The light smacked me in the face, painfully blinding my eyes for a few seconds before everything came back into focus.
A tiny little town appeared, dazzling in light and sparkling like stars on earth. It seemed like a festival was going on, except one thing was missing.
People.
A shiver vibrated through me, rattling my bones and freezing me to the core. The happiness I had felt evaporated into the air, replaced by depression. While walking through the street, I noticed that every house was the same, eerily the same.
In the middle of the town centre, there was a sun dial protruding from the ground. It was made of bronze, shaped to look like a lily.
As I stood before it, I heard a faint dragging sound from behind. Turning slowly, I braced myself for the worst.
"We need your help…." A voice shrieked from the shadows. Slowly, the person crawled from behind the building. What I saw made me quiver all over in terror.
A small child, at least six, was dragging its body across the ground, its left leg torn off, leaving a trail of blood behind it.
Leaping forward, I ran to the child. What kind of place was this?
Before I could reach the child, a sword narrowly missed my head, crashing a meter in front. Cocking my head round, I saw a sight even worse than before.
A huge china doll, with stitches across its face and a laser for an eye, stood before me with a crazy smile plastered across its face.
A huge sword stained crimson was gripped in its hand, giving a blood thirsty aura.
Once again, it swung its sword, cutting my hand off as I tried in vain to dodge it. The pain seized over me, coming up my arm in shock waves as the blood spewed out from the stump like a fountain.
Shit, I thought, I'm in hell!
When I looked to my left, the child's body was gone. It had been a trap from the very beginning. I had been lured like a mosquito to the light, unable to realize that the light was my doom.
Looking down at my hand, I noticed that the bleeding wasn't stopping, as if a valve had broken off and letting the blood pour until none was left. Quickly, I wrapped my hand with a strip of her trousers; the tourniquet would have to do.
"Why won't YOU play with ME?" It asked, its voice changing from high to low.
"Let me see, number 1, you're bloody trying to kill me. 2, you're crazy and you cut off my hand!" I shrieked, dodging yet another blow.
There is no point, I am going to die in this hell hole anyway, I thought with immortal dread.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a flash blinded me, sending me clattering to the ground. When my eyes came back to reality, I saw that the doll had been torn into pieces, with its jaw hanging from a hinge and the sockets blown to pieces. A cat was perched on top, licking its paws gently.
What the heck is going on, I thought with utter confusion.
Getting on my feet, I treaded carefully over to the cat, not sure if it was a friendly beast. I stuck out my hand to stroke it, when it gave me look that would curdle milk.
"My dear, I am not your usual tabby, please desist from treating me like one." The cat hissed, flashing its razor sharp teeth in a grimace. It took me a few seconds before my head snapped back on. Did this cat just talk to me? I must be having a really crazy dream…..
"I've never had a dream like this before," I acknowledged, scanning over the desolate town, "I must had eaten something weird before I went to sleep."
A loud cackle ringed in her ears; the cat was laughing with a bitter grin across his face (can cats grin?).
"Dream? This is no dream, my dear. This is wonderland, or, at least, it has changed since you have been away for ten years."
It was as if my body had been dunked into a basin of ice water. A strange tingling sensation crawled through the caverns of my veins. So the white rabbit, the Red Queen, they were all real…
"How do I know that I am not dreaming?"
"Well, that you are just going to have to decide for yourself; but I don't think they are going to wait for an answer."
"What do you mean by 'they'?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"You either have to be blind or stupid," he answered flatly, avoiding my glare, "Do you remember that large ugly monster that attacked you? That is one of the Black Queen's servants."
"Black Queen? You don't mean the Red Queen, because I've never heard of this so called Black Queen."
"No idiot, I mean Black. She appeared a year after you left this land, and since then she has caused 'Wonderland' to fall apart. From then, I've been on my own, fighting the years through and hoping that someday that you will come back to us, to save us before it is too late. I know it sounds really clichéd but I am not kidding; you our hope kiddo so stop messing around with this doll and save this place before we all lose our minds."
"But I thought that we had already lost our minds. There is not a drop of sanity in this God forsaken place!" I retorted, turning my back so that he didn't see the panic that was spreading over my face. Why was I the only one to save this place? I could barely survive against one lowly minion, let alone a whole horde of the monsters. The thing is, if Wonderland gets destroyed, I will also be…
"Fine, I will do as you ask; I can't think of anything else I could be doing. Although you have to promise me that you will lead me straight home afterwards."
The cat grinned again, twirling its tail slowly and then flicking it like a whip. I have been through a lot, but I am not that crazy.
"Now, how is that hand of yours? If you haven't noticed, if you were in reality you should have died from blood loss," the cat stated, "But if you were in a dream, you would have already have awoken from such a traumatising experience."
"What are you trying to say?" I asked, completely confused.
"Let me make this clear – you are not in reality nor are you in a dream. You are in the parallel world in between – Wonderland."
For a few seconds, my brain tried to mull over what the cat was saying, but the more I thought, the less I liked it and a nasty feeling, like amnesia, was frying my circuit. The cat sat quietly, a slight tweak of amusement on its face as it watched me deteriorate in confusion.
"If only it was as simple as back then," I moaned, collapsing on the floor, "back then, I would play games and have the most wonderful time. Now I have crazy dolls with massive swords swinging at me without a care in the world. From the day I entered this world, I knew it was far from stable in mind. But to think it could be so dangerous…"
"Well, you're just going to have to live with that. Of course, you can not do this battle empty handed."
As if from nowhere, a knife, about the size you would use in a kitchen, hovered in front of my face on invisible strings.
"Great, now I can just slice them up and make sushi!" I commented sarcastically.
"Don't judge it by its appearance; the more you fight, the more powerful it becomes. Whatever you imagine, it will become. Although, it does have limitations on how long it can maintain that particular form…"
"Wait a cotton picken' minute – madness has a limit?"
"Of course! If it didn't, God knows what would happen; this world would be torn apart from its very stitches."
With a little hesitation, I gripped the handle. It was lighter than what I would have expected. Its cool touch vibrated through my veins, sending shivers back as a response. Never have I been fascinated by such an item.
"I didn't come here for a fight…" I mumbled, swing the knife with ease.
"A shame," the cat commented, purring deeply, "Others certainly want to fight you."
I avoided looking at the cat, knowing it would be wearing that sickly grin. All I'd ever wanted in life was to be normal, have a family and never have any worries for events to come…
But life wasn't like that. I lived in an orphanage. I had no family. Everyday I was scared of the unfortunate events wounding around to, waiting for the right moment to strike. Wonderland had been my sanctuary, my home; I couldn't allow some wanneby queen to take over and reek havoc.
"Tell me what to do next." I commanded, turning to face bizarre, but scarily real cat.
"Peeerrrrrfect!" he purred, swishing his tail in glee. "First, go to the mock turtle and ask the direction of the mad hatter's house. He will be able to guide you along to where the black queen is."
I nodded slowly, turning with haste but the cat didn't seem to be finished.
"Remember – I am not sending you to the park. The journey you will take will be a perilous one, and don't expect your enemies to be as easy as the one you faced here. Most likely I won't be there to give you a helping hand; you are on your own."
Without hesitation, I darted off along the path, fearing that the worst was yet to come.
I totally love writing these chapters! I usually write these in between classes when i'm bored :) . Hope you guys are enjoying this. This is my first story so please review!