Disclaimer: Don't own 'em; nothing to do with me.
Summary: Alec suddenly finds himself in a strange, unknown world where darkness & terror reign. There he meets an enchanting girl who's eyes silenly beg him to free her from the eternal shadows that possese her soul.
Building A Mystery
By Serenity Wintirs
Alec closed his eyes and slowly allowed his lungs to expand with the nourishing, life giving air. He could taste the sharp, December frost, lacing each breath harshly. As he finally allowed his eyes to drift open, he took in the frozen wasteland before him, committing every crystal-like ice sicle to memory. The once flourishing field, now stretched out like a vast ocean of memories, forever locked in time like the escaped echoes of a forgotten world. It reminded Alec of a dream he had once had when he was younger. Not that things like that mattered anymore.
As Alec's feet carefully carried him towards the gate entrance, he found himself slowly beginning to embrace the cold, even as he flexed his hands to keep the bitter chill from reaching the blood that flowed through them and kept them from freezing over along with the rest of his body. It crossed his mind that he should no longer be capable of moving, but though his mind argued with the possibility, his body moved forward as if being drawn in a current. Or a dream. Alec decided that this must be a dream. Which would explain why he couldn't feel anything. Or maybe he was just numb.
Alec wasn't really sure what he would find once inside, but since he didn't know what he was looking for anyway, he supposed that it didn't matter. As he brought his hands up to his chest, he became acutely aware of his rapidly descending heartbeat. With each step closer, it seemed to grow fainter. Maybe once is stopped, he would awaken. Once Alec reached the gate, his immobile fingers grazed it in a clumsy, feeble attempt to open it. It took him a few tries before he was able to do so. Alec cautiously stepped through the tiny, iron opening. It was like walking deeper into another world, he graciously noted. The old world grandeur of wherever he was, was certainly not lost on him. Alec approached the hauntingly beautiful castle that leaned against the dark sky like the shadow of a million lost souls. Which is exactly what came to Alec's mind as an incredibly strong gust of wind blew past him and for the briefest second, he could have sworn he heard it whispering to him. Urging him onward. But that was just silly. Wasn't it?
Alec glanced upwards in a vain attempt to see just how far the castle reached up. But the black, smoky sky blocked his view as he realized that the castle shot straight up into it in a twisted, darkened knot of old style architecture. He could once again hear the whispers and this time he knew that it was not just his imagination. Someone was beckoning to him and he allowed himself to be led by the haunting voice. Straight up the three small steps that led to the charred, wooden door that was way too small for such an enormous home. Alec's gaze fell over the blackened door, and as he pushed it open, a stubborn groan sounding out to him like thunder as it creaked open, the damp charcoal smell that greeted him made him aware of why the house was so black. There had undoubtedly been a very large fire once upon a time. It was amazing that the house had managed to stay standing at all. Alec reached the conclusion that it must have been build with a very strong foundation. Yet he was still wary as he entered, mildly afraid that the ceiling would come crashing down at any moment.
"Alec." Alec spun around quickly as he heard someone whisper his name and felt a soft, flowing material brush across his arm. His shallow breath came out in small, rapid pants as his eyes widened in fear. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he just wanted to wake up. His eyes flew quickly to the door, but as it slowly flew shut, he decide his only hope was to continue on within the house. He absent mindedly drug his hand through his hair and brought it down to interlock with his other hand, meeting at his lips as he desperately blew into them, trying to warm up. But his breath came out cold and he quickly saw the futility in his actions and abandoned them to ascend the tiny staircase before him. The last thing that Alec wanted to do was go upstairs, but he could still feel the voice drawing him on and his curiosity was at it's peak. He could feel the terror gripping mercilessly at his heart, but he could deal with terror. At least it was something. And it was without a doubt better than the apathetic numbness that he was leaving behind.
As his foot landed heavily on the first stair, Alec paused to brace himself for a noisy creak, but it never came. Instead, he heard a soft thud ... and then silence. He swallowed the hard lump lodged in his throat and lifted his other foot. Then brought it down. Still nothing. Feeling more confident, he quickened his pace and had no problems until he reached the eleventh stair ... and his foot fell through the weakened wood. Alec managed to stifle his horrified scream before he caught the attention of any unwanted company. Like whoever was whispering to him. Or...whatever had touched him downstairs. Alec shuddered as he recalled the incident. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he concentrated on lifting his leg out from the broken stair. The boards made a loud, mournful creak as he pulled and pulled, his leg muscles on fire and screaming for rest. Finally he managed to free himself and needless to say, was much more careful as he continued up, ready at a moment's notice to jump over the side railing should the stairs try to collapse beneath him.
