Rabbit Hole
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Drama/Hurt/Comfort/Horror
Summary: The bottom of the rabbit's hole, and what Jennifer found there.
Author's Note: Oh my God this idea hit me and I couldn't fucking let it go. I did a story like this a while back, with Alice and Jennifer meeting, but in a very different setting.
Disclaimer: I don't own American McGee's Alice, or Rule of Rose. They belong, respectively, to Spicy Horse and Atlus.
[-]
The sky is spinning.
Clouds whirl and twirl and somersault, upside-down and right-side-up and all around in circles, molding melding changing from clouds into teapots and clocks and keys and playing cards-
(imps, the ones with the ropes pulled from the airship's delicate mechanisms, they drift past the window her face is pressed against as though they're floating. Their eyes are hollow, but they stare at her anyway)
-and the sky is turning from the dark black of night to a deep blue to the blue of the midday sky and then the orange of the evening sky and then the red of the setting sun, red, red, dark red, deep red, blood red, the sky looks like it's made of blood-
(it's Hell, she's falling into Hell just like their neighbor back home warned that she would if she wasn't a good little girl)
-and now the sky is darker than the darkest night sky, blacker than black, and it spreads and spreads and spreads until she can't see anymore can't hear anymore can't feel anymore-
Jennifer never feels the ship crash.
[-]
"You're a curious thing. Where did you come from?"
She is on her back, staring up at the wreckage from the airship and a pale blue sky that looks nothing like the nightmare she had fallen through before. Not a hint of red to be seen, and the clouds are quite normal; no teapots, no clocks, no hollow-eyed ghouls raining from above.
She hasn't moved since she woke up, and doesn't know how long it's been since- an hour? Five minutes? A day? A few seconds? Does it really matter, in the run of things? No adults have called out, or come to collect her. The wreckage is silent.
Or rather, it was.
Her body feels strangely light, her head feeling like it could easily lift off of her shoulders and float away. Planting her feet on the ground and finding her balance is not an easy task, but she still manages it. When she can see straight, she lifts her eyes to see who's speaking.
It is an older girl, one with long, dark hair and large, green eyes. She's standing above the pit that the airship has created, on an outcropping of rocks. Her dress is dark blue, and her apron is white and pristine.
For that moment, Jennifer is fixated on her. To Little Girls, Big Girls are unreachable goddesses; surely they will never be as impressive as those beautiful, mature young women. Surely they will never be so confident and elegant.
And she is elegant, this Big Girl, so much so that even under the circumstances Jennifer can't help but be impressed. She radiates maturity and grace as she descends from the rocks, hopping gracefully from rock to rock until they are on equal ground. She tilts her head to the side and peers at Jennifer curiously. "Ah, just a girl. I don't normally see little girls in Wonderland- not normal ones, at any rate."
Jennifer stares at this strange, unaffected girl that does not seem to be too terribly concerned with the fact that there is a demolished airship behind them. Jennifer's pretty blue dress is tattered, and her braid is falling apart. She can only imagine the dirt that's on her-
(and the blood, the blood from the scratch on her arm, but maybe her dress is dark enough that the red won't show up-)
"I…" Jennifer looks back at the ship, and cannot tell whether the bodies of the other passengers-
(and her parents, can't forget them, her parents are probably dead now and she is an orphan, a child without parents or siblings or grandparents or anyone to call family-)
-are simply hidden within the ship or have disappeared.
The girl follows her gaze. "That's certainly a mess. You seem to have taken quite the tumble," She says, kneeling down and brushing at Jennifer's dress. "My own descents into Wonderland are usually a little less wild than that, though not by much. And certainly never by ship. I hardly see how one could fit down a rabbit hole."
Rabbit hole? Maybe Jennifer's hit her head as well, because this girl isn't making a bit of sense. And why is she still so calm? Grown-ups always get fussy when children are dirty; and upset when airships crash. Jennifer has had little contact with Big Girls before, having no sisters or female cousins to speak of, so maybe it's just another of their mysteries.
It seems this girl has a few, from the way she suddenly leans to look over Jennifer's shoulder and sighs. "Oh, bother. Not that teapot-beast again."
Jennifer turns and follows her gaze.
Of all the monsters she's been told of, lurking in her closet or under her bed or in the dark parts of the world, none of them were described as looking like this… Thing that lurches into view from around the wreckage of the airship. It's shaped like a massive decorative teapot, covered in rust and patches of-
(blood)
-red and bronze, and its legs are spindly like a spider's. In its center is a huge ruby-red eyeball with a black slit for a pupil. Steam pipes up from under its lid, and as it grows closer, it starts to whistle and click and hiss
(it sounds threatening but it's a teapot a t teapots aren't threatening at least when they're not hot-)
The girl straightens up- and Jennifer is quite alarmed to see her pull a rather large butcher's knife from behind her back, twirling it until it's being held defensively. "Step back, dear, and shut your eyes- this is going to get a bit messy."
But Jennifer doesn't shut her eyes, instead watching in mute shock as this girl, this big girl, fights and kills the teapot beast, making it bleed and shriek and rage in response. Jennifer does have to step back, ducking behind a fallen metal beam to avoid being hit by the fireballs the teapot launches in every direction, but only until the older girl drives the knife through its single eye and sends it to a shuddering, violent death. Her eyes do not leave it until a full minute or two after it has gone completely still in a pool of its own dark blood.
It is grotesque.
It is terrifying.
It is… Something else that Jennifer cannot quite describe, but it makes her stomach knot and roll.
She doesn't realize that she's crying until that mysterious older girl is wiping the tears from her face.
"Come now, don't dawdle: There are bigger and scarier things than those pots in this nightmare, and you'll have quite the time with them if I'm not with you." The words are harsh, but her tone is almost gentle.
Jennifer isn't sure she wants to. This older girl seems to be pleasant enough in normal circumstances, but she simply can't ignore the blood staining that pristine white apron, can't forget what she looked like as she was stabbing that thing to death with that knife, can't tear her eyes away from that bloodstained thing now tucked into the ties of her apron again
(but she can also hear the imps crawling in the wreckage of the ship, dragging and pulling at the ropes and groaning and whispering, and maybe its nerves but it sounds like her name and she can't be left here, she can't, they'll tie her up and drag her into the darkness and she'll be just another Lost and Dead girl-)
"Am I going mad?" Jennifer breathes, almost whimpers, and does it so softly that for a moment it seems as though the girl doesn't hear her. After a moment of contemplation, the girl replies,
"Possibly. I've yet to figure out how my own madness- or lack thereof- impacts Wonderland. You could be mad." She pauses. "Probably not nearly as much as me, if it's any comfort to you. My name is Alice, by the way."
She holds out a hand.
Jennifer stares at it for a long moment, considers her options-
(clank, from the wreckage)
(hiss, from the imps)
-and then takes Alice's hand, but does not offer her own name.
"Right then, I suppose I should tell you about this place." Alice says as they begin to walk, tone all business. "Now, don't be alarmed if you see a rather skeletal cat lurking about, he's not dangerous- just incredibly annoying on most occasions…"
Jennifer is still dazed, still hurt, still frightened, but at least she is not alone.
-End
As with my previous crossover between these two fandoms, I know that there's a significant difference in years between these two stories (Alice is late 1800s, ROR is 1930), but what the hell, Wonderland does not care for the time-space continuum.