She sat beside her grandfather at a table, waiting for their late guest to finally arrive. The elderly man checked his silver pocket watch and said, "Nearly an hour behind schedule." The orange haired girl sighed and allowed her eyes to wander about her surroundings. They were in a garden.
Towering and perfectly trimmed hedges created walls of foliage with little white flowers that had in full bloom. Alice stood up and walked over to the hedge, and carefully plucked a flower and brought it up to her nose, taking in its delicate scent. She then glanced over her shoulder and asked her grandfather, "How long is this meeting supposed to last again?"
She had never been one that enjoyed sitting around and listening to adult babble on and on about things that were irrelevant to her. He leaned back in his iron chair and told her, "Only a couple hours, Alice. This is a major client of mine, and if he likes my proposition, then we might have a lot of money coming our way."
She nodded and went back to smelling the flower in her hands. She didn't mind her grandfather's work. He was a well-respected inventor, and many of his creations had become a major success, earning them plenty of money to sustain themselves. So, Alice knew all too well how important these big-time meetings were to him.
She sighed and returned back over to the table and took her seat again. Resting her chin in the palm of her hand, she said with a huff of air, "I think they're all mad. If this is so important to them, I don't know why they insist on being late all the time."
Her grandfather smiled and told her, "We're all a little mad, when you think about it. People are just like that." This made Alice smile. Her grandfather always had a way to make these kinds of situations lighthearted. He then reached into his coat pocket and told her, "Hold out your hands, dear."
Slightly confused, Alice did as he asked her. She then felt something round being placed in the palm of her gloved hand, and she looked to see that it was her grandfather's silver pocket watch. He smiled and told her, "There, hang onto that for me. That way, you can count down the hours until we leave."
She smiled and thanked him, then adverted her eyes to the watch. The silver was worn from years of use, but the intricate patterns etched in the metal could still be detected if one knew where to look. She then pressed down on the button at the top of the watch, causing the contraption to pop open and reveal the time.
It was a little past noon; what many people in the area referred to as 'tea time.' Alice clicked the watch closed and tucked it away in a pocket on her purple dress. She had always loved that pocket watch, and when she was younger, it had been her favorite trinket to play with.
The time she and her grandfather spent waiting on these clients felt like it was creeping by ever so slowly. And like music to Alice's ears, she heard the sound of trotting horse hooves approaching the garden area. Not long after that, an elaborate carriage pulled up, lead by two horses of solid white.
The driver quickly jumped down and opened to door. His master stepped out and took in a deep breath of air, then looked over at the two people that had been waiting on his arrival for the past hour. He smiled, his bulbous cheeks turning red as he did so, and walked up to the Dr. Michaels.
With an extended hand, he said to the inventor, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, old chap. I'm afraid we ran into a bit of a snag getting the carriage out this morning. I do hope you forgive me." Alice's grandfather stood up and shook the client's hand, telling him that it was of no problem to him.
The client's eyes then fell onto Alice, and a sly grin formed on his lips. "And who is this lovely young lady?" Michaels motioned to the orange haired girl and told the client, "This is my granddaughter, Alice." Their guest stood in front of her and bowed before her, keeping eye contact as he did so.
He then took her gloved hand and placed a light kiss on it, which sent disturbing chills along Alice's arm. When he began to back away, Alice quickly withdrew her hand and pressed herself further back into her chair. Her grandfather must have sensed her discomfort, for he turned and faced his client and told him, "How about we get this meeting started now?"
The man waved a nonchalant hand and responded with, "If you so desire, Michael." The meeting began, and the two men discussed over blueprints of Michaels' latest invention. Alice, who had been lost in a daydream mixed with thoughts, was starting to doze off at the table.
Occasionally, she would startle herself awake just before falling asleep, and other times, it would be the booming laughter of the client that woke her. She turned her head to side, looking away from her grandfather and his work, and rested her head back in the palm of her gloved hand.
Her eyes were staring off at the towering, flowered hedges, and she began to wonder how long it took for the plant to get to this size, and how many hours the groundskeeper must have spent on getting the shrub to be perfectly manicured. But as she stared at the oversized plant, a flash of white caught her eyes.
Blinking her eyes rapidly to see if her mind was playing tricks on her, she looked again. And sure enough, there was another flash of white through the hedge. Curious, she snuck away from the discussion at the table to see what this flash of white was. It wasn't one of the white flowers waving in the wind, for there wasn't even a breeze blowing.
She rounded the perfect corner of the shrub and caught sight of a short boy with blonde hair, clad in a white suit, round another corner. "Hey!" she called out to him and chased after the boy. She wondered why he was running, and began to think that perhaps he may be lost or in trouble of some kind. Alice chased after the boy until she came to a large, open field.
Ankle-high grass tickled her feet as she stepped out into the field. But in the very center of the opening, was a larger oak tree. Its branches had to have been as big around as her entire body, and she knew that this accomplishment of nature had been here for some time.
But she couldn't help but wonder how she had never noticed the tree before. Surely, she should have been able to see its massive height over the hedge back in the garden. Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw that the blonde-haired boy was standing at the base of the tree's trunk.
He held a crimson red pocket watch in his hand and began to shake his head, all while running a hand through his short hair. "No, I'm going to be late if I don't hurry!" she heard him exclaim. He then leaped down into a medium sized hole at the base of the tree, and Alice felt her eyes widen.
