a/n I don't own PJO or Alice in Wonderland.

This is not actually the Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

I wrote this mainly off the top of my head. It's not my main PJO story, just something I had an idea for. Review if you have any advice :)

I was just walking to school one day when I found it.

A hundred dollar bill? No.

A love note from a boy I really like? No.

A hole.

It looked like a rabbit hole actually, which made the entire situation incredibly ironic.

My name is Alice. I'm fourteen years old, I have blonde hair, and everyone thinks it's hilarious to tell me I'm the girl from Wonderland.

I really hate my parents for naming me that.

So anyway, I decided to look in the hole, and wouldn't you know it, I fell in.

Now I know what you're thinking. You can't actually fall into a rabbit hole, can you?

No. You can't.

Which made me think, as I fell the distance of at least three ten story buildings, that it wasn't a rabbit hole at all.

Eventually I passed out and when I woke up, I was laying flat on my back on the ground. I wasn't injured, save for a few scrapes and bruises, but now I had no idea where I was.

I stood up and stared in a giant cave that smelled like death. Green torches that barely gave off light were scattered throughout the room at random, creating hundreds of dancing shadows. There was a big black castle looming in the distance, which didn't look entirely safe, but I decided to go check it out. After all, it's not like I could get out the way I came in.

Eventually, I noticed something about the shadows: they were following me. I thought I was just imagining the movement, but then one of walked…er, floated, up to me and spoke. "You're not dead." It had the face of a young boy, maybe around my age. Once he spoke, it sort of looked like he had a regular body.

"I'm not?" I asked, wondering if I really was.

"No. You shouldn't be here."

"Okay, well, I'm trying to leave, so….see you later." I ran as fast as I could away from the creepy ghosts, tripping several times on my sneakers. The shades didn't follow me anymore, just watched me go with a look of infinite sadness that would take me years to forget.

Several hours later, I felt myself getting tired and hungry, and decided to stop and rest in what looked like a little garden. There were trees and flowers all around, although they were mostly dark and gloomy looking.

Actually, almost everything down here was dark and gloomy looking. It constantly reminded me that I was in a depressing place all alone with no place to go except for a castle which might lead to bad things anyway and was still really far off.

They don't call me Miss Optimistic for nothing.

I stared at a tree in front of me. It had dark red fruits hanging from it.

My stomach growled. I reached up and picked one of the fruits. This was incredibly unsafe, eating a strange fruit, but I was too hungry to care. I broke it open and picked up one of the seeds that spilled out. I bit half of it, slowly chewing and forcing myself to swallow.

Blech. It tasted terrible. I threw the rest of the fruit away and lay down, resting my head on my backpack.

Well, it was a terrible end to a terrible day.

I woke up to darkness, which could only mean that my whole cave experience wasn't a dream.

I felt icky. I was starving, sore, and felt farther away from the castle than ever.

Even so, I started trekking. I tripped on something and fell down, cutting my knees, but still I got up and kept walking. When I finally couldn't continue any longer, I fell into an exhausted sleep.

When I woke up, I could barely move. It took so much strength to stand, and was increasingly painful to walk. I had to keep stopping for breaths, sometimes falling to my knees. But, I kept getting up and walking.

When my legs grew numb, I didn't stop. I just kept walking. If I stopped, I might never get up again.

I made it very close to the palace. Then I collapsed.

***PJO***

Nico di Angelo woke in a cold sweat.

It had been three years since the war.

Three years since the nightmares.

It was normal for a demigod to have strange dreams, but Nico had had blissfully restful sleeps for three years.

Three years.

What could possibly be so important in the universe to break that streak?

He sat up in bed and thought hard, trying to remember the dream.

A girl….there was a live girl in the Underworld.

He sat back and rubbed his temples. That was…impossible. Preposterous. There was no way a mortal could enter the Underworld, and there was no way a demigod would be stupid enough to go down there alone.

Unless…

He sat there and struggled with his thoughts for almost an hour, and when he looked out the window there was sun streaming through the windows.

Ugh. Getting up at 5:30 in the morning on a Sunday was so uncalled for.

He quickly dressed and exited the cabin, making sure to grab a hoodie for the chilly morning air.

Then he made his way to the Big House to have a talk with Chiron.

*A*B*C*

Thankfully, Chiron was an early riser. He was sitting on the porch drinking a cup of tea when Nico arrived.

"Nico." Chiron said, sounding surprised.

Nico looked him square in the eye. "I had a dream. I think I need to go to the Underworld."

He recounted the events to Chiron. "Nico, there's no guarantee that there actually is a living girl down there. Are you sure it wasn't a…ghost channeling you? Perhaps it was someone who died some time ago."

Nico shook his head. "I can feel someone down there, but she's very faint."

Chiron and Nico looked at each other, understanding passing between them. "She's dying."

Chiron nodded his head at Nico. "Go."

Nico ran back to his cabin, stuffed a backpack with supplies, ran into a shadow underneath a tree, and disappeared.

Nico arrived in the Underworld and fell to his knees. No matter how many times he shadow traveled, it always made him weak. He needed to rest, but he went in search of the girl anyway. Now that he was nearer to her, her presence was easier to locate.

He found her unconscious near the front gates. It was a teenage girl, maybe his age, with blonde hair that was tangled and dirty, and clothes to match.

He took a water bottle out his backpack and poured some of it into the girl's mouth. Her eyelids slowly opened.

"Hey." He said, handing her the bottle. She drank greedily. He looked around warily. The shades were starting to gather around them. Nico scowled. Stupid ghosts were too nosy. He needed to take her somewhere private and question her.

He didn't have the strength to carry her all the way to his room, so the only option left was to shadow travel. It took less strength to do so in the Underworld, but he still wasn't sure if he could make it.

More shades gathered, and Nico made his decision. He put the girl on his back and ran straight at a shadow.

***PJO***

Having some kid throw me on his back and run in a random direction was an interesting start to my day.

One second we were running in front of the gates, and the next second we were outside of a door.

And after that, the guy collapsed underneath me. He reached his hand up and turned the doorknob, pulling himself inside. I followed. It was a bedroom, decorated with a black bed, black dresser, black table, and a black fridge.

Man, I was sick of black.

I closed the door behind us and decided to ask the question that had been in my mind for a while now. "Where are we?"

The boy shook his head and crawled onto a rug on the floor. "Not now. Later. Rest." I wasn't sure if he was telling me or himself to rest.

I guess he was telling himself, because he passed out moments later and left me standing in a black room with an unconscious stranger in a scary world I didn't like one bit.

Hello, Monday. My name is Alice.