Alice still showed confusion, but small, glistening tears formed in her eyes as she looked around the room, a seemingly silent plea in her vacant gaze. The familiarity of the space seemed to war with the brokenness of her mind. With a simple command, John told her to lay on the bed on her back, which she followed through with obediently, her movements stiff and cold.
Picking up the two small bottles, John looked at them both, his heart heavy with the weight of his decision as he uncorked one and downed its contents in a single, bracing gulp, feeling the potion's warmth flood through him. Then, he walked over to her side, gently stroking her hair tenderly, soft and filled with as much care as he could.
"I take it you remember this room now?" he asked, his voice carrying a forced lightness in his tone. "It's the place we found shelter the first night the world changed and when you first drugged me, haha." A hollow, pained laugh escaped him. "I remember you asked why I glowed like a 'Pokémon' or 'Digimon'." He spoke with a small, sad smile, a few tears running down his face. He noticed, with a fresh stab of agony that Alice had a few tears of her own tracing paths down her cheeks as she shook her head no, her unsettling and forced smile remaining unchanged, eyes still hollow yet he thought he saw a flicker of understanding for a single, brief moment.
"Give me all the flower brew you have," he suddenly said. Without question, she handed him three fist-sized sacks full of flower brew. But then, she offered him more, both her knife and her scythe. He didn't understand at first, giving her a confused gaze but that's when he saw it, her smile, as force as it was seemed to go a little wider, carrying hints of an unbearable sadness and her eyes once more held a faint trace of raw emotion and in that harrowing moment he realized the real Alice, locked up inside had forced through everything for a brief moment and seem to know what was coming. She was granting him these personal weapons, not just as a desperate farewell, but as a silent plea for him to never forget the girl she once was, the fierce spirit he had known.
With shaky hands, he accepted them. He attached the ornate dagger firmly to one of his chains. The scythe, her unique weapon was soon secured to his back, held by both his cloak and a chain, a constant reminder of her spirit. Leaning down, he gently gave her a soft kiss on her forehead before using some flower brew on her, dabbing it onto her lips rather than using it as a smoke so it would work much faster. His sad smile mirrored the tears in his eyes, his hand shaking as he performed this final, tender act. He put the rest of the brew away into his cloak's pocket, a desperate attempt to conserve what little of her he still physically possessed.
"You're going to sleep now and things are going to get better for you," he whispered, his voice breaking. "You won't be hurting anymore and you will be free. All your dreams and wishes will come true and it will be an amazing dream. All the good you deserve and are owed will all come to you and things will be exactly as they were supposed to be. So, close your eyes and sleep, my bestie. It's funny, I didn't know you that long personally and it all started with you having saved my life, but even in that short time we actually spent together I can honestly say you grew on me fast. You helped me through a lot. I never understood how in novels love just happened so far but here I am having happened to me with you" He paused, struggling to compose himself. "So, Alice, I want to say thank you, for being with me all the way to this point, for your courage, for your kindness and for everything you had done for me. I wish you all the best and hope to bring you many stories and hear your own when we one day meet again at the end of the road." He couldn't hold it anymore, having begun to cry heavily now, a torrent of grief he could no longer contain breaking free. Her eyes having slowly closed as he spoke, the tears though still steadily running. On her lips, the vacant smile softened, subtly changing into one that seemed, dare he say it, at peace.
With a hand that was shaking worse than a leaf in a storm he brought the second vial to his lips, filling his mouth with its contents before leaning down, his heart tearing to pieces as he planted a kiss upon her lips, forcing the liquid from his mouth into hers and ensuring she swallowed every drop. The metallic taste lingered on his tongue. "Goodbye, my sweet Alice," he whispered quietly, swearing he could hear a faint 'thank you' in the air that carried her voice, a final, ethereal farewell.
Soon after, he could see her grow still, checking and making sure she was truly gone due to the fast-acting numbing poison he had just given her, bringing a quiet end to her life, freeing her from the suffering. Reaching into his pocket, he took out another small square cube and placed it in the middle of the room like he had done before. But this time instead of a flash that created an illusion of how the room looked before there was a soft, rhythmic ticking noise. Giving her one last sad look, John slowly left the room, passing through an invisible wall as everything outside the room returned to ruin.
Once outside, he turned to face the house where a faint buzzing could be heard growing louder in the air before the entire house went up in a giant white flash of flame yet not spreading anywhere else, focused solely where the house once was. The self-contained fire bomb he bought from Z had incinerated everything in front of him. The intense heat causing him to take step back but he still forced himself to watch as the inferno consumed the building, when he heard he couldn't save Alice, he felt it would be better to let her have a peaceful end rather than living trapped in her own mind and in pain. But giving her a proper farewell, something he felt was owed to her after all she had been through but it was something he had to do this with his own hands as he was the one responsible.
Using his share of the coin he gained, along with half the potions from the study and even some of the goods he got from the Jester's office including the gifted dagger, he bought a bottle of painless poison and a potion of poison immunity that would last for a week, by which time it would have cleared his own system. He also bought the fire bomb and a memory cube that could project a space to how it was previously. His preparations had been meticulous and grim, yet absolutely necessary to ensure her final journey was undertaken with dignity and remembrance without a chance of anyone disturbing her remains.
Standing and watching the fire slowly dissipate, he slowly approached and placed a new cube onto the ground. It soon after turned into a life-sized and lifelike statue of Alice, her features exquisitely detailed, capturing her vibrant spirit and hints of madness from before the fight. A small plaque on its base read as follows: 'Here lies Alice, may she find peace in the dreams of Wonderland. Greatest of friends, strong fighter and shall forever be remembered and missed.'
John's tears were once again flowing as he placed the second item onto the ground in front of the statue: a blue and white flower. He was told it would never die or wilt and would instead grow alongside the statue, taking root and growing around and on it creating a decoration, he was told by Z that it was called a flower of remembrance. Its impossible beauty and promise of eternal life was a small comfort, a living tribute to her enduring spirit.
Soon after, he placed the final item, one that was what cost him the most out of everything and why he had to sell the Jesters dagger. A strange nail that he through in front of the statue. It shattered near instantly creating a shimmering, translucent dome that encased the statue and flower before fading into invisibility. This was a protective barrier that would last even if the world itself was destroyed, or so Z claimed, he doubted it but still felt it would help protect and preserve the statue and flower, his final precaution that no one and nothing could defile her memory or disturb her peace or his monument to her.
"I promise, I will make it up to you and change," he said quietly to the statue, his voice raw with emotion. "I will become someone you can be proud of. I will live for your memory and push forward. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you or be good enough for you. But that will change, everything will change… I promise." He sat in front of it for what seemed like hours after that, just staring at it as a solitary figure consumed by grief and newfound purpose and before he realized it night fell and the moon shone lightly onto him and the statue, giving it a faint glow as the stars seemed to surround it. In that quiet vigil, John absorbed the immense weight of his vow, the burden of a future he would now carry in her honor and to change so that something like this will never happen again from his own inaction. Faintly and sorrowfully, John finally got up and slowly began making his way back to his camp, practically dragging himself along.