A/N: Hey there! This story was originally posted on FictionPress, but I've decided recently that it could be considered FanFiction as well. This is a VERY AU Alice in Wonderland fic, updates will be irregular, and I'm a fan of cliffhangers. As they say, honesty is the best policy. Enjoy readers, and leave a review if you'd like. I'd appreciate it. -BlueSuedeShoes23
I was brushing my teeth when she came. One moment, I'm spitting into the sink. The next, an overstated lady with silver skin is glaring down at me through the mirror. I let out a scream. Minty spittle sprays the glass, and my toothbrush tumbles from my hand.
How embarrassing. To my credit, I recover quickly. I take a hand towel lying next to me and wipe the spittle away in a few easy swoops. She can't feel the spit through the glass, but it seems classless to leave it there. An afterthought strikes me, and with haste I dab toothpaste from the corners of my mouth. I toss the cloth aside, turning my absolute attention to the impossible image before me. My heart pounds.
"Jabberwocky!" I say, curtsying low. "This servant humbly welcomes you into her home! May the reflective surfaces you inhabit shine and your hunger satiated without the aid of human blood!" A pause. I feel the woman gazing down at me with her large, pupil-less blue eyes. I chance a glance up. She blinks once, then twice. Is she surprised that I babbled out the appropriate greeting? She should know better; the unusual salutation is all but drilled into everyone's heads during schooling.
"Be at peace, human," the silver maiden replies. "Your greeting protects you...for the moment." I rise, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. What an ego. No human has been slain by a jabberwocky for decades, now that we know how they tick. They can't hurt you if you greet them correctly. It's just one of those quirks; I'm guessing ancient magic is involved. One the Greats must have had a sense of humor. "Your name?"
"Anna Krump."
The jabberwocky does not acknowledge my answer, but waits unmoving and unblinking in the mirror, watching me. I shiver. Though the glower is perturbing, she could do little to me now, in spite of her ominous warning. My greeting made her glass home her glass prison. Strictly speaking, I no longer have the obligation to be polite. With all the hell that these creatures have wrought on humans in the past, it's almost expected to be downright hostile. But frankly, I'd rather mentally prepare myself for what is to come. The transformation.
As if on cue, a large, snake-ish crack forms in a vertical line down the silver woman's brow. It descends fast, with a hissing sound, down her neck and chest until it disappears from view at the bottom of the mirror. Her portrait is before me, split in half as if by the paint of an artist's brush, staring at me with those vacant blue eyes. The façade crumbles with a sigh—one half cascades left, the other right—vanishing at the mirror's two ends. In the woman's place the true form of the jabberwocky looms.
The beast is praying-mantis-like: all snapping forearms, bulbous eyes, and sharp pincers. There is something else there, too—something I know but cannot place—a centipede, an orangutan…maybe a lizard? Yes, all three perhaps, but the features are so horribly and perfectly blended together that I cannot tell one from the other. I hear scales shift in agitation from beyond the mirror, then an upset, gurgling sort of mewl. Feelers tap, tap, tap from inside the glass, twitching up, down, forward, backward, side to side. I stare passively into the jabberwocky's bulging eyes—still pupil-less, but now a deep and disconcerting brown.
This I manage with difficulty; I hate bugs, and the jabberwocky looks too much like one for comfort.
I take a brief but needed moment to collect myself, then speak, "What is your business here?" A shuffling, a grunt. The feelers pause in their detailed inspection of the glass, and the jabberwocky replies now in a high, scratchy voice,
"You know why I am here." I nod grimly. I do. "Nevertheless, it is my duty to deliver the message in full to the recipient." Its pincers extend wide for a brief moment and relax the next. A yawn? "So I will continue lest there be confusion. You, Anna Krump, are indiscriminately invited to our king's castle no later than nine o'clock tomorrow morning in preparation for a grand Party. Until then, we suggest you make the necessary arrangements. All is understood?"
"Yes."
"Very well."
As suddenly as the jabberwocky appeared, it vanishes, leaving no trace of its visit behind.
