This week's chapter ^^

Enjoy.

Alice's eyes shot open and she was startled immediately after remembering where she was. She expected to be in darkness or some other horrid place. Instead, she was listening to her alarm clock go off annoyingly and she was lying in her bed.

"A dream." She sighed heavily, sounding exhausted for someone who had just woken up. "Just a horrible fucking dream…"

She rolled over to curl back up and bed and her eyes widened at the feeling. Shooting up to see she was still in the clothes she'd remembered wearing from the day before, and she was still wet. Her shoes were ruined and her hair was damp.

"Oh my God…" Alice muttered rubbing her eyes all the while feeling like she could cry again. With a deep sigh she slammed her hand down on her clock to turn it off and got up to shower. She didn't remember getting inside or going up to her room. She wasn't even sure she got any sleep at all, but that was the only explanation she could come up with for the dream she had. What concerned her now was waking up as soaked as she had been in the dream. It just wasn't something she could rationalize, and that was something she had thought she would be very good at.

After writing so much she thought she'd be good at trying to figure out those kinds of things, but this left her stumped. It was unexplainable and she wasn't used to that. It was one of those things that would gnaw at the front and back of her mind. It wasn't just a nightmare; it was something truly terrifying.

She got dressed and headed down stairs, running into her mother in the kitchen.

"There you are." Her mother, Dr. Angela Rhodes smiled. She looked very much like an older version of Alice. Only wearing a very nice pants suit and expensive heels. "Was wondering when you were going to come down. No one heard you come in last night."

Alice just nodded. It was nearly bitter knowing that none of them checked to see if she was in her room either. They assumed she was always well, and generally she was, but being in the situation she was she wished her mother would show a little concern.

"Alice?"

She looked up at her mother and sighed.

It wasn't exactly the caring motherly love side of her mom poking through now so much as it was just her mother analyzing her as if she were one of her patients.

"Mom?"

"You're pale." She noted. "And shifty eyed, and your looking around as if you expecting a monster to pop around the corner. Are you okay?"

"Fine…" Alice muttered.

Her mother frown. "Tell me it's not drugs."

"Mo-om." Alice groaned. "I don't do drugs. Jeez..."

Though the moment she said that she had to wonder if she was slipped something. That could explain all the things she'd dreamed. She could have had a fit and hallucinated the entire thing. For all she knew she could have gotten in the house some how, strung out on something and imagined the whole thing. But that didn't explain how she had gotten wet.

"Are you sure?" Her mother asked, sipping from her teacup.

"Yeah, mom. I'm positive. I didn't sleep good, that's all." Alice muttered. There wasn't any time the day before she could have been slipped something. Drugs might have been an explanation but they didn't count if she had nothing in her system.

It was bothering her more now. If her mother noticed something then that meant she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding how scared she was over it.

"Where are you going?"

"Running mom." She muttered. The question annoyed her since it wasn't like it was something uncommon for her. She wasn't some delinquent that had to hide around mommy.

"Ah, right. With Michael." Angela nodded. "Of course. How is he?"

Alice stared at her mother for a moment and shrugged. "He lives down the street mom, not another state. He's fine."

"Hm..." Angela nodded. "I don't suppose there's anything between the two of you?"

"I'll give you the same answer I gave you last time, mom. We're friends." Alice sighed. It was one of those questions her mother seemed to forget just how often she asked it.

"Alice—"

"See you after my run mom." Alice said, walking out. They both already knew her mother would be gone by then. At work with either some appointment, meeting or client to see. It was nothing new to her and gave her time to herself.

Alice sat out on the sidewalk and stretched slowly. If it was all just a dream, then she was over reacting and loosing her marbles. But considering the small part of her that thought it could be real, then she had almost drowned. Any number of things could have happened to her in that short time and her life would have been over in a moment.

"That is the look of a very determined Alice." Mikey said, slumping down next to her to start his own stretching. They'd been meeting in the morning like this for years; it was early enough that most never even saw them.

"Yeah." Alice muttered softly, leaning forward slowly, stretching and arching so she couldn't wear herself down during the run.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as they often did before Mikey nudged her shoulder. "What's up?"

"Hm?" Alice looked up at him. She was thinking hard about the man who claimed to be the White Rabbit and the little boy who was the keeper to the door. Everything about the two of them was absolutely peculiar.

"Alice?"

"I dropped you off last night, right?" she asked, looking to him slowly.

Mikey stared at her for a long time before he raised an eye and smiled. "You're kidding, right? Have you had a lapse in memory or something?"

