Chapter One
The light breeze flowed through the sky, washing between the emerald green leaves of the large oak tree that stood by Clear Creek River . The air had the delightful scent of baked apple pie flowing from Mother's blue kitchen window. Two young girls took cover from the sun underneath the rich shade of the emerald-leaf tree. One girl opened up her book and turned to the chapter she longed to finish. This girl was the more intelligent of the two, possibly even prettier as well. Her long, straight, auburn hair was like of the rich milk chocolate her mother bakes with. Her skin is a perfect porcelain and her eyes are a beautiful shade of sky blue. And to top the cake, her name is very angelic; it could almost be heard the on the whisper of the wind, Vanessa. Her sister wasn't anything like her, her hair was a rusty shade of red, some what like the old rusted nails that can be seen shoved between doors and hinges. Her skin wasn't porcelain but, freckles infested her from head to toe. Her eyes are a sad, mucky brown. And her name sounds very guttural. It doesn't roll off the tongue, Alice . Alice had admired her sister's perfection, but tried not to let it bother her too often. She shrugged off her jealousy and tried to enjoy the wonderful, fresh breeze. Alice hummed a song that she always hummed to calm her down. She wasn't sure of where she had heard it; but it seemed to make everything better and more peaceful.
She inhaled the fresh air into her nostrils and felt her body slowly drifting off to sleep. The long grass swayed back and forth and brushed up against Alice 's freckled, skin. Her surroundings cradled her into a deep sleep. As she humbly slept with quiet dreams, a strange hare hopped by. He wasn't a very friendly looking creature, his right ear was ragged and his little vest he wore seemed to be blood stained. And if it wasn't strange enough that this hare was clothed, sad words spilt from his furry little lips.
"I'm late, I'm very late! I can't be late for this important date!" Shocked Alice rose from her spot of slumber and followed the curious creature. She wasn't sure what compelled to pursue the hare. Maybe it was his appearance. Or maybe it was the words that uttered from his mouth. Maybe it was the certainty of his destination that drove the girl to follow.
As she followed him she looked back at the valley where her family dwelled, Vanessa still sat underneath the emerald-leaf tree painfully focused on her old book. Alice kept on pursuing the hare, until she no longer could make out her sister reading or the humble white house. The sky's sun shaded and the sky became a hazy yellow and red a storm began to conjure up. Alice ignored the sky's bubbly warning and traveled toward the dark woods ahead of her.
The intimidating look of the woods didn't seem to yield the curious Alice ; she kept on shadowing every move the small hare made. She tripped over weeds that tangled around her pretty black shoes. Alice tried to kick them off, but with each step the tangles became more and more difficult to kick away. She watched as the hare hopped over the foliage with ease with each hop making him further and further away. She kicked away another weed, this time with a hard thrust, the weed coiled back and hissed. Alice didn't pay any mind to the oddity, she continued her pursuit. Another weed wrapped around her ankle, this time the weed pulled her down. Alice fell with her knees digging into the ground. She shook her head and looked around her surroundings.
At that moment Alice realized she was lost, the trees didn't have the beautiful shade of green, but a disgusting shade of gray. Their branches twisted and turned up into the bubbling red sky. The ground moved with all types of foliage and insects. Afraid, Alice quickly pulled herself back onto her feet and brushed away the dirt. She tried to call out to someone, anyone for help,
"Hello? Please help me, I am lost!" she cried. No reply came, only the echo of her sad plea. She knew that no help would come. Alice tried to cover her freezing arms, rubbing her hands back and forth against her forearms. She began to make her way through the thick, dark forest once again trying to shove away her feelings again with the soft hum she always hummed in situations like these. The weeds were still hissing and grabbing at her ankles and the trees moaned. Alice walked up to a wall of a plants she could hear the hare on the other side,
"I'm late; I'm late, for a very important date!" Alice 's ears perked up like a basset hound searching for his prey. She stuck her hand in thick gray leaves and opened up a hole that she could peer through. The hare was indeed on the other side standing in a clearing. The hare looked at his mini-pocket watch, which made him utter his distress about the time again. The hare had a suspicious aura sense about Alice 's presence. Alice released the hole she had opened. The hare didn't notice her, but something else did. She had stepped onto a small berry bush. She heard the berry bush scream with a painful shrill to her eardrums. The creature shoved Alice off its roots and crawled quickly away. Astonished, Alice pushed her way through the wall of plants and ran towards the location of the hare. She alarmed the hare, who ducked down into a hole that was hidden between two large rocks. Alice followed the hare and slipped down into the same hole.
