CHAPTER I

Is she pure but guilty?

Or is she innocent but filthy?

Where three is a crowd,

Audience to the dark that surrounds.

To find sanity it must first be lost,

To save herself at any cost.

Alive or dead?

Lost within her head,

To be cleansed of sins is where our story begins.

In order to leave this abyss,

She must first witness.

"Alice Baudelaire, you are hereby charged with the following crimes; murder, prostitution, and listing yourself under a false name."

What a peculiar day this had been for poor Alice. It had started out as any other; waking up in her bed, getting breakfast, then deciding on what to do with the remainder of the day. However, just a quarter past noon, the royal guard came knocking at her door, and here she stands now in the center of the town square where just about everyone within a 20 mile radius from the Queens palace had gathered. What was the occasion, you may ask? Oh, just to witness the hanging of Alice.

"Do you have any final words?" Asked the man reading off Alice's apparent 'crimes'.

"Just one," Alice said, trying her best to hold back her anger "What exactly have I done?"

"You have committed unforgivable acts that can only be punishable by death."

"Explain to me the nature of these acts." Alice asked again

"The murder and slaughter of five whores, participating in prostitution, and covering up your crimes with an alias."

Alice had no memory of killing anyone, or of selling herself to any men. Alice was frightened, but she remained calm. Fear was never something she felt comfortable of showing in public, so she always remained sarcastic or angry. Taking a breath, she spoke.

"I did none of those things. You clearly have the wrong person. I am neither a whore nor a murderer."

"Your lies will no longer be believed, as all of the Queens beloved people have gathered here today to watch the hanging of a sick whore. You can't hide your identity anymore, and now all of England will know the true face of the killer."

The guard behind her placed the noose around her neck, and walked over to the lever that would drop the door beneath her. Alice took an unsteady breath, and she let the worry hit her face.

"What was the alias I apparently used?"

All of the people in the square began to whisper amongst each other. The announcer rolled up the scroll he was reading from and stared at her for a moment before finally answering.

"Jack the Ripper."

Alice gasped. "No, this is all wrong," she thought to herself, "I haven't done anything!" A drum roll commenced, as the people in the square grew silent. Sweat trickled down from her forehead, and her heart was pounding so loudly she could hear it. Was this it? Was this how she was going to die; an innocent victim accused of a crime? No, no!

"Alice!" She heard her name being called from behind. She turned her head around, only to find a pale, sickly looking young man with white hair and wide red eyes staring at her. He had both of his hands wrapped around the lever.

"Alice," He called again, "We're late! We're late!"

She saw his hands begin to tighten around the handle, and her heart stopped. "No, don't!" It was too late, and he pulled the lever back. The floor beneath Alice dropped, and she closed her eyes. She waited for the rope to tighten around her neck and snap it, but instead, something else happened, something very unexplainable. Instead of the rope tightening from her weight and killing her, the rope broke, and Alice was now falling down a pitch black hole. Alice wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice. Perhaps it was the mixture of terror and utter confusion that was preventing her from speaking. Or maybe it was the agonizing anticipation of waiting for the bottom of the hole to come, making her splat into a pancake. Alice waited and waited for the bottom, but it never came. It seemed as though the hole was never ending. In fact, she had been falling for so long that she had even found time to think about what was going on.

"Is this a dream, am I dreaming?" Alice asked herself out loud. She pinched the arm, and the pain was as real as any pain she'd ever felt before. "I suppose the chances of returning back to a normal life is almost impossible now." She sighed, "What did I ever do to deserve this?" She felt a tear trickle from her eye, but before she could wipe it away, thump, thump, thump! Alice's fall was over.

She rubbed her bottom "What a fall," she began, "but how am I still alive?" Still rubbing her bottom, she looked around. All she could see was darkness, and she had fallen so far that even when she looked up, she couldn't find the light from the hole that she fell from. Alice stood up and extended her arms in order to feel around for any walls or objects. She came upon a cold, hard surface. "A rock wall?" She felt along the wall until she came upon what seemed to be a corner. Now she could see from the dim light coming from the end of the tunnel. She was in what appeared to be a cave. Though it was dark, she could see water stains running down the rocks. It smelled musky and unpleasant, like the water was stale and untouched for decades. When she made it to the end of the hall, she could hear the voice of the red eyed boy whisper in her ear from behind. "We're late!"

Alice jumped from fright and turned to look behind her, but when she did her face almost planted into a wall. "What is this?" Alice said aloud, putting her hands against the red and black stripped wallpaper. "I was just walking down a hallway!" She turned around in surprise, as she only saw the same wallpaper all around her. Somehow, Alice was in a tall circled room with no doors or windows. The ceiling was at least 50 feet high, with a giant chandelier hanging from it.