Alice was quite for a long moment. "Maybe."

He stared, leaning slightly closer. "Serious, Alice."

"Let's run." She said, getting to her feet and brushing her pants and hands off. Running she could have a little time to think.

Mikey shrugged, letting it drop. "Fine then."

The two of them ran for nearly a half-hour before slowing down. It turned into a jog and then a walk. They circled their neighborhood several times as they did every morning they ran. It gave them time to talk or run in silence. Today was one of those silent days.

Alice tried hard to focus on the run but her thoughts kept drifting back to her dream, or hallucination. The closest she got was reminding herself to buy new running shoes since hers were ruined, but that only led back to her thinking of how they got so damaged to start with.

"C'mon…lets take a break." Mikey muttered, sweating and sighing from exhaustion. He brushing his hair out of his face and pushed Alice again to get her attention when she didn't stop. "Hey, stopping now."

"Oh. Yeah." Alice muttered, rubbing between her eyes for a moment.

"Someone needs a nap, eh?" he chuckled. "What the hell's wrong with you?"

Alice frowned. "I'm going crazy, Mikey."

He stared again; not looking quite so amused anymore. Usually they could joke back and forth without any hesitation but she looked too serious. "Alice, c'mon…"

"But I did drop you off, right?"

"Yeah…why?"

"I'm tying to figure out when I started losing it." She admitted.

He shook his head. "Breakfast." He said, point to his house.

"Yeah, okay." Alice muttered. It was common for them to get breakfast on some mornings, depending on which of their parents weren't home. Alice followed him quietly and looked up as they approached his house. She thought about the inside of the doorkeeper's house, and thought now how lonely it must have been for the kid.

Even if it was a subconscious nightmare she didn't want anything bad to happen to any kids and couldn't think of why her imagination would pull that up.

"Nanny's day off or something?" Alice commented when she watched Mikey pulling out bowls and a box of Cheerio's.

He smiled. "You know I'd ask her to make us something if she was up, but she's not. I don't feel like waking her."

Alice smiled a little. "Awe, you're a good kid. But your really feeding me cereal?"

He raised an eye. "Like you'd cook if Lane and Erin weren't around. Take what you can get and don't be so picky."

"Yeah-huh." Alice said, taking her bowl. "Where're your parents now?"

"I got a post card from Berlin. So go figure, right? I should be the one taking the yacht out and throwing wild parties, but somewhere along the lines I passed my parents in maturity or something." Mikey chuckled. "No matter to me. Yours hanging about?"

"Dad's in New York last I asked. Mom was home this morning, up bright and early, but I doubt she'll be back when I go home." Alice said, pouring milk on her cereal.

"Was the good doctor trying to diagnose you again?" he asked, with an amused grin. "Or is she still waiting for the day we confess our love to each other?"

Alice nearly choked on a cheerio and covered her mouth quickly before laughing. It was well known to the two that their mothers secretly wished for them to be together. It was one of those things their mothers' could giggle about when they weren't around, not knowing their clever children were always close by and listening in.

"Oh yeah. She thinks I'm unstable due to depriving myself from my burying my secrete feelings for you. Or some psychobabble like that." Alice chuckled.

Mikey's grin widened. "Been telling you that for years. Now is that what happened. Your mom trying to get you to see someone again?"

There were times Dr. Rhodes thought Alice's imagination and writing abilities were a little to grand. She often tried to talk Alice into having a one on one chat with someone certified to listen but her father thought it was rubbish.

"No, I'm just afraid of proving her right. I don't remember getting home last night," Alice muttered softly. Mikey just raised an eye and prodded until she continued. She ended up telling him the entire story of what happened, from being sucked into a puddle to waking up in her bed. The look on his face was enough for her to know how ridiculous it sounded.

"Wow…" Was his only response. "Um, Alice, do you realize what your saying? I mean, would make a great story, but Wonderland?"

"I know!" Alice said loudly, groaning softly as she laid her head on the kitchen table. "But my shoes, Mikey…My damn shoes."

He seemed to struggle with that part too.

"Sleep walking?" he suggested. "Maybe you were just standing in the shower or something. You know, like really getting into the dream."

Alice frowned again. "I never got inside. I don't remember going to my room or having dinner or anything. Even mom asked me this morning where I was and how late I got in because no one heard me. I'm not graceful enough to be that quiet."

"Alice." Mikey muttered. "Sounds to me like your trying harder to convince yourself that it really did happen rather then it just being a dream. That's not healthy, you know."

