Through The Looking-Glass, Darkly

A ripple sounded out, like droplets of water falling onto the surface of a pool from inside of Kitty's room. A second ripple followed suit, followed by the chilling breath of cold air as the lights in the room shuddered and flickered.

"You wanted to explore my home, didn't you?"

The voice rasped out at first, a lilting whisper as if rust had overtaken every portion of that typical voice.

"You wanted to have a tour?" It continued, as the cold air swirled about the room. And from the mirror in the room, a shape began to take form. Branches whirling about in the background, as mist seemed to drift free of it.

"Well?"

She'd been playing on social media, blissed-out and feeling catty, much like her namesake but as that shape began to coalesce from the gloomy looking-glass, she felt a stab of dread that made her shiver. It wasn't wholly unwelcome, that little prickle of adrenaline as she sat forward, palms against the mattress as she pushed herself upright, casting her phone aside. "Every adventure requires a first step," Kitty remarked softly, taking a bold step forward.

As she moved forward a hand reached through the mirror, grabbing tight to Kitty's wrist with a harsh and cold grasp. "Then take the step, Kitten." The voice rasped out before the same hand pulled forward, yanking Kitty into the mirror, and into the cold and unyielding of the Black Forest.

A surrounding of strange and dead calm. A forest, covered in a blanket of snow and frost. The branches extending out like grasping fingers. And eeriest of all. The silence. A dead silence that seemed to further the clearest thing of all: there was no life in this place.

The silence, although this oppressive thing that almost seemed to be alive on its own pressed against Kitty's ears, making her far too aware of her racing heart. Even as she yanked her wrist back, she could feel the otherworldly and icy grip of those digits, as though they'd burned into her skin like a brand. "Kitty." Her voice came out far louder than intended and she winced at the sound, eyes narrowing on her host. When she spoke again, her tone was muted, carrying threads of sorrow and bitterness mixed. "The only one who ever called me Kitten has been gone for a long time." Rubbing her wrist absently, she tilted her head back and looked overhead at the gnarled and barren branches, feeling a strange sort of vertigo as though they were reaching for her as she grew smaller. She shivered, shaking her head as she wondered if any of this was truly happening, or it was just a green-tinted dream.

"Ah. You lost someone important to you then?" The voice questioned, as clawed fingers slowly drifted along Kitty's back, the ice like feel almost digging into the flesh, searing skin and bone. A blackened tongue tracing along the sides of her cheek as well, tasting her.

"A father? A mother? A loved one? Let me know. Let me into the idea of who you are." Wendigo whispered into her ear, before the same oppressive form vanished with a rasping laugh. The sound of falling snow the only thing that ever seemed to sound like there was any movement at all.

"Someone I loved," the words came unbidden, as if pulled from her along with the breath that clouded the now-chill air as she spoke. "They're all gone. My father left when we were ten – cancer took him a decade later, the toxicity he carried his whole life finally devouring him. Six years later, an accident claimed our mother. It was just Robby and I." Her eyes closed; arms wrapped around her middle. Her voice came out small, somehow diminished in this vast space, as though something here was sucking the very vitality from her with every second that passed. "Didn't matter. The poison was already in him – in us both. The darkness takes what it wants. It doesn't care about those it leaves behind." Snapping open, her gaze sought something solid to focus on, something to tether her to reality before the quicksand of those painful memories sucked her in too deep. She felt that prickle on the back of her neck, the raised hairs, and the gooseflesh crawling down her spine but she couldn't see anything but the snow drifting down silently all around her. "Quid pro quo," she whispered hoarsely, almost desperately, "tell me what you know about loss."

The snow was her answer at first. More snow falling and the clawed hands pressing to the snow drift itself. Wendigo finally came into view, her pale form rising to her feet, clawed fingers stretching out. This wasn't the humanoid guise that she put on when speaking to others outside of this reality. This form seemed formed of the very nightmarish air around her. Blackened eyes glistening with foreboding light. Long blackened antlers peering out from the top of her skull, as sharpened teeth glistened in her mouth.

"What I know about loss? You ask these things as if you want to not be alone." She stated, the voice an echoing whisper. A rasp call that didn't seem to come from her. Rather, it surrounded Kitty, encircling her in its grating grasp.

"Is that what you truly want, Kitten?" She asked, as the form took a step forward, the snow pulsing down with each step closer.

