Chatterbox: Inkwell

The light is growing, blazing, blinding. Lighter and lighter the sewer turns, and darker and darker the future looms.

Wren is suddenly aware of how small the sick alice in wonderland sewer is. Tsuki is eager–it's an adventure, and it's exactly what they bargained for. Periwinkle is frozen. They don't know what's happening. Pancake grips their knife harder.

Won't you come? Play a game.

The voice changes, oddly enough.

Enough of games. It's no longer a game.

"What is happening?" Willow asks, lost.

No more.

The light switches. It flips. It changes. It stretches through the sewer tunnel, circling in a mobius strip, and suddenly–

Stop!

And Willow screams, as the mobius strip collapses, flying out in fine particles of light dust sharper than a thousand knives. It's burning, twisting, moving in a hurricane, and the mobius strip is gathering around the eye.

Tsuki shields their eyes, trying to squint into the light.

Wren grabs Periwinkle's arm, and tries to move forward–because it'd be impossible to move backwards, and anything is better than nothing.

Pancake draws their knife.

It's like the light is splitting. It's like there are two figures, the Achilles to the Paris, the arrow striking true and the ankle biting back. It's as if both houses are one and different and the same and conflicting in the blinding, blinding, blinding light.

Periwinkle swears they saw a hand reach out.

It's over.

Pancake slashes down with their knife, and the particles still.

They stretch out, like fragments of shattered glass, reflecting everything and nothing at the same time.

Expanding outwards, through the darkness, like the walls aren't there anymore.

The knife is embedded into two hands, clawing at each other, dispersed light that refracts every way.

There's a moment.

And in that moment, everyone feels something.

The sewer no longer feels so small to Wren. Tsuki can see, really see, something other than just a story. Periwinkle can feel everything moving around them, and they're moving as well. Pancake is safe. Willow knows. She knows everything, in that one instant.

The particles rush inwards, and the light is too bright.

And then it's dark.

Tsuki blinks.

The shape of the shelves full of snacks are blurring into their vision.

Wren is on a bench in the park, and the rustling of leaves reaches their ears.

Periwinkle turns around and around, as the cashier seat spins likewise, and it's empty. For once.

Pancake is barefoot in a puddle in the middle of the road, drying up quickly in the sunlight.

It's 8:49 A.M.

A girl, who was made fun of at school for being named after two trees, wakes up to their alarm that's been ringing for four minutes.

A strawberry-blonde with green eyes stares at the road. Another strawberry-blonde with green eyes stands by his side. Two doppelgangers, unnamed faces to outsiders.

They're free.

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[Finally! It's finished! This is the final part! We did it y'all! Sorry it took a little while to get this out, I was having some creative troubles XD. Other than that, this may have been a little confusing, especially this finale, so you guys can ask away about the story in the comments! :D]