Chapter Text
“Once upon a time, in a place unknown, there was a dream.
No one knew who had dreamt the dream, but such a tiny dream it was.
The tiny dream began to think, ‘I don’t want to disappear! How can I make people dream of me?’
The tiny dream thought and thought, and finally it came up with an idea.
I will let the humans come to me, and then…
I will make them create my world.”
???
Yuu Liddell has spent the last two years of their life locked away by a tiny dream. Every second of it, they’ve been aware. Held down by their thorny cage, adorned with spikes and barbs. Held in place by their sins, slave to the tiny dream.
Forced to watch as Alice after Alice unknowingly continues the cycles.
The first one always takes after Yuu, wandering in with a sword in hand. But, never once has one of their replacements fought for the same reason they once did. Where Yuu fought regretfully with knowledge of the truth, their replacements simply slaughter with sadistic glee.
The second Alice is always one of the dream’s own. The little thing nudges them, whispers secrets into their mind. Shows them the truth of what’s out there, until the Wonderland Native becomes an Alice. The tiny dream allows the one born into its world to travel across Wonderland. The native sings to all those who live there, slowly spreading evil with their voice. The people will come and gather round, watch as the second Alice loses their mind. Until, eventually, the madness takes hold of them, and their blood stains the roses. Once loved by all, the second Alice is left for dead.
The third Alice, much like the second, is born into Wonderland. And, taking after the second once more, the third Alice charms the people of Wonderland. The third Alice is always born into a grand life, destined to go on to create a kingdom that rises above the rest. The tiny dream reveals the truth to the ruler, one of its own, once more. Once they realize and become an Alice, the tiny dream lets the rest of Wonderland do its work. Ruling over the people of Wonderland, the third Alice slowly succumbs to the madness. So afraid of death, they become mindless and warped. The once lovely ruler to become just an ugly corpse.
The fourth Alice, a term that aggravates Yuu to no end. That is, of course, because the fourth Alice is never just one person. Somehow, some way, the little rat seems to find a pair of siblings who are twins each and every time. The twins are always the only other outsiders aside from Yuu’s replacements. One, stubborn like Sharon; And the other, clever like Lyra. Yuu can’t help but see the first twins in the girls’ replacements.
Yuu knows that it’s fruitless, ultimately useless. But, the similarities to the two always pulls at Yuu’s heart.
Reaching out, they try to warn them. It’s a trap, it’s a trap, it’s a trap! Go back, it’s a trap!
Forcing through the tiny dreams’ effort to silence them, they beg the twins. Leave, please, please leave.
…Never once has a single one heeded their warnings, as Yuu is forced to watch helplessly whilst children and adults alike lose their minds. Forever forced to wander hopelessly through Wonderland. The only mercy that the tiny dream bore was that not one of its victims was ever younger than Yuu had been on that fateful birthday evening.
Truly, Yuu can barely remember a time when they weren’t held down by thorns and made to watch the clueless dreamers.
Their life and health are sustained only by the will of that tiny dream. The tiny dream showing what happens to those who go against it.
When Yuu first learned of the truth of Wonderland, they thought that maybe the tiny dream was just lonely. Yuu thought that they related to that fear of not wanting to disappear, not wanting to die. They thought that maybe, just maybe, it wanted to help them. That Yuu was finally chosen, that someone finally deigned to reach out a helping hand.
But then, Yuu realized the truth of this world. The wishes of that tiny dream. The plans it had made. Why it had taken them from their home.
And with that realization came Yuu’s mission: Destroy Wonderland.
Death after death, slaughtering those who lived in Wonderland. Yuu had always reasoned that they weren’t real anyway, that they were merely soulless husks—puppets in the tiny dream’s show. But Yuu’s sins caught up to them eventually. And these days, they want nothing more than to disappear in that way they once so desperately feared. Maybe…that’s what they always wanted, the desire older and deeper than they had realized.
It’s only been four years, and yet…Yuu can’t even remember their mother’s face, nor the feel of their father’s hands. What color were their parents’ hair? Eyes? Did they finally have siblings now? Did they look like Yuu? Did Yuu look like them?
And what of Yuu’s friends? Sometimes they wonder if they even had friends to go back to, the only thing they could summon up was blurry faces and a stinging pain in their chest…Or is that their heart that hurts so much? That tight, breathless feeling.
A laugh reverberates through Yuu’s mind, harmonizing with the sound of Yuu’s latest replacement slicing through whatever stood in the young—almost as young as Yuu had been—girl’s path. Synchronizing with the steady clops of an approaching horse-drawn carriage.
Wait, horse-drawn carriage? That, that’s not part of the cycle—