Chapter 1)

Alice's POV

Waking up with a start, I quickly realized it was just another nightmare. One containing a caterpillar as big as me, a cat that smiled, and a mad man who called me cricket. As I recalled the most recent in this series of nightmares, I had to laugh at the poor mad man and his obsession with tea. My smile stopped as I got to the part where the red queen chopped of my head. Rolling over I glanced at the clock to see it was half past eight. "Bloody hell" I've over slept.

Rushing through my morning routine I barely made it to my shift at Charlie's hookah bar. Working the grave shift has its perks, mostly that I get to sleep off any hangovers from the night before.

"Alice!" Snapping back to reality, I realized I had zoned out whilst my manager was talking. "What sir?" "I said go help the delivery guy unload the tobacco shipment" Nodding my confirmation, I went to the back to help unload the tobacco.

I noticed our usual delivery guy had been replaced with a newer model, one that had to be in his twenties and looking, well.., way to clean to be in this kind of business. Flashing me a smile, he held up the usual delivery form and asked me to sign. "Sure thing mate" "Thanks Cricket" I froze at hearing the nickname that seemed to be in every nightmare. The young man winked at me, then drove off in his delivery van. I need to get a grip, it's not like my dreams and nightmares could come true, right? Shaking off the experience as coincidence I continued with my work.

As my shift ended and I left the hookah bar it was still too early for me to turn in for the day. So I headed to Marsha and Travy's flat, they're always up to have a good fun. Entering the flat I smelt the familiar sent that seems to follow the brightly colored bongs that people always seem to be smoking there. "Where've you been, you look like you've been through the wringer" Coming around the corner Marsha gave me big hug. "Well don't just stand there, Travy's got something special tonight." With a wink she proceeded into the living room, while I trailed behind her. While I knew it was early morning, she and Travy were night owls as well, and more than likely hadn't been to bed yet.

Entering the room I was enveloped in the smoke cloud that seemed to surround Travy, spotting him through the screen I saw it was just us tonight. "Marsha tells me you have something special up your sleeve tonight, well alright then let's see it" Smiling a dopey grin, he replied, "Oh what fun Alice has joined us now we can have our tea party." I burst out laughing. Travy having a tea party? "It's no joke Alice" Marsha chimed in. "It's what's in the tea that's the surprise." Pulling out from behind his back Travy showed off the "surprise contents" of our tea. "Is that…?" "Yes it is poppet. The finest Mushrooms in all of England." Popping them into the tea pot we waited, them with excitement, me with apprehension. Mushrooms were serious drugs, which was nothing big for Marsha and Travy, but I hadn't ventured past the occasional joint of Cannabis. Still it was a something special for Travy to share what he called his "Luxury drugs" and after all one trip couldn't hurt. Pouring us all a cup, Marsha held hers high with pinkie extended in a mock toast, "To the Queen!" "To England!" I joined in. "To Wonderland" Travy exclaimed. And with that, we clinked our cups and drank in the "special tea".

We all decided to get comfortable while we waited for the drugs to kick in. "Should take about an hour for the trip to start." Travy remarked as he took another hit from the bong. As time passed I made myself comfortable in the big armchair, facing the window. Sometime afterward, although I'm not sure how long, something white began to catch my eye. There under the rosebush was an impossibly large snowy white rabbit. Which appeared to be wearing a coat of some sort. Standing up I approached the window to get a better look. It turned and stared at me. Then all of a sudden, I swear it winked at me! Then it scampered off a few feet and looked back as if to invite me along. Either the drugs have kicked in or I must be barmy. I thought to myself. Oh well it couldn't hurt to see what the rabbit wants. With that thought I exited the flat and followed the white rabbit.