"Sixteen years, I've been chasing answers." She didn't bother to correct the misnomer this time, standing her ground even though every fibre of her being wanted to flee. If this was truly happening, she needed to see it through. There was strange feeling of familiarity washing over her, as though she'd been in a place like this, staring defiantly into an abyss just like the one that was taking shape before her. All pretenses of playfulness were gone, a sick sort of wariness leeching in as if she knew what was going to happen next. If she did the wrong thing, if she crossed the wrong path or stepped out of line, she'd be slapped back into place. On the heels of that knowledge, she felt that familiar flare of anger. "You don't know anything, do you? It's all smoke and mirrors…just more bullshit."

Cold hands reached out, clawed fingers grasping out for her throat. Insolent brat. Twisted and ignorant child, daring to speak to her in such a way. "You're a confident one. But you know nothing. Not a single thing. You are scratching at the surface of pain. Of sorrow." She growled out, genuine anger flashing in those same black eyes as her maw opened wide, long black tongue racing along her sharpened teeth.

"What do I know of loss? I know of its sting. Of the pain in your chest and the fire in your blood as it scratches and claws at your soul and heart. I have seen my family, from so long ago, die to the cold and the hunger. And I, among all others, am utterly and painfully alone." She growled out as she began to draw her closer.

"You think this is smoke and mirrors...what if I gave you a taste of it? Of my hunger? Of my loss?" She spoke aloud, her voice the same ripping rust-filled scream, but now anger overloaded all pretense as her teeth drew ever closer to her throat.

Kitty could feel the change in the air, the bated breath against her skin and common sense screamed in the back of her mind to get out, to run and hide, to sink her fingernails into her own flesh and wake up from this fever dream that had gone terribly awry, but she knew – of course she knew – she'd asked for this. She'd poked the monster and hubris of that level always demanded a price to be paid. Adrenaline had her trembling, that primordial fear keeping her rooted to the spot even as her mind's eye could see herself dashing through the trees, breath rasping in and out of her lungs that burned in the cold air. She could see that headlong flight and the grisly end when the beast overtook her, pouncing and pinning her to the ground. She shook her head slowly, forcing the image away with effort as she licked her suddenly dry lips. Tears prickled in her vision, but she didn't dare blink and betray herself that way.

"What if you did?" She echoed those words, finding her voice finally as she forced herself to look upon that dark form. "Would it be so bad to open up?" The words were meant to be flippant, that snark she wore like a layer of protection rising to the surface – she couldn't keep the words in. "We'll talk about the boys we like, next. I'll braid your hair."

She smiled, the long tongue lashing out again before her teeth neared to her throat. "You talk too much." She growled out before her teeth sunk into her throat. The blood coating her teeth as arterial spray connected to the roof of her mouth. But the spray halted as she held her jaws tight against Kitty's throat.

"But that's OK. You wanted to come. So, I wanted to give you something. Something new. Something of a gift." Wendigo growled into her throat, holding her still as the chill of the forest seemed to sink into the veins. "You can have my gift. My hunger. My cold. My strength. Experience what it is to be me. And then ask yourself your question again, child of wandering." She continued, the unabated voice no longer rust and unused. Now a nurturing sound. A mother cooing their child to a warm and peaceful rest as once cold hands kept their grip on her.

The pain was the first thing she felt, razorblades and ice in her veins. A silent scream had her mouth open, eyes open to nothing but those twisted black branches overhead as her head lolled back and she could almost feel those black, twisted fingers of darkness inside her now. They reached in deep, digging into all the secret places, every nook and cranny exposed and flooded and emptied at the same time until the great void filled her. It was raw, that anguish – this hungry screaming emptiness in search of something to fill it, knowing there was nothing in the cosmos that would ever slake it fully. "Please," her lips formed the words, deafening in her mind and it wasn't clear if it was a plea for release from the torment or begging for more.

Her teeth pulled free, black blood falling from her mouth as she took a single step back. "Every sense alight. Not fire. But cold. Ice. Your sense of smell heightened. Your eyes adjusting to shadows. But most of all is the hunger. You feel it now, I'm sure. A pit in your soul. Calling out. Grasping and clawing its way through your blood and bones. Splitting your skull with its never-ending want." She explained, as she encircled her on all fours, watching her with a smile on her animal like eyes.

