Her Name is Alice
Blue orbs opened in a complete haze, gazing around what was estimated to be a room, with blurry blotches and shapes. Blonde tresses fell over the eyes and a head struggled so that the hair would leave, but it only caused pain and a cry slipped out past cupid's bow lips. Within moments a man was in front of the young girl, strapped tightly in to a chair. Unable to make out his full appearance, the girl noticed that it was a man, and he was wearing a hat. Slowly, her vision came to focus and her blue eyes blinked rapidly before revealing a short and slightly muscular man staring at her with a menacing grin stretched out cross his face in a cheshire way.
Now, the girl was not particularly stupid, by any means. Growing up within the crime capital of the country automatically made every citizen stand a little on edge when walking around at night, and even if they didn't know every name in the police roster, they certainly made sure to make sure that they knew all of the Category 9 patients from Arkham Asylum that would often breakout as they would have their faces blasted across news screens. The blonde in the chair knew the general rogues that roamed the streets at night and their usual prey – it was the only way to survive within the city – and, she certainly knew of the one giddily standing in front of her, his nose inches from her own.
The man in front had been described as having forced himself to believe he was somewhere else – an Alice in Wonderland syndrome essentially. News channels made sure to make it no secret that he had lilliputian hallucinations and perceived the world as if it were Wonderland itself. Named Jervis Tetch – and better known as the Mad Hatter – he was a man who excelled in mind control ideas and worshiped the character of Alice from Lewis Carroll's book as if she were a god. In his search for the perfect Alice, he had killed and raped many, none of whom had ever perfectly proven to him that they could be his "real" Alice. From what the blonde girl had heard from classmates and other individuals alike, his interpretation of the world as Wonderland had come from a psychiatrist within the Asylum using old electric shock techniques, causing the man to eventually have abnormal amounts of blood flow to portions of his brain that furthered his pull in to his mind to interpret the world as he did.
"Alice! Oh, Alice! I'm so happy to see that you are now awake. I was afraid that you weren't my Alice..." The man said as he fiddled with his hands and went between puling away from the girl, and pulling himself closer towards her. While he did this, she looked around the room and saw that there were three chairs to her right, and one to her left. In all of the chairs sat girls that carried the same hair colour as herself, though they seemed to be a bit older. They were unconscious, dressed in blue skirts with white aprons over top while they took short, gasping breaths, sweating heavily. "You woke up first, and you did not sleep anything like them- so I know you're my real Alice." The Mad Hatter smiled, rubbing a white, fingerless glove over the length of the girl's pale arms, leaving goosebumps in his wake before resting his two hands on her shoulders and pushing down lightly. His breath carried from his mouth, and tingled down her spine.
He stared in to her eyes as he forced her head to face up towards him with his right hand, and she saw the flare of rage that ran across his own steely blue orbs that mirrored her fear back towards her. The man was known for his violent episodes and fits, which were what led to him molesting and killing a majority of the young women who he abducted. One of the only ways to make sure that someone was safe from his wrath was to be his actual Alice, and the girl did just that. "I apologize Hatter," she saw his shoulders stop their shaking as she continued. "I seem to have a bit of a headache. I woke up and thought that I had drank some bad tea." The man laughed, his hands patting her shoulders and he undid the leather bindings which held her wrists and ankles to the chair, leaving red marks upon her fair skin.
"Oh! Oh! I apologize Alice!" He apologized profusely for a few moments before continuing. "I had to use some special drugs when you were sleeping so that no one else would hear me taking you here!To Wonderland!" Slowly, he raised his right hand above his head, and then twirled his finger around the room to show her everything that surrounded the two of them. Besides the four women, they were in a room with various tables, in which each table had a small tea set. In the middle of the room was a much larger and longer table with a tea set as well, but, at this table sat two plump males who wore propeller hats. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, otherwise known as the cousins Dumfree and Deever Tweed. Men with the same obsession as the Mad Hatter as stated in reports over the last few days as they had been the ones to reportedly free the man from the asylum he had been held in.
They were described as followers, not leaders. Both acted accordingly to the characters that they were and followed the Hatter like pets, obeying his every whim and barking when told. The two could most definitely pass as twins and as they played with the tea cups in front of themselves, they spared a few fleeting glances towards her through half-lidded eyes before letting their own goofy smiles take over their faces.
