Hello! You should know the author by now, so I won't introduce myself. Special thanks to Haigha3 and DizzyAlice for reviewing. You guys rock!
---
Chapter 2
The two boys were gaping at each other like fish out of water, but the girl recovered much quicker. "Hello. I'm May. This is Matt and Chesh." Her smile held as much warmth as Alice's.
Alice stopped smiling and sighed. "Look, we've kinda been through a very stressful day, so if you don't mind, tell us what you want and please leave."
The brunette boy- Chesh- took another step towards Alice and Lily, despite the warning look Matt shot him. "How does this sound? We need the albino, and we'll take her by force if you don't let her go peacefully."
Lily growled, but Alice pushed her little sister behind her. "How does this sound? She's my sister, and I'm not letting her go without a fight."
Matt sighed. "A fight with a girl? How boring."
"What's that supposed to mean?" May snapped.
"Nothing, Nothing."
Chesh smirked at her. "If you notice, there's two of you and three of us. Plus, you have a kid on your side. You'll never win."
Lily stepped forward. "I'm not going with you! If we're going down, we're going down fighting."
"Have it your way," Matt said, almost apologetically. "May, grab the kid. Chesh, grab the girl."
Chesh grabbed Alice's arms and pinned them behind her back, despite her best attempts to twist free. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" He whispered softly. "Feisty, too. It's almost a shame..."
"It'll be a shame when I rip your head open, devil spawn," snapped Alice. Usually she could hold her composure better than this, but she was too frightened for Lily and stressed, tired, and completely fed up with how infuriating her life was. She could hear Chesh chuckling behind her and resisted the urge to start cussing until her tongue turned black.
"S-stay away from me! I mean it!" Lily said as she backed away from May. She clearly meant it to sound threatening, but it didn't. It only sounded miserable and scared.
"I'm really sorry, sweetie, but you're the only one for the job. If I didn't have to..." She trailed off guiltily when Lily's eyes began to well up with tears. "Aw, please don't cry! We wouldn't do this if it wasn't completely necessary! I hate having to be the bad guy!" Lily desperately turned to Alice, whose eyes were also leaking.
"Lissy, I'm sc-scared." With those words spoken, Alice completely and utterly snapped.
As a general rule, Lily wasn't a dependant child. She prided herself on her resourcefulness and her ability to take care of herself. Even at the precious age of ten, she already understood that Alice had a hard time taking care of them both, so the little girl did her best to not trouble her older sister. Even so, sometimes Lily needed some kind of support from her older sister. The first and last time Lily had called Alice 'Lissy' was when, at five, she had finally gotten up the nerve to ask why they didn't have a mommy or a daddy. Alice wanted desperately to lie to the simple question, but she couldn't think of one and also didn't approve of lying anyway. Alice calmly explained that Mommy had walked out on the family-not because she didn't love them-and Daddy had died when Lily was a baby. Surprisingly, Lily hadn't cried. She merely looked sadly up at Alice and said, "I'm lonely, Lissy." Then Alice's heart shattered- she held Lily tightly and told her not to worry because they had each other and Lily was all the family Alice needed. Lily had nodded and clutched onto Alice's shirt until she fell asleep. It seems strange that the event that happened five years ago could have such an effect on Alice now, but the nickname 'Lissy' was something Lily had used when she really needed her big sister. It represented a time when Lily felt confused, insecure, and sad. And hearing it now made Alice's protective instinct kick in.
"Let me go!" She snapped, kicking backwards and managing to hit Chesh's knee. His knee buckled and he lost his balance momentarily, which gave her the opportunity to free an arm. She elbowed him hard in the stomach and he released her other arm. While he was gasping for breath, Alice slipped away from him and began running towards May, who was trying her best to restrain Lily. Lily was kicking and squirming and putting up a fight, but May was strong despite her small size and was able to basically keep her tied down. Matt ran after Alice and stood in between her and Lily, but she gave him a sharp kick to his shin and he collapsed. She grabbed May's wrist and twisted it painfully behind the girl's back until she let out a choking gasp and released the albino. Then Alice let go and grabbed Lily, glaring around the clearing.
"Anybody else?" She said testily. "Anyone else want to try to take my baby sister away?" Her furious stare was met with a groan from Matt.
"We're really sorry, but we can't give up," May said, sounding like she was choking back tears. "Everything depends on her. If that girl isn't on our side, it could mean destruction for us all."
"Why?" Lily said, peeking out from behind her older sister. Nobody answered.
"You know, if you needed us to help you, you could have tried asking," Alice added with a sigh. "You didn't have to stalk us and try to kidnap Lily."
May chuckled weakly. "Yeah. Sorry about that."
