Chapter One: Finding the Ruins
Okay. What the hell? I'm falling through darkness. I remember that I'd wished I could escape my world but this is ridiculous! I know my name's Alice and I wished I had my own Wonderland but c'mon, God! Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?
But wait…I'm getting ahead of myself.
I should probably start over so you can get an understanding of what's going on and not be like "What the hell is wrong with this story? Are we skipping straight to the middle? What the hell?"
You see, my name is Alice. I doubt you couldn't figure that out for yourself earlier when I said "Alice" and "Wonderland" in that first para-I'm babbling again.
Bad habit. Sorry.
Anyway, it was after school when this happened. You see, I live in a small town that's basically the middle of nowhere. I mean it literally. My great-uncle and great-grandma along with some distant cousin's came to visit my parents and myself for the summer a couple years back and their GPS didn't show my town at all.
What's the name of my town?
Gaylord, Kansas.
Yeah, I know. Weird name for a town. The really ironic thing about the name?
This small village was filled with Christians. That always made me chuckle.
I'm not much for laughing. Never really had much to laugh at.
Babbling again.
Now that I'm on this rant, guess I never got to tell you what I look like.
I've got short, shaggy brown hair with blonde bangs. My eyes were almost golden. I had pale as hell skin. I'm a little…height challenged for an eighteen year old.
Back to business…
I sat on the bus that was going back to my home. The bus traveled down dirt roads.
I was reading another book that was really neat. It was about a world that was parallel to our own. I liked stories like this. They were so fascinating. This one told about the world that Alchemy works in. I had several more about different things but this one was…lame.
My book was suddenly snatched out of my hands. "HEY!" I protested. I looked up to see who it was. Jimmy, AKA "Top Dog" of my school.
"Watcha readin, Alice?" He cooed. This idiot had shaggy brown hair, a muscular build, and narrowed eyes that were hazel. He read the back cover. "Someone trying to escape to Wonderland?"
Yeah. There's quite a bit of reference to the classic. Get used to it. This was Jimmy-Boy's way of teasing me. Honestly, it was annoying as hell.
"Just give it back, Jimmy." I said firmly.
He clucked his tongue. "Little Alice shouldn't be following the White Rabbit. Wonderland can be darker than she thinks."
Everyone groaned in agony at the horrible joke. Although, I had to admit, it was an interesting one. I sense foreshadowing! Ha-ha!
Ahem. Anyway…
"Look, Jimmy." I said sternly. "Just give it back and no one gets hurt."
Jimmy smiled and got into my face. "What are you going to do?"
I smirked and took in a deep breath. "CHESHIRE CAT SMILE!" I shouted towards the bus driver as I took a stance. In the few seconds it happened, everyone braced themselves just before the bus driver hit the brakes hard.
Jimmy went tumbling down the isle. I managed to grab my book and keep my stance. I smirked as Jimmy got reprimanded by the bus driver. I sat back down in my spot after seeing Jimmy forced to sit up front. I was grateful that he was dropped off before me.
I was the last to be dropped off. As I approached the driver, she smiled.
"Well, Alice, are you excited?"
"For what?"
"Graduation is tomorrow isn't it?" She asked. I smiled. Her name was Rena. She was a nice old lady. But she's getting old. She was probably mentally cursing herself for growing up.
"Yeah. I'm not too enthusiastic about it though." I said with a shrug before shifting my backpack.
Rena smiled. "You poor girl. How've your parents been?"
I made a sad smile. "I don't know. I haven't visited them in a while. I've been too concerned with the exams."
Rena just nodded. "That's understandable." The door opened. "All right, sweetheart, take care."
I nodded to Rena as I gave her a cheery "See ya later."
I ran into my small house and waved to Rena. She just honked the horn and pulled away. I smiled. I couldn't help myself. She was a great friend.
Maybe that was just me though. I always seemed to make friends with older people, mainly higher ups. I remember that I made great friends with a sergeant that came to our school to basically advertise the army. He was impressed by my physical and mental abilities. But then, I think he was just humoring me.
I walked into the house and changed out of my uniform. When I came out of my room, I was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a tight fitted black tank. I was highly comfortable. I slipped my iPod into my pocket. I plugged in my ear plugs and went for my run. Lucky for me, I had a forest near my house.
Yeah. Believe it or not, there are small forests in my middle of nowhere home. I think they would be classified as woods though. I liked calling them forest just for the sake of the word.
