Ambidextrous III/IV: Vessalius (Part 4/4)
Chapter I: Baskerville
Chapter II: Nightray: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Chapter III: Vessalius: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
‘Back into the rabbit hole,’ the Chain thought derisively as the links bit into his flesh like slithering spiked snakes and dragged him down, down into a void that got darker with every yank of the chains, further down.
Their descent seemed endless. Oz wouldn’t even know they were falling if it weren’t for the coils pulling them. He couldn’t see or hear a thing, couldn’t tell whether the others were still with him. When he tried to call out, instead of releasing a sound, Oz almost choked on empty air. It felt like sinking without the water’s weight to break his fall.
It was an eternity before Oz recovered any of his senses. An old scent washed over him, thick with melancholy. It was faint, but the memory of it, along with the shock of finally smelling something after his endless dive, hit the rabbit like a shockwave. Oz almost wanted to cover his nose from the strength of it. It was a sweet smell, tinted with moss. Oz was reminded of candlelight, dusty plush and dry flowers.
When he opened his eyes, Oz found himself in the same colourful room the pocket watch had first sent him to, with its red checkerboard floor and four walls made out of wooden shelves. Countless dolls were falling from them with delighted cackles. Invisible strings broke their fall, and for several seconds they just hung there in a circle, six feet above ground. In the middle, Jack was holding a crying white Alice in his arms.
“You came,” the little girl sobbed into his chest. “You came for me!”
Jack gave her a twirl. In a flash, Oz saw his flushed cheeks and exhilarated grin as he spun the Will of the Abyss around. The dolls started a mad round dance around them, clicking and chortling. The possessed boy and girl kept calling each other’s names in overjoyed voices as they danced together like two lost children who had just been reunited and could scarcely believe it.
Oz looked away from the mad scene. His gaze landed on the three of Vincent, Gilbert and Alice, who lay sprawled across the floor three feet away. The little girl was rubbing her forehead and grumbling in slight pain, seemingly unmindful of her sister and Jack’s antics. Gilbert, on the other hand, gaped at them in open disbelief. He pulled himself together when Vincent glared at the dancing duo and made to get up. Gilbert held him back by the shoulder and shook his head, ever wary in unfamiliar territory.
The movement, however slight, seemed to draw attention from the dolls. A blonde wigged crowned puppet dressed in red left the round dance to hover above the two men. As soon as she spotted it, Alice jumped to her feet and held out an arm before the two brothers. She stared the doll down. It whirled around with convulsive shrieks:
‘He’s back!’ The toy’s plastic eyes rolled in their sockets, ‘Vincent came back to cut us to pieces!’
The Will of the Abyss froze in Jack’s arms. The dolls all flew away with a great racket. They screamed threats and warnings in mechanic voices as they circled the three humans without daring to come too close. Gilbert picked up the sword carefully, his other hand still holding onto Vincent’s shoulder in a silent command to be careful. Seemingly unbothered, his brother was reloading his gun with the hint of a playful smirk on his lips.
Gilbert met Oz’s eyes above Alice’s head and motioned for him to come closer with a tilt of his chin. Oz crawled over with careful steps. The ground seemed to shake under the weight of his huge black paws. The Chain cast an anxious glance at the Will of the Abyss. The little girl was holding on to Jack for dear life and hiding her face in his chest while her toys kept on shrieking around them.
“Why?” she sniffed and pointed a trembling finger at the group. “Why did you bring Vincent and Gilbert? They hate me! I don’t want them here, Jack!”
“Don’t worry,” Jack held her close, his smile ever serene among the chaos. “They won’t stay long. I needed their help in order to reach you. We should thank them, don’t you think?”
The little girl shook her head vehemently:
“They are mean!” she hiccupped. “Vincent killed Cheshire! Gilbert tried to kill me!”
“That’s all in the past,” Jack hushed her softly. “They are all grown up now, see? They won’t hurt you again.”
The Will of the Abyss peered over his arm like a shy child who didn’t dare move away from the safety of her parent’s embrace to go and play with the other kids. She flinched visibly when she saw the murderous glare on Vincent’s face, and her face dissolved into more cries. With an exasperated snarl, Alice punched a squeaking teddy bear out of her way and stepped forward, beckoning everyone’s attention:
“I told you I’d be back, Alice,” she told her twin. “No one will hurt you as long as I’m here, so stop crying already.”
The tears did stop, but the expression the Will of the Abyss was wearing didn’t reassure Oz in the least. Her snow-white hands were still digging into Jack’s back like claws. She made him turn around with surprising strength in order to face her sister:
“You are going to take him away,” she sobbed, her amethyst eyes defiant in spite of the wet trails on her cheeks. “You came to take Jack away from me, didn’t you?”
‘Bad girl! Bad girl!’ the toys chanted among the clatter of disarticulated wooden limbs and snickers. A few bounced off Oz’s large body. The rabbit shook them off and came to stand behind the two brothers to shield them from the raving toys. Alice stomped her foot on the floor:
“Be quiet, you!” she told them indignantly before turning back to her sister: “So what? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? That bastard messed you up enough as it is!”
