Hobbits notes: HA-ha she lives *gets shot by Alice*
Damn
So sorry for the long wait but it took me forever to flesh this chapter out, and I've been kept somewhat at bay.

My bunnies were eaten and my muse has been killed twice over. .. However I am alive I do remember you, my Wonderful readers *blows kisses* and I am hell bent on finishing this story.
Eventually.
Thanks for staying with me thus far.
Slainte
Hobbit

The Elusive Miss Mary-Anne

Wonderland at night had always been surreal to Alice. It was still, dead. Almost like it ceased to exist all together. And perhaps it did. When sweet oblivion came Alice no longer needed the escape of Wonderland. It was a waking dream she walked in with her eyes opened.

Perhaps that was the answer all along. She merely needed to wait until night fall and then wake up in the morning in her own bed. Yes that was all. She had merely fallen into her waking dream. Once she was awake again none of it would-

"Oh!" Alice fell back startled. She had walked into an all too solid tree. She stood again and squinted through the darkness. "Or I could be utterly wrong and completely trapped." Alice sighed. She hated to be proven wrong and it happened all too often for her taste. Especially in wonderland. Alice brushed off the back of her black short skirt and looked around carefully until she noticed a soft light in the distance. The White rabbit had lived close by here, hadn't he? She recalled visiting him on several occasions while on her way to tea with Hatter. Since it was quite difficult to be late when time stood still.
(Alice as a child had prided herself on punctuality.)

Alice walked steadily up to the light; more certain with each step it was the rabbit's house. Alice had just raised her hand to knock when she heard a small thud and the light went out.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Alice breathed, pushing the door open and walking inside. After her eyes adjusted somewhat to the dimness, Alice was able to discern a kitchen. Upon lighting a candle she found the remains of a fine meal
upon the table. It consisted of lobster with lots of butter sauce, and some sort of wilted lettuce and pecan salad. Shells littered the floor. Alice wrinkled her nose at the putrid smell and gave the decomposing seafood a wide berth, crossing to the cupboard where she found a small bit of good brown
bread and fresh butter.

Adding half an onion and cold broth, she made herself a hearty meal. She patted her stomach tenderly.

"Sorry Mommy can't find you a better supper. Grow strong for me," she whispered to her unborn baby, then looked to the stairs trying to recall the location of the bedroom. The White rabbit had always been quite hospitable, she reasoned. Surely he would grant a mother-to-be a safe respite for the night.

At the top of the stairs she heard a soft scrambling and saw a small figure dart into the shadows.

"Hello?" Alice called, almost certain the White Rabbit had lived alone. The only response was a soft scrabbling sound. A shadow amongst the shadows willing itself to melt away into nothingness. Something wanted to stay hidden.
Something was desperate to stay unseen. It was frightened. Alice knew the feeling all to well.

"I'm terribly sorry." She sighed to whatever it was that stared out from the darkness. Large hungry eyes that watched pitifully. "I never meant to frighten you Dear." Alice retreated back to the top of the steps. "I'm stranded for the night you see. I didn't think anyone would be here."

"He isn't here?" a raw voice croaked back. It was so sudden Alice started and nearly fell down the steps. "No. Only me... and you I suppose."

"I Suppose." the voice echoed dismally. Alice sensed the creature, whatever it was had relaxed somewhat. But she let it keep to the shadows. "But He will come back. He always comes back."

"Are you - waiting for someone?" Alice asked the whatever-it-was. she sensed an uneasy rustle in the air. as though the whatever-it-was shifted its weight, uncomfortable with the conversation.

"He waits for none. Comes as he will, goes as he will. Gorges on food and bodily desires. Uses what he wants when he wants it. The table is a chair, the bed is a trampoline and I am a mattress. A mattress with holes he can play in." The whatever-it-was intoned solemnly.

