Wonderland

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the courtyard by the gazebo. I was back in the forest, staring up at the trees. My vision was foggy, but I could make out two faces above mine, looking down.

"I think he's waking up." one said.

"No shit, sherlock! His eyes are open!" the other said. The voices sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite see the faces yet. My eyes were half closed in exhaustion, adding to the fogginess.

"Well don't take your anger out on me! It's not my fault the leaves fell from the trees, now is it?"

"Well it's not my fault either! So it must have been yours!"

"It was not!"

"It was too!" The two voices went on like this, bickering about random things for another few minutes until it started giving me a headache.

"Both of you, shut the fuck up!" I yelled, lifting my hand up to my forehead, rubbing in an attempt to rid myself of the throbbing pain. I looked up at them, seeing the faces of Gerard and Frank, two of the people I'd met when I first arrived.

"Look, he's up now!" Frank shouted excitedly.

"Well duh, anyone could tell that, Frank." Gerard answered him, triggering another bickering session. Weren't they a couple? Didn't that imply that they loved each other? It seemed like they fought too much to be in love.

"Stop!" I yelled up at them. "Before you even start arguing, stop." Their voices stopped suddenly, and both of them turned to me, staring without speaking for an awkward five minutes.

After what seemed like forever, Frank finally spoke. "Yeah, I definitely think he's awake now." I rolled my eyes, but held my tongue. I didn't want to get either of them talking or arguing, and I figured that was easily triggered.

"Shall we take him back to the house?" Gerard asked Frank. By house, did they mean mansion? I hadn't seen any standing structure other than the huge castle that Pete and Patrick had.

"No, I s'pose not. Didn't Gabe say something about that?" Frank answered. They started walking away from me, leaving me laying in the wet leaves. I felt my brows furrow at the mention of Gabe.

What did he have to do with this? Why couldn't Frank and Gerard help me? How did they find me? How did I end up back in the forest? All these questions swirled around in my brain, eventually giving me a headache.

"Ah, fuck." I muttered, sitting up and massaging my temples in a vain attempt at easing the searing pain.

It felt like someone had stuck a knife down through my brain, twisted it a few times, then pulled it out. All in all, it was not exactly pleasant.

"No worries, love. It's just a headache." I jumped when I heard Gabe's voice coming from behind me. When I turned around, no one was there.

All I saw was the tall trees, towering over me and stretching into the sky. It seemed almost as if the scratched the storm clouds forming, dark and ominous, overhead. My hands dropped from my head, landing in the damp leaves beneath me. The rest of my body followed soon after.

Laying on the cool, wet ground soothed my head, almost bringing me to sleep. I saw lightning break the sky open, and heard a crash of thunder that seemed to shake all of existence.

Rain began to fall from the sky, hitting my body and rolling down my cheeks. I couldn't keep my eyes open, there was too much water in them.

Oddly enough, I didn't feel the need to move. No matter how soaked I was getting, my limbs were made of lead. I couldn't move. My arms spread out beside me; even my fingers were open, allowing as much rain as possible to hit me.

I couldn't even think. It was as if the rain was washing my thoughts away.

"Why are you laying in the rain, love?" I heard Gabe speak again. His voice was shaking with laughter.

"I don't even know, but I'm sure there's a good reason." I replied in a whisper, as if speaking any louder would ruin... whatever it was that was happening. "Right? Isn't there a reason for everything?" Gabe's laughter got louder as I spoke, then it started coming closer.

"You really need to learn that this world is not the world you're from. This world is about what you feel, not what you think. The only thing that needs a reason is thought." he said. "And seeing as how thought isn't needed here, why don't we just leave the reasoning to reasonable people?"

I nodded mindlessly in response, not wanting to think about anything. I felt his arms lift me up off of the cold ground, and I cuddled into his warm chest. I could hear the sound of his heartbeat lulling me to sleep.

"Good night, love. Don't dream too hard."