“Stop it!” the Will of the Abyss shouted, the sobs creeping back into her voice. “How can you be so cruel? You already have the world all for yourself! You got out of the Abyss and left me all alone! Jack is the only one who… the only one…”
Her voice broke and she buried her face in Jack’s shoulder once more, her whole frame shaking with distressed cries:
“Don’t leave me,” she begged him, her voice muffled by the clothes and tears. “Make them go away… Please stay with me forever, Jack....”
The ghost was making small soothing noises as he caressed her white back and hair comfortingly. His gestures were smooth and gentle, but Oz could see an odd glint in his vivid green eyes, the first signs of impatience. The rabbit got scared. One wrong word, and it all could come crashing down.
“Alice, that’s not true!” he said impulsively.
The Will of the Abyss started. Slowly, she turned towards him, her stare uncertain and somehow cold in her distress. ‘You spoke out of order!’ the toys guffawed close to his ears, and Jack raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but all Oz could see was the terrified little girl in his arms.
Memories were rushing in the rabbit’s head, of endless days in the dark place the Abyss had morphed into, spent watching the smile disappear from Alice’s face. His lonely, fragile, miserable Alice, who so desperately wished for a friend, but was too scared to go out and face the world like her sister had. She had only ever had Oz and her sister before Jack came along, and after that, she had drifted further away until even they had become unable to reach her.
“It wasn’t only Jack who came to visit you,” Oz told her, struggling for the right words. This Alice was mad. She was desperate and unstable. But Oz couldn’t forget the little girl he had watched over for so long. He couldn’t bear to see her like this.
“There was another man called Kevin Regnard. He made a promise to you, remember?”
To his relief, there was an immediate spark of recognition in her tearful eyes. Oz heard a ruffling sound and looked down. Gilbert had come to stand beside him.
“That’s right,” he told the Will of the Abyss, slow and wary, but surprisingly gentle, like a man trying to coax a mistrustful wild animal. “He sent us here. We came to grant your wish in his stead. He is waiting for you on the other side.”
“Kevin…sent you?” she repeated uncertainly, her voice roughed from too much crying.
“The clown sent him because he’s dying and too much of a wreck to come himself,” Alice pointed at Gilbert with a thumb and shrugged. “Whatever. You’re coming with us.”
The Will of the Abyss’ eyes widened in sudden fright. Her grip on Jack slackened. Her hands were shaking wildly.
“Kevin is dying…?”
The rabbit was surprised to find such deep concern in her eyes. The Will of the Abyss quivered and seemed to close up on herself, her thin fingers twining the ribbons on the front of her dress and getting tangled up in them. She didn’t seem to realize she was doing it. Jack put his hands on her shoulders:
“You should go,” he whispered to her, but Oz’s long ears caught the words right and clear. The girl’s small hands wound tighter in the silken bows.
“I’m scared,” she said in the same tone. “Everyone hates me outside....”
“Of course not. They don’t even know you yet. Besides,” Jack leaned forward to rest his chin on her naked shoulder and winked at her. “I’m sure you remember everything I told you about the outside world. Gardens, balls, operas… Don’t you want to see them for yourself?”
Her white cheeks turned a bright red. She looked down, away from Jack’s knowing eyes.
“…Will you be with me?” she asked feebly. Oz suspected she knew the answer.
Jack’s smile turned despondent. He embraced the frail girl from behind in a tight hug. Much like the ghost had hugged Oz every time he wanted to use his powers.
The rabbit felt his fur stand up on end. He had seen his fair share of Jack’s talent for winning people over, and this Alice had always been the most receptive to it. It was part of the plan. Oz had counted on it. He had been desperate. Now that he saw it at work, it was getting unbearable to watch.
“I’m sorry, Alice,” the murmur sent a shiver down Oz’s spine. “I have a last request before we part.”
“No!” the Will of the Abyss tried to cover her ears, but her left hand remained tangled in the ribbons. It waved helplessly like a trapped white bird and came to land on Jack’s hand instead. It was shaking like a leaf. “Don’t go… You promised!”
“That’s why I have to do this,” Jack smoothly pried her other hand from her right ear and held it in his. “I have to go back. Otherwise, it will be like we had never met.”
“Good riddance,” Oz heard Alice grumble next to him, but it got lost in the clicking of the curious toys that surrounded them.
The other two humans stayed silent. They were straining their ears, Oz guessed, anxious to find out what the plan was about. Doubts were creeping like insects under his bestial skin. The Chain prayed to whatever deity there was - the Core of the Abyss? Could they even trust Him? - that he had been right; everything would work out in the end…
“Go back?” the Will of the Abyss asked, intrigued in spite of herself. “But where?”
Just then, Jack lifted his head to cast Oz a conniving glance. The sick feeling in his stomach only got heavier.
“A long time ago,” the ghost told the little girl, “I was attacked by thugs. They beat me up badly; I would have died then, if it weren’t for the help of a young girl and her Chain.”
As before, the mere mention of her was enough to cast a heavy shadow over Jack’s eyes. Nonetheless, his patient smile remained on his lips.
“Her name is Lacie. Her Chain is the Blood-Stained Black Rabbit.”
Gilbert gasped. Oz didn’t dare look his way. The Will of the Abyss was still clutching Jack’s hand, looking lost and confused. Her violet eyes drifted over Oz and Alice like she had just noticed them:
“But… that’s…”
“Well, not quite the Black Rabbit,” Jack hummed, looking amused. “I almost didn’t recognize him; and he didn’t seem to have his powers in their entirety. He only used chains instead of his scythe.”
