Disclaimer: if I owned Alice in Wonderland, I'd probably not be writing this story right now.

AN: sorry to whoever actually reads this story, but I had trouble with this chapter, so it took me a bit longer.

Chapter 4: Down the Rabbit Hole Again.

(Alice's POV)

Free falling is an odd feeling. It feels almost freeing, yet at the same time, you feel trapped. Trapped in your own body, as though your soul is dying to escape and fly with the birds, and not be being dragged down with your body. I personally, had always wanted to fly. To be free among the clouds, have no boundaries and go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But instead I was stuck on the ground, (or in this case, in air) wishing that I could somehow grow wings and fly away.

But back to the situation at hand.

I was falling down the familiar hole once more. Many different objects of different shapes were falling around me, at different speeds though. Being not as afraid of coming to my imminent doom this time, I could actually observe the sights around me. There was a rather lovely tea set, a bookcase full of foreign looking books, the piano, which narrowly missed hitting me again and oddly enough a shaving kit. I saw the ground, or rather, the roof coming up, and braced myself for the impact which was as usual, slightly lessened since this place was magical.

After hitting the ground in the familiar room of doors, I came to a sudden realization.

I hadn't hit my head on anything, or passed out randomly, and I was feeling perfectly fine, if not a little nervous before this, which means that this place really is real. Underland is real! I felt excited, yet at the same time confused. After all, I had spent the past (about) ten months believing that this place was just a figment of my imagination. It was a lot to take in at once.

This time, unlike last time, I sped through the process of shrinking and getting the key. I took the untouched ubulkuchen for later, put the dolls dress that I had brought on and made my way through the door. After making my way through to the other side, and other world. After getting back to my normal size again, and saving the remaining ubulkuchen and my dolls dress for later, I took the time to take a look around.

Nothing looked off at all, really. It's not that I don't believe that Mallymkun, McTwisp and Chessur were telling the truth, but I was imagining everything being a lot worse, though I did feel as though there was something missing. With nothing else to do, I started walking towards Marmoreal. I didn't make it very far, though when I realised what was missing.

Noise.

There was absolute silence surrounding me. There was absolutely nothing, other than the slight sound of the wind blowing through the trees. Not even the gossipy flowers were saying anything. As a matter of fact, they were all closed up. Every single one of them. It all freaked me out so much that I started running towards the closest place that I could think of, which was the mad tea party.

It took quite a while of running (which I hadn't been doing much) so by the time that I got there, I was completely out of breath, with a horrible stitch in my side. When I had finally caught my breath, I looked around to see all of the usual people gathered around the table. There was Mallymkun, McTwisp, Thackery the March hare, Chessur, the Tweedles, an-

There was no Hatter.

I made my presence known to the remaining six, as they hadn't seen me enter. They all immediately came running over to me and all started talking and greeting me at the same time. It was then that I also noticed that just how sombre they, along with their surroundings looked. It was almost as if someone had stolen all of the life and fun out of here. But I decided to concentrate on their ramblings for the moment.

"Alice you're back! We've all missed y-"

"It's the Alice! The real Ali-"

"Contrariwise, who says she is the Alice? Maybe she-"

"It's about time you got here! We're in a crisis and yo-"

"Alright, alright!" I yelled. "One animal at a time please, I can't understand all of you at once! And yes, I am the real Alice."

They were all silent now, as though debating on whether to continue, so I decided to take the initiative, and get straight to the point.

"Where's the Hatte - Tarrant?" I am trying to call him by his name rather than his profession from now on.

"Alice, I think that it's best that you don't see him," Chessur hesitantly replied.

"Where is he?" I demanded. "And I wont take no for an answer."

McTwisp wordlessly gestured for me to follow him, after seeing that I wouldn't give up on the topic.

"This may shock you," Chessur warned

I followed them into the topsy-turvy little windmill house that I had always wondered about, and tried to get a glimpse of him. And when I did, I couldn't believe what I saw.

The person who I saw before me did not look like the eccentric man who I had met before. This person had limp, lifeless hair, no hat, normal, if not plain clothes on and, what disturbed me the most, black, lifeless eyes. He was sitting on one of the armchairs, with a straight back, and was just staring blankly at the wall ahead with a distant look.

This couldn't be the hatter. This couldn't be my hatter.

After finally finding my voice, I said "Hat-Tarrant? Tarrant, can you hear me?"

I looked into his startlingly black eyes and saw something that gave me short lived hope. I saw a small spark of recognition, and his eyes faded to a slightly lighter, greyish colour. But in a second it was gone.

"It's no use, he won't respond to anyone," Mallymkun said, seeming rather disgruntled.

