Story Disclaimer: This story is bringing together my favourite Alice in Wonderland concepts across video games, television and stories. This includes America McGee's Alice games, HBO's Alice, Once Upon A Time's Alice, and the classical Alice in Wonderland. Please enjoy, and feel free to comment.
"Alice… talk to us." She stared at the grey wall in front of her. Cold brick offering no support to her mind. Her blonde hair once shining gold had lost it's lush and luster. Resting heavy and flat on her thin shoulders.
"Alice… where did you go for so long?" She had been a missing person for 2 years. Her family had near given up hope when a stranger found her unconscious on the shore line. It hadn't been her first time in Wonderland but it had been her longest. And although time passes so much slower down the rabbit hole, her last mission took longer than expected. She spent 10 years in the strange land, searching for the hatter before the suits pushed her through the looking glass.
She couldn't tell them about Wonderland. She'd sworn not to, so many years ago when she first stumbled upon the Blue Caterpillar, the Door Mouse and the March Hare as a child. She took an oath by the swords of the Queen of Hearts on her thirteenth birthday to protect the world of Wonderland. And although now she had been banished by the Queen herself, she didn't want anyone to find her home. She wasn't going to stop looking for…
"Alice… who is Hatter? You call for him in your sleep. Was he who kept you captive?"
She looked away from the wall and at the doctors in front over her. They exchanged glances and the bald man put his pen to his pad.
"Why is a Raven like a writing desk?" She asked.
The doctors both sighed and motioned to the nurse hovering by the door. "Take her back to her room. She is of no use right now."
The nurse grabbed her arm and escorted her into the shadowed hallway. Dim buzzing lamps barely lit the walls. She could hear fellow patients moaning and crying from their rooms. A loud scream rang out and nurses ran past into a room, dragging a shrieking girl to the end of the hall and through the laboratory doors.
Rutledge Asylum wasn't just for the crazy. It was for the purely criminally insane. The ones determined to be the dangers to society. The ones like Alice.
Her bare feet dragged along the cold floor, and her gown swept the ground beside her. "New patient," one nurse said as she passed and the other replied. Alice lifted her head to get a look at the new inmate and caught the eyes of a boy about her age. She gasped, "Knave?" and he winked at her. A small and familiar smirk on his face. Then he bowed his head, moving with the nurse as she guided him to an empty room.
"Another one of your characters Alice? You should stop with the silly stories and maybe they'd let you free." She unlocked a metal door and released Alice from her grasp, nudging her gently into the room. "Get some rest dear," she added before shutting the door and locking Alice in.
The blonde girl sat on her bed and furrowed her brow. The blanket was itchy against her bare legs so she pulled her knees into her chest and hugged them tight. Why was the Knave here from Wonderland? Did he come to bring her back? Did he know something about Hatter?
Alice has been stuck at Rutledge Asylum for 6 months. 6 Months would be almost 2 and a half years in Wonderland. Why had he come back to get her after all this time? He must know something…
She put her hands in her hair and gripped it tight trying hard to think of the answer to the question she had been asking herself for so long.
"Why is a Raven like a writing desk?"