Alice began to descend down the hole. Inside it was pitch black; she couldn't see anything, even if it was two centimeters away from her eye. When she began to feel her body descend she tried to scream but only a peep escaped. She imagined what might be at the bottom, was she going to hit jagged rocks that would penetrate her flesh? Or was there a flat surface below were she would break her legs as soon as she landed and starve to death? She began to piece together more and more thoughts of how her death at the bottom of this hole was going to be. She thought she was about to hit the bottom many times, but never did. She fell for such a long time that she reached a point where her body felt as if it was floating. The smooth fall made her calm she began to hum her song, and she was no longer afraid. She fell for such a long time that she thought that she would fall straight though the earth. Unfortunately, her sister wasn't around and she couldn't remember if she would fall straight though or end up stuck in the middle, while the two poles tugged on her back and forth.
After many more minutes of mindless falling, finally she saw a glow of light beneath her. Her feet landed perfectly on top of a cracked, checked floor. Each step she placed on the delicate tile sent shivers up her spine, because every tile cracked beneath her feet.
"Perhaps this tile was meant for small hares and not large teenage girls," she thought. As she looked around, she saw a small passage way ahead of her. A. She walked through the passageway running her hand across the raised hearts. Pass the passageway the room glowed with red light that had no source. Alice counted five wooden doors that she tried to open before she realized they were all locked. The sixth door that stood in the center of the room, seemed very different then the others, she walked up to it and placed her ear against its grainy wood. On the other side she heard the hare speak of his grief. Excitement boiled up inside of her and she swung open the door. Only to see another room filled with more doors. Once again, each of the doors were all locked tight. Alice stood looking around at the rooms interior. Pictures of landscapes with golden frames covered every inch of wall. Alice lifted one of the paintings to see a rough burgundy wallpaper behind it. She touched it softly with her index finger, it felt like sandpaper. Suddenly a small table with three golden legs ascended from the checkered floor. Atop the table laid a small golden key. Next to it stood a small glass container that had a fancy torte within its thin walls, boldly labeled, "Eat Me!" Silly as it might seem, she consumed half of the fancy torte.
Alice began to feel her body contract, it was very painful. It felt like her lungs would squeeze out all of its air and her stomach almost expelled its contents. She let out a slight screech and before she knew it she was smaller then the average house mouse. Somewhat distraught, she wondered around the room until she noticed a painting with a small door. She walked to it and knocked at it, she heard the hollow sound of knocking on wood, not the soft sound of a canvas. She turned and pulled on the small door's knob, it was locked just like the larger ones before it. Frustrated, Alice realized that the small key that lay up atop the table was meant for this small door. How will she be able to retrieve the small key now? There was no way that she was going to be able to climb up the solid, gold legs of the glass table. She tried to climb the legs of the table anyway; every step slid Alice back down the checkered floor.
After many tries, Alice sat down on the floor and began to pout. Her bottom lip puckered out and shook. Then she began to shed tears. She sobbed and sobbed, luckily a small figure appeared out of the watery corner of her eye. There before her laid a small bottle. It had a sign that was much like the other one she had seen before. "Drink me!" So she did. This tasty drink defiantly made her grow; it just didn't allow her to grow to the height she had hoped for. She grew, and grew some more, and then suddenly hit the ceiling. She could reach the small key which she tucked carefully in her front pocket, but sadly, now she was too big to fit into the small door hiding in the painting. I suppose that Alice wasn't lucky after all. She began to let tears out again. She didn't know how to fix the issue now. All she could do was resort to salty tears once again. Her tears grew larger and larger until she sobbed out tears larger then waterfalls. She kicked her feet, in her tantrum and kicked off some of the paintings from the wall. She realized that the small door was about to be swallowed up underneath the teary water, she tried to stop crying but more tears came pouring out. She placed her hands on her face trying to dam the tears. The tears flowed between her large fingers and kept dropping down into the pool again. She tried to calm herself down again by humming her song. The song would break up with phlemy coughs between versus. Alice 's stomach began to ache and her head grew a painful migraine. She kept on humming hoping to control her tantrum.
After many long minutes of sobbing, an item swirled up from under her and washed up against her large legs.
"The torte!" She exclaimed, her rumbling, booming voice echoed throughout the halls. The pictures fell from their resting place on the walls down to the whirlwind of tears. She thumbed the torte out of her tears and ate the remaining portion of it. It was difficult, like trying to swallow the tiniest crumb. She waited for the results. But, her body did not contract. She became worried that she wasn't going to shrink again.
And just like her mother always lectured her about, tears never solve problems. Her tears had brought her into another awful predicament. Now she was stroking in a sea, a sea made from her own tears. The torte did its job, and did its job well.
