Chapter 7: Up the Rabbit Hole
‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”’ – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
*
Holly floated higher and higher, meeting a gust of cold wind. Her heart was thumping fast, her eyes still teary from her confrontation with Emi. She shut them tight, shaking her head, trying to shake away the tears and the tumult of feelings. She couldn’t wipe them with her hands; one was holding Tamaki’s head, and the other was pulling Tamaki’s hand, lifting the childlike body with her.
It makes no sense. Lies… all lies! I’ll never know who I am, or where I came from!
But at least… I now have my freedom. Can all the love and sweet words in the world compensate for freedom?
The wind howled in her ears, chilling her every bit of exposed skin. Holly opened her eyes. Luckily, the night was lit by a gibbous moon. Living underground, she couldn’t imagine how dark it would be without its light. Her mouth fell open upon realizing it was her first time seeing the moon with her own eyes.
She was flying through a canopy of trees, and got her first real, waking view of the outside world. Shadowy trees filled her field of vision, bordered by dark mountains and ridges. It took her breath away. Is there even any fellow human for miles around?
“Tamaki, you went with… with that lying hag to human settlements before, right?” Holly asked, hands still gripping.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, lead me to it, then!”
“You’re heavy.”
“Wha-? Oh, shut it!” Holly stopped herself short of giving the head a slap with her other hand. She was content with shaking the body vigorously instead.
“Hey,” Tamaki frowned. “I feel that.”
“You don’t expect us to walk, do you?” Holly asked. The expansive forest and the dark night made her feel helpless and lost. The stars twinkled, and clouds passed far overhead like wisps of smoke.
“I didn’t expect us to leave,” Tamaki deadpanned with narrowed eyes.
“Well, you and your smart mouth.”
Tamaki drawled, “I’m currently eighty percent brains, thank you very much.”
Holly allowed herself an annoyed grin. “Oh, you.”
That was when something huge burst out from the covers of trees, large enough to disturb the night air. It shrieked, spreading its wings.
“The heck was that…” Holly whimpered at the sight. Blacker than the night itself, it looked like a humongous headless bat with wings that could wrap a car like a maki roll.
“Whatever happens, Holly, don’t let go!” Tamaki warned.
“Tamaki we need to get down!”
“Told you so.”
“NOT BACK TO EMI’S!” Holly protested, her voice a mix of exasperation and fear.
“Groan…” said Tamaki’s annoyed head.
With a burst of speed, the flying abomination closed in the distance between them. Holly paled. She was in a most awkward position. If she let go, she’d fall to a squishy death. If she did nothing, that thing would probably eat her. And Tamaki was not exactly a supersonic plane either; Holly felt like a child stuck to holding a balloon, Whiny the Boo style.
It opened its mouth, screeching, showing needle-like teeth. Unlike the creature in the library, this one was big enough to swallow her whole. Well, if it doesn’t chew, thought Holly drily.
“Tamaki, I can’t cast a spell! Moving my hand means—”
“Splat,” Tamaki finished her sentence for her. Holly felt like whacking her on the head. The creature’s shriek intensified so much as to hurt their ears.
“TAMAKI DO SOMETHING!” Holly yelled, only her composure preventing her from letting go and covering her ears. But if that bloody thing is any closer, I’m really going to—
It did, opening its mouth even wider, enough to swallow Holly and Tamaki, head and body, with one gulp.
Tamaki took an audible breath.
A purplish-red flash accompanied by a thunderous roar of fire shocked Holly beyond her wits. She let go, screaming. Ahead of her, the monster fell from the sky, covered in flames like a burnt plane, its screech having a different pitch to it; it was dying. And Holly was falling even further, as the canopy of trees became closer…
And she was jerked upwards again, as Tamaki’s head hoisted her up, biting Holly’s collar.
“Thanks.”
“Fh-fuh. Nf thunks t’yoo,” came the muffled answer.
