Alice slowly walked down the gravel stone path away from the crazed cat boy.
"Oh, I do hope that he won't burn himself. Lying above the fireplace like that isn't the brightest idea you could possibly have!" Coming to the fork in the road she quickly turned to where the Mad Hatter's sign was pointing and followed the solid stone road. Hearing soft music playing in the distanced though, she quickened her pace to come to a white picket fence. Different colored music notes floated around in the air almost dancing to their own song. The bright blue cottage looked only to be two floored with multiple flowers surrounding it, while straw was used at the roof to come to a point.
"What a strange looking house. Oh, I do hope that someone can help me get to that beautiful garden," Alice unlatched the lock on the white picket fence and let herself in, closing it behind her and locking it once again. "I do hope that they don't mind me bargaining in like this. It is terribly rude, but no one is here to invite me in personally," Following another small stoned path behind the house, the music increased its volume and she was just able to tell what the words to the song were. To her surprise, a long oak table was set on the grass; a black table cloth staying on with the immense amount of tea pots and tea cups trapping it. A man with an orange top hat, a card with 10/6 tucked into a small sleeve on the side of the hat, a long orange coat hung heavily on his form, black gloves graced his hands just as a half black shirt with a sinister looking pumpkin covered his chest, baggy black pants with chains finished his attire, while shaggy brown hair fell into his sea green colored eyes.
Another strange man sat at the table, his dark blue rabbit ears twitched nervously when he noticed Alice. A gray tank with the words, "Screw time, make a rhyme," in bold white letters covered the top part of his body and brown pants covered his legs. What truly surprised Alice was the third man with the white mouse ears. The man wore a forest green Chinese shirt completely with matching pants, all in silk. Walking closer to the odd trio, the man with the rabbit ears made a motion to her for the man with the top hat. Alice froze as the he turned towards her, away from the head of the table.
"My my my look what we have here; a lost little chipmunk looking for a nut!" The man with the top hat exclaimed standing up from his position. "Come here come here Little Chipmunk!" He curved his right index finger and motioned for her to come closer. Alice puffed out her cheeks slightly and wrinkled her eyebrows, remembering her manners though she gave a small curtsy and said,
"Pardon me, sir. My name is Alice and I am trying to find my way to the beautiful garden. I tried to talk to Mr. Cheshire, but he merely just shrugged me off! So you see I just had to find someone who could possibly lead me there." The man looked amused and she introduced herself and explained her situation. Swiftly walking over to her in three long strides, he grabbed her chin, and forced her to look up at him.
"Little Chipmunk you are so chatty. It almost makes you that more cute. I am the Hatter. Behind me his Hare and Door and you would do wisely next time to come when I call you to me," Hatter brought his face closer to Alice and grinned a wicked smile. "You really are cute my Little Chipmunk, aren't you?" Alice huffed at the indignation this man, if she could call him that, to continuously compare her to a chipmunk! She obviously didn't store food in her cheeks, nor did she hibernate, nor did she have a tail! So she grabbed his wrist and angrily pulled down on it, but his grip tightened till it became uncomfortable.
"Please, Mister Hatter, you're hurting me," Alice whimpered. Hatter kissed her small nose and continued to grin that infuriating smile. Suddenly though, he released her chin and wrapped an arm around her shoulders,
"Come! Come! Join us for a cup of tea! Change places!" The other two occupants of the large table quickly stood and moved to the opposite side of the table. Hatter of course also sat at the opposite side at the head of the table. Alice timidly sat down on the Hatter's right side and daintily sipped from a cup already filled with tea and sugar. "Now my Little Chipmunk, I have a riddle for you. If you are able to answer it then I will reward you. Now, are you ready?" Alice gave a hesitant nod and Hatter continued on, "When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is then it is nothing. What am I?" Alice scrunched up her face as she thought about the confusing words. Stirring more sugar into her tea, Alice started to wish she had stayed with the Cheshire Cat instead of gone here. This man was just so rude! Well Hatter is anyways. In a split second she had made up her mind, sitting the tea cup down and straightening her back, Alice confidently answered the riddle.
"A riddle," The waver in her voice was not hidden enough though and Hatter took the opportunity to try and tease her.
"Now, now are you positively certain that it is a riddle? Who would answer a riddle with a riddle? It's the most preposterous notion I have heard." Hatter gave a wicked smile as Alice began to question her own answer.
"Come on, Hatter. Just let her get the riddle right without you making her feel nervous," Door said in a timid voice. "So I'm right?" As Door nodded smiling a soft smile, Alice was cheering on the inside. Hatter on the other hand became furious.
"You have no say in this you little rodent! If you have forgotten I could easily make time go forward on you!" Door shrunk back into his chair while Hare comforted him. Alice also cowered from the man's outburst, now wishing that she was with Cheshire instead of this Mad Hatter. Giving a small shriek when the crazed man pinned her to her chair, Alice clenched her eyes shut and wanted to cry out for the purple haired teen, but was too afraid of the consequences. Hatter gave a maniac grin and lifted the girl's chin up towards him.
"Now don't tell me you're scared, Little Chipmunk. I will keep my word and let you go now, but I sadly do not know where the direction to that oh so wonderful garden you are talking about. As far as I know, there is no such thing in Wonderland," Hatter walked behind Alice and tipped her chair forward. "Now away with you; there is no more room at this table for a little chipmunk, such as you," Alice gave shriek when she was so rudely dumped from her chair, but gladly started to scramble back towards the front of the house and the white picket fence. While fumbling with the lock the she heard the Hatter shout at her from the back.
"I will see you some other time Little Chipmunk! You can count on that!" With that she heard his insane laughter and slammed the fence shut, running as quickly as possible from the slightly normal looking house. Once she deemed that she was far away enough, Alice leaned against a tree to catch her breath.
"I do hope that I never see that man again. He was just so mean to poor Mr. Door and Mr. Hare." It was only a moment later that she noticed a purple tail swishing in front of her. Looking up, she saw Cheshire lying on a thin branch, grinning down at her. Silently, he asked, "Have you realized it yet, Alice?" He all but purred the question out. The girl tilted her head to the side.
"Realized what?" Alice asked.
"Oh, we're ALL mad here," Slowly the male teen's body melted away into circular stripes until all that was left was his grin. "I will most definitely see YOU later, my little Alice," Then the grin made a small "poofing," noise and Alice was left by her lonesome, once again.