Part 2: Entrance to Madness

"Duncan!" Gwen shouted and ran after him. She pumped her legs as hard as they would go and soon was right on Duncan's tail (yes, Duncan literally had a cute, fluffy cotton tail to go along with the rest of his bunny motif). "Duncan!" she panted, "Where are we? What's going on?"

The Duncan-rabbit flashed his eyes at Gwen in annoyance. "Uh whoever this 'Duncan' guy is," he snarled, "i'm not him, ok? I am the White Rabbit and you will refer to me that way"

"Oh give me a break, Duncan. All you did was put some bunny ears on and tie a stupid pink nose around your head. Do you think I'm dumb?"

"Hey, if you say so..." Duncan smirked, and Gwen scowled knowing she'd walked right into that one. She tried to cook up a good retaliation but was running out of breath, and Duncan was now too far ahead to hear her anyway. Duncan whipped around a corner, and a moment later Gwen did the same, finding herself in a large, dimly lit room with a high, arched ceiling. She spotted a small table made of glass sitting off to the side, but as for Duncan there was absolutely no sign of him.

"He got away AGAIN!" Gwen's eyes darted around the room, looking for Duncan's means of escape, but instead they landed on something sitting on the table. She walked over, her boot heels echoing loudly on the checkered tile floor, and picked up the tiny object.

"A key? Then there must be a door around here somewhere." Gwen looked around again; she didn't see any doors, but behind her she spied a low curtain covering a section of the wall. Being her paranoid self she eyed it suspiciously, then pulled a corner aside revealing an extremely small door which barely came up to her knees.

Gwen narrowed an eye. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

She set the key back on the table and kneeled down to examine the door more closely. "How am I supposed to get through that!" she frowned.

Then she noticed the doorknob. Gwen just stared at it for a moment, furrowing her brow in confusion as she noted the odd, yet strangely familiar shape of it; it looked actually like a tiny person with very nice abs and tanned skin. It sort-of reminded her of some good looking guy she's seen before. Ju-Justin? The thought wormed its way into her head, but Gwen promptly shook it off. What am I thinking! That's ridiculous! She reached down and turned the funny looking knob only to be rewarded with a loud yelp of surprise. Gwen, caught completely off guard, returned the scream and jumped backwards.

"Agh, this is the third time this week that's happened!" the doorknob spoke in a really familiar voice. "You don't have to turn so hard you know."

"Sorry," Gwen apologized, somehow not really all that shocked to be talking to a doorknob. After all, she did Duncan in a bunny suit running around. She could certainly handle this.

"These abs don't work by themselves, you know," came the reply. "Now, is there something I can help you with, beautiful rose?"

"Actually I was wondering if an pu-punk boy dressed up like a rabbit came through here by any chance?" She said, drooling.

"As a matter of fact he did. You just missed him."

"So Duncan was here?" Gwen crossed her arms. "I have to follow him!"

The door chuckled. "Don't be silly my darling. You'd never be able to fit that huge body of yours through here."

"I'll take that as a compliment" Gwen said.

"Well, I suggest you try that bottle over on the table."

"Huh? But there's no b-…" Gwen began, but when she turned around she did in fact see a small vial sitting on the glass tabletop. Well it wasn't there before, she thought, walking over and picking it up. "Hmm… Drink Me," she read the words printed on the tag draped around the bottleneck and eyed the liquid suspiciously. "And exactly how is drinking this stuff supposed to help me?"

"What do I look like, a Genius? Just do it!" the door spoke up impatiently.

"Alright, alright." Gwen stuck out her jaw and grudgingly uncorked the bottle before taking a hesitant sip. "Mm… not bad," she remarked and took a longer drink. Wiping her mouth she set the half-empty bottle back on the table, but as she did she noticed that something seemed a little… off.

Was that table… always so high up?

Suddenly she was struck with an odd sinking sensation, and she watched in amazement as the entire room appeared to be expanding around her. "What the-…!" Gwen gasped as she realized she was shrinking! In a matter of seconds the teal-haired teen stood no higher than a Popsicle stick.

"Wow… What was in that stuff?" Gwen's jaw hung open as she looked down at herself, examining her new tiny size. "Hmm," she pulled on a corner of her skirt and cocked an eyebrow, "and how come my clothes shrank too?" Oh well, it was best not to question a good thing.

Gwen ran over to the door, which she was now the perfect size to fit through, eager to catch back up to Duncan. She grabbed the knob and twisted it several times, frowned, then started pulling and tugging on it as hard as she could.

"Ow! Hey, take it easy there," the doorknob pleaded.

Gwen complained, "But I can't get the door open."

"Well of course you can't."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because I'm locked."

"Oh, okay, I guess that explains…" it slowly dawned on Gwen what had been said. "Wait a minute, You're WHAT!"

"I said I'm locked. Didn't I mention that?"

"NO!" Gwen wailed mournfully, burying her face in her hands.

"You have the key, don't you?" the door inquired.

"Hmm? What key?"

"The little gold one."

Gwen's face suddenly brightened. "Oh that key! Yeah I left it over on the table," she chuckled in relief and started walking over. "I'll just go… and… um, get…it…" she trailed off as she approached the table, discovering it was now about seven times higher than she was. Gwen groaned and smacked her forehead.

"Don't tell me you left it up there," the door remarked.

