Chapter Text
The bed beneath her was soft and in utter disarray. It spoke of the contradictions swirling around her. The plushness under her fingertips whispered of comfort, and peace. The state the sheets and blankets were in mirrored the rest of the room. And the man flailing as he spoke before her. Chaos.
Alice Wake had been sitting cross legged on the bed of Thomas Zane for several minutes as the man spoke frantically of his and his partner’s plans for escape. She assumed the word partner was doing a lot of heavy lifting and that the two men were most likely romantically involved as well as plotting their escape from the dark place together. The casual intimacy they shared in their glances and the gentle hand the other man - Darling was his name - placed to the small of Zane’s back told Alice a lot about their relationship.
Here’s what she knew: Her name was Alice Wake, and she’d come to this awful place to free her husband. She had succeeded but now she herself was caught in some kind of loop. She had lost track of time years ago. Was it years? Or moments?
She had met a man who called himself a filmmaker. Though his name rang strangely familiar and she could never quite place where she knew it from. He was an odd character; eyes wild and hair even wilder. But she had needed allies. Or anyone really to make her time in this dark place survivable. This filmmaker had a partner who was some kind of scientist. Doctor Casper Darling. That sounded like a name Alan would have given a character, not the name of a real life human. He was just as excitable as the artist but spoke in rushed words about resonances and frequencies and things she did not fully understand. He did mention the Oldest House at one point which had piqued her interest, but he moved on too fast for her to catch up. Together they cut a strange pair. But she had seen stranger things in her time here.
Here’s what she did not know: how long she had been here. It both felt like hours and it also felt like years. Once Alan was out of his spiral and back into reality, her initial quest had ended. Initially she had felt relieved. And then scared. What was she to do now? Now she felt resigned to this world. But upon meeting these two men she had felt a renewed desire to escape. What she intended to find out, more than even finding a way home, was why these two men both looked and sounded like Alan.
She had a long history with Alan’s dark doppelganger Scratch. But these two? It was like someone had turned Alan to glass and then shattered him on the floor. These two had been created after gluing those shards back together.
Zane finally finished his dissertation on all the avenues he and Darling had been working on in their escape attempts. He sighed deeply before he was suddenly at the bar. Alice hadn’t seen him move but within a blink Darling was now also standing beside him. Darling’s hand lay on Zane’s hip as they whispered to one another. Then in another blink Zane was back with Alice, sitting on the bed with a drink in hand. Darling was gone.
She tried not to wear her confusion on her face too much, but had to ask where the scientist had gone.
“Oh, he’ll be testing some hypothesis of his.” A cigarette appeared in Zane’s other hand. The long drag he took stirred a strange desire in Alice’s belly.
“Do you have any more of those?” She tipped her head towards the cigarette dangling from the man’s lithe fingertips. A light bloomed across Zane’s face as his smile grew.
“Oh, for you? Yes, of course.” Sharp teeth poked out from behind his curled lips. A whole pack of Marlboro 100s fit themselves into Alice’s hand. Swallowing hard, she pushed one out and gently lay it between her lips. Then, she imagined it lit, and it was. Zane’s smile widened further than Alice thought his face should have been able to allow. “I see you know your way around this existence more than I expected.”
Alice smirked before inhaling more of the nicotine infused smoke. Her throat ached as the burning air coated her insides. The ache reminded her for a split second that she was, in some form or another, still alive. As she inhaled another drag she took the moment of silence to examine the man beside her.
Up close the resemblance to Alan was even more profound, except he lacked the deep purple circles that ringed her husband’s eyes the last time she saw him from afar. Deep crows feet etched themselves deeply below his right eye. Did Alan have wrinkles that deep now? She hadn’t seen him up close for so long.
She couldn't lie to herself and pretend she wasn't attracted to Zane. His uncanny resemblance to Alan left a hole in her chest that she wanted to fill with his touch. She scooted further away from him on the bed before finally speaking again.
“So, mr. Zane.”
“Tom, please.” The wolf-like grin that lingered across his face sent a chill down Alice’s spine. The sharp canines were definitely not like Alan. But his eyes…
“So, Tom. Why am I here? Why did you and Darling go out of your way to find me?” Alice was pleased with herself that the snarky reference to the scientist seemed to leave Zane a little off kilter for a moment.
“Word is that your an artist. Like me. But more importantly, you helped get Alan out of this place.” Hearing his name on Zane’s lips hurt more than Alice had been prepared for. She stifled a grimace. Looking around the room Alice took in the chaos that surrounded her. Film equipment sat scattered like debris, charts with incoherent equations scrawled across flimsy papers. The room stank of booze and cigarettes. Quite the place for collaboration, as Zane had called it.
“I knew Alan. Knew him well. This, I knew how to help him.”
“Then you will just need to get to know Casper and I better.” The flirtation in his voice was unmistakable.
“What would I get out of helping the two of you? How am I to know that you won’t just take advantage of my care for Alan and use it against me? Or leave me here?”
The man who wore the face of her husband sunk into himself almost imperceptibly. He spoke quieter now. “I was left here. Twice.” His eyes slowly met hers. Alice recoiled slightly. Those eyes were Alan’s. No question about it. “I wouldn’t leave you.”
A deep breath wracked his body but then his shoulders rolled back as he returned to his previous carefree affect. “Besides, Casper would never allow me to be so ungentlemanly.”
Alice’s lips pursed. Trusting this man, if he really was only a man, would undoubtedly lead her into more trouble. And she had less trust for his partner-in-crime. The doctor reeked of a mania that made Alice’s skin crawl. But, what else did she have in this place? Her empty apartment in Parliament Tower? Fine. Working with these two may be better than wallowing in the dark that her life had become. Letting herself drown in it again.
She nodded to Zane.
“I’ll work with you on finding a way out. But if you and your smooth talking tongue step out of line, I will leave you here.” Alice noticed the small wince that Zane attempted to hide before he winked at her and stood excitedly. Knowing she held some small power over him filled her with a greasy sense of satisfaction.
“I dare say we should have a drink to celebrate.” Two negronis blinked into his hands. Alice waved her own hand and one of the drinks evaporated.
“I will stick to these, thank you.” She waggled the pack of cigarettes in her hand. Zane’s smile broadened.
“I think I am going to like you Alice.”
—
After what Alice assumed was hours of discussing plans with Zane and eventually Darling - who had returned flustered and frustrated to still see her hanging around their room - she finally found herself back in her apartment. Shadows clung to the corners, and blackened the windows. She had once thought her apartment back in the real world was quiet in the years following Alan's disappearance. She had never really known silence then.
Alice lit a cigarette as she stood over the kitchen counter. A pile of blurry photos lay scattered across the marble surface.
Each image was of cloudy person from afar. Their body misted in and out of focus between shots. In some their dark curls were visible, while in others, the lamp held high above their head was the only discernible element. The lens of her camera had been the only way Alice had been able to see her husband since she entered this dark world. Each shutter click bringing her just a tiny bit closer to him.
One photo lay atop the rest of the pile.
It was the only photo she had gotten of Alan’s face where it was more than just an angry blur. Alice had been staring at this image for so long that in that time she had finished her pack of cigarettes. Her fingers trembled as she stared at this aged version of her beloved. He was no longer the twenty-something she had married. He was middle aged. So was she, she begrudgingly thought.
But she was caught on one element of his face. One that had developed over his long years in the Dark Place. Sitting directly below his right eye were deep and beautiful crows feet. They looked exactly like the the ones that drug themselves across the face of Thomas Zane.