Prologue: 1865, Wonderland
"You won't remember me." Said the Hatter.
Alice smiled. "How could I ever forget you?"
"The blood won't let you."He started to disappear and it got hard for Alice to keep tears from spilling down her face.
"Good-bye, Alice."
"Hatter!" She sobbed.
Climbing out of the rabbit hole was hard. She remembered very well what had happened. She wanted to jump back in. But she had other work on the surface to do. Like not marry Haymitch.
She found her way back to the gazebo. She would go back to Wonderland, even if she were about to die.
She had a feeling Wonderland would need her once again.
Chapter 1: Grandma in Wonderland
"Alex! These boxes won't move themselves." His mother called from downstairs.
Alex stood in his room of sixteen years. They were moving to some old mansion in London. His great, great, great, great grandmother Alice had owned the huge building. His aunt had died of cancer and the house went to my mother. So now he was leaving the only life he knew for one he didn't want.
He went downstairs to find his mother looking at a packet of yellowing papers. He sat next to her. "What's this?" he asked.
"This is your Grandma Alice's book. She only made one packet for her kids to pass down. She made it before her…"
"Death?" he asked.
She laughed. "Oh god, no. Your Grandmother was too stubborn to die. She disappeared one day. They found this on her bed. Your Grandma Maggie believes she went back to Wonderland."
He frowned. "What's Wonderland?"
She smiled. "Wonderland is the world your grandmother wrote about in this story. She believed it exists and said she went there."
She sat the book in Alex's lap. "Read it. You might like it." He looked at it for a moment then stuck it in his backpack. He finished packing the last box and got in the backseat of his mother's SUV.
"Don't want to sit with your mother?" she said smiling back at him.
"Want to lie down." Ha answered her and took out the book and began reading as they went to the airport.
By the time they got there he was half way finished with the story. It was very interesting. It was filled with fights, and talking animals, a mad hatter, and even a disappearing, floating cat named Cheshire. It was very…weird, but good.
They boarded the plane and waited to leave. He pulled out the book as soon as he got into his seat.
"I'm guessing you like the book?" he just nodded and began to read, she laughed. About three hours later he was finished with the book and his mother was asleep. They still had a few more hours till they landed in London. He looked around to find most of the passengers asleep.
He pulled the curtain across his small window and looked outside. The sky was clear and dark, brightened only by the stars and the moon. There was a full moon and it looked as if it was right beside the plane. He fell asleep against the window.
He was awakened by his mother shaking him. "We're here!" She sounded so excited. He looked out the window to find the plane landing. Off in the distance huge towers and buildings rose from the ground.
"Yippee!" He said as they stood to exit the plane, sarcasm dripping like poison.
"Oh, don't be so mad. You will love it here, it's very beautiful.
They grabbed their luggage and found a black limo outside the main doors. There was a dude wearing a suit holding a sign that said; Kingsleigh.
"Wow, a limo?"
"Your grandmother was very rich, and known." Was all his mother said as they entered the dark car. It was about a two hour drive. He watched as a city, then a town, then nothing but woods passed by. When they finally got to the long, ten minute driveway, he was tired of being in a car.
As the house came into view he was struck by how huge it was. The building was four stories, probably had like a hundred rooms.
Then the window between them and the driver went down and a deep voice spoke. "Kingsleigh Manor; built in the early eighteen hundreds, one hundred and thirty rooms, and fifteen bathrooms. It now has central heating and cooling. Pick what room you want, it is now yours.
"There are people who work here that stay here. They will cater to your every need, just ask. I will be here to drive you where ever you need to go. There is a fence surrounding the whole land, inside that fence is your property. Do not go into the tree house, though you won't be able to."
"Why not?" Alex asked. He now planned to go into the tree house.
"It is locked. No one has been inside it, except for the Harris's, since Alice Kingsleigh built it around the old thing."
"What old thing?"
He laughed. "The old gnarled tree that the house is built around. I doubt the tree is even still alive. It was dying when Miss Kingsleigh built the house nearly a century ago. The Harris's don't talk about the tree. It's forbidden in their family. Ah, here we are." A house built around a tree, how peculiar. He thought.
They pulled up in front of the manor and the man helped them take their luggage inside.
"What's your name?" Alex's mother asked.
He smiled a wide smile that seemed too big for his face. "Chess. You may call me Chess." The name stuck inside Alex's head. It sounded too familiar.
He left and then they were left alone. "Well go pick your room. I'm gonna get the one closest to the kitchen." She started to walk away toward the smell of fresh bread. She was mumbling something about it having to be huge.
He started up the steps that were right in front of him. The hallway was huge and very tall. The furniture was all old fashioned. The stair's rails even had deep purple satin on them, like in movies. There was a picture of a very beautiful girl with long wavy blond hair on the wall.
""Alice Kingsleigh, your grandmother I presume?" He turned to see a girl of about sixteen, his age, maybe older. She had long red hair that was curly and wavy at the same time. Her eyes were a bright green. "Iracebeth." She said.
"I'm sorry?" he guessed she was telling him her name, but he never heard a name like it.
She smiled. "My name is Iracebeth Crims Harris, and yours?"
The name registered a picture of a literally big headed queen. "The Red Queen?"
She laughed. "So you have heard the story?" she started up the steps toward him. She was very nice. So unlike the person she was named after. "The Red Queen, she so loved beheading people. It is quit fun." She was smiling, but the way she said it sounded so sincere. He was kind of scared.
"My sister, Mirana, believes she was an evil bitch. I on the other hand adore the Red Queen. She ruled with an iron fist." This girl went from pretty and nice, to pretty creepy.
"I'm sorry I totally agree with you but I got to get a room so… I'll talk to you later." She smiled again and left, still muttering about an iron fist.
She turned abruptly. "You never told me your name."
"Alex." She smiled and left. He turned and went all the way up to the top floor and all the way down to the last room on the right. He opened the door to find one wall a complete window. There was a large bed that was covered by a thick silver blanket. There also was an old desk that had a laptop on it.
At the desk was a beautiful very fair haired girl wearing a dress the was elegant and fit her perfectly. Her eyes were a deep blue, and her hair was the same curly/wavy mess as Iracebeth's.
"Mirana." He breathed the name. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
She looked up with a startled look in her eyes. She jumped out of her seat and slammed the lap top closed. She held it to her chest as if it was precious and ran around him and out of the room.
"Wait, I can leave if you want." He yelled after her. She just kept running.
He looked back into the room. Obviously she was using this room, so he would pick another. He walked across the hall and opened the door, hoping not to find another person. He didn't.