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Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream...

He could hear a singsong voice echoing in the darkness and something about it made him shiver. He couldn't tell if it was a voice that he had heard before or not, but it had that tone; the one that you only ever heard in bad movies with creepy children... Or if you were having a nightmare.

He sat up straight, eyes wide and heart pounding as his gaze darted around. He was in his own bed, in his own room; safe as one could be back in the dormitories of Deus Ex Machina... Only something still wasn't right.

He untangled himself from his sheets, fingers brushing along his nightstand for the charm that was the resting form of his weapon.

It wasn't there. Tivadar wasn't there... Once again that feeling of panic welled up inside of him again. Once again he tried to push it back down, knowing that now was not the time to lose control.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream...

He froze as the voice came from behind him again, He debated whether or not he should turn around, whether or not he should scream, whether or not he should run... As tempting as the later two were, it was the first that he did, turning slowly on his feet only to come face to face with a flickering glitch of a ghost; a young girl, from what he could tell. Her hair had been done up in neat pigtails, a white apron thrown over a blue play dress graced her form and he could make out a pair of black patent leather mary janes on her feet.

They made no sound as she came for him, flickering in and out as each blink brought her closer; close enough that he could make out the knife in her hand only seconds before it was rammed up between his ribs.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream

She pulled the knife out, stabbing him roughly again with a force that he wouldn't have attributed to a girl of her size. That thought lingered in his head as he fell to his knees, one hand dropping down in an attempt to steady himself before he simply dropped to the floor. There was blood dripping from the knife. He watched the blade glisten as the blood dropped. Drip... Drip...

His eyes closed and he wondered, briefly, why it didn't hurt? Had he shut everything out in the panic? Or... No... No!

He hadn't woken up! This wasn't real! This... THIS...

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...

Life is but a dream.

He'd had the (mis)fortune of re-spawning beneath a table in the Tavern, so awakening with a start from his nightmare was accompanied by a sound THUNK that rattled the table and the contents atop it. He winced as he heard a mug clatter to the floor, the remnants left in the bottom spilling out just short of dripping on him.

He cursed, bringing his hand up to rub at his head only to realize that his hat was missing. "Son of a..." He began to pat around for it, wondering if he had to wait a bit longer for it to spawn as well.

In the meantime he patted himself down, looking for his Pokedex so that he could send a message to Inoke.

"Oh... There you are... Christ, please tell me I was dreaming and you have no recollection of a crazy *bleep* in a weirdass room. If I wasn't dreaming, what was that?! What happened? How the heck did I get here??" He nearly hit his head again, but this time shifted to come out from beneath the table before flailing some more.

"... That explains the nightmare, then." He shuddered, letting the other hatter pull him to his feet. "It was the strangest feeling. I was there and then I was fading and then... I was dreaming. I thought I was dreaming and I woke up back at..." He glanced around for a moment, not entirely sure that he trusted anyone anymore. Hell, there was a part of him that was convinced that he shouldn't even be talking to Inoke about this because what if he wasn't him? What if he was a marionette replacement of himself?

"She stabbed me in the dream too. It was weird as all hell and I think we need to get out of here."

He simply nodded at that, seeming to finally be taking everything seriously; the stern, contemplative look a strange thing to see on his face.

He popped his hat back into his head, dusting his coat off and adjusting his sleeves. "Let's get back to the castle. I think we're overdue for a meeting with the Queen."