((Disclaimer: I don't own Alice, obviously, although at this time I do own the other characters. Next chapter, I'll probably add more, but this one's going to be sort of a prologue.))
"Alice..."
She felt a bit woozy in the head, just as she had only moments ago. It had soared away as an eagle for a moment, but soon it came back.
"Alice..."
Who was trying to speak to her? Did she know them? Alice didn't remember meeting any new people recently, and she was quite certain that her mother was not calling to her. She hadn't seen her mother in... well, she couldn't remember how long. But she supposed it would've been a very long time.
"Alice!"
She shook her head, finally opening her eyes. Where was she? A room shielded in yellow, foam on the walls. Alice was seated in a scarlet seat with a backrest, and a man in a white uniform sat informatively in front of her. "I'm sorry... who are you?" Alice asked, her eyebrows narrowed unsurely. The last thing she'd remembered was chasing after some dratted rabbit and getting into more trouble than she had in ages.
But how funny! That was the only thing she could remember. Nothing before, apart from well-known facts about herself – like 'I live in England,' or 'My name is Alice.' She continued to stare blankly at the man, her lips parted only slightly, through which hole she was breathing.
"I am Doctor Welling," the man told her, a soft smile upon his face. Alice didn't know whether or not to trust this man, for the last time she'd tried trusting anyone, everything had gone wrong. "And you're in a mental hospital."
Alice thought to herself. Mental? Whatever was that? She remembered it being in her vocabulary at primary school, but the definition was oblivious to her at the moment. Mental... mental... what did it mean? "I don't understand," Alice said slowly, her words slipping out one by one.
The doctor nodded sadly, his head tilted low. "I know, Alice," he reassured her, obviously trying to make her feel somewhat better. "I know."
Suddenly, the door to the room opened, and a nurse came in, whispering some things to Doctor Welling that Alice could faintly understand, making out a few words.
"The newest reports have come in, Doctor. Our cameras have traced the patient's moods, and she was..." That was where it was cut off, and Alice could hear no more. The doctor's face became pale, and he nodded to the nurse with understanding. What was going on?
The nurse, her blanch apron matching almost perfectly with her platinum blonde hair, made her way out of the room. Alice waved to her giddily before turning to look at her palms. They were wrinkled, like how they'd gotten when she used to go swimming for too long. She wondered about this, her eyebrows narrowed. "Did I take a bath?" Alice asked the doctor, referring to her fingers.
Doctor Welling hesitated for a moment, staring at Alice in her confusion. He'd always hated to deal with patients like this. Ones that had forgotten their identity, forgotten their past. It really gave him the creeps.
"You," he started, staring her in the eye. "Are sixty-eight years old. You've lived in a mental hospital for the past fifty-five years."
Alice blinked once, twice, three times. "No, I-I'm eleven."
Doctor Welling shook his head, watching the elderly woman staring at the door, as if she were planning to run. Hearing about this lady's disorder of screaming in the middle of the night for five minutes at a time, it didn't seem unlikely. Alice had apparently been heard talking about 'white rabbits' and 'the Queen of Hearts.' Why on Earth was this girl talking about card games? And what made that card so special?
He hadn't ever heard her full story. She'd been found on the edge of the street, age thirteen, before he was born. Welling was only fifty-two, after all, and apparently Alice had switched mental hospitals more than once. "I-I have to go."
Alice stopped him, her eyes flashing. "No! You can't leave me!" Welling watched in horror as the woman kneeled before him, tugging on his ankles. "I need to find the rabbit... And the Mad Hatter... I need to find them... Everyone..."
Welling didn't know what to do anymore. He wasn't used to working with patients of this kind, and he wasn't sure how he'd make it out of here without injury. So far, this girl seemed to be harmless, but from the stories he'd heard about her...
"Help me!" Alice yelled as Welling attempted to stand up and shake her up. He was screaming to the intercom, even though it wasn't turned on.
"Nurses! Security! Anyone! Come to Room 218 immediately! This is an emergency!" Welling shouted, fear in his eyes. And then... it happened.
Alice screamed.
It was the most high-pitched and eerie scream that Doctor Welling had ever heard, and for a moment, he lost his hearing. It was Alice's dire scream for help.
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