Chaptah Two

            Euri approached the door which, she knew would be covered with trinkets a world apart from that of Alice’s door.  She could see the photographs in the middle of the door.  Small pebbles outlined the doorframe in a simple, cute design.  Dark fabric was pinned to the door, bordering the two framed pictures that had caught Euri’s attention.  One was of a handsome young man with a foolish grin on his face, sitting atop of a hillside looking down on to small village below, and the other was of an old, rusted pail, covered with dust and long forgotten by the side of a wall. 

            Euri heard nothing as she leaned her ear against the door, so she knocked instead, calling out, “Jill?  You there?”

            The shuffle of footsteps was heard, followed by a pause, and then the door slowly opening.  Jill, who was about an inch or so taller than the woman at her door, looked at Euri with a blank expression.  Her messy, wavy, dark brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail at the base of her head, with only a few strands escaping, framing her face.  She was covered in a black, full body stocking, with a red button down halter top that had matching sleeves, and also a dark blue, ankle length skirt. 

            Jill gazed at Euri with blank, pupil-less, dark brown, almost black eyes.  “Yes, Euri, I’m here.  What brings you here?”

            “Well, I was wondering how you were doing,” Euri replied timidly.  Jill tilted her head slightly and then turned around, giving Euri space to enter. “You may come in.”

            Euri walked through the doorway to find herself in a very old-fashioned bedroom.  The floor was wooden and the walls were a grey color.  She looked around and saw a wooden dress with a cracked mirror leaning against the wall above it. The bed nearby was neatly made with comforters.  The large dusty window had grey laced curtains hanging down across it, partially obscuring the view of the house directly across the street outside.  As Euri strode over to get a better look out of the window, she glanced down to see old, crumpled up, blood-stained bandages.  “Jill…”

            “Would you like to go outside, Euri?” Jill asked as she stood behind Euri, still at the door.  “The view from the hilltop is simply lovely.” 

            Euri pulled her gaze away from the bandages to look at Jill, “Sure.  It’s probably a lot prettier than the view from here.”

            Jill stood there for a moment, obviously not getting the joke, and turned to open the door leading to the rest of her house.  As Jill walked out, Euri sighed and quickly followed the taller girl.  Down a flight of stairs, passing through a rather dusty living room, they arrived outside the front door.  While walking down the garden path, Euri turned her gaze back at the large, aged, haunted-looking house.  Its dark stone seemed to become an unnerving black in the shadows of the old, looming trees that surrounded it.  The dusty, cobweb-ridden windows with their black shutters seemed almost like eyes with cataracts.  Euri shuddered and hurried after Jill to the sidewalk.

            The two of them made their way down the street, passing many houses until they arrived at the Village Square.  After noticing Euri’s quizzical expression and quick glances at their surroundings, Jill asked, “Yes?”

            “Oh!  Um, I was just wondering something.”  Euri paused, a finger to her lips as she wondered how to phrase the next question.  “Is there…. Are we the only people here, Jill?”  Jill nodded, causing Euri to blink in surprise.  “Wha?  Why?  Alice’s place is always filled with creatures and people and things.  Why is yours so…empty?”

            Jill sighed as she leaned on the stocks in the center of the village square.  “Euri, Alice has her own place.  She can do what she likes with it.  Have whatever creatures from her memories live in it.”  Jill turned to her left, looking at a sizeable hill behind a stone wall and gate, with a lone, ancient well perched at the top of it.  “Her reason for having her memory create Wonderland is so she can help train to save her niece Morgan.  I, however,” she turned to look back at Euri with cold eyes, “have no need for other people.  I choose not to bring back those that have hurt me.  But I accept the truth of the death of the one that I loved.  I don’t try to create a fake world, where Jack and I would be living in happily.  My world is where I am the most comfortable.” Jill sighed and made off towards the hill, making her way to unlock the gate.  “Follow me.”