"And you can smell them now. The lost fools who wandered in here once. You can smell their fear. Their blood pounding in their veins. And it's so sweet. Like fresh food. The most delicious meal you've ever had. Can't you?" She asked as she drew closer, dragging a clawed hand along the snow to brush against her.

"And you want to give in."

"I can." Kitty's voice trembled, a single tear tracing its way down her cheek as she felt her legs come unhinged. She fell bonelessly to her knees, oblivious to the snow even as she sank into it. She could still feel that hunger, that metallic taste like old pennies or bad blood in the back of her throat that made her think of deathmatches and slaughterhouses, of those places that she should have shunned but had always found herself drawn to. She bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as a way to combat the reeling of her senses that was still happening and a part of her was thinking, "this is where I'm going to die." She didn't fear that because the last five years had been borrowed time as it was.

"We're all mad here." She murmured, her voice breaking as she quoted that old familiar Lewis Carroll line, "I'm mad. You're mad."

She drew nearer, watching as Kitty fell to her knees before raising her head up with a single finger. "Throw it away here. That pretense of mortal belief you have. Throw away your humanity here. Embrace what you are. What you'll become. And be like me. A monster. Like me." She whispered, practically urging as she lifted her own arm. Drawing the flesh so close to Kitty's nose. The smell that same tantalizing aroma. A feast. A meal to satisfy her urging, her hunger. "You can be the monster you are inside. Just. Let. Go." She growled aloud as her antlered skull clashed into Kitty's.

A call. A threat. A promise. She was offering a release. An escape from the damned reality of the outside world. To embrace shadow and decay. And to fall into piteous darkness. "Follow the white rabbit, Alice." She continued as she held her arm out. A taunt. A tease. An offering.

Kitty didn't need further invitation or provocation. The growl that escaped her wasn't quite human, the snarl on her lips predatory as her head snapped up, nostrils flaring. There was no thought, nothing rational in her at all as she lunged forward, fingers like talons, bone-white against stark black and then her teeth sunk in deep. It had been too long since she felt like she belonged somewhere and this place, this broken and damned soul called to her even as the bitterness of the ochre filled her mouth.

Wendigo didn't seem to mind as she felt her flesh tear at the arm. Blood. Black ichor dripping into the waiting mouth, sweet as forbidden honey. And yet she remained unflinching as she allowed her new "friend" to feed. To fall to a never-ending hunger. Her hand reached forward, pressing to the cheek of Kitty as she cooed gently.

"Good. Good, little one. Do as you wish here. There are no judgements here. No falsehoods. Only truth. Only the hunger. Only the hunt." She explained in a soft voice as she gently stroked the blood covered cheek of Kitty.

The whole world spun away, everything that mattered ceasing in and instant and the anxiety that was always there, clawing at the door in the back of her mind was strangely silent as the blood flowed down her throat. She drank greedily, forgetting herself in that gluttonous moment where nothing mattered but the hunger, but that need to rip and tear and devour. Slowly, she came back to herself as the flow slowed, clotting and now she was aware of the silence again, of it pressing against her eardrums, amplifying the racing of her heart. "Sorry," she mumbled, head bowed, a strange sort of shame washing over her that soured the euphoria – was this how Eve had felt after tasting the forbidden fruit in the Garden?

She smiled, drawing a finger along the line where her teeth had met. Where her blood had been shed. With a single caress she traced the line upwards, tracing the outline of her lips. "You can give in here. Let go of all pretenses. Embrace everything you want. All desires. All rages. Everything." She offered again as she looked down at Kitty. The eyes of an alpha predator. This taste she had given her. This was her reality. An everyday battle between her primal desires and rational thought. Something she flirted with. If the taste was the Fruit of Eden, then Wendigo was the serpent itself. A crossroad demon of taboo and wrong.

"So. Now what, Kitten?" She asked as she advanced again, a palm on her cheek as her mouth opened, long tongue running against jagged teeth.

The question was so straightforward, so damned honest that she couldn't even fathom words to respond. Instead, she shook her head slowly, a chuckle bubbling up that she tamped down by clapping her hand over her mouth, the sound muffled by the sleeve of the oversized and shapeless sweater she had on. She'd tried to find a path through the wilderness alone, masking fear behind bravado and pithy accomplishments but now she could see how hollow, how meaningless it all was. "Teach me," she finally said, her eyes lifting to lock back on Wendigo – she didn't fear the darkness or those jagged, wickedly sharp teeth. She found them beautiful, oddly comforting. "I want to learn."