Now the small door seemed like a very possible goal. With the key at hand Alice began to swim. She felt like she was swimming the ocean for the waves swept over her repetitively, dragging her deeply underneath its surface. Underneath the surface she realized that the once, beautiful golden-legged table had become rusted and was piecing apart. Each of the items that were in the room was deteriorating into specks of dust. The wall's wallpaper became a liquid which crashed into the wave below, turning the sea into a mucky brown color. The small door itself still remained in its place. But, the larger door's wood broke off and splintered away, a gust of wind flew from each of them. In each of the rooms was a swirling blue entity that had a fierce, gushing wind. The wind must have blown the water away, because the tears did not flow into any of the rooms. The room that Alice was in, filled with winds that ruffled up a storm from Alice's tears, causing her to be thrown back and forth through its high crashing waves.
The entities reminded Alice of a book that her sister, Vanessa was reading one rainy afternoon. The book displayed colorful pictures of stars that were in space. Instead of being amazed by its beauty, it disturbed her and she quickly swam down to the tiny door. She pulled out the golden key from her front pocket and unlocked the door before the key vanished in the salty pool of tears.
Surprisingly, once the door was opened the tears swirled into the opening of the door and dragged Alice along with it. On the other side she crashed into a dead, skeletal tree. A horrible stench filled the land and curled Alice 's nose. Alice rose up from the ground with the assistance of the tree's trunk. Once she lifted her hand from the scratchy bark she saw a mucky red substance on her hand. Alice sniffed it, the stench she was smelling came from this red substance. Grossed out, Alice tried to wipe it off on her little dress, leaving a maroon red steak across its blue stitches.
"Wonderful! Mother will be most displeased with the way I have treated my church dress!" She looked at the other trees to see the same substance pouring from their roots and limbs.
"Is this blood?" She asked herself.
"Are the trees bleeding?" She laughed at herself for thinking such nonsense. But, nothing else made any sense, why couldn't the trees bleed?
An erie chuckle came from the high limb of the tree she crashed into. Startled she yelled up to the frightening sound,
"Show yourself, who is atop that dreadful tree?" Another snicker and laugh bellowed down. Alice began to notice the corner of a sharp toothed smile appear. It slowly progressed into a shadowy figure of a cat, it was skin and bones. The mane the creature had made it look very powerful though. He began humming an awful tune that curdled down to Alice 's delicate ears. She covered them quickly, to spare her ears from becoming def. His chuckle grew louder as he hovered down from the branches. His evil smile seemed to grow larger and larger, until he finally said,
"Before I reply to your bewildering question, WHO ARE YOU?" He made the ground tumble beneath Alice 's feet.
"My name is Alice ." She said unsure of herself, almost as if she had forgotten her own name.
"And where do you come from? You look like an Emig. We all know that Emigs are not allowed in these areas. Do you know what type of risk you have placed yourself in?" The thin beast said while steam fell from his hot mouth.
"Sir, I wasn't aware of these rules. I have come through a hole following a white hare. I apologize for any misfortune I have caused you."
"Don't bother apologizing to me, try apologizing to the Queen!" He laughed as he spoke these words. It felt like true hatred spewed from his toothy mouth. His eyes glowed with a hint of red as he clawed towards Alice signaling her to come forth and follow. Alice did, too afraid to say another word.
As Alice followed this beast she looked at the world around her. The sky was red with hints of yellow forming into orange. There were no clouds, just one eclipsed sun; the rays that shone from the black shadow that covered its body were a bright white. The trees and bushes still put off a stench, similar to rotten meat. The thought of rotten meat made Alice think of the time she had discovered a rotten steak dwelling in the corner of the cellar where her family stored salted meat. This steak had flies covering it and maggots dropping off its green mold.
"Disgusting," she thought. The beast's tail wagged back and forth as he walked down the rugged path. The path was made of stones; they looked like river stone that Alice used to play with by Clear Creek River . She looked down at them as she walked, trying to find some sense of reality. As she stared at their glazed over, smooth appearance, one rolled around and popped up and looked at her. Its smooth appearance became a fuzzy, spiky look. It jumped out at her and stung her arm.
"Ouch!" cried Alice rubbing her stung arm. The strange fuzzy pebble squeaked out tiny words,
"You should watch here you pound your big feet! That's why I hate Emigs! Never have any concern for the small!"
"Oh, I apologize I didn't know you were alive…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah Emigs always have dumb excuses too!" The small pebble bounced back to its place. Alice continued to follow the thin beast, trying to toe in between the small pebbles. Whenever her feet slipped she'd exclaim,
"Oh sorry, excuse me!"
The beast and Alice walked and walked for hours. Even though the sun was black, its heat somehow escaped and pinned upon Alice . Water wasn't an option and neither was food. Dehydrated and hungry, she kept up with the beast as best she could.
Alice stopped to try and catch her breath only twice, the beast would let out his awful hum that pierced her ears. So, she didn't stop for long. And Alice and the beast followed this path until they came to a stop in front of a very tall wall.