The Inky Reality

Chapter 3 - Dream

It was now a few hours later, I was sitting in the other Alice's lair, waiting for her to return from wherever she had gone. I took this as an opportunity to look around and see if she had anything hidden.

   Just as I was looking at something in a corner the other Alice returned. "Oh!" I say, surprised that she returned so quickly "What were you doing?" I ask. "Oh, I was just picking up the parts that my little errand boy dropped off." She responds. "Speaking of Henry, can I talk to him for a moment?" I ask the other Alice. "I suppose you could, but if you dare try and set him free you'll be turning into my errand girl, understood?" she told me, smirking twistedly at me like she did earlier.

I was on my way to go talk to Henry. I felt extremely nervous. I knew the other Alice was watching us which was going to make things very difficult. "Henry? Where are you Henry?" I start asking, possibly to myself. After a couple more minutes of searching I finally find him. "Hey, Henry, can I talk to you for a second?" I ask. "I would say yes, but I still need to do these errands for the other Ali-" He replies before I interrupted him. "I asked her if she could pause your errands so i could talk to you." I replied. "You asked and she agre-" I interrupt him again "Yes now shut up she can literally be listening in r i g h t now" I reply. Henry looks at me like I just offended him. I try to come up with questions that'll seem normal to the other Alice, terrified I'll get stuck here along with Henry. "Alright, uh, Henry, uhhh-" I mumble as I attempt to figure out how to ask Henry about Tom. "Oh- uh- Have you seen any other ink 'monsters' down here?" I ask, trying to make it seem like a regular question. 'Tom?' Henry mouths to me. I'm able to tell what he's mouthing. A great ability to have, it's useful.

After managing to ask Henry some questions I returned to Alice's lair. "Thank you for allowing me to talk to him" I say, smiling at the other Alice. Alice smiles back, this time not creepily or twistedly. I feel my face heating up ever so slightly. "I'll be back soon" the other Alice says, going up to me and kissing my cheek before leaving her lair. "I.." I mutter, placing my hand on the cheek she kissed. 'I couldn't possibly like a girl, right..?' I think to myself before realizing I have more important matters to attend.

  Okay.. so, from the information I got from Henry is that he's been running around doing errands for Alice because she claimed she'd set him free. Yet when I was talking to Alice she told me it was all a game, and she was never going to do that. I feel bad for Henry, but I don't want to break the trust I have with Alice. She seems like someone that would be hard to gain trust with, maybe she's one of the allies I'm looking for, but she just doesn't know it yet. Henry doesn't know it yet. I don't even know if it's true yet. This is just all so confusing but it's for the sake of saving the world. I have to do this no matter how hard it gets.

  It was now what I'm assuming a day later and I have no plan whatsoever. I haven't figured out how I'm going to free Henry from here. Even if I ever do figure one out, I would still need the other Alice to help, if she even is an ally to us. I really doubt she'd help us though. She's held Henry captive for all this time and hasn't shown him any sympathy. Maybe I can find a way to convince her to set him free, after all she has shown some interest in me and I can use that to my advantage.

  Once Alice had returned from collecting something from Henry I was ready to put my plan into action. "Hey Alice!" I say to her. "Hello" she says, turning her head towards me with a small smile on her face. Shoot. I already forgot what I was gonna ask her, but I already got her attention. "Uh- I- u h -" I stutter nervously. Alice turns her whole body at me, and I get even more nervous. She starts walking towards me, her smile erased. My anxiety goes through the roof, and I'm prepared for everything but the worst, which could be a lot of things. Silence fills the room. She continues to walk closer, each step filling me with worry.

  She stops walking when we're face to face. At this point, I'm terrified. Tension surrounds us, my face heating up. 'Oh god oh god oh god' I keep repeating in my head. We stare at each other for about ten more seconds. She takes the first move. She wraps both her arms around my neck, and rests her head on my shoulder. I mentally panic 'aH WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DOOOOO-' Then I realize that I'm overthinking it, and that I should just hold her in the same embrace. We stood in that position in what felt like forever.

  What felt like forever but what was really two seconds later I feel her head lifting from my shoulder. 'oH GOD WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN-' I think to myself, overthinking it again. I see her face get really close to me. "I.. uh.. A-Alice..?" I mutter. "Just go with it" Alice says, pressing her lips on mine for a second. And that's when I finally realized someone was shouting my name.