“What does that mean?” Gilbert asked, his voice tense with agitation. It sounded like his patience was wearing thin. Oz still couldn’t bring himself to look him in the eye. Jack only smiled:
“It means that the destructive powers of the Black Rabbit had been fragmented, as they are meant to be. They are too formidable to be contained in a single body for a long period of time, you see. Rather fittingly, the original twin rabbits, who went by the name of Oz, had the power to switch bodies.”
“Naturally, the same goes for Oz’s powers,” Jack’s expression almost looked hungry. Oz was grateful for the fact that the Will of the Abyss couldn’t see it. “In the past, your sister was able to steal them for herself, until Oz borrowed my body in order to make a contract with her. When Gilbert contracted them both, he and I became the contractors of the current twin Chains known as B-Rabbit: Oz and Alice. Now, Alice…”
Jack’s tone was even and sweet, but the little girl shuddered all the same. Oz couldn’t tell whether it was from fear or pleasure. She chanced an unsettled glance back at Jack. Oz held his breath.
“I want you to give me Oz’s powers,” the ghost susurrated. “I will become the Black Rabbit whom Lacie contracted.”
He could barely keep the excitement from his voice. Jack took a deep breath to calm himself, and added smoothly:
“This way, I can save myself, and our pasts won’t change. But if you don’t,” he said, voice syrupy as he caressed her cheek, “my past self will die, and our meeting will be erased.”
“That’s enough, Jack,” Alice snapped, startling them both. She made her way through the crowd of booing toys without sparing them a second glance, and held out her hand to her twin. “Let’s do it, Alice. I know how to transfer Oz’s powers, I’ll give you a hand.”
“But,” the Will of the Abyss hiccupped, “Jack… What will happen to you…?”
“I will stay by Lacie’s side,” the ghost answered without missing a beat. “Until the very end, when she was cast into the Abyss.”
The Will of the Abyss brought her hands to her mouth in horror. She made to get away. Jack only tightened his grip. He placed a chaste kiss on her temple:
“It’s okay, Alice,” he told her. “If this is the price for the chance of meeting you, I will happily pay it.”
Her eyes welled up with tears. Unable to hold back, she broke down in loud, desperate cries, her pallid fingers digging into Jack’s arms as he held her. Her twin couldn’t contain a grimace at the sight. Oz felt awful.
He could see the truth beneath Jack’s lies. This was the fate he had always wished for: to be together with Lacie, even in death. It made no difference to him if he had to take on the appearance and powers of a monster in order to reach this goal. Jack was happy, genuinely happy to run to his doom. He was only leading the Will of the Abyss on with white lies.
Oz knew all this. Had planned all this, taken advantage of both Jack and this Alice’s weaknesses in a desperate attempt to have his own wish granted. But he couldn’t go back, not as long as Gilbert and Alice were trapped here with him. So he swallowed his guilt and doubts, and spoke:
“Alice,” he told the Will of the Abyss, hating how scary his voice sounded. “You can’t stay here. This place is driving you mad. We will show you the way back. Kevin Regnard will be there, and so will your sister. So will I. You won’t be alone anymore. So…”
She was looking at him now, still shaking from her ear-piercing cries. She probably couldn’t even see him through the onslaught of tears that she couldn’t bring under control. Seeing her so upset, it suddenly struck Oz that he meant every word. Deceits and pretty lies came naturally to Jack, who had been manipulating the Will of the Abyss all along, but Oz couldn’t see past the helpless little girl who used to hold him in the dark. An insignificant plush rabbit, yet her only comfort in her timeless prison before the Tragedy.
“Please… don’t cry.”
The Will of the Abyss sniffed audibly. She looked from him to her sister, then to Jack, who nodded. Alice beckoned her with an imperious wave of her extended hand. Her sister gulped uneasily and, at long last, took it.
“Wait!”
‘Gil....’
Both sisters turned questioning gazes towards the man. The Will of the Abyss was wiping her cheeks with her free hand.
“What about Oz?” Gilbert asked. “What will happen to him after you take his powers?”
The Will of the Abyss frowned at him like he was the most stupid person she had ever met. The toys burst into a chorus of hollow laughter:
‘Didn’t you know?’ the rag doll of a jester asked among jingles from its hat. ‘The Abyss can turn humans and objects into Chains!’
‘And Chains make pacts in order to go back to the other side,’ a rocking horse added. ‘For a chance at being human again!’
‘Even Cheshire wanted a human body,’ the crowned doll in the red dress snickered.
‘You have to pay the price!’ a plush dodo cawed at Jack.
“It’s the least I can do,” the ghost laughed good-humouredly. “I don’t have a use for this body anymore. Once B-Rabbit’s power is shared between me and Alice and I take his appearance, Oz can have mine as payment.”
Even as the monster he was, Oz felt strangely small and exposed among the mocking toys. The truth was out. The selfish reason why he had insisted so much on fulfilling this plan when he couldn’t come up with a better solution.
“Really?” Gilbert asked in a hushed voice. “You can make Oz human again?”
