Wonder Land

Alice blinked up at her white washed ceiling. It was dark, maybe about midnight. She couldn't tell. Her room had no clock. Not since she broke the last one to pieces to use the glass to cut her wrists. The moon light shown down on her tiny sheet covered cot from the slit in her wall that was supposed to resemble a window. In fact, there wasn't much of anything in her thread bare room. They had taken everything from her hangers in her closet to the curtains on her windows. She was lucky she still had sheets to lie on. Her drawing materials had been taken away the day she had arrived. Apparently trying to stab someone with a pencil was a very bad idea. She had been reprimanded and locked in a cell for two hours without any contact at all. It hadn't bothered her much though. She rather liked being alone.

Ever since she had come home from Wonder Land she hadn't been the same. She had been cold and distant from every one. She loved no one now. Not even her own parents. In fact, they were the ones that brought her here to this hell hole. Oh how she missed her kitten. Poor Dinah, left all alone with no one to take care of her.

She looked mindlessly at the white ceiling and let herself wander back to Wonder Land. She looked again over all their faces. All of her friends; The March Hare, the Door Mouse, The White Rabbit, how she missed her, and of course her dear Mad Hatter.

As she thought about him his face showed up clearly in her mind. His beautiful feminine features, his long ebony hair, his alabaster skin; His perfectly shaped lips and glittering purple black eyes. How she longed for his touch once more to make her feel safe. To feel wanted. She missed him most of all.

A small tear fell down her ashen cheek and she sniffed lightly. She missed Wonder Land. She missed the only people who understood her. She missed The Mad Hatter; her Mad Hatter.

The Mad Hatter stared blankly up at the black and white twisted canopy of his bed. Sighing, he laid his hand on the now empty spot where she used to lie next to him those many nights not so long ago. He closed his eyes and reached up massage his face. He missed her dearly. He really thought he would be able to make her stay with him. To make her want to stay with him. He should have known though, just from what he had done to her that she wouldn't want to be within ten feet from him. He had defiled her, used her. It was all to keep her safe from the Queen and Cheshire cat but she didn't take it that way. She thought he had really meant to do it to her. She had even called him a rapist and a horrible person.

A single blood red tear fell down his face and stained his alabaster skin. His chest ached and he blamed it on his broken heart. She never would have left him if he had been good enough. She never would have left him if he could have convinced her that what he did saved her instead of hurting her.

"Dear Alice…" he started, his voice soft with pain, "I'm so sorry… I miss you so much. Please come back to me."

He used what little power he could muster to send that one simple message to her through the gap between the worlds and then let him self succumb to the torrents of tears that had threatened to fall the entire time he had been lying there.

Alice sighed and stood up form her cot. She was tired of lying around all day with nothing to do. She was tired of being labeled a psychotic. She was just plain tired. Staggering over to her window she placed her elbows down on the seal and laid her head in her hands. They had been courteous enough to leave it open to let in the fresh night breeze. Her room had been getting very stuffy lately. Whether or not it had been from her constant stressing or the heat outside she hadn't been sure. Either way she was very glad that they left her that one little comfort.

She looked up at the moon and cocked a half grin. The Mad Hatter would have loved the scene from the window. The moon was full and bright, almost as pale as his skin. The stars twinkled softly and there wasn't a cloud in sight.

"Oh Hatter…" she whispered, closing her eyes as a wave of the cool night breeze blew in her face.

I'm so sorry, I miss you so much. Please come back to me…

Alice jumped slightly as she felt the familiar caress of voice on her mind. She knew instantly who it was.

"Hatter!" she cried out, "Hatter please…are you here? Tell me!"

She waited for a response but got none. She was so sure it was him calling out to her from between the worlds.

"Hatter please call to me again! I know it's you!" Alice begged the empty night air in a sad voice.

Still nothing came to her. Tears formed on the brims of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She was stronger then that, to let being alone get to her so.

How can he leave me in the dark? He called to me, I know he did. Why won't he answer me back?

Despite her best efforts the tears began to fall at the thought of being forgotten. Especially forgotten by the one she loved the most, or at least, thought she loved. She wasn't entirely sure what that feeling was anymore. It had been lost along with so many other things, left behind in Wonder Land, when she had come back.

"Hatter…How could you leave me? How could you!" she cried, burying her head in her arms to cover her tears from the all seeing moon. "How could you leave me in this place to die? To rot away forever without you here by me?"

For what seemed like hours she stood there crying her eyes out until they would shed no more tears. Her face felt swollen and her eyes burned from being cried dry and yet still the Hatter had not answered her. She felt it was almost hopeless.