"Won't make that mistake again," Matt said feebly.
"You caught me by surprise. That's all." Chesh glared stubbornly at Alice, who shrugged sheepishly and shot him a docile smile. That seemed to calm him down a little.
"Anyway, we're going to get this straight right now. You have five minutes to plead your case." Lily said coldly, looking around disdainfully at the three strangers sitting up on the forest floor.
"Plead our what?" May asked in utter confusion.
"She means," Alice explained, "that you have five minutes to explain why you were after us, what you want, and attempt to convince us to go along with whatever your ulterior motive is, or we'll just leave and you'll never see us again, god willing."
Matt and Chesh exchanged glances. "You're kidding, right?" asked Matt. "Why do we have to explain ourselves to you in five minutes?"
"Four minutes and twenty-eight seconds," Lily corrected in a sing-song voice, watching the broken front of her watch with glee.
May and Chesh looked at Matt who glared at them with irritation. "Fine. We need Lily. She has to help us. The end." Lily raised her eyebrow, Alice cocked her head, and May slapped her looked nervously at Lily, who was not looking amused. "What he means is-"
"Two minutes fifty-two seconds."
"-that we need-"
"Fifty
seconds."
"-your help to-"
"Forty-eight
seconds."
"WILL YOU STOP THAT PLEASE?"
"He's
right, Lil. At least let him explain."
"...Fine. But
you're down to two minutes exactly. And TALK FASTER! You're wasting
five minutes of my life."
"Alright, well, we need Lily. We're looking for people who can help save Won- er, the place where we're from. We think she may be someone who can help us. We don't really need you, but she-"
"Time!" Lily cheered. "Time, time, TIME!"
Alice
looked thoughtful. "Hm... Maybe."
Lily gaped and yanked
on her sister's ear. "ALICE!"
"Ouuuch!
What?"
"You're not seriously going to hand me over to
KIDNAPPERS, are you?"
"Of course not! I only..." Alice trailed off and Lily followed her gaze. The three odd teenagers were staring openly at the sisters. Matt looked shocked, Chesh looked disbelieving, and May looked wildly hopeful.
"Alice?" May asked, her voice quivering and large brown eyes gleaming in excitement. "Your real name is ALICE?"
"Now May, don't get excited. The card soldiers were broadcasting her death. You got the message- didn't you hear them gloat? They killed the reincarnation in an awful explosion," Chesh said slowly.
"An explosion? Oh! You mean those stupid jerks with the card patterns on their jackets who blew up my chemistry lab? Yeah, it wasn't pretty. The ends of my hair got all singed," Alice said, sadly examining the tips of her hair that were grey with ash.
A grin began to slowly creep across Matt's normally stoic face as it dawned on him. "Why didn't I see it before? The blonde hair, the blue eyes..."
"How she's so innocent! And how she met the white rabbit before anyone else!" squealed May, grabbing Matt and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. "We're SAVED!" Chesh whistled and Alice giggled, covering Lily's eyes. Realizing their position instantly, May shoved Matt away and pretended nothing happened, ignoring the pink flush on her cheeks. Matt pulled his hat down low, but failed to hide the fact that he was bright red to the roots of his blond hair.
"Can't we just focus on Alice?" Matt mumbled. Chesh smirked.
"What
about me now?" Alice asked, planting both hands on her
hips.
"Does this mean Alice can come with me to wherever
you're going?" Lily blurted simultaneously, beginning to smile
eagerly.
"Does that mean you're willing to come with us to wherever we're going?" countered Chesh.
"Well," Lily said, twisting a strand of her long, extremely light hair, "I figure that we really don't have anywhere to go besides to another state until the card-people realize we're alive and try to kill us again. For, like, the three hundredth time. And since you want Alice and me to go with you, we'll be together anyway and you asked quite nicely, so what would be the harm?"
A brief silence followed this practical speech, until Alice broke it with a beaming grin. "That's my sister!" she said proudly, lifting up Lily and spinning her in a circle. Lily giggled.
"Alice, put me down!" she said between laughs. While this exchange was going on, the three outsiders were whispering among themselves.
"I like them," May declared. "Alice seems nice, and Lily is adorable."
"Agreed," said Matt softly. "I'm just curious to see how Lily will get along with Damon."
The three exchanged glances. "Lilly will kill him." Chesh said with a small laugh. The others nodded.
They broke their small discussion to find that Alice had finally put down Lily and the two were staring at them. "So," Alice said in her sweet, curious voice. "Where exactly are we going?"
Matt looked at the other two to find them both looking at him. With a sigh, he stepped forward. "Wonderland."
---
You know the drill! Read and review please! Thank you!