Though Alec suffered no repeat incidents on the stairs, his terror expanded greatly once he had traveled all the way through the long, pitch black hallway and into the first bedroom he came too. His lips moved silently in awe as he took in the sight before him. There in a glass tube, standing still as death, was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
~~~
Once Alec finally managed to catch his breath, he took a careful step forward. The girl, like everything else in this forsaken world, looked to be frozen in time. Her beauty unparreled by the harsh ice crystals forming around her. Frozen tears littered the length of her long, dark lashes and her skin radiated a deep coldness unlike Alec had ever felt. But she was far too beatiful to be dead, Alec thought. Against his better judgement, Alec allowed himself to drift closer to the glass case that enfolded her body. He allowed his fingers to play wantonly against it's smooth surface, not quite understanding why they ached to touch her as they did. His breath caught painfully in his throat as he once again heard the whisper and realized that it was coming from her. This confused Alec greatly for not only were her eyes closed quite tightly and she was not so much as breathing, but Alec was quite certain that she was dead. But the whisper came again. And again. And it was not long before Alec realized that she was begging to be set free. Something inside of her was crying out and Alec quickly rose to the occassion as he began to circle the case, trailing his eyes after his fingertips and searching for some type of opening in the glass prison.
After finding nothing, Alec scanned his eyes over the bare contents of the room and after the second time around, they eventually fell on small axe that quietly rested in the corner as if it were there just for that purpose. Alec was quite certain that he had not been there a moment ago. This only furthered Alec's suspicion that he was in some type of dream. Alec quickly snatched up the axe and with a loud cry, he brought it down upon the glass. As the shards fell away like crushed ice, the girl within slowly became mobile and looked around herself in terror and confusion. "Hey," Alec offered quietly, not really sure what to say to a dream girl that you had just freed from a glass enclosure. After getting no response from the girl, he decided that this would just have to be one of those quiet, akward moments where everything felt surreal and nothing made sense. Alec watched the girl slowly walk around the room, not even aknowledging his presence.
She took her time to dart her eyes over everything in sight, as if trying to remember where she was. But recognition never dawned in her eyes and when she went to the large bay window and stood silently before it, Alec finally decided that he had waited long enough. "I'm Alec," he said in a plain tone. She quickly turned around, the fear in her eyes magnifying tenfold as she finally seemed to realize that he was there. "And you would be?" he asked her, getting just a tiny bit fed up with her mystery girl routine. "You shouldn't be here," was her low, whispery response. Alec shrugged nonchalently. "Nice to meet you too. So... where exactly is 'here' anyway?" Instead of answering him, she just turned back towards the window and taking up where she left off, she once again began her tireless staring. This managed to grab Alec's curiosity, for whatever she was so intent on must be damn fascinating. He walked over to join her at the window and stood silently behind her, his eyes silently seeking whatever marvelous thing hers had found. But all that Alec could see was unending darkness, swirling around them like a cloak of eternal night.
After several, agonizingly silent moments, Alec heard the small girl in front of him exhale sharply and it was the first that he became aware she had been holding her breath. As if waiting for something to happen. "He doesn't know that you are here, does he?" she asked softly, still facing the window. "Who are you talking about? And where the hell is 'here' anyway?" Alec responded harshly, his earlier confusion and fear rapidly turning to anger and frusteration. The girl just sighed and turned cold black eyes to face him. "You don't know do you?" Alec was about to snap back with some angry remark, but he stopped himself. Though her words were not exactly helpful, and he was getting really sick of the ominous doom and gloom stuff, he recognized a note of sadness to her voice and he almost wept with the sheer hopelessness that rolled off of her. And he just didn't have the heart to say what he wanted to this girl who seemed as lost as he was. "So uh... I suppose you wouldn't know how to get out of this place, would ya?" His eyes narrowed as he heard her sharp intake of breath. "Out? There is no out," she scoffed. Alec began to wish that she would just go back to not talking at all if all she was going to spout was spooky, once sentance replies that were about as helpful as talking to his Aunt Erma when she'd had a little too much to drink at the family Thanksgiving diner.