They landed on the forest floor. “Thanks for not letting go of my body, though,” Tamaki told her, attaching herself to her body again. “If you did, I won’t forgive you.”
“But you’ll save me anyway, right?” Holly asked, looking around in the dim light. It was much darker under them. Countless tree trunks stood around them, grim and thin. They looked unwelcoming. The near-darkness played tricks with their minds, but they knew better.
“Uh-huh.” Tamaki nodded. “Emi said your life is top priority.”
“The heck with what Emi said!” Holly yelled in her face. “It’s over now, Tamaki, it’s over. I don’t want to have anything to do with her anymore.”
Tamaki didn’t reply, not even with an ‘Uh-huh.’ She just stared at Holly with half-closed eyes, with something like sadness in them.
“And what do you know about her? What do you know about her secrets? Tell me!” Holly shook Tamaki by her shoulders.
“Eh…
“What secrets?” Tamaki asked with the ultimate face of naïveté.
“The Room of Secrets!”
“Nope, never been there.” Tamaki shook her head in a way that only Tamaki could.
“You’ve never seen that… that freaky other me?”
“W-what?”
“You were created from bits and pieces Emi took from me!”
“Uh-huh.” Tamaki nodded in a way that only Tamaki could. “So you mean I’m other you?”
“No!” Holly denied, not sure how to keep asking.
“Call me Holly Esther Jr,” Tamaki said, thumping her chest.
“Lol.” Holly grinned. Then she remembered why they started the conversation in the first place. “Now, Tamaki, you know the way to the nearest human settlement, right?”
“My body knows.”
“Uh… something sounds wrong with that statement.”
A girly scream pierced the night air. Holly and Tamaki spun in alarm.
A dark silhouette rushed towards them.
“Light!” Holly exclaimed, as a small white orb appeared and illuminated the area around them.
It turned out to be a girl with curly blonde hair, her eyes widening with fright. “Help me! Help me! They’re coming! They’re coming!”
“What’s co—?” Tamaki asked.
“Tamaki, we better run!” Holly cut her short.
Holly grabbed the girl’s hand, and Tamaki’s too. They broke to a sprint. All around them were sounds of countless scampering feet, things unseen dragging through the undergrowth, and even loud rustles overhead. “They’re already around us!” the girl cried out in dismay.
It was monsters again. This time it was a horde, with different kinds of them. Some of them looked like headless bats, just much smaller than the one that assaulted Holly midflight. Some of them shambled through the undergrowth, eerily resembling headless bears. There were those that looked like daddy longlegs, with glowing red eyes. But they all had the same maw filled with needle-like teeth, shrieking.
“Make it stop! Make it stop!” the blonde girl bawled, pressing her hands on her ears.
Tamaki took an audible breath.
A roar of flame followed. Like a dragon, Tamaki actually breathed out a powerful jet of magenta fire, albeit in a more ladylike manner. Her hands behind her back, she looked like she was just whistling, and the blast seemed to start two inches from her lips.
Many of the monsters caught fire, screeching before being slowly but surely reduced into ashes. Trees fell with a crack, and the trio had to run away to avoid being crushed underneath, leaving the head floating and spewing fire. Luckily, it turned out that the forest was too damp to start a fire, though. The flames only lingered on random spots.
Then Tamaki coughed profusely. “Out of stamina,” she muttered. She turned and chased after her friend, the damsel in distress, and her headless body.
Silence followed, which was then permeated by a deep growl. They turned, and by the faint light of flickering flames, saw something unnerving.
The monsters seemed to be gathering.
“Tamaki, you can burn them to cinders again, can you?” Holly asked unsurely.
“Out of juice.”
“They’re merging!” the blonde girl pointed out. “Can’t you guys do anything?”
Holly remembered the humongous bat-like thing. “Not me. We better hurry!” she broke to a run, but bumped into something else. It didn’t feel like a tree trunk, and she lost her balance, tripped over a root, but was saved by a hand catching her in time.
“Hey, hey,” a foreign voice addressed her. “Move aside, we’ll deal with it.”
