A/N: So a quick note, this was actually an assignment for my Creative Writing class. We had to write fanfiction, so I crossed over the worlds of Alice in Wonderland and Coraline. The world of Coraline borrows both elements from the book and movie, such as the descriptions, and it takes place long before the events of Coraline during the time period of Alice in Wonderland. It's a very short story, only enough for two chapters, but nonetheless, I hope it is enjoyable!
Alice was beginning to grow bored of her vacation.
It had seemed like a splendid idea when she'd come with her sister, but the, "fresh air," and, "peaceful countryside," her sister had described were nowhere near as exciting as Alice hoped they would be. All Alice could do was wander around the empty house the two sisters were staying in.
The Pink Palace it was called. It was indeed very pink, but not so much a palace. In fact, it was just a house. Alice found it rather dreary, hardly anything exciting about it. Still, it was more exciting than watching her sister read one of her boring old encyclopedias in the garden. Even if they had pictures, they were absolutely horrible pictures! Alice decided she'd much rather explore and left her sister to her book.
And so as Alice weaved in and out of the Pink Palace that-really-wasn't-a-palace, she found a strange little key tucked away in a cupboard in the kitchen area. If it had been an ordinary key, she might have passed it over. But this key was different. It was a shiny black, and the strangest part of the key was the button at its top.
In her very short lifetime, Alice had found several keys, but never one with a button head. How odd. Buttons belonged on dresses and dolls and shoes, not keys! She turned the button key in her hand, wondering what door it unlocked. The only sensible way to find out was to try every door in the Pink Palace, and so that is what Alice did. As she started from the attic and made her way down, cramming the button key into every lock possible, she began to grow worried.
"What if I never find this mysterious door?" she wondered aloud. "This could be one of those keys without a lock! But why would someone make it then? It seems a pointless thing to do, but I've met people who like to do pointless things. Either way, this entire search will have been for nothing- oh, what's this?"
Alice crouched down below the dining room table and peered into the adjacent parlor. "Is that a little door in the parlor?" It couldn't have been any taller than an armchair, but perhaps Alice's eyes were playing tricks on her. What was it her sister called that feeling of looking at something and thinking it smaller than it really is? Perspective! She sprung up from under the table and eagerly approached the door.
"Why it is a little door!" Alice exclaimed as she bent down to examine the keyhole. "Not the smallest door I've ever seen though. I won't have to drink anything to fit through this one! If I can open this one at all…"
Little Alice slid the button key into the lock, discovering to her delight that it was a perfect fit. 'What sort of thing would be kept behind a little door?' Alice thought. 'Maybe a family of little people lives inside it! Oh, I'm certain that isn't why. But what other reason could it be?'
She turned the key and the little door opened to reveal a tunnel.
Not a room, not an exit, but a tunnel of the most un-room-like kind. The walls were round, like a cocoon, and they were a dusty, worn shade of brown. Alice peered through the tunnel, all the while trying to figure out why such a long tunnel was necessary. 'Surely it leads somewhere!' thought Alice.
Grabbing the peculiar button key, she began crawling through the tunnel. Deeper and deeper she went, darker and darker the tunnels were. As her hands brushed the sides, she realized the tunnel was made of nothing more than coarse fabric. Dusty fabric at that. Alice found herself brushing away at cobwebs and bug carcasses, even a few old, broken toys.
"To think I may be the first person to go through this tunnel in years!" said Alice. "I see why. Whoever built this tunnel must not have realized what a foolish endeavor it'd turn out to be. A corridor would have been much more sensible."
Finally, she reached the end. A door the same in size and color greeted her. "Why, this is the same door as before… have I gone in circles? Maybe I turned around at some point and didn't realize it." Alice pushed against the new (or was it old?) door, and it opened to… the very same parlor she had just left.
Stepping into the parlor though, Alice felt something different about it. But what? An unexplainable sensation creeped from her toes to her head that this parlor was not like the other parlor. Was it the floorboards? The wallpaper? The furniture? Pondering, pondering, pondering, this would do nothing to help her figure things out!
Alice stood up, thinking of where to tuck the button key. If only she'd thought to bring something to store it in! She'd have to do with carrying it around. Now where was she…
"Is anyone here?" Alice called out. "I do hope someone is here otherwise I'll just be talking to myself again and my sister will probably scold me for it later. Goodness, I don't know what I'll do with myself is nobody is here. I suppose I can go back down the tunnel, if this is a completely different place that happens to look exactly the same-"
"Who are you?" a raspy voice said behind her.
"Oh!" Alice dropped the key in surprise. Someone was here! Thank goodness! However, when Alice turned around, her relief quickly vanished.