Against his better judgement, Oz let his eyes wander to him. Gilbert looked giddy with joy, his pale cheeks flushed a bright red over a wide, almost boyish smile. It felt like forever since Oz had seen him so effusive. The Chain felt a fond laugh bubble up in his chest, only to remain trapped there.
The rabbit shook himself. For his servant’s sake, Oz tried not to think about the people he had used in order to get there; tried to forget about all the contracts that had gone wrong in the past. He had thought this through. They weren’t changing the past. There should be no repercussions.
All the same, Gilbert noticed his lack of reaction. A cloud crept over the man’s face. In the same moment, the Will of the Abyss turned to Oz and held out a delicate hand:
“You were late,” she told him, mildly reproachful. “But you did bring Jack to me in the end. So come along, Mister Rabbit.”
Before he could take a step, Oz felt a human hand on his arm. He looked down and met Gilbert’s eyes. Once again, Oz was stricken by how open they looked. No matter how they had narrowed over the past ten years, they were still the same bright gold, full of warmth and undisguised concern.
“Oz....”
Gilbert couldn’t form another word. Yet there was so much in that name, in the way he said it and looked up at Oz, laden with a love that Oz had always seen and craved, but never dared believe in. ‘You don’t have to do this,’ Gilbert’s face said, bare before him like an open book. ‘You don’t know what might happen. I don’t want to lose you. Not again.’
Oz could have wept then, would have kissed Gilbert right there and then if he had a human body to do so. To have this gaze directed at him, whether he was human or a Chain, to know that Gilbert didn’t and would never see the difference, it was almost enough to make him change his mind.
The rabbit attempted a smile, but stopped himself when he realized he couldn’t manage anything but a feral grin in this form. He couldn’t even give Gilbert that much as reassurance. Oz ducked his head to be level with his:
“I have to do this, Gil,” he told him in as gentle a growl as he could manage. “I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I never wanted this power in the first place... Jack can have it. Lacie won’t use it to destroy the world, she loves it too much for that.”
Gilbert’s fingers sank in the rough fur and hung on like he was terrified to let go. He, too, looked torn between the temptation of hope and the urge to throw himself at Oz and never let go.
“Let me do this, Gil,” Oz asked, all too aware of his sharp teeth and claws, of how inhuman he really was, no matter what Gilbert saw beyond. “I want to go back to the way we were.”
As much as it seemed to cost him, Gilbert did let go. Oz crawled on all fours towards the twins and forced himself not to look back. Seeing Alice’s confident grin eased some of his fears.
Jack came to stand beside him. To the rabbit’s surprise, the ghost turned to look at the brothers. There was something akin to an apology in his smile:
“Vincent… Your red eye reminded me of Lacie. This is the reason I rescued you and Gilbert, all those years ago. I simply couldn’t stand by and leave you to die. It was this eye that saved your life and your brother’s.”
Oz heard a soft gasp behind him. Jack’s grin widened:
“It really is beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
With these parting words, the ghost turned back to the Will of the Abyss. They hugged one last time. Then Alice pulled her twin away and clasped their hands together. The Will of the Abyss rested her forehead against hers obediently. There were tears on her cheeks, but her lips were pressed together into a determined line. Alice’s expression mirrored hers.
A blinding glow erupted from their joined hands. It expanded until it swallowed the entire room and its cheering toys. Oz heard the broken grandfather clock strike twelve in the background before his sense of hearing was taken along with his sight. He felt small and naked in the raw light, like it was about to swallow him whole. Oz was dimly aware of another presence, very close, someone familiar and scary all the same.
Jack.
Something was being taken from him, dragged away by that presence. Something strong and intimate, ripped straight from his very being, or so it felt like. Oz wanted to cry. He couldn’t move. He was drained dry, all his energy leaving his body like sunlight - did he have a body? - until there was nothing but cold and emptiness, nothing but Oz.
Suspended in this bare state somewhere between time and space, Oz heard a familiar tune in the distance. A young girl humming a song.
Lacie.
Jack’s presence was drifting away, in the direction of the voice. “Hey. My name is Lacie.” Oz felt an overwhelming joy that wasn’t his own. “My name is B-Rabbit. Will you make a pact with me, Lacie?”
Their voices flickered and died.
Suddenly a sharp pain pulled him down. Everything came back at once: weight, smell, sounds, colours, everything too bright and cold for him to endure. It had to stop, lest he would go mad. Oz. Someone was calling. His limbs felt like they were made of lead, the angles looked too sharp, the reds and whites too vivid. Oz. Someone was calling him....
Oz opened his eyes to chaos. The room was breaking apart all around him in a rain of red and white rocks. The blast tore the sisters apart. The Will of the Abyss clutched her chest and opened her mouth wide in a mute cry when a bright glow was pulled from her body. She was falling backwards into the darkness. Only then did Oz realize he was falling too.
Small arms embraced him from behind - human, Oz realized with a jolt, I am human again - and he heard Alice’s voice in his ear. He tried to reach for her hands around his chest, but his whole body was quivering. Darkness was closing in on them, weighing him down. He couldn’t move.
“Oz!”
Oz’s eyes widened. His body was shrinking. In his panic, his eyes looked all over the collapsing room for the source of the voice. He saw black wings and a glint of metal. At last his lips were unsealed:
“Gil! Call… my name!”
