A Mad Tea Party
By. Desiree. King
Where in the hell did that strange rabbit get to? I have been searching these bizarre woods in this hazy dank light stumbling over roots that seem to be following me, Ugh I hate the woods. In front of me I saw a white rabbit ear peak from the thistle bushes and disappear into the leave again. "There you are!" I cried and dove to catch it. As it turns out that bush was on a cliff edge and I tumbled over to free fall for what felt like forever. I landed in a tangle on soft grass and lifted my head to an astonishing sight straight from my childhood imaginings. It was a ghostly canopy made of twinkling lights strung from the trees and a ring of Victorian gas street lamps, and under the lights was a long dinning table with a dozen mismatched chairs around it. In those seats were three figures who sat frozen staring at me. On the left was a striped cat with a mangled looking grin , on the right was a little girl maybe five or six with frizzy braided pigtails and a band aide on her right temple, there was something strange about her something in her eyes and completion that was perplexing. Then there was him, seated at the head of the table paper pale, black shinny hair in heavy waves over his shoulders to the center of his back and eyes that seemed to burn like embers in his chiseled face. He was dress out of another century top hat, long coat, tie, and a crisp shirt all in slick black materials the only color on him was the blood red silk hat band and a silver skull hat pin stuck in it. I met his eyes and his pale lips curved into a devilish smirk that stunned me making me stumble across my words. "Um… hi," I was embarrassed as I climbed to my feet and brushed lint from my black jeans out of habit. "Sorry to interrupt."
"You're not interrupting, just in time actually," That disturbing cat said in a tenor voice that was slick as oil.
"Oh, I was not invited, I was just" I started when the Hat man cut me off.
"No, you my dear were not." His voice was a growling deep bass.
"No… Sorry, I was just looking" I started again only for the little girl to break in with a high sing song voice,
"Looking looking looking, always at the looking glass, a sign of very little class."
"Um, right … so if you three don`t mind I …" I started once again but she kept on singing.
"One two three, upon a broken knee, four five six. I tied her to some sticks , seven eight nine , by fire she will die, and at ten I`ll do it all again!" her little voice the fell an octave and began to growl gibberish and she mounted the table top, moving slowly in my direction.
"TEA! March needs a dose!" The hat man cried rushing from his seat with a steaming teapot in his gloved hand. "Get moving! Catch her!" He bellowed at me shocking me into helping. I dove tackling the girl holding her shoulders down to the table top while that Damn cat, still smiling laid across her little stick legs and the Hat Man poured steaming liquid the color of neon blood into the girl`s gaping and snapping maw and she seemed to regain some sense again and the signing began again in her high pitched little girl voice only now at an ear splitting volume. The hat man found his way back to his seat at the head of the table while mumbling to himself about manners becoming harder to com by and the nerve of some people. Then that damn cat began to waltz across the table while humming along knocking over cups and trampling pastries in his path. "This is complete chaos" I said to myself standing atop the table where I had been left,
"Excuse me..." They all kept on. "EXCUSE ME!" I shouted over the din. When they all looked at me I didn`t hesitate "Did you guys see a rabbit?" They lost it then. The girl was screaming something about a pig and pepper and the cat laughed maniacally the pulled his own head from his shoulders and spinning the still laughing cranium on his fingers and the Hat Man stood calling for a Dorchester over his shoulder. "Comon guys let not lose our heads here," I shouted losing my patients with this insanity as I tapped my boot clad toe that cat`s head rolled giggling past my boot and off the table toward the woods.
Thankfully the Hat Man quieted and met my eye again then rapped his china tea cup with a silver spoon and everything hushed. "So, on the continual quest for that perpetually tardy albino rodent in a waistcoat, some things never change." He smirked and suddenly the world around me began to swirl and spin then everything went black.
Where am I? I wondered but could not seem to speak or move the light was dim and fuzzy and I was stuck on my back. My throat felt like I tried to swallow a red hot coal it was blinding pain and that is when I heard her, my sister Dawn. "Dr. please what happened to her?"
"Well Ma`am she was brought in last night by the P.D she was found wandering around the market district and raving about zombies, cats, and rabbits. We ran a tox screen and found some pretty high levels of a new street drug."
"Street drug?" Dawn exclaimed.
"It's called T. It's a blend of hallucinogenic and ecstasy very popular in clubs all over the state in the last few weeks. In fact before we release her the P.D will want a word with her I`m sure. We had to pump her stomach and then take precautions to immobilize her for her own safety of course." The doctor continued.
"Will she be okay?" Dawn sounded worried.
"Well we will have to wait and see in other cases it's been 50/50 some snap out of it others get stuck in their 'trip'"
The hazy visual began to clear I could see the sterile plain hospital room and my sister as well as the doctor. I took a shallow breath to try to speak when it hopped up onto the bed from the floor, the rabbit in a waistcoat. Dawn and my doctor seemed to be ignoring its presence, it waved at me as if it was excited to see me the straightened his waistcoat, "Are you ready Alice?" He snickered and removed a silver mallet and an orbitoclast. There was nothing I could do but scream.