"This can't be!" Alice panicked, and she began running around the room pushing against the walls, searching for a way out. Nothing. The walls were solid, and Alice was trapped in the empty room. Slowly, she backed away from the wall to the center. "I could have sworn I was just walking down a hallway, there's no way I could have gotten in here." Sitting down, she crossed her arms. "What the hell am I doing in a place like this anyways? And why am I not freaking out?" Alice groaned and covered her face with her hands. The situation had just sunk in, and her brain was rattling with questions and emotions. "Today is not a good day."

Then, a faint scratching noise started in the room. Alice looked up, silent, waiting for it to happen again. This time she pinpointed the noise that was coming from behind the wall. Crawling towards it, she placed her ear against it. It was definitely coming from behind the wall, and it sounded like something was being scratched against a wooden surface. She tried to push against it again, but still nothing happened. She looked down and found a small tear in the wallpaper. Slowly she began to tear it, unsure of what she would find behind it. Carefully tearing the paper away, she discovered where the noise had come from. Scratched into the wood, it read:

Ready or not, dear Alice,

Here you come

A red X painted with a strange dripping red substance sat at the bottom of the wall underneath the scratched writing. She pushed against the small X and found that it wasn't solid. She pushed on it as hard as she could and broke through the small hole. Her hand was covered in the strange red substance. Grossed out, she quickly wiped it off on her ragged dress. Alice bent down to peek inside the hole, but all she saw was darkness.

"This probably isn't my brightest idea." And she carefully slid her arm through the hole. It was such a small hole that she even had trouble getting her arm in. She felt around, nothing. Sliding her arm farther in, her fingers touched a strange surface. "A bottle?" Alice pulled it out and examined it. It was a clear bottle with a sludgy black substance on the inside. A tag was tied to the neck of the bottle, and in neat handwriting it read: DRINK ME. She flipped the tag over, and sure enough in the same handwriting it read: POISON.

"Am I really supposed to drink this?" Alice groaned, her stomach churning. Taking another look around the room, she analyzed her situation. "Seems like I don't have any other option." Uncorking the bottle, she put the tip to her nose, but had to quickly cover her mouth to prevent herself from puking. It smelled awful, and she was sure that it wouldn't taste any different. "Well, here goes nothing." And so she downed the drink, keeping her eyes closed and her nose pinched. If ever she had to pinpoint the taste of the liquid, she would think if death had a flavor, this would be it. Chugging every last drop, she tossed the bottle. "Note to self, don't listen to strange bottles."

Her fingers developed a tingle. "What is this?" The tingling sensation stretched from her fingers down to her palms, from her palms to her wrists, from her wrists to her elbows, from her elbows to her shoulders, from her shoulders to her chest, from her chest to her waist, from her waist to her knees, from her knees to her ankles, and from her ankles to her toes. The tingling turned into an ache, and then turned into a fierce pain. Her arms instinctively clutched at her stomach, and she hunched over in agony. "What's happening to me?"

Alice's entire body felt as though it were engulfed in flame. Her vision became blurry and her mind went blank. Something was trying to come up from her stomach, something putrid. Drenched in sweat and breathing hard, she tried to stop whatever it was from coming up, but to no avail. Out came the foul fluid from her mouth, and though her vision was still unclear, she could tell exactly what it was. "B-blood?" Then again, out came a bucket full of blood from her mouth. The pain continued to increase, and it felt as though every bone in her body was being chipped away. Blood, blood, bucket loads of blood continued to spew from her mouth; so much blood that it began to form a rather deep pool around her ankles. Her vision became red, "Oh god." Blood was even beginning to trickle from the sockets of her eyes. Could the human body even carry this much blood? The pool grew larger, as now it was up to her waist. The flow continued from her stomach and out of her body; Alice was helpless, and there was nothing she could do. The pool was now at her shoulders, and she was floating. "I'm going to drown in my own blood!" thought Alice. The pain and blood spewing began to decrease, as her vision was returning. Finally the pain stopped, and she was now floating in a room full of blood.

Alice stayed there, treading in her blood for a few moments. Everything was silent, until she heard the sound of draining fluid. She felt the blood being pulled over to the wall. It started slow, but then the draining was forceful. The blood was being drained into the small hole that Alice had found earlier. Only now it was as big as a normal doorway. "Since when did the hole get so big?" Alice cried out, and she was pulled through the doorway into a long dark tunnel. She knew that the current was fast, but she couldn't see a thing.

"Alice!" Cried the voice of the boy from before.

"Help me!" Alice cried back

"Don't worry, it's almost over! Everything will be fine, I promise!"

"Where are you?" Alice was starting to be pulled under from the force of the current.

"Just close your eyes!"

"Please," Alice was beginning to drown "Help me!"

"Close your eyes Alice, you'll be ok. Trust me."

Alice, having no other choice, did as she was told. She closed her eyes, and was fully taken under by the current. She couldn't breathe, and her mind was starting to darken. The last thing that came to her mind was a hazy image of a person, but her mind went blank, and poor Alice was whisked away by the current of her own blood.

New chapters posted every Monday.