The Hatter lay on his bed, covered in his bloody tears. There wasn't a spot on him or his bed that wasn't covered with the red liquid. He curled up in a ball and sniffed. There was nothing left in him. He couldn't cry anymore. He was starting to feel empty and sick all at the same time. She had not answered him. Then again perhaps she had forgotten how. Or she just didn't want anything more to do with him.

"Sweet Alice…Why would you abandon me so? I love you…" he whispered, sending it out over the gap before he no longer felt he had the energy.

Somehow he was going to get a hold of her. He needed her. Why couldn't she see that? Why couldn't she see that he loved her; that he would do anything for her, even bleed, just to be with her and make her happy.

The Hatter coughed lightly to clear his throat and struggled with his almost limp body to stand up. He slowly made his way to his bathroom step by step catching himself on a wall or two as he went.

He got through the door and collapsed to his knees. There were so many memories lingering there. He looked to the tub and he felt his heart churn. There is where they had first made love. The very spot where she told him she loved him. He remembered how she looked, so beautiful with her red hair flung over one shoulder as she smiled down at him.

He tried once more to make it to the tub to get him self cleaned up but it was no use. All the energy in his body was gone. He lost all will to even try. She wasn't responding to him. She wanted nothing to do with him. His heart wrenched and he felt another wave of tears coming on followed by a wave of nausea that he had trouble controlling.

"Oh Alice…" he sobbed, letting his body hit the cold hard floor.

Alice whipped her sore eyes and looked out the window once more. Maybe he was calling her and she just couldn't hear him. Another wave of cool air wafted in and she felt a tingle in the back of her head. Then slowly it turned to a voice. An anguished voice that sounded like her Hatter.

She concentrated hard to hear what he was saying. Most of it was soft mumbles and nonsense but every now and then she would catch her name and hear him beg her to come back to him and answer him.

Concentrating harder she finally got all of her thoughts into one coherent strain of sentences.

"Hatter, I'm here. I'm here. It's me Alice. I'm here in Valley Vista. They put me here! I can't get out. Please Hatter, come find me! Come save me! Get me out of here. I want to come back, I miss Wonder Land, I miss the White Rabbit, I miss the March Hare, I miss you Hatter! I miss you most of all! Please help me!"

The Hatter stopped shaking and raised his head to her voice. Her voice! She was calling to him. She needed help. The poor thing had been locked away in some sort of torture room from the sounds of things.

"Alice, Alice, please answer me if you can hear me!" he said quickly so as not to lose the link they had.

"Hatter? Hatter! I'm here! I'm here… Please don't leave me again!"

"I'm not going to leave you! Listen, I'm going to find you…My dear sweet Alice, I will find you..., "The Hatter sent to her just as the line faded away.

His heart leaped with joy. She wanted to see him again. She missed him! She missed Wonder Land! He managed to slowly get him self up from the floor and to the tub. He needed to be clean when he went to see her. It would do no good showing up and letting her know he had been crying. It would only worry her more and from the sounds of things, she had been through enough worry to last her a life time.

Drawing the hot water he watched the steam rise to the ceiling and watched it fog the mirror. He smiled when he saw the familiar letters that appeared there when ever he took a bath.

I love you Hatter,

Love,

Your Alice

Every time he saw those words he knew for sure deep in his heart that they had been meant to be together ever since there first meeting those many years ago. She had been such a little thing, so weak and helpless against the bullies but now she was seventeen and much stronger and definitely able to fend for herself when need be. She had proved that many times while forced to be out on her own in the Dark Forest.

Gently he lowered himself into the hot water, sighing as he felt every muscle in his body relax. He had been so tense lately. Most of it due to stress he assumed. Laying his head back in the water he watched as the blood colored the water red. His tears were being washed away along with the melancholy on his soul for he was finally getting his love back. His Alice.

Alice jumped up from her window and squealed. She was elated! He was coming to rescue her! To take her away from the hell she had been put in by her misunderstanding parents. She grabbed her pillow and hugged it. Then holding it out in front of her she started to waltz. Anyone looking in on here would think she were some sort of nut case for dancing with a pillow. Of course, that's why they had put her in this horrid place anyway, because they all thought she was a nut case.

Humming a little tune she spun around in a circle one last time before sitting back down on her cot. Now all she had to do was wait, which was going to be the hardest part of all.

She longed for his touch and his silky voice to soothe her mood and make her feel at home once more.

The moonlight shone down on her and she smiled up at it.

"You see," she told it grinning, "I told you all would work out."