"Tweedledee saw you walking home from school and he just knew you were the one I was looking for." The plump man on the right nodded at her and a shiver tingled down the blonde's spine. "If he had not seen you, imagine what would have happened? I would have still been searching for you, and I would have made the mistake of choosing one of these fakes here- only to be proven wrong!" He was exasperated as he struggled with tears which began to build in the corners of his eyes. The man was extremely emotional as he pulled the short girl to her feet, letting her head rest against his own as he stood taller than her by three inches at most, feeling her small body sway from the drugs that had run through her system.
"That definitely would not have been very good, Hatter. If I may ask, what are you going to do with these women now? As you can certainly see, they're not me. And, what is there to do when someone is not you?" Her blue eyes settled on his chest, staring ahead as he held her, questioning the man as he rubbed their cheeks together. His gloves pulled them apart from each other and she took to placing a questioning look on her face as she hid her fear at being in such close proximity to him. She knew that she could possibly make the red-haired man let the women go and she would only have to worry about herself when finding her way out of the large, daunting room.
"Well, for being imposters... I believe I may kill them!" He was happy as he snapped his fingers, letting large men in white colored rabbit masks stand behind the blonde women who continued with their shallow breaths, not knowing of the fate which could befall them. "It's only right, my dear Alice. It is unfair to you if they continue on with their meaningless lives masquerading as my dear Alice, is it not?" His left hand moved a stray piece of red hair which had made its way to rest in front of his eyes before beginning to run both hands down the front of her breasts and stomach, smiling as he heard her breath hitch in her throat.
She squeaked before starting to talk. "Perhaps they have other things to do in Wonderland? The White Queen has blonde hair- does she not?" The Mad Hatter nodded, as did the two men at the table who sipped their tea carefully. "It takes a while to become a queen, so what good would it do to possibly kill your own White Queen? Let them grow and possibly become who they truly are, for then they can come to Wonderland and be who they should." Her breathing was slightly heavy as she rationalized and felt his advancement towards the bottom of her own blue skirt stop as he rubbed his stubbly chin. Slowly, he made the rabbit-men back away from the women and pointed towards the door. The rabbit-men undid the binding on the other woman and carried them, almost robotically, towards a door which was hidden in the shadows.
"You're right Alice! I'm so happy to have you by my side! What would I do without you?" The red-haired man gripped at his chin before dragging her to her own seat at the table, where a name-tag read Alice and a tea cup was filled to the brim for her alone. From previous late night specials with Vicki Vale, she knew that the girl that the Mad Hatter was looking for would be the epitome of gracefulness and beauty. So, she waited for him to be seated before carefully letting the cup touch her full pink lips- her pinky raised politely as she took one, simple sip.
The cup immediately went back to its appointed place on a coaster as she dabbed her lips with a handkerchief which had been supplied by a rabbit-man who sat beside her. Smiling, she struck a pointed gaze at the man who sat at the head of the table and saw his look of appreciation. With a slight glance, Alice saw the skylight which let moonlight illuminate what the small lamps within the room could not. For a short second, she swore she saw two shadows slide down it, but once she had shaken her head slightly, the shadows were gone.
"Mr. Hatter?" The fair-haired girl saw his blue eyes meet her own before he inclined his hat towards her in a gentleman's fashion. "I hate to be forward, but I need to be excused to use the washroom if possible?" it was a polite question and she sat watching as he looked to her face for any form of deceit- only to find none on his part. In an agonizingly slow fashion, he lifted from his chair before offering a hand to help her from her own. She took it carefully, letting him interlace their fingers before he pulled her through the dark door in the corner the woman had been carried through.
Cracking cement walls were all the small blonde could see as they twisted and turned through a multitude of pathways that eventually led to a washroom. The Hatter beckoned her to open the door and once she did, he moved to join her inside the dirty row of stalls, only to have her frightened stare stop him. "Oh! Of course a lady like you, Alice, would like her privacy! A man like me would do no good to bother you at this time. I shall wait outside the door for you." He skipped to the side of the door, standing beside it with his straightest posture as she eyed him, before she stepped in to the room, viewing the brown on the floor which immediately began to soil and stain the black mary-jane styled shoes she wore on her feet.
Carefully, the girl tip-toed her way to the furthest toilet stall, which had a window above it. Softly, her feather-like fingers placed the seat down and stood on top of the soiled lid. She hoisted her body on to the ledge which was beside the window before attempting to open the glass as quietly as possible. When it didn't budge she tried one more time, this attempt more cacophonous than the last. The door at the end of the washroom creaked and her body slid down the ledge and back on to the toilet, where she flushed and walked to the sink to wash her hands just as the Hatter walked in to the room.