She quickly hurried to the tree and dropped to her hands and knees, staring down into the tunnel that lead down below. "Hello? Are you alright?" she shouted, her words echoing afterwards. She thought the boy might have fallen in or jumped in without realizing how deep the hole was. But Alice couldn't see a sign of him through the darkness.
"Hello?" she called again and leaned a bit further. "Little boy?" The ground beneath her then broke away, sending her falling down into the tunnel as well. Alice screamed as she tumbled down, rocks and tree roots scraping her arms and legs.
As she fell, the dark tunnel began to take on a life of its own around her. Bright and vibrant colors erupted and replaced the darkness, blinding her expecting eyes. Strange and obscure objects floated around her; things such as tables and chairs.
She screamed again, not because of the fall, but because of all the strange things going on around her. It then all came to an abrupt end as her body came in contact with the ground at long last.
The impact made her eyes see stars and turned everything fuzzy around her, but she could make out that she was in a small room of sorts. But the edges of her vision were going black, and the last thing she saw before passing out, was a small wooden door.
A woman with dark blue hair that would nearly borderline black if it got any darker, strode up a small flight of white marble stairs with a crimson red carpet draped over them. She turned on her heels, the long red train of her dress twisting around her ankles and legs, and took her seat in the throne behind her.
Smiling and sighing contently, she crossed her legs and pressed herself deeper into the plush red fabric of the throne. The woman lifted her hand up and snapped her fingers. Not a second later, a servant came running into the throne room, trying his best to hide his hands that were trembling in fear.
"Give me the current status report, nave," she ordered. The servant nodded and pulled out a rolled up list from his pocket. "Um, all seems to be well with Wonderland, my Queen." She tapped her chin with the tips of her crimson painted fingernails before saying, "I see. There's something that I want taken care of. Tell my Champion to come here this instant."
The servant nodded frantically and bowed before the Queen. "Yes, your majesty." He then ran out of the throne room, nearly tripping as he made his hasty dash to retrieve her Champion. The Queen snickered at the servant's buffoonery, but it quickly subsided shortly after his departure.
Now, she waited impatiently for her Champion to arrive. When he did, she perked up at the sight of him. The servant said to her in a trembling voice, "I've summoned him as you asked, my Queen." She lifted her hand and said harshly, "You are dismissed. Leave the two of us be to discuss my day's agenda."
The servant didn't hesitate to follow the order to leave. The Queen turned her attention to her Champion. A sly grin formed on her lips as she stood from her throne and strode up to him. When she stood before him, he knelt down on his knee and placed a fist over his heart as a sign of respect and loyalty to the Queen.
"Stand," she ordered. He obediently followed the order. "You requested me, your highness?" he asked, almost void of any emotion. She smiled devilishly and trailed her filed nails over his shoulders and said innocently, "I want you to do me a favor, Knight." He ignored her seductive touch and asked flatly, "And that would be?"
The Queen removed her hand from the shoulders of her Champion, then strode over to a large window that resided in the throne room. She leaned against the balcony, looking out into the whimsical world that was known as Wonderland. "I want you," she started, "to take a party with you and burn the Eastern quadrant of Wonderland. Burn it to the ground."
The Champion showed the first emotion since his summon that day; surprise. "Burn it?" he asked, unsure if he had heard his Queen right. She turned around and stood in front of him again, only inches away from his body, and twirled her fingers through his short black hair.
"Yes. You heard correct," she said in a hushed voice. He kept his amber eyes locked on her. They were narrowed a bit as he tried to read the Queen's face and decipher her motives for such a request.
But he couldn't not tell a single thing. "If you don't mind me asking, but why do you want it burned to the ground?" he asked cautiously, making sure not to put his Queen into a rage.
She held up one perfect fingernail and trailing it along his jaw-line. "I've been told that they are saying awful things about me there. I want it put to a stop. Rumors aren't good for anybody," she said with slightly pouted lips. Her Champion, conflicted between his own morals and his orders, bit down on his lip and said to her, "But don't you think that that's a bit of a drastic-"
He was cut off in the middle of his sentence when he felt the burning, stinging sensation of the Queen's hand slapping him across the face. He didn't stagger back, but stood firmly in place, the only thing that had moved was his head from the force of the strike.
The Queen tightened her hands into fists and shouted, "Do not question my orders! You and I are under a Blood Oath! Do you not remember?! You have to do as I say without a bit of hesitation, until the day that one of us dies. Now, do as you are told, or I will end out Oath here and now by sending your head to the chopping block!"
Slowly, the Champion faced the Queen again, a red handprint standing out against his porcelain features. He then knelt back down before her, placing his fist over his heart, and said calmly, "Understood. As the Champion of Fabia, the Red Queen of Wonderland, I make it my solemn and sole duty to carry out her majesty's orders….Until death."
The Queen smiled down at her Champion and said, "That's more like it. Now, go forth and execute my orders as the Champion of the Red Queen, Shun." Shun glanced up at her from his kneeling position and said with a nod, "Yes, your highness."
story based off the song Wonderland by Natailia Kills. love me or hate me for this, but i think this is just one of those kinds of stories that everyone should take a jab at. this is kind of my twist on Alice In Wonderland, but a bit more dark, in a sense (kinda like the new version with Johnny Depp). but trust me, it's going to be nothing like the storyline in the movie, and not really that much like the original version. it's just my take on it. everyone is entitled to their own take, right? well, please do read and leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~