Those were Oz’s last words before his voice got sucked into the darkness.
Chapter II: Nightray: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Chapter III: Vessalius: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
‘Back into the rabbit hole,’ the Chain thought derisively as the links bit into his flesh like slithering spiked snakes and dragged him down, down into a void that got darker with every yank of the chains, further down.
Their descent seemed endless. Oz wouldn’t even know they were falling if it weren’t for the coils pulling them. He couldn’t see or hear a thing, couldn’t tell whether the others were still with him. When he tried to call out, instead of releasing a sound, Oz almost choked on empty air. It felt like sinking without the water’s weight to break his fall.
It was an eternity before Oz recovered any of his senses. An old scent washed over him, thick with melancholy. It was faint, but the memory of it, along with the shock of finally smelling something after his endless dive, hit the rabbit like a shockwave. Oz almost wanted to cover his nose from the strength of it. It was a sweet smell, tinted with moss. Oz was reminded of candlelight, dusty plush and dry flowers.
When he opened his eyes, Oz found himself in the same colourful room the pocket watch had first sent him to, with its red checkerboard floor and four walls made out of wooden shelves. Countless dolls were falling from them with delighted cackles. Invisible strings broke their fall, and for several seconds they just hung there in a circle, six feet above ground. In the middle, Jack was holding a crying white Alice in his arms.
“You came,” the little girl sobbed into his chest. “You came for me!”
Jack gave her a twirl. In a flash, Oz saw his flushed cheeks and exhilarated grin as he spun the Will of the Abyss around. The dolls started a mad round dance around them, clicking and chortling. The possessed boy and girl kept calling each other’s names in overjoyed voices as they danced together like two lost children who had just been reunited and could scarcely believe it.
Oz looked away from the mad scene. His gaze landed on the three of Vincent, Gilbert and Alice, who lay sprawled across the floor three feet away. The little girl was rubbing her forehead and grumbling in slight pain, seemingly unmindful of her sister and Jack’s antics. Gilbert, on the other hand, gaped at them in open disbelief. He pulled himself together when Vincent glared at the dancing duo and made to get up. Gilbert held him back by the shoulder and shook his head, ever wary in unfamiliar territory.
The movement, however slight, seemed to draw attention from the dolls. A blonde wigged crowned puppet dressed in red left the round dance to hover above the two men. As soon as she spotted it, Alice jumped to her feet and held out an arm before the two brothers. She stared the doll down. It whirled around with convulsive shrieks:
‘He’s back!’ The toy’s plastic eyes rolled in their sockets, ‘Vincent came back to cut us to pieces!’
The Will of the Abyss froze in Jack’s arms. The dolls all flew away with a great racket. They screamed threats and warnings in mechanic voices as they circled the three humans without daring to come too close. Gilbert picked up the sword carefully, his other hand still holding onto Vincent’s shoulder in a silent command to be careful. Seemingly unbothered, his brother was reloading his gun with the hint of a playful smirk on his lips.
Gilbert met Oz’s eyes above Alice’s head and motioned for him to come closer with a tilt of his chin. Oz crawled over with careful steps. The ground seemed to shake under the weight of his huge black paws. The Chain cast an anxious glance at the Will of the Abyss. The little girl was holding on to Jack for dear life and hiding her face in his chest while her toys kept on shrieking around them.
“Why?” she sniffed and pointed a trembling finger at the group. “Why did you bring Vincent and Gilbert? They hate me! I don’t want them here, Jack!”
“Don’t worry,” Jack held her close, his smile ever serene among the chaos. “They won’t stay long. I needed their help in order to reach you. We should thank them, don’t you think?”
The little girl shook her head vehemently:
“They are mean!” she hiccupped. “Vincent killed Cheshire! Gilbert tried to kill me!”
“That’s all in the past,” Jack hushed her softly. “They are all grown up now, see? They won’t hurt you again.”
The Will of the Abyss peered over his arm like a shy child who didn’t dare move away from the safety of her parent’s embrace to go and play with the other kids. She flinched visibly when she saw the murderous glare on Vincent’s face, and her face dissolved into more cries. With an exasperated snarl, Alice punched a squeaking teddy bear out of her way and stepped forward, beckoning everyone’s attention:
“I told you I’d be back, Alice,” she told her twin. “No one will hurt you as long as I’m here, so stop crying already.”
The tears did stop, but the expression the Will of the Abyss was wearing didn’t reassure Oz in the least. Her snow-white hands were still digging into Jack’s back like claws. She made him turn around with surprising strength in order to face her sister:
“You are going to take him away,” she sobbed, her amethyst eyes defiant in spite of the wet trails on her cheeks. “You came to take Jack away from me, didn’t you?”
‘Bad girl! Bad girl!’ the toys chanted among the clatter of disarticulated wooden limbs and snickers. A few bounced off Oz’s large body. The rabbit shook them off and came to stand behind the two brothers to shield them from the raving toys. Alice stomped her foot on the floor:
“Be quiet, you!” she told them indignantly before turning back to her sister: “So what? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? That bastard messed you up enough as it is!”
