Alice in the Spirit World.
Chapter One
(Authors note; Hey, this is my new story! Please leave a review, your feedback is what makes my day! Any advice is accepted, and suggestions will be considered. Thanks and please; ENJOY!)
First of all, I am not crazy. Second of all, you'll never understand what it's like to see them. I can try to explain, I can try to put it into words, but it's not something the mortal mind can understand. Unless your name is Alice Howl. They call people like me special or gifted… But I really think we're just mistakes. Never name your child Alice. That name is a cursed name. But I'll come back to that.
Hi, my name is Alice Lilly Ann Howl. I just turned seventeen years old and I live in mid Indiana, the state of corn, corn, corn. I have a best friend named Madison and a boyfriend named Cody. I make average grades in my online academy and I guess my looks are alright. All in all, I have a pretty good life. Besides the fact I can see spirits. Not ghosts- They aren't real. But spirits are.
Have you ever made a promise? Not to someone else, but yourself?
"I promise I will not eat another cookie." "I promise I will save up enough for that Xbox game I want."
Sound familiar? Those are everyday occurrences. But have you ever made a vow to yourself? A vow is like a promise, but it is literally unbreakable. You will not die until it has been fulfilled. Now, that doesn't make you immortal. If so, then everyone would be vowing the impossible. You can still feel pain and your mortal body can die. But your thoughts do not die. Instead, they float around the world taking on the shape of whatever the person imagines them as. But only an Alice can see them.
Well, see isn't the right word. More like hear. They're just thoughts, see? The thoughts of a person who didn't fulfill their vow to themselves. I'm one of the rare kinds that can hear these thoughts. And because I can hear them, I can see them as well. See thoughts, you ask? Let me explain a little better.
Have you ever read a book? I'm sure you have. When you're reading, you hear the words inside your head. And those words make pictures. If you read about a girl running, you will picture a girl running. You might picture her with brown hair, but the next sentence says she has blonde and TA-DA… your minds picture has changed! That's kind of how the thoughts I can see are. I will hear a spirits thought, and from those thoughts come a minds picture, and suddenly it's like I can see the person thinking these thoughts! Of course, it's probably nothing like they looked in real life, but it's what my mind sees. Sometimes the thoughts will change as my minds picture changes. Like, if you get to know a spirit, like I did. At first, I saw him as a tall, blonde surfer. But as the time went on and I got to know him better, he became a tall black haired boy. Who knows how he really looked, but that's how I saw him. It's been a year since then, but I still remember it clearly. And this is where I will tell you the story….
I have always heard and seen the spirits, but it wasn't until I was 14 I found out why. Whenever a little girl is born and her parents name her Alice, the spirit of an Alice from long ago enters your body for a short period of time, and during that time you lose some of the blindness that mortals have to the spirit world. Never name your child Alice, many of us end up crazy and locked up. Ever heard the story of Alice in Wonderland? That story was true, but Alice wasn't dreaming. She had no blindness to the spirit world at all, and the "Wonderland" she saw was actually half spirit and half earth. But, of course, it was how her minds picture saw it. If she heard the thoughts of a psychopath cat, she saw him with a huge grin. If she heard the absent ramblings of a crazy old hatter, she saw him as such her mind saw him. Everything she saw was probably 100% different when they were alive, but she didn't know that. Anyway, the part of the story that isn't told was Alice's vow to herself, the vow to make others understand her madness. Her soul will never find rest, and in a desperate attempt to silence her never-dying thoughts, she inhabits the girls named Alice to open their eyes just slightly to her agony.
That's what happened to me, Alice Lilly Ann Howl. And so, I am cursed to forever hear the thoughts of spirits, and usually see them too. They never bother me though; in fact we leave each other alone. They have no use for me; they're much too busy trying to fulfill their vow so they can finally find rest. At least, that's how it was until the day I met Seth. Seth Chance.
No spirit had actually dared talk to me directly before. It took me a minute to realize he was really talking to me! I remember hearing his thoughts so clearly.
"Girl, I know you can hear me. Alice, listen to me. Listen to me!" The thoughts screamed behind me, becoming louder as they drew closer. The voice was deep and easy-going, and my mind instantly popped a picture of a tall, older, hansom surfer complete with a godly tan and glossy golden hair. I realized this attractive spirit was talking directly at me. How do you answer a spirit? Out loud, in a thought, sign language?
