The door creaked open as I walked inside the old house. It had been years since I had been home. It was the family shrine, and I was now the sole protector. Everyone else was gone. This house hadn't sold, and I could see why.

My grandmother had probable done some magic mojo on it before they left for the vacation home in Hokkaido. I breathed out in a sigh, placing the picture on the mantle. It was a picture of me, my grandmother, and my little brother Toshio.

So, why wasn't my mother and father in this picture? Because. They were what I was running from.

I slid the door open and I stepped out into the overgrown backyard. It had been left just as my grandmother liked it. Probably untouched for hundreds of years. She was blind as a bat and psychic. But one thing she always told me, and that was never to disturb an unkind spirit.

So who had broken the seal on her well? She had carved that into it herself!

A small white rabbit crawled up on top of the well and looked at a pocketwatch. "Late! I'm very late!"

He squirmed into the well and jumped down, but there was no splash of water and no sound of him hitting the ground. I looked in, but there was nothing but packed soil down there.

The wind blew, pulling at my brown pigtails and untying them. A song was sounded and carried lightly on the wind; a distinct voice coming from behind me.

"Round we go, the world is spinning,

Once it stops, it's just beginning.

Sun comes up, we live and we cry.

Sun goes down, and then we all die."

I turned sharply, stumbling against the rough terrain. I ended up sitting on the ground in front of the well.

"Hello Kurai," Anna Morgan, my mother, stood before me. Her long brown hair was tied up in a tight bun, and her face was lined with pain from her past. "Why did you run away again? You know how much it hurts Mommy when you run from her?"

My feet froze. When she switched to third person, I knew I was to be punished. I knew…but I could not move. I could not breathe.

"Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused this family?" her kind demeanor was gone and she held me aloft by the throat, adrenaline allowing her thin arms the strength to hold me over the unsturdy well. Her voice cracked, and her hand shook. Was she going to stop? Or…was this the end?

"A-All…I ever wanted…was you…"

Her hand released, and I felt myself falling down…down…down. There was a light at the bottom. I reached out toward my reflection. Then I stopped. She wasn't…me. That girl. She looked just like me. But her hair…was blonde. She was like…my reflection.

A smirk lit up her dour expression. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me through. "Welcome to Wonderland."

I shook my head stubbornly. "No. I'm dead. I fell down a well. I have to be dead."

"Is she arguing already, Arisu?" a white bunny holding a pocketwatch tilted it's head.

The blonde laughed aloud. "Indeed she is. Tell me Kurai. If you're dead, then why are you is, when you should be isn't?"

"Um, well, because!" I shouted. "Because this is a dream! And who are you? Are you me?"

"Why yes I am!" she said, smiling broadly. "I am you. I am Arisu. I am you. But not you!"

"Oh…kay…" I said. "Wait a second. Gimme that!"

I grabbed the pocket watch from the bunny. "Just as I thought!"

'Don't forget 3 Oct Year 11.'

Arisu looked over her shoulder. "Oh! Yes that belongs to The Watchmaker. But we haven't the time to return it! Because, as Usa-chan pointed out, you are ever so late!"

And with that, she pulled a sword from her waist that instantly got bigger, and sliced through the undergrowth.

"Hey you!" I yelled, chasing her. "Why do you have Tetsusaiga?"

"Don't be silly," Arisu said. "Every guard needs a sword like every queen needs a crown. But don't worry. I'm only a guard right now. Soon I'll be you and you'll be me and we'll all be back to normal."

"So when's that," I said, thoroughly exhausted with this strange behavior and logic.

"Shh," she said. "We've entered the Graveyard, and the Queen is here."

I turned to see a Queen, clad in white, talking with what seemed to be her slave.

"Arisu…is that?"

"Queen Angela, and her advisor Earl Phantomhive. It is said that she beheaded his parents. It is her who keeps Wonderland in this state of tyranny."

I felt my fist clench, but it was too late to say anything, because we had left the graveyard and entered the forest again. With sweeping movements, Arisu quietly cleared the way for me, until we reached the clearing. Of course. I should have known. The Goshinboku.

"Well?" Arisu said, hand on her hip. "You gonna go wake him up?"

"Who is he?" I breathed, as if I didn't know.

"Silly," Arisu said. "That's the hanyou Inuyasha. Everyone knows that Queen Angela hates Youkai more then anything, so she sent an army of priests and priestesses to hunt and kill them all. He survived, but she managed to curse him. He only survived because he's human. Queen Angela can't kill humans with her own hands. And no one else can get close enough to this guy. To sum it up, out of everyone in Wonderland, he's the only one who can stop her."

"I don't get it. What does she want?" I asked.

"Well that's simple. She wants to get out of Wonderland. A long time ago she was cursed so she could never leave. They say if she collects a thousand souls then she can return."

I shuddered. This place was nothing like Carroll's adaptation. Or any of the movies. It was more like…a really gorey anime. "Okay here goes."

I grabbed the arrow and pulled. But nothing happened. "You sure this guy's alive?"

"Halt!"

Arisu and I turned and there were villagers with arrows pointed at us. She sheathed her sword.

"I can take them, Kurai. Wake up the mutt, okay?"

An arrow flew towards me, and I grabbed the tree for support.

I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. I don't want-

An arrow hit the tree next to Inuyasha's head. Dammit. Running out of time.

I lay my forehead against his. I bet he doesn't want to be here either. I bet he wants to go home. If he even has that to go back to. That's not really fair. I don't have 'home' either. I guess me and him are a lot a like.

The arrow lit up, growing warm against my hand and then burning as it vanished. The hanyou gasped for breath and the villagers ran.

"Arisu, you weren't lying," Inuyasha said. "That was a long sleep."