As I ran through the woods, my song began to play.
King & Queens- 30 Seconds To Mars (Perfect Running Song ;p)
Into the night
Desperate and broken
The sound of a fight
Father has spoken
We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between heaven and hell
Heaven and hell
Into you eyes
Hopeless and taken
We stole our new lives
In defense of our dreams
In defense of our dreams
We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between heaven and hell
Heaven and hell
The age of man is over
A darkness comes at dawn
These lessons that we learned here
Have only just begun
We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between heaven and hell
Heaven and hell
We are the kings
We are the queens
We are the kings
We are the queens
I panted as I landed on the other side of a log. I had been running for the whole song. I was well deep into the forest now. I smiled and slowed to a walk. I was sweating from the running seeing as I run pretty hard whenever I do.
Give it my all and don't hold back. That's my strategy.
The wind started blowing harshly as another song began to play. I heard slight creaking above me. I looked up as a branch snapped. I rolled out of the way in time. I looked back at the branch and sighed, grateful I had crazy awesome instincts.
I looked forward and blinked.
Wait…what?
I rubbed my eyes, making sure I wasn't seeing anything. When I reopened them, it was still there.
That wasn't there before… I inwardly mused with suspicion.
Before me now were ruins. I never noticed them before. Ruins can't just…appear! …Can't they?
I approached them cautiously, pulling out my earplugs and turning off my iPod.
I entered the old ruins with my guard up, instincts taking over. A gust of wind blew in and the hall was consumed by darkness as the door closed.
I sighed and waited a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Soon, I was able to see clearly. It wasn't that dark. I could make out things well enough with the cracks that allowed sunlight to drop in from the ceiling.
I walked forward. It was just a long corridor. There were no side halls or things like treasure rooms at all. Just a hallway. I approached the wall at the end and saw that it was a door. It was circular, just like the ones in the temples in the game Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I grunted in amusement at that thought. If I compare things that are real to a game or show, I find things are easier to get through.
I put my hands on the door and pushed it. It fell into a little crevice and I rolled it away. Just like in the game. I entered the room.
I was fascinated. There were paintings on the walls. They told some story.
I watched it all. It looked like four people on flying motor cycles. They were surrounded by blue and had an emblem on the wings of their rides that looked like hawks. The next showed an army that was surrounded by red.
Something immediately clicked. The blue are the good guys and the red are the bad guys.
The next panel showed the fight.
A war between good and evil
The next showed a blue one attacked by a blue on their vehicles.
The man was betrayed by his trusted ally.
Black clouds.
All hope is lost.
The next panel showed what looked like five new people in blue.
A new hope arose.
The blue faced the red with their own army.
The new hope rose up against the enemy in a final assault.
Then, a red man turned to dust.
The enemy was defeated.
See blue all over world.
Peace reigned over the land.
I stared at it all. That was all on the wall to my left. The wall to my right had nothing on it. Just a painting of a doorway. I raised an eyebrow at it then turned to the wall in front of me. There was a podium in front of me. On the podium was a huge text book. The painting on the wall before the podium. The painting was of an island floating in the clouds.
I stared at it in awe. It was so…morbid. There were red clouds surrounding the island. However, on an opposite end, I saw another island that looked peaceful. There was a beaconing tower. It was beautiful.
I looked at the book. What was this book?
I opened the book. It was all in strange text.
"Damn!" I hissed. "Figures I'd find an ancient book that I can't even read."
Suddenly, the text started to swerve. Suddenly, it was in English.
I blinked in bewilderment. I could read it now. I then smiled a little darkly.
"That's certainly one way to get the information I want." I read some of the words. "Atmos, hmm?"
I kept reading.
A/N: This is Alanis Cross! Yay-e! Chapter One is up on the web! Thanks for the reviews and all! I loved them! I'm sorry it took a while though. You see, I have been studying for my ACT's! Ugh! The ACT Virus has been hitting my school pretty hard and getting a 19 on the mock did not help my confidence. I know I would've gotten a better score had I remembered my calculator for the math portion but the fate of the Gonna-Be-A-Bitch-To-Me-By-Giving-Me-The-Plot-Development-Midtest Gods hadn't slapped me in the face. Seriously, those guys are a bunch of bitches.
Well...that was an interest rant to say the least.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews. I'll see what I can do as far as getting the next few chapters up!
It may be a while because of ACTs but I'll do what I can.
Thank you very much for your comments! *Bows* Please review!