He realized that talking to Ms. Doom & Gloom wasn't getting him anywhere, so he needed a change of plan if he was ever going to escape. Alec once again surveyed the tiny, bare room. Maybe something else would magically appear like the axe had done. Yet even as Alec thought this, he knew that probably wasn't how this worked. Whatever 'this' was anyway. Okay, this was getting really tiresome. Alec turned back to the girl, but saw that she was still preoccupied with staring into the milky darkness. And that is when he felt it again. The material that had brushed across him earlier. There was someone else in the room with them, and as he heard some soft piano music strike up from somewhere within the house, his fear returned with brutal and absolute certainty.
~~~
Alec quickly turned his eyes back to the silent, dark haired beauty standing at the window. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" she responded, never turning to face him. "That music! What do you mean 'hear what'? You can't honestly stand here and tell me that you don't hear anything," Alec said, his annoyance getting the best of him. "Well then why did you ask if I can hear it?" was her biting reply. She has a sharp tongue. I like that, Alec thought to himself, his fear momentarily forgotten as he focused on the small patches of pale flesh that was visible through her long, dark hair.
But when the piano suddenly stopped, Alec's mind was quickly brought back to the situation and he felt the insistent, nagging little voice of panic. He was also tempted to ask the girl where they were again, but he could already hear her mysterious response in his head. Fucking great, he thought. I am trapped in God knows where and the only person that could possibly tell me where I am -the only person period, he corrected- is a fucking weirdo. A fucking sexy weirdo, but a weirdo nonetheless and sexy wasn't going to get him out of here so what the hell use for it did he have.
"Alright, can you at least tell me your name?" Alec was really too concerned with getting home at the moment to honestly care, but he figured he would at least feel better if you had something to call her other than 'the girl' or 'popsicle'. Not that she looked like one or anything, she just kinda reminded him of one. She glared at him icily as she observed his sardonic smirk. This of course, only made it worse, and for a moment Alec got the impression that she was preparing to smack him. But after a long, hard, menacing look that almost made him beg for mercy, she finally answered him. "Max", was her cool reply. Definately not what Alec was expecting.
"Max? You're name is Max?" he questioned with slightly more skepticism in his voice than he had intended. "What, you don't believe me?" Alec regarded her question carefully. "I didn't say that. It's just not the kind of name I was expecting is all." Alec stared over her carefully and took in everything about her that he could. The way her skin wasn't nearly as pale as he had first thought. Another illusion maybe? And the way the long dirty-white gown she was wearing hung ever so slightly off her shoulders. The way that even though the gown was pristine, it was quite lacerated in a few choice places. Mainly around the long, Victorian style train that had no doubt been dragged across the floor one too many times. And from the looks of it, maybe even through the mud once or twice.
But like the castle, it held a wondrous touch of old world grandeur and the pearl buttoned, drop down bodice only added to it's tattered yet exquisite beauty. The last thing that he noticed was oddly the first thing that he had noticed when he first laid eyes on her in the glass prison. As Alec reached out to touch the small icicles forming on her eyelashes, she backed away from him in fear. "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt 'ya," he reassured with a gentleness that he had never felt before.
But Max only scoffed at him. "As if you could," she said, slightly rolling her eyes. Okay, that was it. "What the fuck is your problem? For the last fifteen minutes all that you have been doing is ignoring my questions. Sure it pissed me off but I guess I just figured that you don't like to talk much. But you have obviously proven me wrong because now you won't shut the hell up. Honestly, does every word you say have to sound so damn condescending?"
"Does every word you say have to sound so damn arrogant? And did it ever occur to you that the reason I don't want to answer you is because you ask too many damn questions?"
"Arrogant? What the hell have I done to come off as arrogant? No you know what, don't answer that. I don't need your bullshit. All that I want to do is get the hell out of here. And if you would stop your crap and actually say something useful for once, I might be able to do that!"
"Look, I already told you. There is no way out!"
"What the hell do you mean by that? There has to be a way out!
"So not only are you arrogant, you are also incredibly stupid. And would you stop with all the damn questions already?" Just as Alec opened his mouth with a retort, he heard a low growling coming from the doorway just beyond where Max now stood. In that moment, Alec's instincts took over and he reached out to push Max behind him. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" Alec ignored her this time as he moved his eyes towards the direction the growling was coming from.
There stood a an ivory white wolf, his mouth curled into a low growl as he stared back at Alec and prepared to attack.
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