“Stop it!” the Will of the Abyss shouted, the sobs creeping back into her voice. “How can you be so cruel? You already have the world all for yourself! You got out of the Abyss and left me all alone! Jack is the only one who… the only one…”
Her voice broke and she buried her face in Jack’s shoulder once more, her whole frame shaking with distressed cries:
“Don’t leave me,” she begged him, her voice muffled by the clothes and tears. “Make them go away… Please stay with me forever, Jack....”
The ghost was making small soothing noises as he caressed her white back and hair comfortingly. His gestures were smooth and gentle, but Oz could see an odd glint in his vivid green eyes, the first signs of impatience. The rabbit got scared. One wrong word, and it all could come crashing down.
“Alice, that’s not true!” he said impulsively.
The Will of the Abyss started. Slowly, she turned towards him, her stare uncertain and somehow cold in her distress. ‘You spoke out of order!’ the toys guffawed close to his ears, and Jack raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but all Oz could see was the terrified little girl in his arms.
Memories were rushing in the rabbit’s head, of endless days in the dark place the Abyss had morphed into, spent watching the smile disappear from Alice’s face. His lonely, fragile, miserable Alice, who so desperately wished for a friend, but was too scared to go out and face the world like her sister had. She had only ever had Oz and her sister before Jack came along, and after that, she had drifted further away until even they had become unable to reach her.
“It wasn’t only Jack who came to visit you,” Oz told her, struggling for the right words. This Alice was mad. She was desperate and unstable. But Oz couldn’t forget the little girl he had watched over for so long. He couldn’t bear to see her like this.
“There was another man called Kevin Regnard. He made a promise to you, remember?”
To his relief, there was an immediate spark of recognition in her tearful eyes. Oz heard a ruffling sound and looked down. Gilbert had come to stand beside him.
“That’s right,” he told the Will of the Abyss, slow and wary, but surprisingly gentle, like a man trying to coax a mistrustful wild animal. “He sent us here. We came to grant your wish in his stead. He is waiting for you on the other side.”
“Kevin…sent you?” she repeated uncertainly, her voice roughed from too much crying.
“The clown sent him because he’s dying and too much of a wreck to come himself,” Alice pointed at Gilbert with a thumb and shrugged. “Whatever. You’re coming with us.”
The Will of the Abyss’ eyes widened in sudden fright. Her grip on Jack slackened. Her hands were shaking wildly.
“Kevin is dying…?”
The rabbit was surprised to find such deep concern in her eyes. The Will of the Abyss quivered and seemed to close up on herself, her thin fingers twining the ribbons on the front of her dress and getting tangled up in them. She didn’t seem to realize she was doing it. Jack put his hands on her shoulders:
“You should go,” he whispered to her, but Oz’s long ears caught the words right and clear. The girl’s small hands wound tighter in the silken bows.
“I’m scared,” she said in the same tone. “Everyone hates me outside....”
“Of course not. They don’t even know you yet. Besides,” Jack leaned forward to rest his chin on her naked shoulder and winked at her. “I’m sure you remember everything I told you about the outside world. Gardens, balls, operas… Don’t you want to see them for yourself?”
Her white cheeks turned a bright red. She looked down, away from Jack’s knowing eyes.
“…Will you be with me?” she asked feebly. Oz suspected she knew the answer.
Jack’s smile turned despondent. He embraced the frail girl from behind in a tight hug. Much like the ghost had hugged Oz every time he wanted to use his powers.
The rabbit felt his fur stand up on end. He had seen his fair share of Jack’s talent for winning people over, and this Alice had always been the most receptive to it. It was part of the plan. Oz had counted on it. He had been desperate. Now that he saw it at work, it was getting unbearable to watch.
“I’m sorry, Alice,” the murmur sent a shiver down Oz’s spine. “I have a last request before we part.”
“No!” the Will of the Abyss tried to cover her ears, but her left hand remained tangled in the ribbons. It waved helplessly like a trapped white bird and came to land on Jack’s hand instead. It was shaking like a leaf. “Don’t go… You promised!”
“That’s why I have to do this,” Jack smoothly pried her other hand from her right ear and held it in his. “I have to go back. Otherwise, it will be like we had never met.”
“Good riddance,” Oz heard Alice grumble next to him, but it got lost in the clicking of the curious toys that surrounded them.
The other two humans stayed silent. They were straining their ears, Oz guessed, anxious to find out what the plan was about. Doubts were creeping like insects under his bestial skin. The Chain prayed to whatever deity there was - the Core of the Abyss? Could they even trust Him? - that he had been right; everything would work out in the end…
“Go back?” the Will of the Abyss asked, intrigued in spite of herself. “But where?”
Just then, Jack lifted his head to cast Oz a conniving glance. The sick feeling in his stomach only got heavier.
“A long time ago,” the ghost told the little girl, “I was attacked by thugs. They beat me up badly; I would have died then, if it weren’t for the help of a young girl and her Chain.”
As before, the mere mention of her was enough to cast a heavy shadow over Jack’s eyes. Nonetheless, his patient smile remained on his lips.
“Her name is Lacie. Her Chain is the Blood-Stained Black Rabbit.”
Gilbert gasped. Oz didn’t dare look his way. The Will of the Abyss was still clutching Jack’s hand, looking lost and confused. Her violet eyes drifted over Oz and Alice like she had just noticed them:
“But… that’s…”
“Well, not quite the Black Rabbit,” Jack hummed, looking amused. “I almost didn’t recognize him; and he didn’t seem to have his powers in their entirety. He only used chains instead of his scythe.”
