3 It’s Alice!

"Are you the one… who is talking?"

When she asked fearfully, Raffi nodded and scratched his head with his paw.

"Yes. Yes, it is. Don't you recognize me, Alice?"

When she heard back, the girl… Alice shook her head tremulously.

"Alice… That's not my name…"

After saying that, Alice paused her words and was astonished.

… My name…?

What is my name?

I can't remember.

Even before this, when is now…

What is this place…?

I, why am I here?

And before coming here…

Where exactly was I?

She had absolutely no recollection of anything. Unaware of anything. As if there was a haze in her head, only a feeling of uneasiness spread through her, and she was unable to picture it.

"H-Huh…?"

Narrowing his eyes at Alice's distraught look, Raffi let out a broad sigh. "It seems like you're facing all kinds of obstacles this time. The Labyrinth's system is losing its edge, so I suppose it can't be helped."

"Labyrinth…?"

"It's okay if you have no idea. Explaining it will be painstaking. Your name is Alice. Unfortunately, I don't know anything more than that." Raffi said, and landed in a puddle of blood. Then he stamped on it and approached Alice. "By your looks, you still seem to be disoriented. Then I suggest you leave this place immediately."

"T-Tell me, Mr. Cat! Where am I?"

Raffi replied with a chuckle to Alice, who raised her voice with urgency. "'Where am I?'… You ask a rather intriguing question. I wish I could answer it, but it's an everlasting question that I would like to find out too. However, there is no point in answering or thinking about 'where' and 'what' this place is. After all, when Apocrypha meets its end, we will all return to the darkness."

"W-What…?"

Alice blinked a few times in consternation as the cat abruptly said something incomprehensible.

"Also, I'm not a cat. I prefer to be called Raffi."

No matter which side she looked at him, he was a cat, but when he spoke with a contorted mouth, Raffi licked the puddle of blood at his feet.

"… I knew it. The smell of your blood is too strong. That's why I told you to leave as soon as possible."

What? Alice's spine froze as she was about to ask.

"...Oh,Happy….day….."

"Oh…Ha…pyy….day..."

"....Oh...Happy....."

More than one voice can be heard. They were the same as the shredded rabbit's voice. But several… voices resonated through the corridor, and footsteps were nearly upon them, along with the scraping of scythes.

"Eek…"

Raffi said, glancing up at the shrunken Alice. "I doubt the current you would be capable of using the Seventh again. In that case, the best bet is to escape. It's advisable to avoid contact with Nightmares. Come, I'll show you the way out."

"These… rabbit things, they're not only one…?"

"You heard them. The rabbit is the worker bee of the Nightmare. There's no end to their number. Besides, you're wounded now."

"…"

Raffi remarked in a stifled voice to Alice, who pressed her hand over the injury on her shoulder. "That's not going to be good. Not good at all. Your blood is what Nightmare craves to drool upon. So long as your blood reeks of it, they'll hunt you down wherever you go."

"W-What… can I do…?"

"For now, let's head outside."

"O-Okay…"

Nodding uncertainly, Alice left the room, following Raffi. Then she rushed out, trailing the cat that ran off.

"It's Alice!"

"It's Alice! It's Alice!"

"You're alive! It's the anniversary!"

"Congratulations! Congratulations!"

High-pitched laughter reverberated across the aisle. Then she heard footsteps approaching in pursuit.

Alice was crying out in terror and confusion as she hurried at full speed, desperate for her life. Before her eyes, she caught sight of Raffi sliding his body into the half-open red door. In a panic, she followed him into the room.

"It's here." Hardly out of breath, Raffi said nonchalantly. There was a crack in the wall of the room, and a blinding white light was penetrating inside.

"Nightmares can't emerge under the light. They would dry out. Once it's outside, it will be safe."

"Y-Yes…!"

Alice gave a nod and moved closer to the crack, following Raffi. The stone wall was shattered, just enough for a child to fit through. She drew in a breath and slipped her body into it.

◇

"It's not good, it's not good…"

A bizarre figure clad with a mask was moving rapidly around in the darkness. It looked like a human being or a distorted monument of some kind. The "man" was rifling through the closet, producing a squeaky… sound of gears.

"Ah, ah! I am late for the tea party! Even though they say Alice is awake…."

With a voice brimming with sorrow, "that" scanned the dozens of stuffed rabbits that were arranged in the room.

"I need to get that kid in the juicer and sizzle her right out from under her feet… so she's fresh and juiced! Ah, ah, so hectic so hectic."

It was a man with an extraordinarily large head. He was an ugly man with an eerie style, roughly four heads tall.

One of his eyes, perhaps a prosthesis, was clicking and whirring with the sound of gears. While chewing on his smoking pipe with his blackened teeth, the man shouted in a raspy voice.

"I don't have my hat! I don't have a lovely hat that represents my current mood!" Kicking the closet wildly with his foot, he clenched his teeth together. Then, with one enraged eye nearly popping out, he plucked off the silk hat that one of the rabbits had offered him. He put it on his balding, gray head.

"Hm… Hm."

With a slight nod, he pulled out a slippery, trumpet-shaped shotgun from his pocket. Without taking any particular aim, he shot the rabbit who presented his hat to him repeatedly with it. The blood splattered all over the area. He kicked the rabbit, which collapsed convulsively, its head and abdomen mangled, and he screamed.

"Let's move! It's been a long time since I've gone outside!"