A/N: Thanks to Ranguvar27 for beta'ing and feedback! :D
Searching for Dreams:
Chapter Three: Down the Rabbit-Hole:
Sunlight beat down on the pavement, heat radiating into Autumn's face-just like back home. Is there no escape to this heat? The teenage girl wandered through the parking lot, trying to stay out of sight. She'd learned long ago that if she stayed quiet and pretended she knew exactly what she was doing, had a purpose, so to speak, and wasn't afraid of being seen or caught, that people were a lot less likely to challenge her right to be there doing whatever she was doing.
Turning the map of the grounds in her hands, she headed for the park she'd seen on Google Earth. What would the rabbit-hole look like now? Or did it disappear when we began to rely on technology instead of dreams? No, there must be more people like Alice around somewhere, wouldn't the rabbit-hole stay open for them?
And then the thought: I'm insane. For the first time, she fully realized what she'd done. Left home, left her life, to go on a wild-goose chase. Well, no turning back now. She had nothing else to do but either find the rabbit-hole or keep searching till she came up with something else. Do crazy people wonder if they're crazy?
Autumn finally decided to put her search on hold and found a tree to sit under. Lying back on the grass, she stared at the sky. I am so totally screwed. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered her team. Maybe in the heat of the moment this had seemed like a good idea, but now she remembered the good parts of life. A life she'd left behind. She blew a few strands of red-gold hair out of her face and idly listened to the dogs barking. Until she realized they were coming closer.
Jumping up, she looked around until she saw huge German Shepherds dodging between the trees ahead of her. She could hear men yelling behind them. "Trespasser!" Really? There weren't any 'Private Property' signs! Oh, well. This is England, after all, not America. Not home. She turned and ran, not knowing what else to do. It was always her solution. Maybe not the best, but she had yet to learn anything better.
A huge tree stump loomed in front of her as she looked back. The dogs were catching up, and suddenly her foot caught on a root and she fell facefirst over the stump, plunging headlong into a hole on the other side. Wait...a hole? Autumn screamed as she fell, and kept screaming as she kept falling. Oh God, this isn't real, this isn't happening, shouldn't there be a rabbit involved somewhere? A piano flew by her face, and she covered her eyes. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! She bounced off a bed, arms flailing wildly as she kicked out, trying to land on her feet when she slammed into...a floor? No, it was a ceiling, but why wasn't she falling to the floor?
Autumn sat there for a moment, waiting to fall like Alice had in the movie, but she didn't. What's up with that? She supposed her journey was already quite a bit different from Alice's, and so she shouldn't expect anything. But then what am I supposed to do?
She tried moving, and then fell and hit her head on the floor. So far, this is NOT going well. She sighed. I got myself into this...no one around, even, so I really have to get myself out! What's next? Thinking back, she found she couldn't remember. Just great!
Autumn looked around curiously. The room appeared mostly white, with a few black accents. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, and the tiled floor shone under the lights. A small black ornate table stood nearby with a little cake and a vial of liquid on it. Oh, right...which one's which, again? Let's see...food makes you grow, normally, but liquid doesn't exactly make you shrink. Doesn't make you grow too much, either. I'll try the liquid. She could always just reverse the condition if she was wrong. Thinking ahead for once, she set the cake on her bandanna on the ground. Most of my stuff's up there still...Oh, well. Can't be helped. Twisting the top, she opened the vial and took a tiny sip, not too eager to discover it was poison or something. To her relief, she began to shrink rather rapidly. She stopped at about mid-table height, and drank a little more, easing herself down until she couldn't hold the vial anymore. It was mostly empty now.
Now that she was down to size, she figured if the door to get out wasn't big enough to be seen, she might as well stay small since the door probably would be as well. She walked around, examining everything. Pulling aside a curtain that really had no reason to be there-other than hiding a tiny little door-she retrieved the key from beside the cake and pondered the cake for a moment. Breaking off a bit, she wasted a good ten minutes wrapping it in her bandanna and dragging everything through the door.
By the time she shoved everything through, now grateful that very few of her belongings had come along for the ride, also thankful that they were the small ones, she was exhausted. She nibbled on her piece of cake until she grew back to her natural size, and when she felt right, picked up her bag and bandanna and set out.
The world presented itself well, full of bright, vivid colors and new sounds and smells. Autumn paused beside a field of flowers, which murmured amongst themselves, too lost in their own vanity to acknowledge her. She stalked off in a huff. I'll get directions from someone else!
She wandered aimlessly until the sky grew dark, then started panicking. She had nowhere to stay, nowhere to go, and no clue as to what to do. She found a tree with a hole in the trunk and curled up inside, watching the forest grow dark around her and shaking slightly in fear. She snacked on a granola bar and put her headphones in, now extremely grateful for her luck. I knew bringing this along while I looked was a good plan!
Eventually the music helped her relax enough that she fell asleep.