“What does that mean?” Gilbert asked, his voice tense with agitation. It sounded like his patience was wearing thin. Oz still couldn’t bring himself to look him in the eye. Jack only smiled:
“It means that the destructive powers of the Black Rabbit had been fragmented, as they are meant to be. They are too formidable to be contained in a single body for a long period of time, you see. Rather fittingly, the original twin rabbits, who went by the name of Oz, had the power to switch bodies.”
“Naturally, the same goes for Oz’s powers,” Jack’s expression almost looked hungry. Oz was grateful for the fact that the Will of the Abyss couldn’t see it. “In the past, your sister was able to steal them for herself, until Oz borrowed my body in order to make a contract with her. When Gilbert contracted them both, he and I became the contractors of the current twin Chains known as B-Rabbit: Oz and Alice. Now, Alice…”
Jack’s tone was even and sweet, but the little girl shuddered all the same. Oz couldn’t tell whether it was from fear or pleasure. She chanced an unsettled glance back at Jack. Oz held his breath.
“I want you to give me Oz’s powers,” the ghost susurrated. “I will become the Black Rabbit whom Lacie contracted.”
He could barely keep the excitement from his voice. Jack took a deep breath to calm himself, and added smoothly:
“This way, I can save myself, and our pasts won’t change. But if you don’t,” he said, voice syrupy as he caressed her cheek, “my past self will die, and our meeting will be erased.”
“That’s enough, Jack,” Alice snapped, startling them both. She made her way through the crowd of booing toys without sparing them a second glance, and held out her hand to her twin. “Let’s do it, Alice. I know how to transfer Oz’s powers, I’ll give you a hand.”
“But,” the Will of the Abyss hiccupped, “Jack… What will happen to you…?”
“I will stay by Lacie’s side,” the ghost answered without missing a beat. “Until the very end, when she was cast into the Abyss.”
The Will of the Abyss brought her hands to her mouth in horror. She made to get away. Jack only tightened his grip. He placed a chaste kiss on her temple:
“It’s okay, Alice,” he told her. “If this is the price for the chance of meeting you, I will happily pay it.”
Her eyes welled up with tears. Unable to hold back, she broke down in loud, desperate cries, her pallid fingers digging into Jack’s arms as he held her. Her twin couldn’t contain a grimace at the sight. Oz felt awful.
He could see the truth beneath Jack’s lies. This was the fate he had always wished for: to be together with Lacie, even in death. It made no difference to him if he had to take on the appearance and powers of a monster in order to reach this goal. Jack was happy, genuinely happy to run to his doom. He was only leading the Will of the Abyss on with white lies.
Oz knew all this. Had planned all this, taken advantage of both Jack and this Alice’s weaknesses in a desperate attempt to have his own wish granted. But he couldn’t go back, not as long as Gilbert and Alice were trapped here with him. So he swallowed his guilt and doubts, and spoke:
“Alice,” he told the Will of the Abyss, hating how scary his voice sounded. “You can’t stay here. This place is driving you mad. We will show you the way back. Kevin Regnard will be there, and so will your sister. So will I. You won’t be alone anymore. So…”
She was looking at him now, still shaking from her ear-piercing cries. She probably couldn’t even see him through the onslaught of tears that she couldn’t bring under control. Seeing her so upset, it suddenly struck Oz that he meant every word. Deceits and pretty lies came naturally to Jack, who had been manipulating the Will of the Abyss all along, but Oz couldn’t see past the helpless little girl who used to hold him in the dark. An insignificant plush rabbit, yet her only comfort in her timeless prison before the Tragedy.
“Please… don’t cry.”
The Will of the Abyss sniffed audibly. She looked from him to her sister, then to Jack, who nodded. Alice beckoned her with an imperious wave of her extended hand. Her sister gulped uneasily and, at long last, took it.
“Wait!”
‘Gil....’
Both sisters turned questioning gazes towards the man. The Will of the Abyss was wiping her cheeks with her free hand.
“What about Oz?” Gilbert asked. “What will happen to him after you take his powers?”
The Will of the Abyss frowned at him like he was the most stupid person she had ever met. The toys burst into a chorus of hollow laughter:
‘Didn’t you know?’ the rag doll of a jester asked among jingles from its hat. ‘The Abyss can turn humans and objects into Chains!’
‘And Chains make pacts in order to go back to the other side,’ a rocking horse added. ‘For a chance at being human again!’
‘Even Cheshire wanted a human body,’ the crowned doll in the red dress snickered.
‘You have to pay the price!’ a plush dodo cawed at Jack.
“It’s the least I can do,” the ghost laughed good-humouredly. “I don’t have a use for this body anymore. Once B-Rabbit’s power is shared between me and Alice and I take his appearance, Oz can have mine as payment.”
Even as the monster he was, Oz felt strangely small and exposed among the mocking toys. The truth was out. The selfish reason why he had insisted so much on fulfilling this plan when he couldn’t come up with a better solution.
“Really?” Gilbert asked in a hushed voice. “You can make Oz human again?”
