I strode confidently through the woods of Wonderland, oddly reassured by the fact that, although I was only one of the many people who had wandered so far beyond the path of normality, no other had ever returned. Only people who were innocent were enabled to pass through the doorway in the first place. I suppose I must have been "innocent" then; just like all the others who had been lured into this illusion, only to be trapped forever by the unsuspected truth. The difference between myself and all the others who had wandered this same blood-stained path, was that I knew what I was doing. Since I knew what to expect, my mind had not been fooled by the deceitful laughs and artificial colors created to capture the innocent in their sick little world. All I saw was darkness; all I heard were screams.

My intelligence must have greatly surpassed all others to be able to see the reality that was "Wonderland". As soon as I realized that, I knew I would be the one to cleanse this world of its blood and despair, and return home as a hero, rather than a heroine. I was not weak and I would not succumb to the insanity that this world inflicted upon people. So just who am I, you ask? I am Echo Mist; 13 years old and, as you may have already assumed, remarkably intelligent. What I lack in physical strength, I more than make up for in mental. So, let me get one thing straight with you before I begin, I will return home successful, and it'll be easy too. Of course, it would be a piece of cake for me. If I didn't know that for sure, I wouldn't be risking my life here.

I continued to stroll casually down the dark, twisted road until I came upon a rose garden. It wasn't an average garden with colorful flowers and a lovely little stone path. It was more like a wild maze of thorns elaborately intertwined with pure white roses. I slowly made my way through the winding pricks, careful not to get lost or stabbed with a thorn. My journey had only just begun and I was already facing danger. But, that didn't matter; if I didn't try at all, then how can I have any hopes of succeeding? As the dark blue sky began to fade, I sped up my pace, racing time in an attempt to escape the pitch black sky. There didn't seem to be any sun here - just the blue sky and the black sky. Sunlight doesn't exist in a world of darkness. I didn't doubt myself though, as I knew that the trick to getting out of mazes was all about paying close attention to your surroundings.

I was so close that I could see the end of the maze, even in the darkness. But as I moved to finally make my exit, I could feel a tug on my long, black hair when it got caught in a tangle of thorns. I could feel how tangled it was in the bush. It was pulling me down and I could feel it dragging me back into the "garden". But no matter what, I refused to scream. Screaming shows weakness, and I am not, by any means weak.

I wouldn't scream... I wouldn't scream... I wouldn't...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

I let out a blood-curdling shriek as I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my ankle. The bushes were closing in on me; swallowing me whole as tears began to stroll down my cheeks. I had to get away. There was always a way out. But when my vision began fading in and out of consciousness, the panic started to seep in. I began thrashing around aimlessly in an attempt to free myself but I was becoming overwhelmed by the stupid shrubs as they closed in on me and dragged me down under them.

Suddenly, I thumped to the ground and the blood-thirsty bushes dispersed. I didn't dare open my eyes, in fear of what might have scared them away.

"Need a hand?" Said the soft, gentle voice of a stranger.

After finally realizing that somebody had spoken to me, I just nodded and put my hand out. After all, the owner of that delicate hand had saved me. Unless... I was just falling for the illusions like everyone else had? After being pulled up to my feet by the stranger, I opened my eyes at last. What I saw was what appeared to be a small boy around my age, with a huge cheesy grin taking up his face. He opened his glowing, green eyes and stared at me, still grinning. Actually, he looked kind of cute with his thin blue and purple streaks throughout his short black hair. He was pretty skinny, and maybe even a couple of inches shorter than me. Honestly, he sort of looked like a little cat - nothing threatening there. Still, I couldn't let my guard down.

"Who are you?" I asked calmly.

"I am whoever you want me to be." he answered in a charming voice, still grinning.

I wouldn't be fooled by his false charm. Everything else might have looked as depressing as ever, but I still didn't know the extent of the illusions. I could have been face to face with a psycho murderer for all I knew. Trust was forbidden in a world like this. What really creeped me out about him was the huge grin plastered onto his face. It was a complete lie. No one, not even a psycho, could be that happy here.

"I just want you to lose the creepy grin."

He looked astounded for a moment, before he looked down and his grin turned into a tiny smile. He looked relieved.

"You're smart." he replied so quietly that it was almost a whisper. "How did you know?"

"It's an obvious illusion. I will not allow myself to be deceived."

"So you knew before you came here, that it was all an illusion." he stated, rather than asked, as if he already knew who I was.

"Of course."

I couldn't allow myself to trust this stranger with any more information, so I just left it at that and began to walk away. I didn't know where I was going, but I had to get away from him before I began to rely on him. I may have been alone there, but I didn't need his protection, much less his company

"Where are you going?" He said, following me with a sad little pout on his face. I was a bit shocked to see him look so upset, and stopped walking for just a moment.

"Why are you so sad?"

He looked down at the ground before giving his reply. "Because I have never met a person before who can see the real me..."

I stared at him - my previously emotionless face turning into a cocky smirk. I really am amazing, aren't I? I'm smart enough to see through this charade, while no one else can. Maybe I could stick with him for just a bit longer.

"Then come with me. I'm heading to the castle and I don't know my way, so you could help." I said with a small, polite smile, although it probably looked a bit forced.

He smiled too and was about to follow me until he noticed all the dirt, scratches, and blood winding down my arms and legs.