"Uh, me?" I whispered stupidly, glancing around the Wal-Mart aisle I was in to make sure no one heard me talking to myself.
"No, the other girl named Alice. Yes, you!" The hot voice muttered, thick with sarcasm. My minds picture changed slightly to show mean eyes. Uh-oh.
"What do you want with me?" I asked the spirit, still whispering. It was in the middle of the day and the store was mostly empty, but still.
"I just want help," The voice answered and my mind saw a pained expression on his face. His eyes didn't look mean anymore, just sad.
"I'll help you," I answered without thinking. "Please, just tell me how!"
The boy nodded his head and began to leave the store, expecting me to follow. Like an idiot, I did. That day was my 16th birthday, and I'd been shopping for myself. Getting all my favorite foods, but now I left my shopping basket on the floor. I was so excited to be talking to a spirit, nothing like this had ever happened! I had heard of spirits seeking the help of a mortal, usually an Alice, but I never expected one to choose me!
"I'm Alice Howl," I introduced myself once I was sure we were alone, in a back alley. "And you are?"
"Seth Chance, not like it matters. I'm dead now, and don't have a body to name," He answered, his tongue lashing the words out bitterly.
"H-how did you die?" I asked, swallowing hard. The thoughts of this guy gave me such feelings of bitterness and pain, I half expected his answer.
"I killed myself," Seth told me calmly. He seemed at peace with this.
"Why?" I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper and my eyes threatening to tear up. My birth father had killed himself before I got adopted, and my heart always reached out for the suicidal. And now I was talking to a successful attempter
"So I could fulfill my vow," He replied, the answer again calm. I wondered if this guy ever showed emotion besides his bitterness. Then I got startled at his answer. Most spirits didn't know about spirits at all when they died, how did he know…?
"I met this girl, Alice Green," Seth began to explain, and I imagined his brown eyes (Weren't they blue a second ago?) cloud over. "Alice Green. She could see spirits. I thought she was crazy when she told me, but then I met her for real. We'd talked online for ages before that. I guess she was my only friend. And she wasn't crazy."
I listened quietly. I had a feeling my original minds picture of Seth was way wrong.
"When we met, she explained it more to me," He continued on. "When a mortal makes a vow, they are eternally bound to it, even in death. That's when I figured out something. My vow, the one I made when I was thirteen years old, I could fulfill it if I was dead. That was the only way. So… I took my life."
I stood still after this statement. Someone purposefully taking their life to fulfill an impossible vow? The thought gave me a shiver and regarded Seth with a new-found respect. He was dedicated to this vow.
"How can I help?" I finally asked, filling the sad silence. I wanted to help Seth, and honestly… if I knew what it would cost me I still would have said yes.
"Two things. First off, you need to help me find someone. I can't physically touch anything, but you can. With my guidance, you can gather me the information I need. The information to fulfill my vow," Seth answered quickly, and his dark eyes brightened with the thought of me helping him. I could hear the anxious hum in his thoughts, and they surrounded me with feeling. "The second thing is… I need to find Alice Green and apologize. Please."
My heart jolted as his thoughts turned warm. It was obvious this boy had deep feelings for this girl. I nodded to let him know I was in, and would help. My throat had tightened with emotion preventing me from actually answering with words. His vow must be something very important, to leave behind the girl he loves. I knew better then to ask what his vow was. I could tell from his thoughts that this vow was something that held great emotion in him. A life-changing event, but he was working hard to not think of it directly. I got the message loud and clear; Don't pry. Which was fine with me, I was already over-whelmed.
"Do spirits… sleep?" I asked when my throat had cleared again. "I mean, do you need a place to stay?"
"We don't sleep, but I need to be with you at all times in case I need you," Seth answered me promptly. "So I will stay with you, in your room."
My face reddened. Even though I knew he wasn't a human, just a collection of thoughts… the idea of an attractive boy staying with me made me embarrassed, mortal or not. I looked at him and blinked, realizing how different he looked. He was a little shorter and lost his tan. His hair was longer and darker, nearly covering his dark, soulless eyes. The appearance fit his pained personality. He looked like a teen kid, but his voice sounded so much older. I wondered how long he had been dead. I wondered why he picked me to help him. Why this Alice?
I felt like the original Alice. Is this how she felt as she helped the Queen of Hearts, or the Hatter? Is this the emotions she had to feel all the time? I was an Alice alright. But unlike the first one, I knew where I was. I was Alice. Alice in the Spirit World.