Chapter 1: By the Ocean of China
You won't remember me next time.
The voice had begun to lose the face that it had once had. Alice often thought about a far off place that had bright colors, but no longer did it hold a shape. The voyage to China was long and fairly uneventful. She had too much solitary time on her hands during the trip. Every time she turned around she was trying to collect her wandering mind. This wasn't the only voice she heard or thought about. There were a lot more. This one was just the most common. All of the other faces had been lost as well, but the voices still lingered, haunting her every move.
Who will be my champion?
It pained her not to remember who these voices belonged to. She couldn't get them out of her head. "Maybe they are just figments of my imagination," Alice mumbled to herself. She was sitting on the floor of her room. She had taken a small, windowless room thinking she would spend her time up on deck. The only furnishing in the room was a hammock, so she spent most of her time on the floor trying to silence the voices. She had really intended on spending her time on deck in the sun, but they had set out on the voyage at a horrible time of year. The ocean continually attacked the ship, trying to take it under. To remain safe from the monstrous waves, she retreated to her tiny hole-in-the-wall room.
I'll give you salt!
The voices didn't seem to want to go away. Alice knew that they wanted her to remember something, but what she was unsure. They were real. She was not sure, how or why they were real. But she felt it in her bones, they were real and they wanted something from her. All logic told her to ignore the voices and get medical help. Logically, they shouldn't exist. Logically they should be a mere thing from a dream. But they were real.
Off with his head!
Alice began to claw at the walls. She needed them to stop before they caused her to go completely crazy. She had to be perfectly sane when they arrive in China. What would the Chinese think if she was crazy? They would probably send her away and not even consider what they had all come for.
Stupid girl.
"Stop it! Stop it! I can't hear this!" She mumbled over and over to herself and the voices. The voices ignored her protests.
Jabberwocky!
Alice slowly rose to her feet and the ship jarred. She turned to face the wall and started to knock her head against the wall.
"Stupid girl," A voice scolded in the dark. She spun around, hot with embarrassment. There was no one in her room, so she resumed her attempts to rid herself of the faceless voices. "Stupid girl, you don't remember, do you?"
"Who's there?" she asked with a shaking voice.
"Who indeed," he whispered to her.
"Who are you?"
"I am Absolem. Who are you?"
"Alice." Someone pounded at the door. "Alice, we're almost there," the voice called again impatiently from her door.
"Coming," she called and yanked the door open. The brightness of the sun caused her such discomfort that she flinched away from it. Her normally pale skin was twice as pale and her eyes were lifeless. Now, her hair looked as if something had made a burrow in it.
"Didn't you sleep well?" asked the bald crew member, who didn't really care either way. Pulling a hand through her hair she shook her head. He then led her to the deck. He left her and she made her way to the rails. Alice stared down into the lively water. For a second she saw a face; a white-washed face with green eyes and rings of eye shadow around them. One eye was dark red around the bottom of his eye and on top was deep purple. The other eye was forest green and black.
You won't remember…
She stared into the water. Hatter! Alice stared, hoping the face would come back. Already she had forgotten the face.
She's the wrong Alice.
The wrong Alice? How could I be the wrong Alice? Her own face that had once said these words had disappeared over time like the others. She shut her eyes and deeply inhaled the smell of the sea.
You've lost your muchness.
"Muchness?" She whispered. Behind her the crew members were yelling and running at her and around the rest of the ship. She jerked her head around and watched the mast sway and the opposite edge of the ship tilt upwards, headed straight for her.
"Stupid girl, run!" Absolem yelled, desperately flying towards her. His bright blue wings were getting wet and his altitude was steadily decreasing. "Do you want to die?" he yelled. "Jump, Alice!" he exclaimed while flying over the edge of the rail. His wings suddenly stopped and he plummeted towards the angry water without a sound.
You aren't hardly Alice.
The ship began tipping farther.
"Lost my muchness, have I?" she asked before she leaped over the rail. The water hit her hard and she struggled to swim away before the ship could tip the rest of the way. Gasping for air, she watched the ship tumble over and sink deeper into the water. A wave of water rolled to her and hit her in the face. Coughing, she asked the voice, "How was that for muchness?"
"The colors are fading," The dormouse muttered as they stood around the mushroom that housed Absolem. All of the colors had suddenly begun to fade from Underland.
"Absolem!" the Dormouse called.
"He's not here," Tweedledee muttered.
"Then where is he?" the Dormouse asked.
"If he's not here, then he is not here. He is there," Tweedledum answered. The mushroom drooped and turned gray. Hatter kneeled at the mushroom and poked it with a stick.
"He's dead," Hatter whispered. Below the mushroom the limp, soggy body of Absolem appeared. Hatter held him in his hand and dug a little hole for his body. "Is the tea ready?" He placed the body in the hole, but didn't cover it.
Three coins from the pocket of a dead man.
Alice struggled to keep her head above the water.
You're always too big or too small.
"Stop it!" She yelled as her head went under. She inhaled the water. Salt burned her eyes and throat.
You must choose.
Her arms burned and there was no longer heat in her body.
You called it Wonderland.
She continued swimming and prayed that someone would save her. "HELP!" she screamed as panic gripped her tightly. Alice was alone in the sea. It was too far to swim to China and the ship was sinking quickly behind her. The cuts on her arm began to boil under her skin. It was as if they wanted her to remember.
You'll have to take it from me!
Were the voices ordering themselves in some sort of a puzzle? Or was she really just going crazy?
The blood of the Jabberwocky.
I'll come back. It was her own voice again. She still had no face.
I'll take you to the Hatter.
The Blood of the Jabberwocky.
I'll take you to the Hatter.
The Blood of the Jabberwocky.
I'll take you to the Hatter.
The Blood of the Jabberwocky.
"STOP IT! SILENCE!" she screamed. This time the voices listened. Had they gotten out what it was they had intended? Was the blood the key? Would it silence them for good? Treading water, she pulled a vial out of her dress. On the bottle it read: Jabberwocky blood. She had written it so that she would never forget what was in the bottle. "It's worth a shot," she chuckled, staring at the single purple drop in the bottle. Disgusted she gulped down the drop. Silence met her and a single image rose in her mind. A glass bottle with a note on it that said: Drink me. Sitting next to it was a key. She closed her eyes, forgetting that she was in the ocean. Limply, she began to sink down deeper into the depths of the water…
"Is she dead?"
"She's not breathing."
"Will she be alright?"
"She should be."
"It's Alice."
"Someone go and tell the White Queen."
"But, where is she?"
"Find her." A voice was ranting somewhere in the distance, just far enough that all that could be heard was a solid, dull rumble of incoherent words.
"Hatter!"
"Thank you." The voices were all so close together that Alice could not tell when one stopped and the other started. Her head hurt and her body was throbbing.
"At least she's the right Alice."
"Why, she's the dead right Alice." The mumbling began again.
"Can the White Queen do anything for her?"
"What about Absolem?"
Absolem. That was a name Alice was familiar with. Her eyes shot open. Kneeling over her was a hare with crazy bristly fur and a dormouse. In the distance was a crazy man with a large hat.
"Hatter!"
"Thank you!" he squeaked. He ran up to Alice and knelt over her. "Welcome back, Alice. You returned just like you said you would!"
"Who are you?" she asked, unable to move.
"You don't remember, do you?" the Dormouse asked.
"Remember what? What is it that I can't seem to remember?"
"Everything," Hatter mumbled and began to rant again.