I suddenly lost all of my energy at those words, and flopped down onto the ground.

I feel as though… I can't even describe how terrible I feel now. What if it's my fault that he's like this? Maybe if I wouldn't have left, I could have prevented him and everyone becoming living corpses. It almost felt like a dream. I mean this was the hatter! He was the one who was able to keep his head (slightly), even while total madness was ensuing last year! He was the one who convinced me that I really could slay the jabberwocky, and now he's like this!

"Follow me to your room Alice," McTwisp said.

"But shouldn't we be going to Marmoreal to see the white queen?"

"You are in no state to travel, and it is getting very late. The shortest path to Marmoreal is through the Tugley woods and who knows what unknown horrors creep there at night!" he protested.

Too exhausted to argue, I let McTwisp lead me to my quarters for the night. He led me into a room that looked like it hadn't been used in years, but it was rather nicely decorated other than the dust.

As soon as he left, I flopped down onto the bed and collapsed into tears.

*****************************Later that night********************************

I couldn't sleep. Even though my eyes stung from crying so much, and begged to be rested, I just couldn't. So, seeing a pencil and some paper in the corner, I decided to write a poem.

Ever since father had introduced me to poetry when I was young, I was amazed at how you could express your feelings in such a way that conveyed everything that you felt without actually coming outright and saying it. I then found after father's death, that whenever I was upset or angry the best way to get my feelings out was to write them out in the form of a poem. So that was what I did.

We are bright before the mud

I stand florescent before near wraiths

Sadly, the inspiration will die

Yet hope is very common within the flowers

I follow the others through the mist

Sneaking, the evil creeps up

Quickly, the sadness overcomes

Turning away,

No words left

Down what streets

The lost child

Wanders aimlessly

In the late light

Not my best work, but it did make me feel a lot better, and now that I don't have those pesky emotions clouding my mind, I can sleep.

*****************************Morning, authors POV*************************

I woke up to loud clanging and banging coming from the kitchen, which I assumed was the march hare trying to prepare breakfast.

I felt almost refreshed, even though I had barely gotten any sleep. I was determined to make progress on finding a cure for the hatter today.

I found a dress in the closet in the corner of the room filled with men's clothes that would have to do. They must have been Tarrant's. There was a slightly smaller blue button up shirt and a pair of purple trousers that I decided on. They were comfortable, and very practical for the upcoming journey. I'm glad that I'm in a place where a woman wearing men's clothes isn't completely inappropriate.

Breakfast was a loud affair, with Chessur complaining, McTwisp worrying about our upcoming venture, Mally and the March hare throwing things around, and the Tweedles arguing and contradicting each other. The food was surprisingly delicious though.

As we were going to leave, I asked Tweedledee (or is it Tweedledum?) about Tarrant, who didn't appear to be coming with us. They kept interrupting each other, so Chessur replied "Tarrant still carries out the necessary actions to keep himself alive, though not with his usual gusto. Such a pity…"

And with that we set off to Marmoreal the journey seemed much longer than last time, as no one was talking which didn't distract us from our eventually aching feet.

At one point I tried to ask questions about this so called 'plague', but I was met with answers of "we'll tell you later," which frustrated me to no end.

We arrived at the castle at around mid-afternoon, and I was met with a sight that once again shocked me to the core. The once beautiful gardens that surrounded the castle were now withered and dying. The flourishing blossom trees were now withered and twisted like the rest of the trees in Underland are. The castle was still its marble white colour, but it seemed almost tainted with the sadness that surrounded it. Curiosity eventually overcame my shock, and I asked McTwisp what happened to the once gorgeous trees.

"Well, actually it's an odd story. When you were least here, the only reason that the trees here were so nice was because Mirana and her court frequently spoke to the trees to keep their spirits up. After you left, the rest of the trees in Underland started flourishing again because the red queen was gone and so was the sadness. But once this… plague came along, all the trees returned to their sad state again. And without Mirana cheering them up, they are all like this."

Curiouser and curiouser. I never suspected that trees could feel. Though it does make sense.

Back to current events, we were about to enter the castle. There were guards at the doors, though they both seemed to be in the same state as Tarrant. They ignored us completely, and let us pass by without even blinking.

I don't know if I can handle all of this. It's all rather frightening. And it reminds me on a fairy tale that father would frequently tell me and Margaret. It was called 'Sleeping Beauty' I believe. In the story everyone in the town fell asleep for a long amount of time. I felt like we were prince charming searching for the princess, as we seemed to be the only unaffected ones here.

We stepped through the double doors and saw-

AN: well, there you have it! R&R if you please J