Alex in Wonderland
by Joey Ripley
Based on the timeless tale of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll
Alex woke up to the building sound of his alarm clock, which read '7:30am'.
"Great.." Alex said, wiping the dried drool off of his cheek, "Late for the bus... again."
Alex got up quickly remembering his mother telling him that if he missed school one more time, she'd ground him for 3 years, no fun, no family dinners, no anything. And she didn't joke around. He got dressed, picked up his backpack from the hook by the front door, and rushed out almost sprinting to school. Before he reached the trail he usually used to go to school through, he saw the school's Newspaper Editor, Hare, rushing by-Hare isn't his real name, but everyone called him Hare because his last name is Harrison, and his mousy white hair, and his nose twitched whenever he smelled something. Alex stopped to chat with Hare, but Hare continued on saying, "I'm late! Ms. Heartsford will have my head for sure, sorry!" Ms. Heartsford is the school principal. She is one of those principals you do NOT want on your case. Hare ran into the forest through the trail Alex was about to take, but then made a turn onto a trail that wasn't used at all anymore.
Hmm... Maybe there's a shortcut over there. Alex thought to himself, walking up to the beginning of the trail. Cautiously, he peered down the daunting, seemingly unused trail, and began walking carefully down the trail. As he went deeper into the trail, the trees became thicker, and almost complete darkness fell upon Alex in broad daylight. Alex came to a fork in the trail, and wondered which way Hare had went, and looked on the ground for footprints. There were none. He reached into his backpack to find the flashlight his mother had given him just incase he came home late from after school activities. He clicked the flashlight on, with a dim beam of light shining from his flashlight, he saw an almost rippling sensation happening in the trail to his right. To his left, a trail that lead to a lighted area. Engolfed with curiosity, Alex stepped closer to the rippling effect the right trail was giving. He stood as close as he could to it, and shined the flashlight at the trail, there was a door on the side of a tree.
How strange.. Alex walked through the rippling effect, to the door, when he opened the door, he expected to see the tree on the otherside, but he saw a tunnel, that seemed to have no end, going straight ahead. He checked the tree, and saw nothing but an ordinary tree, nothing strange about it. He grabbed a stick, and held it through the doorway, and felt a tug, like a vaccum was sucking the stick into the tunnel. He let go of the stick, and watched it fly into the tunnel, like something was pulling it into the void. Alex stepped closer to see if he could get a better view of the stick, and tripped, tumbling forward into the doorway, he too felt as if he were being pulling by something accross the tunnel, but soon, he was looking up at the doorway, and realized that he wasn't going backwards anymore, he was falling down. Down into the depth of the tunnel. It was as if gravity had taken a new course.