His arms wrapped around her tiny waist and his face found its way inside of her slightly tangled hair as she turned off the water and wiped her dainty hands on the fabric of her apron. "You're finally mine now Alice, and there is nothing whatsoever that the mean old Batman can do about it. Now, we should continue drinking the tea I made- it's special tea, my special tea." His smile could be seen in the mirror and she smiled back as he held her hand, directing her back to the large room through the same hallways they had followed before. The cracks laughed at her as she continued trying to find a way out of this place, for, what good was escaping if you couldn't really get out? Her priority list currently consisted of living through the current ideal, not making the Hatter's list of least favorable people.
The Hatter opened the door, only to fall flat to the ground immediately. In the room, all of the tea sets were smashed and while some of the rabbit-men struggled against their bonds, they were all still against the large beams in the corners that held up the ceiling. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were throwing an assortment of dynamic punches at a boy dressed in red, black and yellow. His red shirt showed off a yellow 'R' while his short cape covered his face with its hood as he fought off his two attackers with the quarter staff in his hands. It was an effortless dance which caused the blue eyed beauty to stand still and watch until one arm pushed her behind a large body and against a corner so that the Hatter would be unable to take her.
He attempted to throw a few punches at the large, dark figure, only to be held back by a hand as he was thrown to the ground and hand-cuffed. The Mad Hatter cried and struggled, only to eventually give up in a heap of sobs. "You don't understand Batman! I need my Alice, I can't live without my Alice." He sounded pathetic, and with the snot making its way through his nostrils, it might have well have been as he held a stare with the eyes just a few shades brighter than his own.
"Yes, Jervis, because kidnapping young women from their homes in the middle of the night, only to eventually kill them is fair. You don't need anyone, you just need help." The savior- who she knew as Batman- ripped the green hat from the Hatter's head, causing him to wilt in to himself as the thinning spot on the top of his scalp was revealed. Batman turned to face her, seemingly surprised as she calmly stared back before carefully gesturing towards the end of the hall with her right index finger. Robin made his way to stand in front of the Mad Hatter while Batman led her away. "Why can you not talk to me in front of him?" He questioned, eyeing her suspiciously as she sent a look the way of the Hatter before letting her perfect posture drop and letting her rose-colored lips quiver slightly.
"I would rather not leave him with a negative view of me as his Alice. He would kill me without a second thought if he ever sees me again, and would most-likely not give me a chance to explain or save myself. Pretending to be the Alice he wants helps me around him, so I apologize." Batman nodded, understanding the young girl and her rationalization. He placed a hand on the small of her back before Robin met with them where they stood, where he took her from Batman with a hand around her tiny wrist.
"I'll escort you home and explain to your family what happened." The young man told her and slipped her in to the outside world with him, where police officers from the Gotham City Police Department were already making their way inside of the seemingly abandoned, industrial building- and where news reporters like Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder were stationed. They rushed her and the hooded boy before receiving a glare from the Batman who looked at them before using a grappling hook to find his way on top of a building in the distance. Robin scooped Alice inside of his arms and did the same afterwards, landing them on top of a building much closer, and eventually letting them both inside of a two-door car.
It was silent as he started the car engine and began to drive, but the silence was cut like butter with a hot knife when a musical voice chimed. "We don't need to tell my parents," looking at the moon, still high in the sky, she sighed. "I would hate to bother them as they're most likely still sleeping after a long day at work for the two of them. I'll show you where to drop me off, I know where the spare key is, and I'll attempt to explain things to them in the morning if I get the chance. They both don't have work, and I'm all done school so it will be fine for me." Robin nodded and they continued the drive to her apartment building located at the edge of The Narrows and bordering the actual city of Gotham.
She smiled as she stepped out of the car and ran in to the apartment building which held her parents and older brother from what Robin had found out from the quick information he had been given by Oracle. By living near The Narrows within Gotham, it was no surprise that Jervis had been able to sneak inside of her building and take her while she slept. It was common enough to see the crime lords of Gotham taking young women, so no one paid it any mind. Sighing, Robin continued his drive back to his own home, where he thought about the young, wavy-haired blonde he knew from his past days in school.
The girl which he had only known as Alice.
It would be in her best interest if she had help in the days to come.