Chapter 20
Gold and Red.
Alyssa was far from surprised to find the Great Hall decorated in the colors of her ‘brother’s house, though this time it at least felt like they had earned it. Harry had won them the Quidditch cup again, and the house had managed to get the most point naturally. It felt right to cheer on Gryffindor when it wasn’t tearing itself apart, watching from the outside.
“What are you going to be doing over the summer?” Desmond asked, sitting across from Alyssa. “Not still being called right?”
“Unfortunately I am, but I don’t mind too much. It gives me something to focus on, and perhaps it can guide my way. I sealed my fate really, but it’s hardly anything big, I just need to face the years monsters at the heart of their cause, and what a better place to do it then at the heart of the cause?”
“True but it seems rather unfortunate, dose it not?”
“Maybe, but like can be such a tragic thing as it is. I’m simply being realistic. For a person like me, nothing changes unless they are taken head on. I like to fight, I need to fight. I need to experience the darkness and the shadows that surround me, that make me who I am. That’s why I’ve claimed so many levels in so many ways. Life can not be equated one to one with a game, I know that. But I like the structure of the game. That’s why I form my life, my pattens around building who, and what, and how. Of leaning into the side of the world that not everyone can fully access.” Alyssa explained with a nod, turning and nodding towards Luna. The girl was young, with a floaty personality. Her long, pale blond hair practically floated around her, not flying away but not touching her skin. Her eyes were blue; almost hauntingly so and she wore her wand tucked behind her ears, a radish earing dangling from each. “Let’s take her for example. She can see the other side from the bit’s I’ve gathered. She’s not insane as some would believe, but mystical. Connected to a side of the world that far to few people can see. A side that many tie with insanity and illness unfairly. Luna is perfectly sane, I am not. And yet in quite a few ways we are very similar.”
“That’s a very polite way of putting things.”
“Look at Ace. I know you haven’t met them but some would argue that they are completely gone as well. I mean to be fare they are completely mad, loony. But that is part due to fate, and situation. Their blood was tied to Wonderland, the moment the Alice Tetch virus hit it-“ Alyssa snapped, eating a bit of cake. “-Their role was solidified. Call me crazy but as I’ve come to understand it, Wonderland is the way it is because it’s uncontrolled. It’s chaos and the minds of many a people. It’s everyones world, just inaccessible to most. It’s the epitome of dreams and the mind. That’s how it’s different from the other world.”
“Oh?”
“The other world is a creation of dreams and thoughts of a select group, a failure on the part of reality. While both places can be dark there is no ‘happy’ other world. There is the fog world, but that only comes with monsters and mystery. It’s a- It’s somehow just as real as our on world, physical in the same way, accessible… Calling. Clawing. Cursed.” Alyssa finished the piece of cake. “But it’s best we not worry ourselves too much past this. Wonderland can only be found by those already connected to it, the Other World calls out to people who connect themselves to it. That’s why I see Ace and Alice as higher than me. I consider the Other World hell in its own right. Do you want to know why?”
“Might as well?”
“Hell is what we make of it. It’s not that people there are all bad per say, it’s just a natural balance to this place.”
“Do you think there is a physical haven equivalent?”
“The Other World.” Alyssa shrugged. “Unfortunately I don’t know enough about what is meant to be a religion over me.”
“Do you plan to find out?”
“I’m always learning more. See I don’t subscribe to any of the cults ideas, not really. I have a Gothamites stance on things. I believe in what I’ve seen. And from what I’ve seen, reality is just an upsetting illusion that is best not to tear away if you truly can’t handle the dark, disturbing, irately cruel and horrid. I think the most insane people are the ones that claim to be the most sane. Because then, you never know what’s going on inside their heads.”
“And those who don’t lean one way or another?”
“No need to worry about everyone. Sanity is healthy. It’s those that remind you how sane they are, that have truly nothing wrong with them. Everyone has something. Everyone gets sad, everyone gets hurt.”
“That sound complicated.”
“It is. But that’s reality. Dose that make sense?”
Desmond paused a moment. “Your still learning, I graduate next year, but I think I would like to keep in touch, to see what you learn. Who knows, I’m going into Magycryptology, perhaps I can looking things myself.”
“I would appreciate that Desmond. Your a good man.”
“And you are a good person, in your own right.”