"Great. You think I'm crazy too…" Alice muttered. "Look, could you not tell anyone about this. I don't need people trying to put my in a straight jacket."

He smiled a little. "Even if I do think your imagination is taking a odd turn, I wouldn't turn you over to the crazy keepers."

"Thanks a lot…"

"I just want a little more proof then wet shoes, Allie." Mikey said. "Reasonable?"

"Annoyingly so." Alice nodded. The more she thought about, the more she wanted to crawl back into bed and wish the whole thing didn't happen.

She left later, walking home by herself to clean up and change. The run kept her in shape but even that was starting to get old to her. There was a time where she never would have thought so. Running used to be a thrill for her that nothing could take the place of. It was time she cherished to some degree where she was left alone with her thoughts and secrete daydreams. Even when Mikey ran with her it was still something she valued. It wasn't terribly often they got to spend with each other anymore. Once she made the soccer team and then captain it all seemed to lose a little of that magic. The only thing that seemed to bring it back where the times she wrote a little story. Her imagination was just as good a replacement from the running.

She laid on her bed with a sigh; her thoughts drifting back to Wonderland and the boy named White. He was more forward then she was used to, and was more then likely up to something but she couldn't even begin to comprehend what.

Not only that but he seemed a little off. That, and someone made a child in charge of opening and closing a door? Alice made a face thinking about it. It sounded simple but not in a dangerous place like that. It definitely didn't seem like it was a child friendly place.

Alice jumped up suddenly when her cell phone chirped and she let out a tired groan. She had been hoping no one would call her today. She just wasn't in the mood, and she felt like she missed a nights worth of sleep and should make it up.

"Daddy?" she answered after checking the name that flashed.

"Hey there, honey. I didn't wake you up did I?" he asked, and she smiled a little at the concern. He was the kind of father to worry about that kind of thing. Adam Rhodes and his partners were the top lawyer's in the state and because of that, much of their time was occupied.

"No. You know it's that normal time most people are waking up so I've been up for hours." She said. "How's New York."

"Would you believe it's miserable? Traffic is just the start, but them I'm sure you don't want those dysfunctional details." He mused; sounding fairly amused as if knowing.

"I'll wait for you to get home. It'll make good details for writing, I'm sure. Did you have a court case?" Alice asked, oddly informed with her father's career just by listening to the stories he told to her mother or even one of his partners.

"Not this time but it might turn out that way. This was just a meeting with clients we might be representing." He explained.

Alice nodded and relaxed back on her bed. "Then you get some relaxing time. That's cool. Did you call to talk shop with me, dad?"

"As I matter of fact I did in some sense of word." He laughed, his deep voice rumbling. Gregory and I got some time off and were thinking of taking you kids out for a weekend. Camping, hiking, all the things we did when you were younger."

She laughed softly, thinking back on those memories. When they were nine or ten there were many weekends her father and Mr. Wallis took her and Mikey out camping. It was some of her fonder memories despite all the times each of them got individually lost.

"Sounds good to me." She said. "When? Soon?"

"Either this weekend or the next. Just wanted to make sure you kept your schedule loose." He said, and she could hear him flipping through pages on his side.

"Sure will…" Alice chuckled. "Any idea when you'll be home yet?"

"For sure? Absolutely no idea, but I can't imagine this'll take too much longer, honey. How've things been on the home front?"

There was a small bit of hesitation before she started racking her brain for an answer. She already had Mikey thinking she was nuts; she didn't need her father worrying too. Plus it would give her mother all the excuses she needed to really get on her nerves.

"Noting to report." She finally said.

"Alice…"

She winced faintly at his stiffer tone. It meant he knew something wasn't as it should be or at the very least that she'd had a rough morning.

"Don't go over thinking things dad." Alice sighed a little. "Had a hard nights sleep and that's all. It's making me cranky."

"It you say so, hon. Just know I have the skills for spotting a lie." Adam said, letting the subject drop as he often did. Most would think it was just because he spoiled her but she knew the subject would more then likely reappear after he got home.

"I know, dad. I know." She sighed softly. "I'll see you when you get home."

"Love you, kid." He said and hung up. She stared at her phone for a moment and shook her head. He never waited for the other side of the phone to say goodbye. It didn't matter who it was. She brushed it off as a lawyer trait and that he'd just hang up when he was done talking. It had always been like that.

Even with the camping offer out of the blue, she smiled at the prospects. It would be good to get away for a weekend and focus on something else for a few days. It would sure as hell beat hanging onto the thought of Wonderland.

Thanks for reading.