She nodded her head, the truth in her words causing her to smile. Her jaw widened slightly before they clamped down onto her throat again. Where the ice-cold daggers had ripped through her blood stream before, now seemed to flow fractal crystals of it. Pain interspersed with dazzling arrays of emotions. Flares of anger. Crushing depths of sadness and loneliness. Cacophony of joy. And warm stabs of intense pleasure. All intermingled into a mess of sensations as she held tight onto her.

"Then you'll join me. Bit by bit. Mine. Kitty." She whispered through the bite itself as her clawed hands pressed to their flesh, the glowing eyes open and locked to look deep into her own. The monstrous Visage having faded, revealing a form few saw. A woman. Of old Nordic descent. Her skin just as fair, hair a flame red, and delicate features that displayed a long-ago truth. A sickly woman once. But all of it washing away as the ice and curse flowed through her.

"Mine. Mine and the gifts. The hunger. The hunt." She reiterated as the bite clamped a bit harder, her grip tightening.

"Yes." The word was more euphoric exhale than articulation, the sensations overloading her mind to a point where she just wanted to fade away and be caught up in it forever. This was far better than anything she'd ever smoked and a part of her clung to it desperately, the longing for acceptance and kinship roaring up from the depths of her mind that she'd locked it away in so very long ago. Kitty was more than willing to give everything she had to feel this free, this vital and feral and wild forever. "Gods, yes." Her own eyes glowed a vibrant green, shimmering with unshed tears as her hands grasped the shoulders of the monster, she'd been fully ready to mock who had suddenly become her saviour. "I'm yours," she whispered raggedly, almost swooning in that dangerous grasp as she gave herself freely, no thought of what that might mean beyond this moment even entering her mind. It was as though time had stopped, all outside worries and cares and all that other bullshit rendered meaningless as the hunger and the miasma of emotions carried her away. She no longer felt broken, splintered in a way that had always rubbed raw by the end of the day, driving her to seek the solitude of her horses rather than interacting with the people she found tedious and tiresome.

Her jaws clamped tighter for a moment, the sensations only igniting with the same ice-like grasp. The pulse of her strange gift racing through them both. The massive horns that pierced from the top of Wendigo's head clattered with something close to them. Pressing to them. Kitty's antlers. Peeking out from the top of her head, capped with flecks of scarlet. The glint of Wendigo's eyes grew more desperate as she drew Kitty closer to her, drawing her into the surprising warmth. Practically cradling her. Claws digging into her sides as she wrapped her in the embrace of the gift.

"Our hunger. Our passions. No God's. No men. No mortals. Just us. Us and who we choose to embrace. To gift." Her voice cooed out, her teeth piercing a bit deeper before relenting. The blood a sweet taste onto her tongue. Blackened with the gift. The scent of fresh meat now filling the air, as well as the admonishing cries from around the forest. What was once quite was now a cacophony of sound and scents. Alive with life unsee before with mortal eyes.

Wendigo felt her grip tighten as she plucked her teeth away, focusing the vibrant eyes into Kitty's, a blood-soaked smile pulling across her face. "What will you do, Kitten?"

Kitty's smile was slow, this tentative and timid thing that turned into a horrible rictus with the blood still staining her lips and chin but there was definite joy shining in her gaze. "Hunt," the word came out soft, dripping with malice as that grin grew, bringing a wickedly unhinged giggle bubbling up from within. "Maim. Destroy. It's been far too long since I've done that, and I want to feel their bones breaking. I want to grind their marrows to dust and feast on their remains." One hand lifted to touch the ragged wound on her neck, feeling the blood that slicked her skin. The cacophony of the creatures that filled this night realm was the most haunting music she'd ever heard, making her long to shed the rest of her humanity and run free with them. "This place… it's so beautiful. I can see it now."

"This is the true world. My true world. You wish to hunt, my fair one?" She asked, running a tongue along the neck of her new charge. Feeling the wound under it. "Mmm. Then hunt. Follow the screams. Feel the changes inside of you and use them." She continued as she began to encircle Kitty. Her claws digging deeper and deeper into the snow as her nostrils flared.

In the forest, a metallic snap could be heard, followed quickly with a deafening scream. A bear trap. An unfortunate captive having stumbled upon it. "Oh. There it is. Your prey. Can you smell his blood, as it flows along his ankles? Smell his fear? Does it get your heart thrumming, your blood racing, your mouth salivating?" She asked as she pinned Kitty's hands down from behind her, keeping her still. Taunting her.

