Satoru Kenshin was cold. Ice. Not the usual emptiness he felt-- not the familiar detachment. This was ice. This man was insane, and Kenshin felt the emptiness within himself suddenly swell with this chilled frost. Fear, he supposed...Not something the boy experienced often-- at least, not back at home...

The gnashing teeth. The deranged ramblings. The frothing foam. It all served as a very...very...real threat. Death; it's right there, just within the room.

[b]He wants to eat me[/b]

The thought had barely registered in his mind before the whine of a speaker shuddered into existence, and soon calmed into the tones of...someone who didn't sound much older than Kenshin himself! This much more...pleasant-- hell, downright cheerful-- tone was more than enough to combat the chill that had been freezing the boy's core. The emptiness at his center returned, and the ice swirled within himself as he finally began to struggle. Fear combatted his apathy, indifference fought against instinct. Wrists rubbed at rope, ankles kicked at ground. His body fell from its sitting position over to the ground, where he stilled once again as his head collided with the floor.

[b]Nothing clears the head like pain...[/b]...the most straightforward thing he's thought since waking up here.

[i]'Jabberwocky! Jabberwocky!'[/i] the cries rang out. The man was...bludgeoning himself on the ground...blood leaking from himself as he did so, spreading out along the floor and coating his face...The child stilled, his eyes stuck on the crazed scene before him. This was...one of those things one could only imagine, or read about in those books at the therapists...

[b]...Chervotsky might have been on to something, maybe I'm legitimately insane now...No, I'd never realize it if I were.[/b] he debated inside himself as he dulled to the cries and screams around him-- only that 'Jabberwocky's calm tones breaching into his mind.

[i]'You're all fucked to begin with'[/i]

And with these words Jabberwocky's monologue subsided.

With these words Kenshin shut his eyes.

With these words echoing in his mind the sweet music reached his ears, pulling him back from the darkness he was lulling himself into...

[b]I suppose he means this to be eerie.[/b] he thought to himself, finding that he didn't hardly have the energy or will to push himself up-- and flopped back onto the ground on his side. [b]But this is sweet. Bittersweet at best, but sweet nonetheless. A serenade, a song farewell...[/b]...and with that, the child's mind was once more chasing far-off moments and long-ago memories, his eyes only half open...half perceiving the world around him.