AN: This is a first fan fiction for me, and, actually, this started out as a paper I had to write for my AP Psychology class. It's not meant to be much; I'm trying to publish what I can so I can be a Beta Reader as fast as possible but feel free to criticize and critique as much as you'd like. I will take any help I can in order to become a better writer, so all reviews are appreciated, especially the really thorough ones. Oh, and I do not own Alice in Wonderland.
Alissa Little looked at the hole in her wall. It wasn't a big hole, not at first. It started as a small rat hole, barely smaller than her own tiny fist, but as she studied it the pastel pink wall paper curled up and browned; the drywall behind it crumbled away to dust; the wooden frames snapped softly backwards. At first Alissa sat wide-eyed in fear, but curiosity overwhelmed her and she stood up to get a better look. She walked over slowly all the while staring into the dark abyss that had been created in her living room. Soft whispers blew across her face and the distant pounding in the back of her mind beat along with her heart. She stepped into the hole.
"ALISS!" The pounding grew frantic, "Aliss let me in, please." Back at the apartment, Loraly, or Lori, Little stood at the apartment door. Hastily, she searched for her keys in her purse, alternating searching with knocking on the gray door. "Damn keys. ALISS!" Lori called, angry this time. Lori dropped to her knees and yanked up the mat that said 'Welcome.' Seeing the prize, she snatched up the spare key and nearly broke it off in the door just trying to get in. The door swung open and Lori barged in.
"Aliss, I told you to lock the chain when I left. Why can't you just-"
"And that's when you saw a hole, Miss Little?" The inspector studied the eldest Little carefully. Lori nodded.
"Yes, I had slung the spare key onto the kitchen table and went into the living room. There was this hole, like someone had broken the drywall all away. I just-how? How can a girl of her state of mind do that? She can't even tie her own shoes, there is no way she can tear a hole in the wall!" Lori gave the inspector a desperate look. "She is mentally unfit to be outside of that apartment without me, Inspector."
"I'm sorry Miss Little, but there really isn't much we can do-"
"Like hell! You are not weaseling out of this," Lori slammed her fist on the table, "have you not read the papers? No, maybe you wouldn't know," Lori struggled to get a paper out of her purse, "it probably wasn't even your squad out on call when it happened." Lori spread the front page out in front of the Inspector. The front page said: THREE BRUTALLY MURDERED IN DISTURBING PROXIMITY OF SUNNY SIDE APARTMENTS.
"Those apartments, that's where I live. That 'path', the killer randomly murdered three people each within a half mile of each other and all were people I knew. Their bodies were all found, each closer to the apartments than the last," Her voice raised with each word she spoke until it was shrill and hysterical. The inspector sat back and looked at he carefully. She was small framed but tall. She was beautiful in the way a wilting flower was beautiful. The edges of herself seemed curled and faded: her hair was tinged with gray, her clothes hung slightly limp from her body but her heart shaped face was young and her eyes clear and fierce. A determined fire burned in her which let the Inspector know she wouldn't be leaving until she had her sister back.
"Miss Little, what's your point?" Inspector asked.
"Those victims were little girls, Inspector."
X_X_X
Alissa had been falling slowly down the hole when a large white rabbit had come racing past her. Curious, she tried to fall faster. She waved her arms around and kicked her legs but all she succeeded in doing was make her paisley skirt fly up. Aliss pushed her skirt down and continued her slow descent, the rabbit a distant memory now. Eventually, gravity regained its authority and Aliss came tumbling down amidst an empty room. On the far wall stood a long table and seated at the table were two men. One lay slumped over the bar snoring lightly and the other fidgeted mindlessly with his sleeve hem. Aliss looked in wonder at the man standing behind the table for he was doing a curious thing. Before him, on the table, were several glasses of varying sizes. Rapidly, he mixed several drinks; with grace and a flick of the wrist he had caught each cup stacked upon the other and hastily poured out the cascading contents into a single bowl on the bar. Each liquid that was pouring out started to glow a different color and mixed into a neon rainbow in the bowl. Aliss watched, enraptured, and carefully approached the bar.
The man smiled down at her. His appearance was curious as well for his hair had an red-orange tinge at the roots and his eyes were as wild as his hair.
"Well hello, how are you? Aren't you young for a tea party like this? Perhaps I can entertain you with a trick," the man spoke rapidly. "It's a basic simple trick, if tricks can be simple. All you do is simply..." The man threw his stack of glasses in the air and whipped out a towel. He fanned it out in front of the glasses as they fell behind it; the man dropped the towel to reveal in his hand unopened bottle labeled 'DRINK ME.' The red liquid inside sloshed around sluggishly and in a flash he set the bottle down on the table and grabbed both ends tightly. He pulled from the one bottle, several bottles, and spread them out as one would spread out a deck of cards and quickly he tapped bottle after bottle with a glass and each froze where it stood. Again, he took his rag and waved it in front of the bottles. They had disappeared and in their place was the small bowl from before. The man blew gently over the surface and smoke rose encircling Aliss' head.
Aliss couldn't see but she heard the swishing of many rags and looked about her. Shadows moved around bouncing off the thick smoke; Aliss saw chickens made from an assortment of stained bar rags come marching towards her out of the haze. As they continued moving closer, she saw that they weren't chickens but Dodos. Each rag grew firmer and feathers sprouted out; they each had an elongated comical beak and wings that were a joke in themselves to be called wings. 'Curious, my picture book at home doesn't portray these birds with such silly beaks. I'm sure they must be a different species. Oh how I wish I could remember!" Aliss shrieked as they ran past her. 'Where are you going Dodos?'
"Caucus race! We are late for the Caucus Race!" Their bodies disappeared and the bar-man appeared beside Aliss with a suitcase in his hand.
"Make's one wonder-what is a Caucus Race? Any-who, best be going. Mr. Harre and Mr. Moushce are waiting for me. Adieu!"
'Wait! I am lost, which direction am I to go!" Aliss cried as she watched the man reach for his top hat and head to the door.
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." And he was gone.
Aliss looked back to the bar and saw only a single bottle labeled 'DRINK ME' same as before. She knew she should not drink anything that was strange or labeled poison, but upon further inspection she found the bottle contained no other label than the 'DRINK ME' scribbled across the front. If it wasn't labeled poison then it couldn't be anymore harmful than any other drink. She took a small sip and then another. She felt no change until she looked about her. Everything had grown larger! But along with the increased size of the room, so had the voices increased in volume. They screamed at her, a white fire blazing in her mind. She clapped her hands to her ears and fell to the floor. Aliss screwed her eyes shut and screamed back at the voices but they did not listen to her pleas for silence. Instead their clamor raised to a shrill crescendo.
X_X_X
He breathed heavily. He had been on the trail but the waif's sister had interrupted his focus and he had been forced to flee. Now he stood on the roof of a building next to the Sunny Side Apartments, panting. His run had been hard; he wasn't used to scaling a building so fast but it was abandoned and he needed an easy escape, a first opportunity sort of thing. Not too far from his victims, of course. She would be his last in this area and then he would move on to others just awaiting his gentle, lethal touch.