"All yours. An easy hunt."

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"

The poem flashed through Kitty's mind as she closed her eyes, resisting the urge to struggle as she opened herself up further to the Black Forest. The darkness filled her with each measured breath, her heartrate slowing as she allowed her consciousness to expand. She could hear the creatures, could tell by their sounds that they were also drawn to that hapless fool who'd trod where he shouldn't have and her head cocked in that direction, licking her lips slowly as though she could taste his fear. It was the most delicious ambrosia, melting on her lips, carried by the snowflakes and the wind – something primal in her had awakened, something that had always hidden away in the darkest recesses of her mind. Every fibre of her being vibrated with the tension, that need to devour but she fought it, waiting patiently for her release.

"And...go on, my beautiful one. Hunt." She whispered into her ears, giving her throat another healing lick as her hands released their grasp on Kitty's. Her eyes focused on where the scent seemed the most targeted. Her time in the forest had told her where her targets would be at any measure of time. Her eyes flicked over to Kitty, smiling. She was already adjusting so rapidly to the pull of the Forest. As if she had accepted it almost as fast as Wendigo had accepted it.

"Go on, Jabberwocky. Kill." She ordered with a primal snarl in her voice, into the ear of Kitty.

She was up in an instant, darting in the direction she knew right down to the core of her being that her prey lay in – there was no crashing through the brush, no trampling of the growth or snapping of twigs as she slipped fleet-footed through the trees, as sure as if she'd lived all her life in this haunted place. The pained screams had tapered off to labored breathing and sobbing when she stopped on the edge of the natural clearing, leaning against a tree. Her palm rested against it, feeling that sacred energy thrumming within.

"Do it."

The wind seemed to whisper against her ears, urging her forward and now she walked with more purpose, deliberate as the snow and dead leaves crunched softly under her feet, startling the trapped interloper. He looked up, face stark-white and his eyes glassy with shock and blood loss. The snow was falling again, softly like a gauzy curtain that shielded her fully from view so all he saw was a slim figure, her long, dark hair covering her face.

"Silly rabbit," Kitty murmured, her sultry whisper full of dark intent, "look what you've done."

"Oh, thank God! Help me. Please, help me. I can't—"

"Shhh," she admonished, a finger to his lips cutting off the words even as she could see the pain and fear and desperation welling in his gaze. She could smell his blood, thick and coppery and masking that clean scent of the new-fallen snow. That, more than anything else, stoked the fire of the rage simmering deep within her and she shoved him roughly back to the ground, pouncing on him. Her nails raked his face as she roughly shoved his head to the side, dangerously close to snapping his neck. "You don't belong here," she growled, "this is a sacred place. Our place."

Her teeth gnashed, tearing into the skin beneath his ear where she could see his pulse jumping and the blood that flowed past her lips tasted like retribution and salvation.

Wendigo watched from behind her, distant. Watching her new found fledgling child feeding. Like a young wolf. Ripping and tearing at new sustenance with reckless abandon. Splashing the snow with blood and viscera. Her eyes shimmered with warm delight as she moved just behind Kitty, a pair of her cold hands wrapping around her throat. "You did well. My jabberwocky. My precious one. My special one. Now. Return. Awaken. And return here when your desires for blood fuel your system." She snarled out as she placed a motherly kiss to the top of her head.

A kiss that sent the snow around the forest spiraling around them. Encircling. And obscuring. Until the thick blanket of cold air was replaced by the warmth of a heated home.

"Kit... where have you—"

The sound of a familiar voice made her stir, roused from that blissful place and she stretched languidly before an arm was thrown up to ward off the light coming in from the hallway. The memory of what had happened felt fragile, bits and pieces crumbling away as she came back to this version of herself. She was on her bed, sprawled against the rumpled quilt that Hunter's grandmother had made. Maybe it had all been a dream?

"Kitty... what happened? Jesus Christ, you're covered in blood! Are you hurt? What did you do?" Her husband's fingers dug into her shoulders, shaking her in an effort to rouse her from that perceived stupor but she didn't answer his queries. Her eyes were locked on the darkened surface of the antique looking-glass across the room and the glow of those all too familiar eyes before they, too, faded from view.