Out There

By: SilverLunarStar

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to and version of Alice in Wonderland or Alana Grace's Paranoid.

Author's Note: Great song! Go hear it on youtube. You can't hear it and not thing of Alice.

Three years ago Alice Kingsleigh had been so certain of what she saw. She knew every single person and creature in Wonderland was real. They were as real as she was! However, in the three years she's been back in Overland, everyone around her drove her up the wall. Why had she come back? Why had she not stayed with everyone, with Hatter, who had begged her with his electric green eyes for her to stay?

There was no changing her decision now, though. Ever since she rejected Hamish Ascot in front of every acquaintance they had and performed a very tame version of the Futterwacken, people continued to stare at her. At first, it didn't bother her in the slightest, the stares and whispers. She cared not what they thought of her.

However, as time went on, Alice felt herself become ever so slightly paranoid. Whispers of her decision, of her sanity, were uttered any time she entered a room.

Lord Ascot proclaimed that her 'insane' ideas were genius, their dealings with China going well.

If there was a fine line between love and hate, though, could there be one for intelligence and insanity?

In her dreams, she could hear her friends as they went on with their lives and, soon, she started hearing them while she was awake too. More times than she cared to count had she caught herself about to strike conversation with a certain Hatter who wasn't there.

When she started reacting to people's mutterings, either by an expression on her face or verbally, the whispers only spread out even more. Soon, she learned how to keep a blank face; she even stopped speaking when there was a ball or reunion with society to go to. She especially didn't speak when they gathered at the Ascot Estate, instead longingly looking through the hedges where she knew there was a density of trees that hid a hole that lead to a magical place. A place that was very much real, she assured herself numerous times.

She was glad Lord Ascot always convinced his wife to hold her parties outside, but when it rained there was no way around it. Alice felt the walls of the room closing in on her, heard the whispers getting louder. Her only means of escape was to think of her friends, think of their voices alone. She excused herself in one of these gatherings and when she came back, there were rumors that she had been talking to herself while walking through the hallways.

Alice saw the pain these irritating rumors put her mother through, so she made herself forget, slowly doubting her time in Wonderland and the years went on.

Finally, one day she could take it no more. Three years after Alice had rejected Hamish, he was getting married to a young lady, sweet-looking and demure, something Alice definitely was not. It was there, outside of the Ascot Manor that she decided it was time to go back home. Telling her mother and sister so, and giving her nephew a kiss goodbye, she ran towards the maze, through the density of trees, and finally found what she had been looking for. Without faltering, she threw herself in, letting go of her paranoia, knowing she'd soon be free to express her insanity, knowing Tarrant Hightopp and her friends would be there, reveling in the madness.

After all, who was to say they're not out there?

I couldn't help but end it with that line. It's my favorite out of the whole song.

While it wasn't explicitly a Tarrant and Alice fic, it was hinted at. Right?

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought, please!

~*Eli