Against his better judgement, Oz let his eyes wander to him. Gilbert looked giddy with joy, his pale cheeks flushed a bright red over a wide, almost boyish smile. It felt like forever since Oz had seen him so effusive. The Chain felt a fond laugh bubble up in his chest, only to remain trapped there.
The rabbit shook himself. For his servant’s sake, Oz tried not to think about the people he had used in order to get there; tried to forget about all the contracts that had gone wrong in the past. He had thought this through. They weren’t changing the past. There should be no repercussions.
All the same, Gilbert noticed his lack of reaction. A cloud crept over the man’s face. In the same moment, the Will of the Abyss turned to Oz and held out a delicate hand:
“You were late,” she told him, mildly reproachful. “But you did bring Jack to me in the end. So come along, Mister Rabbit.”
Before he could take a step, Oz felt a human hand on his arm. He looked down and met Gilbert’s eyes. Once again, Oz was stricken by how open they looked. No matter how they had narrowed over the past ten years, they were still the same bright gold, full of warmth and undisguised concern.
“Oz....”
Gilbert couldn’t form another word. Yet there was so much in that name, in the way he said it and looked up at Oz, laden with a love that Oz had always seen and craved, but never dared believe in. ‘You don’t have to do this,’ Gilbert’s face said, bare before him like an open book. ‘You don’t know what might happen. I don’t want to lose you. Not again.’
Oz could have wept then, would have kissed Gilbert right there and then if he had a human body to do so. To have this gaze directed at him, whether he was human or a Chain, to know that Gilbert didn’t and would never see the difference, it was almost enough to make him change his mind.
The rabbit attempted a smile, but stopped himself when he realized he couldn’t manage anything but a feral grin in this form. He couldn’t even give Gilbert that much as reassurance. Oz ducked his head to be level with his:
“I have to do this, Gil,” he told him in as gentle a growl as he could manage. “I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I never wanted this power in the first place... Jack can have it. Lacie won’t use it to destroy the world, she loves it too much for that.”
Gilbert’s fingers sank in the rough fur and hung on like he was terrified to let go. He, too, looked torn between the temptation of hope and the urge to throw himself at Oz and never let go.
“Let me do this, Gil,” Oz asked, all too aware of his sharp teeth and claws, of how inhuman he really was, no matter what Gilbert saw beyond. “I want to go back to the way we were.”
As much as it seemed to cost him, Gilbert did let go. Oz crawled on all fours towards the twins and forced himself not to look back. Seeing Alice’s confident grin eased some of his fears.
Jack came to stand beside him. To the rabbit’s surprise, the ghost turned to look at the brothers. There was something akin to an apology in his smile:
“Vincent… Your red eye reminded me of Lacie. This is the reason I rescued you and Gilbert, all those years ago. I simply couldn’t stand by and leave you to die. It was this eye that saved your life and your brother’s.”
Oz heard a soft gasp behind him. Jack’s grin widened:
“It really is beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
With these parting words, the ghost turned back to the Will of the Abyss. They hugged one last time. Then Alice pulled her twin away and clasped their hands together. The Will of the Abyss rested her forehead against hers obediently. There were tears on her cheeks, but her lips were pressed together into a determined line. Alice’s expression mirrored hers.
A blinding glow erupted from their joined hands. It expanded until it swallowed the entire room and its cheering toys. Oz heard the broken grandfather clock strike twelve in the background before his sense of hearing was taken along with his sight. He felt small and naked in the raw light, like it was about to swallow him whole. Oz was dimly aware of another presence, very close, someone familiar and scary all the same.
Jack.
Something was being taken from him, dragged away by that presence. Something strong and intimate, ripped straight from his very being, or so it felt like. Oz wanted to cry. He couldn’t move. He was drained dry, all his energy leaving his body like sunlight - did he have a body? - until there was nothing but cold and emptiness, nothing but Oz.
Suspended in this bare state somewhere between time and space, Oz heard a familiar tune in the distance. A young girl humming a song.
Lacie.
Jack’s presence was drifting away, in the direction of the voice. “Hey. My name is Lacie.” Oz felt an overwhelming joy that wasn’t his own. “My name is B-Rabbit. Will you make a pact with me, Lacie?”
Their voices flickered and died.
Suddenly a sharp pain pulled him down. Everything came back at once: weight, smell, sounds, colours, everything too bright and cold for him to endure. It had to stop, lest he would go mad. Oz. Someone was calling. His limbs felt like they were made of lead, the angles looked too sharp, the reds and whites too vivid. Oz. Someone was calling him....
Oz opened his eyes to chaos. The room was breaking apart all around him in a rain of red and white rocks. The blast tore the sisters apart. The Will of the Abyss clutched her chest and opened her mouth wide in a mute cry when a bright glow was pulled from her body. She was falling backwards into the darkness. Only then did Oz realize he was falling too.
Small arms embraced him from behind - human, Oz realized with a jolt, I am human again - and he heard Alice’s voice in his ear. He tried to reach for her hands around his chest, but his whole body was quivering. Darkness was closing in on them, weighing him down. He couldn’t move.
“Oz!”
Oz’s eyes widened. His body was shrinking. In his panic, his eyes looked all over the collapsing room for the source of the voice. He saw black wings and a glint of metal. At last his lips were unsealed:
“Gil! Call… my name!”
Those were Oz’s last words before his voice got sucked into the darkness.