"Mister Alexander-" Headmaster Grimm spoke with pride in his voice.
"Alex."
"Mister Alexander-"
"Alex, only my mother called me Alexander. No one calls me that anymore. "
He paused and continued. "How are you enjoying your time here at Ever After High?"
"It's fine, made a girl cry my first day." He said to himself. "Think that's a new record."
"I noticed. If I'm not mistaken, you are the son of Queen Alice Liddell."
"Her grave stone reads: Alice."
"Yes, I heard she passed away. My condolences."
He didn't like Grimm and couldn't care less about his words. "…there a reason I'm here?"
"Yes, well. As a late start student, you were not here for the pledge of Legacy Day."
"The what?"
"Legacy Day. A glorious day in which the young students pledge their lives to relive the stories of their parents, or so it should have been." Grimm spoke with disappointment, and Alex knew it.
"Things not go as planned?"
"Some students…believe a notion that they are entitled to their own destiny."
"Aren't they?"
"That's dangerous thinking Mr. Liddell, you see, unlike other students, you aren't from here. You come from another world and another story entirely. But the students here, should they not follow their destiny, they will cease to exist."
"You so sure about that?" He then thought of Raven, how she didn't want to be evil. "Looks like Raven's still around?"
"Haha, yes, dear Raven. Well the future isn't written in stone. Perhaps she is not ready now, but in due time, she will."
"Again I ask, you sure?"
"She has to!" Grimm slammed his first on the table. Stunned by his own action he quickly turned around to regain himself. "...That is, it is her destiny to do so."
"Right," Alex didn't believe any of it, not one bit. "…so what about me?"
"You? You are a special case. No doubt you have seen some… familiar faces? The daughters of other Wonderland beings?"
He had not. "Wonderland was my mother."
"Well, if you are to attend this school, you must take the pledge of Legacy. Here." Grimm placed a giant tome in front of Alex.
"…what is this?"
"This, my dear boy, is the Storybook of Legends, in it, are the stories of old, as well as the promises of the new generation to retell those stories."
"So why should I care?"
"I want you to take the pledge."
"What?"
"I know of your world Mr. Liddell. The cold cruel place it is, as well as what it has made of you."
"I ain't so bad."
"You made Apple cry."
"Oh…right."
"If you take the pledge I can promise you a life far from that place, one of wonder and adventure, you could be like your mother."
Alex couldn't believe it, he didn't want too. "My mother died."
"You said it yourself Mr. Liddell. A story that old?"
"Been told in many ways…" He felt a lump in his throat, harder and harder it was to speak.
"It doesn't have to end for you like that. All you have to do is take the pledge."
"Why me? What does it matter if I take the thing or not?"
"If someone like you can find comfort in the destiny set for him, then so will others."
"…" Slowly he opens the book. It flips itself to the page that was just for him. As if by magic he sees his story play out. How he falls down the rabbit whole. How he meets Kitty Cheshire. The tea party he has with Madeline Hatter. Even playing croquet with Lizzie Hearts. It all seemed too good to be true. And so it was. Soon all the fun was gone. Wonderland fell to pieces. A war broke out, many died. He held a corpse and cursed the sky. Soon after, he saw himself, in a dark room, three feet of the ground, suspended by a rope. "Ha…figures it end like that." He closed the book and slid it back to Grimm. "Thanks, but no thanks."
"What?! What do you mean? What did you see?"
"I've seen the ending, and I don't want to go."
"But you must, it's your destiny!"
He stood up. "Sorry Grimm, but I ain't one of your fairy tales." And headed out of the door.
"Think about what you're doing!" Alex didn't even turn to hear Grimm. "Alexander!"
He stopped, dead in his tracks. He felt his blood boil, a burning rage filled Alex. Quickly he rushed back to the desk and took hold of Grimm by his coat. "I told you!" He pulled Grimm down and bashed his head onto the desk. "No one calls me that anymore!" Just when Grimm was about to pick himself up, Alex stuck a knife in the desk, not two inches from his face. Grimm could see himself in the reflection. He could see the fear in his eye. "Now I couldn't care less about your school, your students and your problems. I'm here for one reason and one reason alone." Alex pulled the blade out of the desk and walked off, this time for sure to walk out of the room.
"Hahaha! Wonderful, simply wonderful. I knew bringing you here would be exactly what I need." A voice spoke to Alex as he walked through the halls. "You my child," He stopped, to listen. "You will ignite the fire with in them. You will lead them all to ruin." He couldn't find where it was coming from until he noticed…the reflection off a fire alarm…
The fire alarm echoed the halls and pools of water filled the school. "Is everyone all right?!" Grimm spoke to the students from atop the stairs at the entrance of the school.
"All students are accounted for Headmaster." Ms. Yaga told him.
The students, half wet and all in a panic asked. "Who pulled the fire alarm?" and "Why would they do that?"
"Settle down every one." All the students became silent. "Now rest assured whoever is responsible for this, will be found," Not because of Grimm's words, but because of the figure that wondered out of the school, "and proper disciplinary actions will be taken and…and…" Grimm turned to see what they all saw; a dark figure, dry as a bone while the halls were soaked, with a bloody hand, holding onto a bloody knife.
He stopped atop the steps. And when all eyes were on him, he raised his hands and shouted. "My name is Alex Liddell! And I pledge to find my own bloody Wonderland!" He took a step down; they backed away, even Grimm. Another, and another, and another. As he made his way to the bottom, the students parted to let him pass. And he did, he walked away, kept walking. Didn't know when he would stop.