"Gee, you think?" Gwen shot back. The girl stormed over and stared up at the key through the glass. She tried everything she could think of to try and get it; she tried climbing a table leg, but kept sliding down, then she tried ramming the table to nudge the key off the edge, but only succeeded in nearly dislocating her shoulder. She tried willing it over the side, but lacked the necessary spooky mind powers to pull this off. Finally she tried yelling and cursing at it, but the key still didn't budge. Having run out of ideas, Gwen sighed helplessly and slumped to the ground. She was really not enjoying her altered height.

"Stupid key," she grumbled, looking up at it sitting there through the glass, as if taunting her dilemma further.

"Well, I guess you're doomed to spend the rest of your life here," the door piped in cheerily.

Gwen blinked, not sure she'd heard right. "What!"

"Heh heh, just kidding."

"Real funny," Gwen muttered.

The door went on, "If you really want out, all you have to do is look next to you."

Gwen did, and spotted a small box sitting next to her hand, which she opened to discover a little snack cake with 'BITE ME' written on it in white frosting. She raised an eyebrow at the odd choice of wording.

"Well… I guess if the bottle made me small… maybe this'll make me grow big enough to reach the key," she figured, "…Or small enough to crawl under the door, either way I guess. Besides, it's not like I've got a lot of options here." Deciding either way was better than being stuck, Gwen picked up the cake and chomped into it before she could change her mind.

Gwen got to her feet and waited for some sort of reaction. She measured herself against the table leg, but as far as she could tell she hadn't changed a bit. Frowning, she walked a little ways away from the table and tried again, holding her hand over her head to see if she was getting any larger or smaller, but still nothing happened. "Great," she pouted, crossing her arms, "It's not work- Whoa!" Before she could finish speaking too soon, Gwen found the room was rapidly closing in on her; she was growing at an unheard-of rate, and the next second she cried out in pain as the back of her head smacked up against the ceiling.

"Oww…" Gwen moaned, rubbing her sore cranium, realizing in horror that she was now well over twenty feet tall.

The door called up to her, "Looks like you took too big of a bite."

"Not THIS big!" Gwen gestured down at herself, her voice rising with panic.

"Are you ok? You hit your head pretty hard there."

"Yeah I'm fine" Gwen said, rubbing her head.

"Look on the bright side," said the door, and Gwen stared at it as if it'd just suggested she put a live lobster down her skirt. "At least now you can reach the key."

Gwen reached down by her ankle and plucked the key off the table. Looking at it sitting in the palm of her hand she thought it resembled a grain of sand more than it did a key. "Hmph. Lotta good it does me now," she huffed in frustration, "I'm too big to fit through this stupid yet good looking door."

"Hey!" The door replied.

All this was just too much for Gwen. She was prepared to deal with drama and love and and teen situations and stuff, but THIS! This place defied all logic! And now she'd be stuck here for the rest of her life, and there is nothing she can do about it. Gwen's lower lip began to quiver and she felt the hot sting of tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She tried desperately not to give in to the urge to cry, but a few stray teardrops managed to spill over her eyelids and splatter on the floor.

Seeing Gwen's distress, the doorknob sighed sympathetically. "Oh, come on, settle down now. You don't want to start a flood, do you? And anyway, you can always finish what's left of the bottle."

Gwen sniffled and wiped her eyes, her expression brightening a bit. She'd completely forgotten about that! (Funny how your mind works in these situations, isn't it?) The girl knelt down and picked up the bottle, being extremely careful not to crush it between her giant fingertips. It was a royal hassle trying to get the cork out, and Gwen eventually just gave up and swallowed the bottle like a pill. Almost instantly she began growing smaller, until she was once again only a few inches tall. She gripped the key, which she'd held on to, and rushed happily over to the little door, splashing through a large puddle of her own tears as she went. I'm glad I didn't cry any more than this, she thought, a little embarrassed with herself for crying in the first place, or who knows what kind of disaster it might have turned into. Why did I cry anyway? That's pretty unusual for me. Of course the whole situation was pretty unusual, so Gwen just chalked it up to temporary insanity.

"Finally! I can get out of this stupid room," she exclaimed as she fumbled with the lock.

"Um, there is a little something I should probably warn you about first," the door informed her.

Gwen turned the knob. "Why, what's there to warn me abo-…?" she was suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted as an enormous rush of water thundered through the opening. She was thrown violently back and swallowed in the ensuing tide. The room was flooding quickly, and Gwen tried desperately to stay above the water, but the suction was far too strong, and she was forcefully sucked through the door and swept away by the current. After a moment she struggled to the surface and spit out a mouthful of water, finding herself in the middle of an endless expanse of ocean.

Waves kept washing over her and filling her mouth with water. "Ugh, this is just perfect," Gwen complained. "That dumb door could've warned me before I opened it. Now instead of withering away I get to drown." She swam around aimlessly for a few minutes until she spotted a strip of land and made her way over, gratefully stumbling onto the shore. As Gwen dumped the water out of her boots she noticed she was standing at the mouth of a forest. She also heard a splishing noise behind her, and turned just in time to see Duncan crawling out of the water.

The rabbit-suited punk coughed and sputtered as he stood up and shook the water off his tail. "Good thing I brought extra clothes." he muttered and took off into the woods.

"Duncan! Wait!" Gwen, wasting no time, quickly pulled on her boots and was after him in a flash.