I can't quite be so sure of myself if I am dreaming or not, but it feels like it. It feels nice... until it starts to feel like I've been in this dream for almost an hour now-- that I feel I am becoming more conscious for this to be only just a dream.

I tried stomping my feet, but can't seem to feel any solid ground. Then I tried clapping my hands... Huh...? Weird, there is no sound... There should be sound when there's air, but the fact that I can breathe just fine-- I tried clapping again but with increasing force in each clap, until I started to feel that stinging sensation in both of my palms, and it was of no use.

Tension is starting to build up in me. I began shouting for anyone's help... but no one answered... In the first place, I can't utter even a single word out of my throat. None.

Nothing but complete silence in this darkness.

Ever so slowly, this darkness... This silence is becoming unsettling.

Until...

A long time passes, at least that is what it feels like.

Sensory deprivation is now slowly eating away my sanity. In this isolation, with nothing to perceive, I can only involuntarily sense how my body functions, imagining how my breath passes through my throat... The supposed sound of the vibration of my anxious heart... My ears are beginning to imagine a ringing noise that is fortunately bearable.

It feels like I've been here for so long, yet I have not felt any hunger.

I can't help but think about even the most nonsensical ideas that will just pop inside my head-- Perhaps I am in some sort of abyss? Or maybe a black hole? Am I dead? Is this what the afterlife looks like? No, no, no... What about my mother and father? I don't want them to be sad, I can't just leave them behind...!

As it turns out, that comfort I first felt in this darkness, now utterly scares me.

Insanity has finally got me as I began shouting until my throat became sore, but still, not a sound could be heard. I did all of the thinkable struggles I could come up with in a desperate attempt to get out of this... place. Have I been buried? Possibly not, I can't feel any corners that would confirm that I am in a coffin. Is getting out of here even possible? Perhaps I am just looking for someone to get rid of this loneliness...?

Wait... I... am lonely?

Just what is this place?

IT IS MADENNING.

Come to think of it, I can't be dead. I have no recollection of dying at all... All I know is, I was living quite an ordinary, carefree life as an average teenager. I can't seem to be certain about my past memories. What happened to me?

Before I could even ponder any further about my missing memories, a child's voice startled me, "You're still such a coward"

...What?

As eerie as that voice may sound, I couldn't entirely catch what it said to me. I have a lot to ask about that mysterious voice, but I am still unable to let out a word.

"Oh, you can't talk... great!"

Now that somehow pissed me off... But I can't really do anything about it.

"That'll save me the long talk", the voice giggled.

Am I in some sort of a tunnel? But the voice sounds like it's echoing inside my head. Have I finally lost it? Just as I was about to question my sanity until--

The voice became silent for a long moment before another voice suddenly yelled, "Capris!"

This time, it's not just echoing in my head, I think I heard it from a distance. Then soon after, a flicker of light shines behind me and the next thing I feel is a solid... black ground? Which I can't make sense of. Though there's light, this place is still dark, as if there's no corners or even an end to begin with.

As I turned to face where the light was coming from, it seemed to be two white curtains that are just the size of a normal door, and a child standing in the middle. After my attention shifted to the kid, the child then started walking through those curtains.

Curious, I instinctively followed that kid. I would be lying if I said I am not scared, but I don't think I could stand staying here for another who-knows-how-long. So ever so slowly, with every step followed by hesitation, I walked towards wherever that door might lead me. As I got through and my eyes slowly adjusted to the light. What the curtains led me to, is just the interior of a humble living room. Not too rich-looking, but not too poor-looking either. It seems close in between poor and a stable house.

Nonetheless, it is warm and welcoming.

The ray of morning sunlight brightens up the entire living room, and a branch of a tree, waving by the window that constantly ventilates the room. I can hear the rustling noise of the leaves, together with the sound of that gentle breeze passing by.

This place feels... nice...

I got immersed in such calmness only to be disturbed by a cold, thick and lumpy liquid touching my feet. It turned out to be blood, and it is slowly filling the entire floor.

I looked around the place in a frantic, then two dead bodies suddenly appeared out of nowhere. A dead body of a man lying on the blood-filled floor and a dead body of a woman, lying by the counter.

It appears that the woman was stabbed efficiently through her carotid artery, while the man received... an amateur cut through his right calcaneal tendon, three stab wounds through his chest where his heart is located, and a deep slice through his throat.

I was so focused on examining the dead bodies that I lately noticed-- since when were the windows closed...? Before a strong stench clogged my nose. This place starts to smell of rotting flesh.

Bu-dump... Bu-dump-- I can feel my heart beating louder than usual as my mind tries to process what is going on and as to why... I can't move my body all of a sudden. My breath is getting sharper as I can feel the cold blood reaching my ankles.

I unconsciously closed my eyes for a moment then took some deep breaths, before I opened my eyes again.

