Prologue

~"Mama, do you think Alice was real?" she asked.

"Of course she was real sweetie, don't you know so many of these stories are true." her mother set the book down, "Why do you think I read them to you?"

"Papa doesn't like that you read them to me when I visit. He says that magic is devil work." she sighed.

"Well your father isn't one of us so he doesn't understand."

"I wanna meet her, Mama. Do you think I can?"

"You can do anything you put your mind to, that's how magic works remember."~

**BREAKING NEWS***

"37 year old Samuel Dresden arrested for the Murder of his wife Amanda Dresden and attempted murder of his daughter Willhemina 'Billy' Dresden." The anchorwoman announced.

"That's right Cynthia, after eight years the prosecution has finally found the evidence that Samuel indeed killed his wife Amanda." her fellow anchorman came in.

"That's a long time to get away with murder, but apparently Billy, as she's so affectionately called, has been telling people for years her father did it. There are even several videos of news casting just like this one here where nine year old Billy tells police that her father killed her mother because of a religious dispute."

~Nine year old Billy sat in an interview room with a soda can in front of her. "What do you think happened to your mommy Billy?" The officer asked.

"I know what happened to mama. Don't treat me like a baby." she glared.

"What happened?"

"He killed her, said she was a harlot and other bad names I'm not s'posed to repeat. Mama told me before they're bad words and I'll get in trouble if I say them." she replied with conviction.

"How do you know he killed her?"

"There was no one else in the house. I heard those other cops say she was stabbed with different hunting knives but they couldn't find them. He hid them." she looked angry. ~

"The video goes on to describe several details never released to the public about the particular weapons of choice." Cynthia came back on.

"To think no one believed this girl for eight years, and she lived in that house with him all that time."

"That's right James, it took Samuel nearly beating his now seventeen year old daughter and cutting her with one of the murder weapons to prove he'd committed this crime."

"Samuel Dresden was tried and found guilty of both charges and sentenced to a life sentence."

"On a lighter note, we got an exclusive interview with Miss Dresden after the trial. Take a look."

~"So Miss Dresden how does it feel now that everyone knows what your father did and he's in prison?" a reporter asked.

"I don't feel bad for him; it's relieving to know that he'll never hurt me or anyone else ever again." Billy shrugged, "I can go off to finish my degree in peace, never having to worry when he's going to snap on me again."

"Now I know this is a tough subject but this attack wasn't the first is it?"

"It's not a tough subject for me, I don't know why but it isn't. No it isn't, he's hit me on several occasions but this will definitely be the last." she nodded.

"The police say if you hadn't been able to defend yourself as well as you had for as long as you had you would've been his next victim."

"Oh I knew that the whole time, I didn't want to stoop to his level but I wasn't going to let him kill me either."

"The police said that a neighbor actual called about the noise, and that even the home security company had called."

"Yeah, I figured if I screamed loud enough long enough that someone would hear since he had to only phone. When I found myself in the living room , my shoulder cut up I was near the alarm so I hit the button and they called and while he was on the phone with them I kept screaming that he was trying to kill me and I was injured. He tried to tell them I was crazy and was having an episode but they called the police as well. By the time I manage to get outside the police were already there."

Seventeen year old Willhemina Dresden closed her mother's book of Alice in Wonderland, having read it yet again. Today was the day she was going to meet Alice, she knew it, her father was locked up and she had three months until the next semester. Everyone who knew her had been told she would be out of town for the summer. She held a small bag filled with things she was sure she'd need on her trip, clothes and such.

She closed her eyes and concentrated feeling the room around her shift as it always did when she moved with magic. There was a rush about her and the next thing she knew she was in Alice's childhood home as it had been described and there before her stood none other than Alice.