"We should get you cleaned up. It's dangerous to be walking around covered in blood out here." He said quietly, his voice laced with concern.

Reluctantly, I followed him to wherever he was going, and hoped that he was one of the good guys. After a surprisingly short walk, we arrived at a little house. Behind the house was an incredibly long table with dozens of tea sets laid out. However there were only two guests at the table; both of which looked simply miserable. One of them had long brown hair that flopped down to hide her eyes - the other guy's abnormally large, red and black, checkered hat covered his entire head like a bucket. As soon as they noticed me walk in, they're faces lit up and silly looks replaced depressed ones.

"Hello! Welcome to our mad tea party!" They each said with a silly voice. I, obviously, was not amused.

They each hopped up to show how funny looking they actually were. The girl with long hair was especially short; shorter than me - and her large, obsidian eyes were imitating a twinkle (although she was clearly struggling to keep up the charade). The other boy had lifted up his hat to reveal pale white hair with bangs that hung over his entrancing red eyes. I opened my mouth to say something about how they were obviously faking, but the boy spoke before I could get the words out.

"You can cut the act. She knows."

They both heaved a sigh of relief and didn't hesitate returning to their former states.

"I don't believe I've introduced myself to any of you. I'm Echo, and I must admit it's actually nice to meet you." I said in a monotonous voice

I had begun to realize that they were being forced to keep up this illusion. As to who was forcing them, I had no idea. That didn't mean I had to trust them (and I didn't), but having some allies in a place like this couldn't hurt. The man with the hat smiled and shook my hand before introducing himself as "The Hatter". He proceeded to eye me skeptically, and search over me with his hypnotizing eyes. It was pretty uncomfortable, to tell the truth. He circled around me like a vulture before nodding his head in acceptance and turning to the girl, who then introduced herself as "March". They both sounded like odd names and I presumed they were some sort of nicknames. However, if there was one thing I knew, it was that something definitely didn't feel right about The Hatter. Was it just me or did he seem sort of weird? In fact, he seemed a bit mad! I turned to the boy who I'd first met; the one who saved me from a tragic "Death by Rose Bush". Now that I looked back on the whole incident, I felt rather stupid. I actually let myself think that I was wrong to come here! But, of course I wasn't wrong; I was never wrong.

"You know, I don't even know your name yet."

"You can call me Cheshire. It's nice to know your name so that I can properly address you now." he replied with a small smile.

It was odd. Even though his grins were fake, his smiles seemed to be real, and it seemed to work that way with Hatter and March as well. But, how could they muster even a tiny, genuine smile in this place? It seemed impossible to me. Wonderland was such a bloody realm of sorrow and dread. Even now, hidden behind thick, towering walls that could probably block even the loudest of screams, I could hear the faint, uncontrollable sobs that could only belong to a young girl who had finally begun to lose her mind to the traumatizing, lethal world. And the worst part was that there was nothing I could do for her. Even if; no, when I save this world (or destroy - whichever one has a better chance of working), there would be nothing I could do for the people who had already given into the despair that was Wonderland. I'd never be able to erase the memories of what they had seen - that they had experienced. It'd be impossible for me to heal the wounds when they had already been cut so deep that the blood was spilling like water; the bones shattered into so many little pieces, that they were nothing more than ashes being dragged away by the violent winds of sorrow.

Unknowingly, my feet had taken me to sit in one of the many empty chairs beside the others. I seemed that while I was deep in thought, March had pulled her hair into high pigtails, which made me notice her striking resemblance to a rabbit - or rather a hare. She was a very quiet girl, and looked quite shy as she sipped her tea in silence. I took a sip of my own cup of tea, which had probably been placed there in front of me a short while ago, while I was distracted. It was probably a poor decision on my part to take a sip of the tea, which could have easily been poisoned for all I knew. But, seeing as how I wasn't dying already, I figured that the tea was safe to continue drinking - just this once.

I took part in some idle chit-chat with Cheshire, while out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hatter staring at me, intently. His eyes were piercing, and quite hard to ignore, especially since they were accompanied by a somewhat creepy, amused looking smirk. But why would he be so amused with me? I glanced back at him, not really listening to Cheshire anymore, and his red eyes briefly met with my golden ones. He resumed staring, however, not seeming at all affected by the fact that I had noticed already. Uncomfortable with the current situation, I returned to my conversation with Cheshire, attempting to ignore his eyes burning into me. I was failing horribly though, and was left with no choice but to turn around and question his cold stares.

"Do you... need something? You can ask, it's alright."

He replied in a sinister and seductive voice "Could you come with me for a moment?"

A/N:

Okay, so this is my first story and I'm having trouble coming up with more terrifying things to add to Wonderland. :D

I've got some great things in mind already, but I'm not quite sure how many more ideas I can come up with, before I go totally brain dead. There's only so many depressing and disturbing things one person can come up with before going mentally insane. I've taken an extremely odd twist with Alice in Wonderland, and even created my own character. I was going to just use Alice, but the plot I had in mind called for a new character, and that character just had to be created by my own messed up mind, or else it just wouldn't work :P

Also, if anyone has any ideas about what to add to the story, I'll try to add them in, and they will be greatly appreciated.

But for now, please R&R! :D