Heck yeah!!!! How about "your hands are just as dirty" for Barry?
(ITS FINALLY DONE. Sorry it took so long.)
Barry stared at the tent. It was eye-catching, flashy, and splendid. More importantly, it radiated necrotic energy.
He’d heard rumors of Wonderland, just bits and snippets, each one wildly different from the others. A few things were consistent among the rumors.
First: Wonderland was dangerous. Second: People went inside to get things that they wanted. Third: Very few people actually got what they wanted.
It seemed like the safest place to hide the Animus Bell.
The question was, how did he get in? As he watched, his name appeared in glowing letters on a black slab above the door, and it opened. He walked through it and into the darkness, and the door vanished behind him.
“This is fun,” Barry said dryly. Barry looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. “Hey, I want to give you a thing that’ll be cool as hell, so get the FUCK over here so we can talk!”
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, a single spotlight illuminated a platform high above the ground where Barry stood. A pair of elves stood on the platform dressed in flashy, stylish outfits.
“We must admit that this is rather unconventional for Wonderland,” the female elf said, her voice amplified magically so that it came from everywhere at once.
“After all,” the male elf continued, “most people who choose to play our game have something they want from us, not for us.”
Barry shrugged. “Well, I’m not interested in playing games or anything; I just wanted to give you something that’ll probably help you with…uh…whatever it is that you do here.” He paused. “What do you two do here?”
A second later, the elves appeared on either side of him.
Twins, Barry noted now that he could see them up close.
“We are the hosts of Wonderland, a game in which you can get anything your heart desires,” the female elf said.
Barry nodded. “That’s what I heard,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if the rumors were true.”
The male put his hand on Barry’s shoulder, which Barry wouldn’t have been aware of except that he saw it.
“All of the rumors you’ve heard are almost certainly true,” he said confidently. “Whatever you seek, you will find it in Wonderland.”
“Yeah, I’m not seeking anything, I just want to give you something for safekeeping,” Barry said.
He removed the Bell from his hip pack. “This is the Animus Bell,” he said, holding it up for them to see. He noticed the immediate greed in their eyes, and his grip on the Bell tightened.
“It looks pretty, but what can it do?” The male elf leaned in towards the Bell, and Barry moved it back a little bit.
“It allows its wielder to separate a soul from a body,” Barry said uncomfortably.
“So you murder them?” The female elf didn’t sound impressed.
“Well not exactly,” Barry said, a little bit defensive of his work. “The body is still alive, the soul’s just not in it.”
“I see,” the male elf said, eyes glittering. Barry shivered a bit. “It must be useful for you, since you’re a lich,” he said.
Barry frowned. “How did you-”
“We knew the moment that you entered,” the male elf said. “We could sense it.”
“I wonder what pushed you to do the taboo,” the female elf mused. “You’d be hunted down by the emissaries of the Raven Queen, and put in the Stockade for the rest of time. What could be worth that?”
Barry sighed. “It was what I had to do,” he said.
The male elf leaned in wolfishly. “You’d bring on so much pain. On yourself, on others, and really, it’d be a black mark on the world.”
Barry gritted his teeth. “You two are liches. Your hands are just as dirty. Even dirtier, since you seem to be siphoning away emotions.” He looked at the two liches. “Take the Bell, and let me out. It’s a fair sacrifice,” he said.
The female took the Bell, and slipped it into a pocket. “We will allow you to leave, but if you should return, then you’ll have to play.”
The door appeared in front of Barry, and he walked out.
(I love requests, and accept them in the form of prompts, or just a short fic youd want to see. Give me more!)
