Sorry it took so long to get back to you guys. I have been having some problems at home. Ironically, I'm in a battle to pass senior English. If I don't then I won't be able to graduate on time. So I'm sorry it took so long to post. I hope the next installment comes fast for y'all.

I let out a blood-curdling scream and sat straight up in bed. I tried to get up and run: to get help, to save mom, anything! I had to save her. For a few panic-stricken seconds I tried my best to detangle myself from the bed sheets that had managed to cocoon my restless legs. Without thinking it, I jumped off my bed and my bare feet hit the ice-cold, wooden floor beneath my bed. I yelped, jumping back onto the downy bed, finally snapping out of my dream and into the present. The cool breeze that leaked into my room through the open doorway gently dried away the perspiration that had collected over my entire body. I pulled my legs close to me for both comfort and heat from the draft. The only sound in the house was the sound of my racing heart and my sister Margaret asleep in the next room.

The image of the wicked red queen stabbing my mother burned in my head; blood pouring down the queen's cream-colored dress and pooling on the floor in front of her as she sank to her knees. The look of shock that spread through first her face and then her body as she finally fell to the floor.

While softly rocking back and forth, I kept reciting to myself, "Calm down Alice. It was only a dream. Only a dream…" I repeated over and over until finally slowing to a halt. "Only a dream," I repeated as my eyes glazed over, "Mom will be home any time, I just have to wait." I climbed out of bed and started to get ready for the day, "I just have to wait."

The kitchen was just as cold and empty as every other morning. "Just wait until mom gets back," I told myself, "She will be up before me and have a fire going and food on the table". But as usual, by stomach got the best of me within a half hour and I scrounged in the cabinets for something to eat, hoping that maybe I would find some bread or something. Unfortunately, they were bare, so I turned to the fireplace where last night's soup still simmered in the pot over the hot coals my brother neglected to stomp out the night before. I grabbed the ladle that was propped up against the edge; accidentally sticking my finger in the crust that lined the handle, I licked my fingers then dunked the ladle in the soup. I listened close to see if Margaret was up; when no noise came from her room I tipped the ladle and drank the bitter tomato liquid. I knew that Margaret would be mad at me for not getting a bowl, but I didn't want to clean it. I quickly dipped it in the soup again and took another drink. I was not full, but it would hold me over until mom got home and made me breakfast; or so I thought. An hour later my stomach was rumbling again and I took another drink… and another… and another… before the entire pot was finished off. While scraping at the crusty edges of soup that were burnt to the pot itself I forgot to listen for Margaret; and I had completely forgotten about her all the way up until I heard a voice behind me. "Alice Pleasance Heart! What are you doing?"

I dropped the ladel and quickly rubbed a drop of soup off my lip before putting my hands behind my back and cheesed. "I'm not doing anything, Margaret," I lied; even though I knew that I was caught.

I sat in my chair and twitted my thumbs, which made me wonder what the tweedle's were doing right now… WHAP! Spoon on the table.

"Alice, look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you."

I snapped my eyes back up to my angered sister, "sorry," I repeated for the umpteenth time.

"You know better than to eat out of the pot by using the serving spoon. It is rude…"

"No one was here to see my bad manners"

"…And other people don't want to eat your spit"

"I finished the last of the soup anyway"

"… Exactly, and you ate the last of the soup!"

"We have more food"

"So help me god! If you talk back to me one more time, I'll shove this spoon so far up your ass, you'll have a period out of your ass every month!"

"I miss mom. Just wait until she gets back and I'll tell her how bad you have been treating me."

Margaret rubber her forehead, "Don't start with this again! I have already told you a thousand times. Mom is never coming back; she died in the fucking castle, right in front of you." She threw the spoon in the soapy pot of water and started scrubbing, "The sooner you wake up from your fantasy world, the sooner we will all be better off."

"Stop lying to me. Just because everyone else thinks that she isn't coming back doesn't mean that I won't give up on her. She is just visiting some country; she has done it a thousand times before. She just can't find a way to get home to us Margaret!"

The older sister didn't even turn from her chore, and spoke in the flattest voice ever heard, "Alice, you need to stop living in Upperland and grow up."

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Alice put on her cloak and walked out the door. I hated being the bearer of bad news every day, but Alice would never move on if I stopped reminding her about mother's death. Maybe one day it would finally stick in her head and I wouldn't need to have her blow up every morning. One day I wouldn't have to sit here and listen through another one of her reasons why mom was gone. Maybe one day Alice would decide that she was tired of playing pretend and grow up. I looked at the calendar hanging on the wall, March 1st. I sighed to myself; on the 30th was Alice's 18th birthday. She would be considered an adult, but the girl's mentality was stuck at five. How could I possibly wake her up before her coming of age ceremony?

Feel free to send reviews/comments/PMs :D