“Evan-san, we’re going to be late, you know?” another voice said, this one definitely female. It was too dark for Holly to make out their features, but she was confused over the choice of either trusting these newcomers or running away.
A deep boom made Holly turn around. Behind her, there was the sound of something huge crashing through the trees. Not knowing what else to do anymore, she summoned a spell, “Light!”
Tamaki was not far from her. Apparently, upon realizing that Holly was not by her side, she turned around. “Holly?” she asked.
The unknown blonde girl rushed after her. “People, do something!” she pleaded.
In front of Holly were a boy and a girl about her age. They were taller, though. The boy was dragging a sword that was longer than he was tall. It reflected the light like a mirror. The boy himself wore a trench coat, had raven black hair and downcast brown eyes that reflected nothing. His expression was glum, accentuated even further by his pale complexion.
The other girl also wore a trench coat, but it was oddly matched with a wide brimmed hat that definitely made Holly think of witches. She was a brunette, her long hair flowing over her collar. Her gloved hand was holding a timepiece chained round her neck.
The monstrosity finally broke through the last line of trees separating them. It looked like a truck-sized stag beetle, just that poking over its shiny black carapace were hundreds of odd appendages. Holly realized with a sick feeling that they were actually arms, and very humanlike arms at that.
The nameless blonde girl sniveled at the sight, clutching Holly’s arm, nearly knocking her off her feet.
Letting go of the clock, the brunette produced a pair of guns. The monster advanced, roaring, red eyes twinkling. She fired burst upon burst of shots, apparently not a bit worried of running out of ammo. The red eyes got extinguished. The monster screeched in pain, but didn’t slow down in its blind progress.
Holly prudently grabbed the blonde’s hand and fled the scene. Tamaki followed. Leave the fight to the fighters!
Behind her, the boy called Evan wielded his sword. As he ran towards it, the brunette stopped firing. Wordlessly he raised the blade, right in front of the gaping maw.
But then he tripped over a root and fell flat on his face.
The monster ran over him.
*
When she thought she was far enough, Holly stopped running. “That was crazy!” she gasped. “Light!”
The blonde girl nodded in agreement, apparently too scared to talk. She looked younger than Holly was, and shorter. Her eyes were an electric blue, and her skin had a pale sheen to it. Her childlike body was wrapped in black robes and a cape.
“Do you figure that they’ll kill that thing?” Holly asked.
“G-guess…” came the reply, the girls’ eyes wide and unsure.
“I’m Holly. What’s your name?”
The blonde started to giggle uncontrollably, her hands curving into long, obsidian blades.
*
Right as the monster was passing over him, Evan swung his sword. There was a flash of white light, and the monster was cut into two huge, wriggling halves. Red goo spilled out of them, and both halves shriveled like raisins.
“Good job, but we’re still going to be late,” his companion said, sounding just half-relieved.
“Where are the girls?” Evan asked, still flat on his back and his clothes stained with monster ichor. “Mimi, where are they?”
“They ran,” Mimi replied. “Wait, don’t tell me that… that other girl is…!”
“She is!” and Evan scrambled onto his feet and sprinted, dragging his sword. Mimi cocked her gun and followed, whimpering.
*
Tamaki was impaled by the black blade, her body limp like a doll. Her head dropped like a rock some distance away.
Holly was paralyzed by fear. The blue eyes had a crazed look as it stared into hers. “Master Laplace would be so pleaaased. He knew you were here, hiding all these years!”
Holly mumbled a spell. The Air Knife bounced off the blonde girls’ cheek, not leaving even a dent.
That was when Evan appeared out of thin air, his sword catching the girl’s neck. Instead of coming off, there was a crack as the head snapped backwards at an impossible angle, hanging like a limp sack. There wasn’t even a wound. But the upside down head only laughed; she was not dead yet.
“Night,” said Mimi, also appearing out of thin air, as she pressed the barrel of her gun on the girl’s eye.
An echoing bang followed.