I yawn, loud and long. As I slowly get up, I try to remember the dream I had. Something about a rabbit, potions and other strange things. I climb up to my feet and look around at the rose garden I had been sleeping in. I rub the back of my neck trying to get rid of the kink that had started there. I walk to the house, knowing I was in for a severe tongue lashing.
I followed the pathed paved with stones, and look up at the sky. As I walk forward I run into someone. I bounce off of them like a rubber ball on cement and fall flat on my bum.
Alice Pleasance Liddell!" I hear a voice yell and cringe. Of all the people I could have run into why did it have to be her? I slowly look up from ground to meet my stepmother's eyes. Her name was Lilith Grim and she had to be the meanest, shrewdest, and cruelest aunt in the history of the world. She had pasty white skin, a complete contrast to my dark tan skin. Her features were pinched, as if she were sucking on a lemon. She was short, maybe 5.1 or so. If I stood up tall I towered over her. Being 6 foot tall had some advantages. She spoke with a shrill English accent, although she had lived in America her whole life. She always wore black dresses, as if she were going to a funeral. I on the other hand detest prim and proper clothes such as the ones she wore.
I always were slightly frilly clothes, only because as I ran through the garden the frills get caught on thorns and branches and get torn. Today I was in ratty jeans and a shirt with alternating white and teal stripes. On my head was an L.A dodger's cap.
"Must you run around like that girl?" she asked in a cold and condescending voice. She almost never called me by my real name, never Alice. Always girl, or child. "We don't have to teach you like last week do we?" She was referring to the time when I was bringing her her afternoon tea. As I step over the threshold of the living room my foot caught and I spilt my tea all over the carpet.
Afterword I was whipped and locked in my room for 2 days without food, and only small cups of water, pushed through the dog door like attachment to my room. I curled my lips but spoke in a calm and steady voice "No ma'am, I just wished to hurry back to the house to prepare your tea for you" I said this in a slightly higher voice, instead of my normal, deeper voice.
She seemed to like my answer "Oh…well run along than, remember chamomile tea with one slice of lemon and a spoon full of cinnamon"
I sigh, quietly so she doesn't hear. "Yes ma'am, right away" I walk quickly to the house going over the events of the past couple of years. When I was eight years old dad died, and on his deathbed insisted that I go live with my "kind and caring aunt". Ever since then my life has been a downward spiral of pain suffering and humiliation. I'm beat regularly and humiliated publically whenever my aunt's friends are around.
My back is covered with scars and I have a thin white scar tracing from the top eyelid of one hazel eye to the bottom of my chin. I cringe at the memory of the scar and how I got it. It was several years ago, back when I was eleven. I had finally had enough of my aunt and her antics. I finally snapped and yelled at her to shove off.
Her eyes filled with rage and she grabbed me by the top of my black hair and dragged me into the kitchen. There, she took on of the kitchen knife and ran it slowly across my face. As I screamed in pain I could hear her saying "You deserve this Alice, for being a naughty, naughty girl". Afterword she sent me to my room and I was locked there for a month, getting dry stale bread and dirty water to drink. After I got out, I was the perfect little girl.
Never arguing never asking questions. And yet she still found reason to punish me. Either her tea wasn't hot enough or I hadn't watered the garden for long enough. I dealt with it, but it shriveled my heart. I went from a happy curious child to a beaten and broken 17 year old girl.
The only emotion I ever felt now a days is rage, pure, hot burning rage that consumed all of my soul. As soon as she was out of sight I stomped down the path, cursing her and the whole damn world under my breath. Suddenly something came crashing through on of the rosebushes that lined the path. I stood up and I got a good look at it. He was a man, taller than I was.
I wore copper wire rimmed glasses. His hair was pure white and spiky. He wore a plaid colored vest, tan pants white sneakers and a black undershirt. Inside one pocket of the vest was a white handkerchief with the image of a rabbit on one corner of it. In the other a gold chain for a pocket watch came out of it, attaching to one of the top buttons of the vest. But that wasn't the weirdest part. Extending from the top of his head were tall, white rabbits ears bending at halfway up. They twitched as I took a step forward.