            Euri pouted slightly, annoyed, but she followed the gloomy girl to the entrance.  As she passed through the gate, she noticed something glinting out of the corner of her eye.  She stopped, turned her head, and saw that it was an old pail.  She mused to herself, thinking that just maybe it was the same one from the picture on Jill’s door.  “Hey, Jill!”

            Jill turned around from having begun her ascent up the hill.  “Yes?” she asked as she looked down at her, an impassive expression on her face.  Euri pointed to the dusty, long forgotten pail, and asked, “Don’t you need this?”  Jill responded with, “No, Euri, I don’t need a pail,” and promptly continued climbing up the hill.

            Euri pursed her lips slightly in confusion, and then just simply shrugged it off.  She walked from the blood-stained cobblestones to the dark green grass ahead of her, finally arriving at the top to see Jill sitting beside the well.  Jill gestured to a rock which jutted out of the side of the ground, “Please.  Have a seat.”  Euri nodded and sat down carefully on the rock, fearful that it might fall, sending her tumbling to her doom. 

            “Don’t worry, Euri,” Jill said as she looked out towards the village.  Euri took the opportunity to look at Jill, studying the way she fingered the black ring on her left hand finger.  “Jill?  If you don’t mind me prying, um, why’s your ring black?”  Jill frowned slightly and then sighed, holding up her hand so Euri could see the ring better.  “All the girls of this village were given silver rings at birth, to wear upon their fingers as a sign of their virginity,” she smiled slightly, “Mine, however, I willingly gave to Jack.  He deserved it.”  Jill dropped her hand back down to her lap, silent.  Euri looked at Jill quizzically, “But that doesn’t really answer my que—,” she was interrupted with Jill’s next question.  “Do you know our song?”  Euri paused for a moment, thinking.  “Whose song?” she asked Jill, who responded, “Jack and mine, of course.” 

            “Oh well, of course I do.  Every child back home knows the song.  Want me to recite it for you?”  Jill nodded, so Euri sat up straight, cleared her throat, and began reciting the famous nursery rhyme:

‘Jack and Jill went up a hill,

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down,

And broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.’

            Euri smiled cheerfully, proud that she knew it as well as she did, and clasped her hands on her lap as she looked at Jill and waited for her reaction.  “I’m right, right?”  Jill sat there, absentmindedly fiddling with her ring.  “You were close, Euri.  Relax and I’ll tell you the real version.”  Euri nodded, her face serious, and she leaned in to listen to Jill.

‘Jack and Jill

Go up the hill

To fetch a pail of water;

Jack’s a handsome preacher’s son

And Jill’s a drunkard’s daughter!’

            Euri’s eyes widened and she bit her lip, watching as Jill’s face darkened as she continued singing her version of the song.

‘Jill grips her fists

And cuts her wrists

Because her father beats her;

One day she will

Grow up to be

Just like her whorish mother!’

            Euri’s eyes started to fill will tears as Jill continued singing.  She wanted to stop Jill from continuing, but she was fearful of the woman’s anger.

‘Jack and Jill

Go up the hill

To fetch a pail of water;

She’ll go to hell anyway

So, why’d he even bother!’

            Jill looked into Euri’s teary eyes with those of her own, filled with tears of anger and hatred.  “You just had to save me, didn’t you, Euri.  You just somehow inexplicably managed to prevent me from ending my life.  You just happened to be at the very bottom of this hill, just when I was about to snap my neck,” she laughed coldly, the laughter not reaching her eyes, “I had already gone through breaking my leg and popping my shoulder out on my way down, but no!”  She rose to her feet, her hands clenched tightly at her sides, “You just had to catch me before I died.  You saved me right before my life was taken away.”  Euri stood up on the smooth, flat rock, stepping back from Jill, who had a murderous look on her face.  “Jill, I’m…I’m sorry.  I thought that you’d be happier if you were with me.”

