was a beautiful world filled with green and yellow glades, of spiraling trees and multitudinous flower beds of every color. The air was crisp and clean, and the water was blue and clear.

But no one was there.

The boy sighed, patting non-existent dust off of his sleeves. Midway through his thoughts he blinked and paused, and then he stared at the reflection of the water where he waded on and found the long-forgotten face he had recently been contemplating about.

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