The child is now standing in front of me, what terrifies me is how I can't determine the kid's face. Everything else in the room is clear, but that kid's face is blurry as if it was erased, like a smudged painting. The kid then faced towards the dead man's corpse, and my eyes followed.

What is supposed to be dead, is now holding the kid's ankle. Without any hesitation, that kid started stomping on the dead man's head until it was completely smashed. I am shocked in horror and in disbelief by how easy it looked for a kid to smash that dead man's head without being slightly fazed. My stomach churned by the gruesome sight, then I eventually vomited without a sound while my entire body is paralyzed.

The kid soon turned his head towards me then spoke normally.

"Ah, good morning, are you a guest?"

It was such a tone that unsettled me more than I already was. A tone as if nothing is wrong.

So innocent, yet so wrong.

"If you have come to see Mom and Dad, today probably won't work... Oh, um... I said today, but I think... They won't be able to speak ever again... What should I do?"

Before I realized it, the blood had now reached my legs. The blood from that smashed head unusually continued leaking out, making it rise a bit faster than before. The kid is just standing in front of me, slowly submerging by the rising pool of blood.

Such horror of hopelessness washes away my entire composure. I could only close my eyes then pray for God's protection... In the midst of my faltering prayer, two cold hands gently touched my face, and I soon opened my eyes again to see which I'll regret immediately.

The pool of blood has now reached my chest, and that kid's blurry face is now close to mine, soaked in blood. I can't tell if he is standing on something under this pool of blood, because for him to be standing steadily at the same height as me shouldn't be possible... right? Unless he is actually floating...? Which I hope so, anything other than him just standing on those corpses...

"Who are you praying to?", says the kid with a more chilling tone.

I felt it, a chilling fear down my spine.

"You should know damn well that no one will listen to you", followed by his hysterical laugh. It was a maddening scene, a room field with blood and a kid's unsettling laughter. It was nothing but madness.

I was losing my mind until... the noise stopped and the cold pool of blood stayed still on the same level of my chin. Then the kid speaks some words that sounds gibberish to my ears... I can't seem to understand what he is saying, I just know that his mouth is now more visible than the rest of his blurry face.

Then he grins from ear to ear.

The sound of a clock can only be heard, getting louder... and louder... and louder... until a shrill, ear-piercing noise made not only my ears ring but also made my vision shakes. It all happened for an unbearable moment that I did not notice when I blacked out.

Soon after, I feel like I am in a dreamless sleep, just drifting away until I make it to tomorrow...

...

[Checking for your Avatrite... Interesting, it manifested quickly... Ah, another Anomalous!]

[Checking for your Causality... Only 0...? I got excited for nothing...]

I wonder... whose voice is it this time?

[...There has been a change in the Records...]

What...?

[Your name is Alice... It's time for you to wake up... wake up~]

The voice went on and on. I am greatly confused and yet... part of me is somewhat swayed by the sense of familiarity... and curiosity. It is weird all together.

And so I woke up all of a sudden in a cold sweat, gasping for air. As I finally composed myself, I realized how comfortable this... bed is? Huh?

An unfamiliar... bed, as fluffy as you would imagine the clouds would be, an unfamiliar bedroom adorned by priceless furniture like that of nobility, but not so much so as it burns the eyes with extravagance, and--

"Oh? Awake already? Had a nightmare?", asked by a white haired man in a black suit with a gentle smile, sitting by a round table filled with chess and cards. He then moved the last black pawn to B8, turning it into a queen, "How about we ease ourselves a little. Wanna play chess with me? How about Shogi? Go? Game of the Generals?"

Then, an unusual black cat sitting beside me chimed in. "How about stuffing your mouth with those chess pieces and shutting the hell up!"

I was shocked. I mean, who wouldn't? A cat just talked.

"Look, you're scaring him."

"Did I now? Surely, it's better to be perceived as the scary one than being seen as a creepy guy like you"

"Creepy? In what way does being a gentleman creepy? You won't even be compared to me once I turned you into fodder", the white haired man said with a grin, as he clenched his fist while he adjusted his black leathered gloves.

"Oh, it's on", the black cat said, a dark aura starts emitting around it.

I tried mustering up the courage to stop them from fighting, I had a feeling that I should stop them, "P-please... don't fight...!"

Though the words went out weaker than I expected, but at least the two of them stopped fighting.

"Ah! Where are my manners... I am Cath and that white haired creep is Tarrant."

Still with his smile seemingly to look pleasant, Tarrant squints his eyes towards Cath without a word.

"You are Alice, right? Welcome to the world of Insinia! As a new Avatrax, I'll be your... guide! Like for starters, what do you wish to know?", Cath asked, grinning mischievously from ear to ear.

As suspicious as it may seem, there's something about this place that draws me in. Something that I would have never guessed to be an acatalepsy.

At that moment, I may have known it deep down to myself, that I wouldn't be able to find my way home anytime soon...