            “That’s so like you, Euri.  You’re so innocent and spend so much time caring for others.  You think that joining you is the be all and end all.  It’s obvious why Alice joined you.  Her body was gone, turned into ashes.  The only remaining part of her was her soul in that damn gold pocket watch.  She had nowhere to go.”  Jill glared at Euri, tears streaming down her face.  “I had someplace to go, Euri.  It was with Jack.  We were supposed to be together until the end!”  Jill sobbed angrily, and quickly advanced towards Euri.

            “Jill, wait!  Please, I’m sorry!” Euri tried to explain as she backed away from Jill, not realizing that she had run out of rock until it was too late.  Euri’s right foot felt nothing as her entire body started falling backwards.  Jill simply watched as Euri tried regaining her balance, frantically waving her arms around, to no avail.  Jill managed to snap out of her daze as Euri screamed an ear-shattering scream.  Jill ran towards the slope of the hill as Euri had already begun her descent.

            “No!  Not like this!” Jill yelled as she quickly ran and slid down the hill after Euri, speeding up every time she heard another one of Euri’s cries of pain.  Jill reached her hand out as she got closer and closer, finally managing to grab onto Euri’s shirt and prevent the two of them from falling to their doom on the rocks below.  As Jill cradled Euri in her arms, the only sounds that could be heard was Euri’s sobs and the cold wind blowing past them.

            “Euri, I’m so sorry.  I’m so incredibly sorry.”  Jill lifted Euri in her arms and slowly walked down the hill, careful not to worsen any of Euri’s injuries.

            On the outside world, PumpkinEuri had formed a rather deep cut on her head.

            Jill quickly carried Euri back to her home.  The echo of her footsteps off the empty buildings around her, her ragged breathing, and Euri’s quiet sniffles were the only sounds disturbing the silence as Jill ran.  Up the walkway to her house they went.  They went past the rooms with the dusty old furniture, and up the stairs into Jill’s bedroom.  There, Jill slowly lowered Euri onto her bed, and went over to her dresser drawers to search for any clean bandages.

            It was only until that moment did Jill look down at herself.  Her hands, her chest, her whole front was covered in blood.  She grabbed some bandages and turned back around, going to Euri’s side, searching for her wounds and injuries.  “Euri, where does it hurt?”

            Euri opened her eyes from where she lay on the bed, her face and hair streaked with sweat.  She gulped slightly, “My… my shoulder… and my elbow,” she gasped slightly in pain, “My chest hurts most…”

            Jill nodded, placing the clean bandages near Euri’s head to keep them from getting stained with blood too soon.  Gently placing her hand under Euri’s back, she lifted the girl up into a sitting position and tried peeling away her blood matted jacket.  A hiss of pain from Euri drew Jill’s attention to Euri’s right elbow.  It was swollen and quickly turning a dark shade of purple, along with the fact that several bones seemed to be out of place.  “Euri, try moving your elbow,” Jill demanded.  Euri tried, lifting it about an inch from the bed before crying out in pain, her elbow dislocated. 

            Jill bit her lip, “Euri, I’m sorry but I have to leave you for a moment.  Please, hang in there for me.”  After giving Euri a look over once more, she quickly left the comfort of her room to knock on another door in the hallway - Cinderella’s.  It was simply adorned with a brass nameplate, bearing the names Cinderella and Prince Charming, with a border of ivy leaves surrounding the frame.  Jill knew to keep her voice down, knowing that if any of the VariantEuris heard, it would only bring about chaos.  She knocked quickly and softly, “Cinderella! Open up!”

            She waited, biting her lip anxiously, and the door opened to reveal Cinderella in her hospital garb.  Her light green apron was covered in dried blood and miscellaneous body fluids.  Her long, hazelnut crimped hair was tied up in a bun, leaving only a few strands free from its hair tie prison.  She gazed down at Jill, her frame of 5’ 9” towered her over all the other VariantEuri’s, causing her serious demeanor to be almost menacing.  “Yes?” she asked calmly, her no-nonsense attitude quickly coming through in her tone.

            “Euri’s in trouble!”