Phantasmagoria

''Hello? Are you alright?'' I ask the strange bandaged man. It might help if I seem friendly; maybe he won't attack me or something. I wait a while to see if he is going to respond, but he is deadly silent. Not a peep.

''Who are you?'' I ask another question. I wait again, but he seems to keep 'looking' at me. Maybe I should try and shake his hand? I move closer to him, slowly, and stretch out my hand towards him to show him I mean him no harm. Hopefully, he will reciprocate.

''Hey, I'm Nash, Nash Williams,'' I introduce myself with a smile as I extend my hand to him. I can see by his eyebrows that he seems quite...cross.

Did I do something wrong?

I follow where his line of sight is, and I watch him carefully as he looks down at my hand. Oh, no wait, at the ground. Oh, at the rabbit. Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about the rabbit. I watch the man stare at it in a weird way, and then all of a sudden, in quick movements, he picks it up, holds it behind in a stance as if he is ready to throw it, and...

''No, wait, don't!'' I shout at him but it's too late. He chucks the rabbit clear over my head and I watch it helplessly fly through the air. I know it's going to hit a wall or something, and I begin to look down, not wanting to see its demise. But as I begin to hang my head, I see a flash of light sparkle above my head, and then I look in amazement as I see where I was once standing in a place of darkness illuminate and reveal a grand looking room.

It is a library, I think. There are tons of books lined up everywhere on shelves around me, and the ceiling is covered in wallpaper. A white wallpaper patterned with blue rabbits.

The same rabbit that was used as a projectile a moment ago.

Well, at least he didn't die in vain.

The floor beneath me is carpeted in a burgundy, floral design. You know, the type you see in English Victorian era shows. And there is a mahogany table to my left. It has a chair facing backwards, and it looks as if someone is sitting in it. The strange blind-seeing man catches my attention again as I see him stride over to the table and nod to the back of the chair. I stand and watch carefully as the chair swivels around to reveal a brunette-haired woman sitting in the chair, her wavy hair tucked to the side in a Hollywood actress fashion. She looks like Jessica Rabbit.

''He's a Never,'' the woman speaks in a formal English accent. I notice her eyes have golden irises. They sparkle when she speaks. I realise she is referring to the weird man with bandages. The man turns to face me. I nod in acknowledgement.

''What's a Never?'' I ask the mysterious woman.

''Nevers come from Neverland,'' she answers me. I didn't ask where they came from, I asked what they are.

Wait, she said Nevers.

That means there's more than one of these guys.

''Are they dangerous?'' I ask her. She smiles at me with that same smile Mathilde and the twins would give me when they knew something secretive and didn't want to tell me.

''If I want them to be,'' she responds.

Great, so she controls these 'Nevers'. I'm ready and waiting for when this one pounces then.

''What happens now?'' I ask her. Obviously there's a challenge involved here. The woman looks at me intently, pushes her seat away from the table, then gets up slowly and walks around to the front of it. I see she's wearing a dark brown strapless dress that reaches the floor. It hugs her figure as she moves. She's wearing heels, but I can't see them. She's obviously made herself like this to entice me. But it won't work.

She's not real.

Hannah is.

''You get to decide what happens now, Mr Williams,'' the woman says.

''I do?'' I ask her, slightly astounded.

I have control of the challenge now?

''Of course, I have control of where your challenge takes place, but it is you who decides what your challenge is, and how you win it,'' the woman explains. I get to decide what I do? And how I do it? Well, I'm glad I get more freedom. I hated doing that stupid Verbal Compendium.

''Who are you?'' I ask her, as a final question. She stares at me, and then she begins to come closer to me. She comes right up to my face, and I fear she may kiss me. I purse my lips together so that she gets the message.

''You know who I am, you just need to take a closer look,'' she says as she arrests my eyes. She forces me to look deeper into her golden eyes, and as I look closer, I can see two small girls waving at me. The right eye has a girl with a red ribbon in her blonde hair, and the left eye has the same girl with a blue ribbon...

Oh, it's the twins.

This woman is the twins.

''You're Marigold and Marzipan...in one?'' I ask to her.

''I'm an avatar; so we can be whoever we want to be,'' the woman says with a smile. These girls are way scarier than Mathilde.

The avatar rests her head to the side, looks at me, then looks out of a window to her right.

''Oh, look at that! It is time to start your challenge!'' the woman says as I join her gaze and see that Mathilde's put up the countdown already.

''Take him to Neverland,'' the avatar announces as she goes back to sit down in her chair.

My challenge is to get the Never to Neverland? I'm confused.

''I don't know how to get there,'' I tell her.

''I wasn't talking to you, Mr Williams,'' she says to me.

Oh, I thought she was.

She gives a look of command at the Never, who nods in response and turns. He walks over to me and forcefully grabs me by the arm.

''Hey, you're hurting me!'' I yell at him as he drags me towards the window. I glance at the countdown and see it is already down to 3 seconds.

''Have fun, Mr Williams!'' the avatar waves and smiles at me before the Never shoves me through the large window.

''AAAAHHH!'' I scream as I burst through it.

I should be used to this now.

Falling down.

But I still get tense.

And scared.

And lonely.

Down I go.

Waiting for impact.

Waiting for Neverland.