The party was, as always, uneventful. Her mother and her sister were poised and ready to accept all the complements that they were bound to receive. The guests were all wondering around the yard under gaudy umbrellas that kept their delicate skin from being exposed to the sun. Sun that would make their white skin boil and burn, ruining their perfect complexion and their prized social status. They all had men on their arms that they silently showed off as they made small talk with her mother. They all mentioned how wonderful the party was and how happy they were to be there, how beautiful her sister was, but where was the second daughter? Had she finally found a husband? To those questions her mother would shake her head and explain to them what had happened a little over a year ago. Alice was siting quietly on the outside of the party trying to look ridged and unapproachable, because there was no use trying to blend in. But even so, she was approached by many people, mainly older women who spent their time gossiping with other women of the same age about anything and everything. She would reply with a fake smile and short one-word answers, silently praying that they would just leave her alone to be miserable in peace.
Ever since wonderland, nothing had been the same. Her already bland world had seemed to get even duller with each passing day. Everything was static and almost lifeless. Wonderland was confusing and odd but at the same time beautiful and intriguing, she was a hero there and longed more than anything to go back. She ran her hand through her beautiful blond hair and took a deep breath. She examined all the men that were there, they where all considered perfect and respectable gentlemen by her mother but Alice thought they were no more then boring lowlifes and didn't give any of them a second look, though they seemed very interested in her.
They would look at her and smile and the more tenacious ones would throw her winks to which she ignored. They almost all had a girl that they had come with and Alice was more interested in them then she was with the winking pigs that they wore on their arms. These girls were all thin. Their faces were done up trying to look like their mothers had taught them, graceful and beautiful. Some of them pulled it off better then others. Some acted like they were prettier then they actually were. There were pounds of make up covering their faces completely, which just made them look like a cow trying to look like one of the king's horses. She had a fascination with the girls at the party, the way they carried them selves and the way they could manipulate foolish boys into do whatever they asked of them. But even so, she never wanted to be anything like them because what it all boiled down to was that they were all manipulative and dull. With no other aspirations then to hook one of these boys into marrying them and then having children to carry on her husband's legacy, leaving her to be forgotten. The woman will always loose in the end. So in a way she could forgive the girls for being cruel and deceitful, because she would be the same way if she knew she was going to end up like that.
She scanned the yard again out of boredom, knowing that nothing could have possibly changed sense the last time. She re-examined the people she thought were the best looking and observed how they interacted with everyone else at the party. She began to feel tired and just wanted to go to her room and escape all these people and their shallow lives.
But most of all she wished to go back to wonderland.
Wonderland had been a most extraordinary place. The flowers talked and animals danced. There was good and evil like there was in her mother's world, but this good and evil were on a whole different spectrum. The line between good and evil was blurred in her mother's world. People did good things that would end up hurting others in the long run and on the flip side, they did bad things to save other's lives, more like a sacrifice then a wicked action.
Things seemed more complicated sense she came back. Her mother's already warped world started to look more and more sinister by the day, and it seemed that she was the only one who saw it. Surly there were others, others that were sickened by this world as much as she was, there just had to be. Her trip to Wonderland had changed the way she thought about reality, people and herself. In Wonderland nothing made sense but everything made sense. Everything was very strange and at times frightening, but at the same time completely normal and comfortable. Everything was black and white. There were no questions of right and wrong. Everything had its own place. Nothing stood out as being particularly odd or strange. Nothing was socially acceptable. Nothing was socially unacceptable. Everything just was. Everything was just simply existing.
Alice sat and tied her fingers in knots trying to hold back tears of frustration. Silently begging to be left alone by the two faced monsters that kept intruding on her quiet discussions with her memories. She stared at the ground, as it seemed to swirl beneath her. The tears burning the backs of her eyes, she slowly shifted her gaze upward to the perimeter of the party.
And that's when she saw him.