Alice: Book 4 Chapter 2

## Verse 1

A series of explosions and attacks on transportation.

The chaos that they caused. The city, its **vulnerabilities** laid bare, was wracked in every quarter with **looting** and the paralysis of the transport system. Pandemonium.

In the midst of it, she wanders.

She's certain she **leapt** from a building.

She's certain she dragged another, **small life** along with her as she took her own.

She walks down the center of the street, as furious car horns blare all around her.

They don't even **reach her ears.**

Without realizing, she found herself at the station.

Just a short ride away from **a certain house**.

 A devastated city... Creatures of darkness...

 None of that matters.

 There's only one thing...

 Only one thing I care about...

## Verse 2

The city she knew so well was burning.

Screams echod through black, billowing smoke. A baby cried.

She strode through the chaos towards the home of someone dear.

## Verse 3

The display windows at the mall are all broken,

street strewn with glass and whatever the looters deigned not to take.

Hostility roils through the streets, almost palpable.

## Verse 4

What if tomorrow, school was cancelled?

What tomorrow, your company went under?

What if tomorrow, the world ended?

## Verse 5

There was a woman screaming, sobbing, her voice hoarse.

People are being left utterly helpless in an uncaring, unjust world.

...I covered my ears.

## Verse 6

The trains aren't running.

The world isn't really running anymore, either, after all.

I don't even think,

I only start walking down the center of the abandoned tracks.

## Verse 7

In the distance, a building collapses in flames,

sending sparks and ash whirling up in a spreading plume.

I stop to watch.

It looks a bit like cotton candy.

## Verse 8

Is this really the end of it all?

Can't really bring myself to care, if it is.

The world already ended, for me.

## Verse 9

Dark creatures were flooding the world,

hideous in form and feature.

They are a blight upon this world,

just as I am.

## Verse 10

*Before*

After defeating the creatures, I look down at the sword in my hand.

"...How long... how long have I had **this weapon**?"

I **can't remember** at all.

And yet, when I dream...

Just then, a creature of darkness appeared before me, as if sensing my **uncertainty**.

**Reflexively**, I whirl to face it, whipping my sword to **slice** sideways, and it dissolve completely, black soul turning to dust.

I stand there, **shocked** at my own actions, at the reflex to attack and the skill with which I swung the blade.

I've never studied fencing. Why does the blade sit so naturally in my grip?

Questions echoing in her mind, the girl hesitated at the **strength** she felt welling up inside her, before continuing on.

 Since when have I had this power...?

 I can't remember, but strangely, it feels every bit my own.

 That tells me this means something... I'm sure of it.

 My second chance at life, this power I seem to have gained...

 I'm here. I'm alive. Wait for me.

*After*

As she fought her way through the creatures of darkness, the girl suddenly found herself **laughing**.

Her wild laughter echoed through the streets of the crumbling city, as **strange** and unsettling as she was.

The few others around eyed her dubiously, before quickly looking away. And the pain she felt then, the pain of being **isolated** from the world...

It was a feeling she hadn't felt since the moment her forbidden love had first been revealed. This time, however... this time, she wasn't afraid at all, anymore.

For she knew that, "**I'm the only one in this broken, crumbling world, who can save you. So... promise you'll wait for me**."

## Discordant Poem

People are strange, aren't they?

Just think,

their world is ending, and still they close their eyes to it.

They cling to their schools and their jobs and their homes,

crying uselessly, even now.

Even though they ought to know there's nothing left they can be sure of.

Someone gave you that power.

Yet you seem to think it's yours by right.

Someone told you all the answers.

Yet you act as if you're the clever one.

Meaningless struggle.

Meaningless screams.

Meaningless lives.

The meaningless illusion created

as your feeble neurons fire,

that you call love.

*Related Pages*
Main Story
Next
Book 1: Act of Impulse
* Alice: Book 1 Chapter 1
* Alice: Book 1 Chapter 2
* Alice: Book 1 Chapter 3 (crossover with Snow White)
* Alice: Book 1 Chapter 4
* Book 1 Chapter 5

Book 2: Act of Hatred
* Alice: Book 2 Chapter 1
* Alice: Book 2 Chapter 2
* Alice: Book 2 Chapter 3 (crossover with Kaguya)
* Alice: Book 2 Chapter 4 (crossover with Pinocchio)
* Book 2 Chapter 5

Book 3: Act of Reality
* Alice: Book 3 Chapter 1
* Alice: Book 3 Chapter 2 (crossover with Little Mermaid)
* Alice: Book 3 Chapter 3
* Alice: Book 3 Chapter 4
* Book 3 Chapter 5

Book 4: Act of Fusion
* Alice: Book 4 Chapter 1
* **Alice: Book 4 Chapter 2**
* Alice: Book 4 Chapter 3 (crossover with Sleeping Beauty)
* Alice: Book 4 Chapter 4
* Book 4 Chapter 5

Book 5: Act of Elimination
* Alice: Book 5 Chapter 1
* Alice: Book 5 Chapter 2 (crossover with Sleeping Beauty)
* Alice: Book 5 Chapter 3 (crossover with Cinderella)
* Alice: Book 5 Chapter 4 (crossover with Dorothy and Snow White)
* Book 5 Chapter 5