The World is Breaking, and I don't know that I want to Watch...

Chapter 76: Dissolution of the Candyfloss Rabbit

  3:13 Hanover, Versailles Industries

 

       It was too much, too damn much. Damn Peter bringing up Jack before a damn board meeting. Alice leaned heavily on the sink in the small bathroom; a sudden surge of paranoia washed over her and she checked the lock one more time. 
       She ran her hands through her hair , even she had to admit she looked a little disheveled. She turned the faucets of the sink on and tried to clear her mind and focus. She just had to focus that was all.
      " I won't give him the satisfaction of an I told you so." She said to herself though she knew that Peter would never say anything so openly confrontational. She began to rummage through her purse fishing out a bottle of medication. She couldn't remember if they were sedatives or antipsychotic anymore, she just got Peter's prescriptions filled weekly and took them. She poured three of the pills into her hand, she looked at them for a few moments before she let them drop into the water of the sink.
       She watched them spiral before they slid down the drain. The light flickered faintly, and she looked into her reflection. Somehow the strange antiseptic light of the washroom made her hair look cotton candy pink. She leaned heavily on the sink again and tried to focus on the sound of the water to drown out the growing feeling of unease.
        After a moment she poured the remaining pills down the sink as well and let the bottle drop to the floor. She pressed her forehead against the glass and breathed heavily.
        "Damn Peter" She muttered weakly.
         The smell of cotton candy  began to surround her, a rush of deja vu washed over her and she jerked from the mirror . Her reflection gazed back. Hair cotton candy pink, and rabbit ears the same color, eyes like two dollops of sunset painted cloud that held all the compassion in the universe.
         She screwed her eyes shut tight and fought back the urge to vomit. Hands shaking, she felt her ears, which felt normal and safe enough.
         Nausea wracked her as the smell of cotton candy grew stronger, sickly sweet odor invading her lungs like a living syrup. She reeled and fell forward.
         "Alice!" A voice, an impossible voice, a voice that does not exist, "Alice, come on!". A rough hand catches her and Alice opens her eyes to hell.

          The walls were bleeding, thick rivulets poured down on top of already coagulated trails. The ragdoll man with a boys face in a green poncho held her hand firmly, the meat cleaver in his other hand dripped a brown liquid that did not seem to be blood.
          "That door won't hold the nutcrackers for long, we need another way out!"
           "Jack?" Alice asked, still reeling, "Jack whats going on?"
          Something large slammed against the door that lead to the small room they stood in, it splintered slightly but held. Jack the Ragdoll man walked to where the stall had been when the room had still been a bathroom, now it was a sort of cage that took up the whole corner of the room, it appeared to be made of candy canes.
           "This must have been where they kept them until they needed them." A large bloody pile took up one corner of the candy cane cage, Jack looked away for a moment but did not other wise react.
           Another powerful slam on the door forced them from contemplation. Looking around quickly Alice looked the room over then gestured towards a section of wall heavily coated with blood, "There, there was a air conditioning vent right there."
           Jack looked at her strangely but examined the wall. Using his cleaver to scrape away the dried blood he revealed a hatch of sorts, it was covered by a thin steel trap door, the handle had broken off. Jack slid his cleaver into the crack and forced it open, "In you go! Hurry!".
           A huge wooden fist slammed through the door nearly reducing it to splinters as Alice hurled herself down the chute, behind her she could hear the door finally give way with a resounding crack even as Jack hurled himself after her.

Chapter 75: Remember

       12:47 Hanover, North Reach Mental Health Clinic 

          "Damn it Peter, I don't have time for this fairytale shit anymore." Alice said wearily as she set the cup of now cold coffee on the glass table beside her chair. She had been here for almost two hours and this session, like every other for the past year, was going in circles. "I've got a meeting with the board of directors at two today and I have a shit load to get together for that. Peter, look, it's been two years since my last incident. Don't look so suprised, I can look at it objectively now; I've done everything asked of me, reached all the goals. I think I may be ok now."
           Peter leaned farther back into his chair and nodded slowly, Alice, with her powersuit and stories of renewed success (which he had had verified) did indeed seem to indicate progress if not complete recovery. "I know your frustrated Alice, please don't think our continued meetings indicate that I doubt your determination and personal strength, I just worry for you. You did suffer from very powerful delusions Alice, we still don't know the exact cause but that sort of thing just doesn't wash away."
          Though her frustration was obviously growing, and Peter could not blame her for that, he still had doubts. She had been one of the most severe cases of this kind he had ever dealt with. "We still have ten minutes, can you bear with me for ten minutes yet?"
          "Might as well, no reason to give you ten minutes for free. God knows how much they pay you by the hour."
           "Good, then we can just talk."
            Alice rolled her eyes, and leaned a little further in her chair, not quite bored but certainly uncaring,"We've talked about everything twenty times by now, which interestingly enough reinforces my point."
           Peter pretended to check his notepad, "How about we talk about Jack?"
           Alice tried to disguise it, Peter noticed because he had seen her do it before she had become so damn good at hiding it. It was a subtle shift, she no longer sat leaned back and relaxed, jaw slightly clenched, eyes once bored and pondering other things now focused on him. Alice was not comfortable nor pleased. In these moments Peter couldn't help but think of how pretty she was, young, successful. Usually she seemed so reserved and controlled that it was hard to notice. But when she was on edge and guarded she stopped trying to look unappealing.
          "We used to talk about Jack, I'm curious if you have any new perspectives. Perhaps your right. Maybe you are close enough to recovery that our sessions can end; we need only cover this one point." Even as he said this he felt his heart sink for he knew he was lying. Her intent focus had already given her away, she was still hiding things.
          "I don't know what Jack has to do with any of this" Every word could have cut into him like razors, yet still he pressed on.
           "I need to know what you know Alice, I need to know that you know that Jack does not exist."
          Her eyes locked with his; for the most passing of moments as he leaned back in his chair a reflection from the offices large windows caught her eyes making them seem luminous and pink, like twin roses of light.
           Never taking her eyes off him she twisted her wrist but never looked down at her designer watch. "I'll tell you what Peter, consider these last five minutes a free gift.". She rose from her chair and walked to the door. "I will see you next Tuesday at 11 as usual.", she said as she pulled the heavy door shut behind her.
          Peter rubbed his temple lightly and tried to look at the situation from the best possible angle. He was an optimist, and he viewed the fact that she did not throw anything at him this time as a victory. Looking at the full cup of coffee that rested on the table beside the chair Alice had just vacated he decided instead that this was a major victory.
           

Chapter 74: I Arrest thee O' Fallen Country:

                  Her hair had been dyed so often that one could only guess at it's original color. Bright orange bangs hovered over her alabaster face forming streaks that wove over her head and into the pony tail that bound the rest of her plum colored hair. A simple black top covered a chest that like it's bearer had waited for a fullness that life had failed to supply. Her eyes, lined with thick Mascara, had long ago become world weary and jaded. Her delicate hand rested jauntily on her hip, an angel at the end of the last age of man.

                                    -On "Libby" 
                                          an excerpt from "I Arrest Thee O' Fallen Country"