Alice in NightmaRe

"Hello, Alice. My name is Dr. Raven, your new psychiatrist," a man in a suit entered her lonely hospital room.

Alice sat in her bed, staring into space, wearing a white nightdress. Her long, dark brown hair stood up in a crazed frenzy.

"How are you, Alice?" he asked, sitting next to her on a wooden stool.

Alice's purple eyes continued to stare at the blank, white wall in front of her.

"Do you feel better?"

Still no reply.

The psychiatrist could not help but sigh at the thought of how much work Alice might need. "I don't suppose you'll answer me, but…what's wrong, Alice?"

Her blank eyes widened at the question. She hoarsely whispered, "My parents…are dead."

Raven mentally cheered at the slight interaction of the six-year old. "Yes. What else is wrong, Alice?"

He partially hoped to get an easy answer such as, "I'm sad" or "I feel lonely." He most certainly did not expect "Something is broken."

At those words, a wave of fragmented memories crashed into her mind. Strange people talking to her. Strange people guiding her. Strange people playing different games with her.

"What is broken, Alice?" he quietly asked, immersed into understanding what was going on in her mind.

A boy with messy white hair smiled at her, "It won't hurt to have a look-see~"

"What is broken, Alice?" he repeated with more urgency as he watched the little girl strain her brain to remember forgotten memories.

A porcelain doll with the same face as her…even the black hair, purple eyes…even the outfit was the same. It was held on strings by its wrists as though it were more of a puppet that a doll. There was a small crack on its cheek. Slowly, the crack expanded to its forehead…its chin…and the entire face. Its body began to crumble, little by little.

"NO! I CAN'T LOSE! XERXES! XERXES, SAVE ME!"

The doll shattered into bits.

"Me."

"What?" He strained to hear her tiny voice.

"Me. I broke. That's why…"

She had lost. She had lost the Alice Game. So she had lost him as well. Alice lost her best friend who went through the trouble of exploring her Wonderland by her side. Alice had lost Xerxes.

"…Say mister…"

"Yes?"

"If I lost the Alice Game, I would lose anything precious to me, no? So if I returned and killed everyone off…and win the Game…would Xerxes come back?"

"Xerxes?"

"Yes…my best friend who disappeared with me on the same day…and never returned…"

Raven looked at her, confused, "My dear…I've looked up this case. Never has there been an Xerxes involved."

"But…he gave me this before he left…surely you would know what the crest symbolizes?" Alice held up a small golden pocket watch with an elaborate, fancy crest on front.

"The old-fashioned, aristocratic family of Regnard? They never had a son named Xerxes, but had a child named Kevin, Alice," Raven replied, pushing his eyeglasses up.

"But there was never a child named Kevin born into this world! Kevin should not exist!" Alice's fingers trembled as she clasped the watch around her hand tightly.

"Neither was a child named Xerxes," Raven sighed and decided to force her into reality. "There has never been an existence with the name of Xerxes Regnard."

"But…what if his surname wasn't Regnard?"

Break…?

"Welcome, first years!" the banner in front of the middle school congratulated.

Alice ignored it and didn't sign her name on it with markers like the other students were doing. She made her way straight into the auditorium and plopped down in the middle row. She started to pick at her ugly uniform while she imagined burning it delightfully. Alice frowned, bored as ever.

"What if I caused some trouble…?" She stopped and sighed, "179 other days, Alice. 179 other days to cause trouble. Behave for the first week then throw those damn teachers off. You can do it…"

She turned her amethyst colored eyes to the ceiling and distracted herself, "Seven years in the asylum already and no one still believes you exist, Xerxes. You'd think they'd believe you once you appear to get your sanity back, but no, you were 'just a dream'." She leaned back on her chair as other students flooded into the auditorium.

"Gwah!" Alice felt feet tripping over her legs and a crash of chairs.

She sat up and stared at the kid who fell over her legs and knocked over a row of chairs.

"I'm sorry! Forgive me!" he cried as he rubbed the back of his blonde hair.

"Watch it," she frowned as he got up, dusted himself, and began to re-arrange the chairs, "You're such a klutz."

"I know…" he sighed. The boy suddenly turned his emerald eyes at her and smiled, "I'm Hayan-Touki!"

"…Hayan…Touki…?" Alice snorted.

"Well, yes, that's my given name…but I have a more normal sounding name if you want!" He finished and sat next to her with a cheery atmosphere, in total contrast to Alice's.

"I don't care."

"I'm also known as Oz! What's your name?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" She complained.

"It's punishment for not listening to what I say!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

"I know. You don't get paid for being rude," he shrugged.

"SENSE not CENTS! That was totally lame and cheesy!"

"I like cheese!" he smiled. Then suddenly, his cheery mood disappeared, "Oh no…I cannot like cheese…I am a strict vegetarian! THE PLEASURES OF CHEESE ARE FORBIDDEN TO ME!"

If there were a desk in front of Alice, she definitely would have done a head-desk. Oz laughed at her sitting in the evil little corner of her mind, planning to destroy all things joyful, including cheese.

"Ok, you've set up the chairs, now go sit with your class," Alice attempted to shoo him off.

"I am sitting with my class," he grinned as Alice stared at him as though he were a demon from her own personal Hell.

Oh, the irony.

After another 30 whole minutes, the auditorium began to empty out in streams.

"Alice…Alice…Alice, wake up!" Oz poked an Alice who had been sleeping the entire time.

"Eh?" She rubbed her eyes, "Oh. Time to go."

She got up and noticed that she and Oz were the only ones left now.

"Hey Alice…" Oz took her wrist and stared downward. Alice couldn't see his eyes due to his curly blonde bangs.

"Wh-what do you want?" She stammered at his sudden bold move.

"Do you…" he looked up at her with empty eyes and a creepy smile, "…want to return to Wonderland?"

And that concludes the first chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

It's kind of slow and boring, but I'm not used to writing "action" stories, so you'll have to forgive me.

If you read Pandora Hearts, it's so incredibly obvious who the characters are, but when I first wrote this, it was its own story before I realized that it was totally Pandora Hearts material, so...there you have it.

I love Break. So that's why he's a main chara in here :3 And on a random note, my dad's name is Kevin, so when I think of Break as "Kevin" he suddenly loses his awesomeness and melts into a golf-obsessed, Asian daddy. I love my daddy but...he taints the name of Kevin...

In later chapters, there will be "enemies" and since I have extremely low creativity skills, I'll probably use some characters from other animes or possibly Touhou (a computer game). At first, I was going to add Patchouli, but I've found her replacement :3

I didn't realize how similar this would turn out to be like "Are You Alice?" a manga about a boy named Alice...seriously, I am Alice crazed. I'll give a cookie to the person who counts all the times I've written the word "Alice" in this chapter. Plus, I got the name of the "game" the characters play (Alice Game) from Rozen Maiden. I'm expecting them to pop up once in a while too...

The title and idea came from American McGee's Alice game, a gruesome bloody computer game. The Japanese version of the name is "Alice in Nightmare" but it looked boring so I changed it to have the R capitalized. One change makes all the difference in the world :)

-Work of a person obessing over all things Alice who wrote a long A/N...and if she doesn't update within the next ten years, expect her to be dead...you'd probably kill her if she returned this late anyway...