Just a little something I wrote based on the following challenge prompt: I tell myself all the words he surely meant to say. (Between The Lines, Sara Bareilles)
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In Somnus Veritas
Alice wasn't sure how long she had been asleep. When she fell down the rabbit hole she remembered the heavy thud of ribs meeting garden-floor and breath rushing from lungs. The first time felt like dying. Falling back up had been nothing. Literally. A firm palm against her back, a quick gasp of air, and then here beneath the scratchy hospital sheets.
She was sure, however, that she had been dreaming somewhere between the Looking Glass Room and the IVs and beeping machines. They were but shadow thoughts now as she blinked in the harsh sunlight filtering between the curtains, but the voices within were real enough.
Don't go.
Stay here, with me.
I think that maybe I love you.
"He's gone." Alice furrowed her brow, letting her words bounce around in her head. She was back in her own world alone. An unfamiliar knot tightened in her throat, knowing he was still back in his tea house in Wonderland.
"Who's gone?" Carol was genuinely puzzled, but Alice's thoughts had quickly stumbled onward, sleep whispers filling her ears. He wasn't the only one she left behind the Looking Glass.
I'm sorry Jellybean.
I wish I had known I needed to fight back.
I love you.
"Dad." She choked out through the despair in her throat.