In the doorway stood… a spider. Or was it a woman? A spiderlike woman? Alice did not know, and she was too afraid to ask. The creature had long, spindly limbs like a spider's but the body of a woman around Alice's mother's age. Its hair was long and shiny, and it had a sharp red fingernails. The most striking feature were its eyes. They weren't even eyes; they were buttons as black as the key Alice had dropped. And they were looking right at Alice, waiting for an answer.
"My- my name is Alice," she said.
The creature smiled, and Alice saw its sharp white teeth. "Alice. What a pretty name. Tell me, Alice, what brings you to my home?"
"I…" Alice suddenly found herself at a loss for words. How rude of her to treat this creature in such a way! To fear it only on its appearance was a cruel and narrow-minded thing of her to do! What would her sister say about her behavior? Alice cleared her throat. "I was exploring when I came upon that tunnel- is it your tunnel? Did you build it? How long has it been here?"
"My, my, don't you have many questions. Won't your mother be missing you?" The spider woman uttered the word, "mother," as if it were a foul, loathsome creature.
"Oh, my mother isn't with me," Alice said. "I am certain my sister will miss me though. She's out in the garden reading her books!"
"Is she now? Well, I wouldn't want to keep you from her," the arachnidan woman said with an air of mock wistfulness. "I suppose after all these long years I've simply grown lonely, wanting any kind of company."
Alice frowned. "What would a spider want with company though?"
"What did you call me?" it hissed. Alice flinched, and the creature softened its tone. "Of course, I haven't properly introduced myself, have I? I am the Other Mother."
"An other mother? But how can there be such a thing as an Other Mother?" said Alice in the most inoffensive way possible. "If there were, children would get terribly confused about who their real mothers were. No one would know who was who, and the more I think about, that would be an awful thing to happen! You must have yourself confused with something else!"
"Have I? And are you the expert on Other Mothers?"
"No, but you don't look very much like a regular mother and I… I…" Alice could have sworn she saw the Other Mother's button eyes flash in anger. She knew then she had made a horrible mistake, going through the tunnel, talking to the Other Mother so tactlessly, all of it one giant mistake. Of course the Other Mother wouldn't be happy with her company!
But the Other Mother merely smiled that sharp-toothed smile again and said, "You are a very rude child, Alice. Did your mother ever teach you any proper manners?"
"Y-yes she did!" Alice stammered. "I know you must not think so right now, but she really did! Oh dear, I apologize for being so dreadfully rude. I should go back to where I came from now. I'll never bother you again, I promise!"
Alice hastily went back to the little door, only to realize she had left the button key on the floor. She bent down to retrieve it when the skeletal white hand that was the Other Mother's snatched it off the floor. "Please give me that key back!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Alice," the Other Mother replied, locking the little door and pocketing the key. "How could I consciously allow you out of here without teaching you some manners? I would be a bad mother if I allowed such a thing."
"Oh please let me go! I must get back!" Alice begged. "I didn't mean to be so impolite! Please let me go back through the door, I'll do anything!"
"Anything, you say?"
Alice nodded. The Other Mother drummed those long, red fingernails of hers against the wall, creating a most cacophonic scratching sound. "Well, I suppose I may let you go back… that is, if you play a game with me."
"A game?" Alice blinked. "What kind of game?" She sorely hoped it was not chess. Alice had experienced far more chess than she would have liked and really had lost her taste for the game.
"A finding things game," said the Other Mother. She pulled out the key and dangled it before Alice's face. "If you, Alice, can find this key before I can, I swear on my right hand I will let you go."
"And if I don't?"
"Then you must stay here with me," she said. "Forever."
'I don't think that's a fair proposition at all!' thought Alice. 'She knows this place so much better than I do, and it will take me so very long to look in every place! But other choice do I have? My sister will surely be missing me if I do not return.' Then suddenly, Alice thought of an idea!
"Very well," Alice answered, "But you must give me a hint first."
"If you insist." If the Other Mother had eyes, Alice was certain they'd have narrowed, because she clearly was not happy with this arrangement. Nonetheless, she obliged. "Look high, look low, and you will not find the key, but to look to the fringes of this world and it may lie within the boundaries."
What a strange rhyme! Then again, Alice was no stranger to strange rhymes. "All right then, I will go look for this key-"
"Not so fast," the Other Mother said slyly. "Close your eyes and count to thirty-seven."
'Thirty-seven? Why thirty-seven?' Alice closed her eyes and began counting. 'This is like a ridiculous game of hide-and-seek! I cannot believe I'm thinking this, but I'd have preferred chess over this nonsense!'
When she opened her eyes, the Other Mother was gone.
"Well," Alice said to no one in particular, "I suppose I'll begin this strange game. Although I quite honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I do know the best place to start is the house and I'll work my way outward so that is what I will do!"
As she walked out of the (other?) parlor, a figure emerged from the shadows, softly following behind her.