I don’t remember how long we were screaming for, it felt like a hot minute but as soon as it settled, I stared deep into the nutcracker’s eyes. I heavily breathed in and out, not leaving eye contact for a brief minute…

Soon, I broke the silence again. “WAIT, YOU’RE ALIVE?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“WAIT, I’M ALIVE?!” He asked as he looked at his hands. I didn’t know who the heck I was staring at: A human nutcracker or a dumb toy. It goes to show what I was dealing with. Likewise, I held my head as I tried to get the image out of my head as I just felt his wooden hands on mine. He pulled me away as that terrible rodent soon bull-rushed towards the both of us.

I felt warm inside, but at the same time, it felt awfully peculiar to give up my heart so easily to a wooden man that I’ve never seen in 9 years. Starting to his feet, he ran across the walls to try and dodge the attacks the mouse king was trying to pursue. I didn’t know what to say at this point as I couldn’t speak at all.

He tried to open the door, but it was locked. “Shit! Come on, where’s the key?!” he exclaimed. I jumped out of his arms as I ran to search for the key. I remembered where it was but I wasn’t all sure that it was still in the same spot. It was a small chest in the closet, deep within the far ends. Extending my arms, I opened the chest but to my surprise…

It wasn’t there.

“W-where is it?!” But then, I heard a whistle. Me and the nutcracker stared directly where the whistle came from… It came from the Mouse King as he held the key. “Looking for this?” He spoke with a smirk. I had an idea as I ran to get the pistol, only for the Mouse King to push the pistol away from my hand.

He pinned me to the wall as he laughed maniacally. “You are such an innocent soul… but you are getting in the way.” He readied his claws as his sharp nails trailed along my neck.

“Say goodbye, Stahlbaum!”

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” screamed the Nutcracker, headbutting the mouse king. I was then flung free from his grasp. Hitting my head on the wall, I groaned as that made my injury worse

“I believe this is yours.” he yanked the key out of his hand, tossing it to me. I caught it and I nodded. I unlocked the door, and waiting at the door was Pavlova, who meowed to follow him.

“P-Pavlova, wait up!” I spoke as I followed him upstairs. I could hear the nutcracker groan, “Ms. Stahlbaum! Be reasonable! You can’t leave or else-” suddenly a loud screeching roar echoed through the walls behind us, that decaying rat was going to come after us if we didn't run now. So, like athletes, we ran upstairs. Pavlova meowed as he pointed his paw into the room.

There, I saw that the little door was open. I then had a thought but it went away because I thought it was stupid… The Nutcracker then locked the bedroom, in hopes that the rodent would forget about us.

I sat on my bed, groaning in pain. I could still feel the blood dripping down from my head; It felt unbearable. Pavlova meowed in worry while the nutcracker just grabbed a first-aid kit from the bedroom closet and wrapped a bandage around my head along with my arm.

I looked at the nutcracker, wondering what caused him to do this. I wanted to ask him but the words couldn’t come out of my mouth properly… He held me close to him as he stroked my hair gently. 

I knew this was some sort of tac-tic to calm me down… but it worked. But, I wouldn’t be calm for long, because when we least expected it…

There was creaking and then…

We were flung out of my bed as we landed, slouching on the wall. I groaned in pain as I looked up to see who it was… There, standing in front of us, was the Mouse King. 

“Ms. Stahlbaum, everything will be okay.” The Nutcracker reassured me, only for him to get snatched and pulled face-to-face with the mouse king.

“YOU ARE DEAD NUTCRACKER!!!” the mouse screeched. But when the mouse least expected it, he was stabbed in the eye socket with the nutcracker’s sword. The screech of the mouse was widely displayed as soon enough, Fritz was at the door and saw that the mouse king was about to kill… well- the nutcracker. He just stared at what was going on and he backed away, "You have fun with that!" He exclaimed.

“Nobody would even like a nutcracker with stupid cotton candy hair!”

“I beg your pardon?! I have taken full offense to the statement!” the nutcracker told the mouse king. Soon enough, it was like another war… It was World War Toys-R-Us again! The nutcracker bounced off the walls, trying to fight the rodent.

God knows how long it was, but… I didn’t feel that well.

Pavlova meowed as he nudged the pistol into the room. I glared at it for a while before smirking.. I had an idea. Kicking the pistol towards me, I snatched it. Pointing it at the mouse king from the back of his head, I aimed it to where his brains would blow. Awaiting a while…

Waiting…

WAITING…

And… BANG!!!!

The mouse king let go of the nutcracker as he fell to the floor. He wasn’t dead… I think I still saw his legs twitching. It made me want to puke really badly. The nutcracker held me close, making sure that I was okay. I chuckled a bit…

“Miss Stahlbaum,” he said in a panicked tone, “Are you injured? If so, I’m sorry that I failed as your protector!”

“Oh please, stop the formalities.” I held in my laugh a bit. He felt like a himbo at first glance, but in a good way. 

“Why not? It’s a way of showing an act of Chivalry!” He smirked, banging his chest a couple of times. He acted a bit like a man, but at the same time, he acted like a child. He then approached the door and groaned, slouching on the wall and looking at his hand. His eyes felt like he wanted to cry; he slowly looked up with fear. “How long was I asleep?” he asked. “Well, based on the stories Drosselmeier told me… 13 years.” I answered honestly.

“13?!” he panicked as he paced back and forth. He was gathering his thoughts, only for him to sit down and think. I tilted my head in confusion, what was he thinking about? What was going on? Soon enough, he sighed, “I need to return to the Land Of Dolls. Would you like to come with me?” He held out his hand for me.

I stared at his hand, thinking about what my answer was to be… After a brief while though, I sighed. “Alright, but I’ma stay behind a bit. I need some stuff.” He nodded as he went in first through the small door; he crawled inside until I couldn’t see him in the clear darkness.

Pavlova meowed, purring on my legs. He didn’t want me to go; I smiled a bit as I pet him gently. “You’ll be okay, Pavlova. I’m not gonna be gone for long…” I answered, putting some chocolates and my pistol in a small bag. Also in my bag was the gameboy color, battery pack, phone and also sketchbook (with a pencil). As I approached the door, I stared at Pavlova. I told him before I went in, “Find a safe place to hide.”

Pavlova meowed, waving goodbye to me with his paw. I waved goodbye back as I crawled through the door, closing it slowly. I was surrounded by pitch black darkness… there was nothing for miles; it felt like an endless tunnel. I crawled from the entrance along the long path, of course it felt claustrophobic because I didn’t know where I was going but soon enough, I felt my hands slip and there I went. I fell down a light blue sparkly tunnel and it felt like a rabbit hole. I saw nothing but magic sparkles everywhere in the tunnel. I fell for what felt like half an hour before going down a slide, towards a small mouse hole which was too small for me.

“IMPACT! IMPACT!!!!” I screamed, but to my surprise, I suddenly shrank and I was able to fit through the mouse hole, landing in a pile of snow. After a while, I stood up, groaning. I looked at my surroundings and asked myself, “Where am I?”