"Alice!" He yells in a high and excited voice. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" He ran towards me but I put out a hand to stop him- "stay right where you are mister, now how do you know my name?" His ears drooped and a sad look came across his face.
"Y…you mean you don't remember me? You don't remember all the fun we had?" I took a step closer and I backed away. I didn't like how familiar this guy was.
"I've never seen you before in my life" I say continuingly backing away from him, shivering.
"Oh but you do Alice" he say's taking a quick step forward and grabbing my hands. "We've known each other for years" he suddenly yanks his pocket watch out, but instead of numbers it had little figures that danced where the numbers should be. He slid it back into his pocket and tugged at one hand. "Come on now or we're goanna be late"
Curious I let him tug me along. "Late for where?" I ask not having the slightest clue as to what's going on.
"Why, to get into wonderland of course" He says, as if I should know what he was talking about. As he said those words my mind suddenly flashed, sending dozens of memories through my mind all at once. Images of me and him, running through a field towards a wood. Another memory was of me sitting at a table with a beautiful, pale man in dark clothes and a top hat, serving me tea while a man in punk clothes with cat ears and a tail listened intently. Another was of two little boys, maybe ten playing in what looked like an amusement park.
I stagger backwards pulling him with me. I lean against a tree one hand pushing against the large trunk. "W…what was that?" I ask in a drowsy, groggy voice, as if I had just woken up from a terrible dream. I also had a pounding pain in my head, as if the memories had been wrenched out.
"Ah" the rabbit-man said "so that's why you didn't remember…He took them" he said that with a slight shutter, his ears twitching harder. I suddenly had the desire to reach up and rub his ears. I shake the idea off. "Wh…what was that?" I ask him as he starts pulling me again.
"Nothing important" he said with a dismissive wave of his hand that wasn't holding onto me. "Now come on, you're so terribly slow" He said, and suddenly picked me up and put me on his shoulders. I screamed straight into his ear, holding onto where they connect with his head. He winced. "Please don't do that" He ran fast, deeper and deeper into the woods. I wrapped my legs around his neck putting my hands up in front of my face so the branches and leaves wouldn't scratch it.
"Sl….slow down!" I yelled as we finally broke through the trees and came into a large clearing covered with light green grass. I stare, not having any previous knowledge that this place was here. I quickly unwind my legs from around his throat and drop to the ground, glaring at him. "Don't do that again" He notices the glare and frowns.
"But I got you here didn't I? And just in time too" I gasp as I look towards the other end of the clearing. Instead of there being more grass, there was a dark hole, slowly expanding and eating up the grass and dirt surrounding it. "W….what is that?" I ask my voice trembling.
"That's the entrance, of course" He said, as if I should know.
"The entrance to where?" I asked raising my eyebrow. He picked me up and sprinted towards the hole, the grass under his feet slipping towards the abyss so he had to fight to keep his balance. "Why, the world of your dreams of course. A place where anything happens, where anything YOU want happens" His voice rang out with power, as if the words he just said were some kind of spell, and I suddenly remembered my dream I had in the garden. Someone had said almost that exact thing.
"Come, to the world of your dreams. You must play the game, and after all, who doesn't love games?" i look forward stunned. The voice was so familiar, but I can't remember whose it was. As they got closer and closer to the hole she felt a tugging sensation, as if her body, her very essence was being pulled into the hole. She had a terrible sensation, like if she went down that hole, she would die.
"W..we can't go down there" She said, her voice shaking.
"But why?" the man with the bunny ears said. "It'll be so much fun!"
"You're crazy!" I screamed in his ear again.
"Perhaps, but if there's a hole we know than down it we'll go!" he said in a sing-songy voice and leapt right into the center of the void. I screamed one last time and was surrounded my darkness.