The shadow rose from the ground and the whatever-it-was began screaming madly "He hurts me and laughs as I scream. He smells of fish, always smells of rotting dead fish. He eats and eats and gives me naught. He beats me until I pass out and wakes me again when he lays atop me, crushing the air from my lungs as he fucks me. He fucks me until I bleed. Until I beg. Fucks me till his dick is limp and then he uses... other things. Painful things until I burn on the inside and want to die!" The whatever-it-was ranted its ending with a small
wail and collapsed to the floor.

Alice flinched and knocked over her candle, accidentally snuffing out the light. In the stillness she could hear the whatever-it-was whimper softly.
Then, in a soft mewl of a voice the question came, almost hopeful.

"Have you come to kill me?"

"No, I haven't!" Alice replied, bewildered.

"Shit."

" I- I - I came to..." Alice sighed. She had killed the master of the house. Perhaps the whatever-it-was had nothing left to fear. "He is dead. I took an axe to his head. I had proof but now I don't. I'm leaving wonderland forever. Come with me." Alice sensed the whatever-it-was scuttle quite close. It smelled stale. Stale blood stale semen stale dirt.

"Death will not stop him." the whatever-it-was answered sourly. "You had best leave before he comes to claim you. He is insatiable. And he likes pain. Causing pain. You will hear his victim scream, and know you're next. He had another before me. She died of exhaustion. Weak as an unborn child."Alice held her breath to keep from choking as she re-lit her candle and took a
long look at the whatever-it-was. She gasped and nearly dropped the candle.
The whatever-it-was was her!

"Alice?" she breathed and held the candle close to the large hungry Alice eyes. It was her and yet it wasn't. The same cherry red lips, the came wide generous mouth. The large lost eyes were the same color as Alice's much smaller ones. The nose was different but not by much

"Who?" The whatever-it-was-Alice asked.
"No no one. Someone you look like. Remarkably like." Alice studied the limp hair and dingy clothes. She supposed cleaned up, the hair would be yellow and silky. Like flaxen gold. The grey pina fore was undoubtedly white at one time. And the dress, before it faded must have been a deep blue color, like the one mother had made Alice when she was small.

Alice crept a little closer. the whatever-it-was-Alice had bones sticking out from her stretched skin. She was pale where the bruises didn't cover her skin. A soft delicate pink."I've never once seen you before. Not in all the times I've been here." Alice frowned, certain she had known everyone in wonderland. "And I would remember you."

The whatever-it-was-Alice looked at the real Alice for a long time and shook her head. "Nor I you. But I glimpsed a creature similar to you once. It was in the mirror."

"Well I imagine so as you look like me" Alice replied, examining the frail form.

"Are you sure?" whatever-it-was-Alice replied uncertainly. "Because I was under the impression it was you that looked like Me. Not the other way round."

"Oh." Alice sighed and thought it through wonderland logic. "Well perhaps we could have it both ways? I could look like you and you could look like me?"

"No we can't. It's just not logical. I think it best if you were to look like you and I could get on with looking like me, if that would suit you?"

"Very well then." Alice nodded, she was too tired now to fight with the whatever-it-was-Alice. "My name is Alice and I'm looking for a place to stay for the night."

"Are you Alice? I've wondered often. I'm Mary-Anne and not usually in Wonderland when you are. Someone needs to go to lessons and get beaten when you're here. I take your body and move you about so you're where you need to be."

"Well then I'm much obliged to you I'm sure!" Replied a rather stunned Alice. And to think she had been certain Wonderland had no more surprises for her. She tried to stifle a yawn. How long since she had any real sleep?
"I do beg your pardon. But do you know of anywhere I could get some rest? It's been a- rather long day." She gulped, not wishing to dwell on the death of her little boy.

The thin frail body of Mary-Anne jerked suddenly, like a marionette whose strings were just pulled. Startled, Alice dropped her candle, plunging the pair into darkness."Oh not here. Certainly not here. You must leave at once. If he finds you... If he Knew you were here." She whispered fervently, tugging Alice to the stairs. "You must go Alice. You must leave wonderland before he takes you. He'll hold you down- he would keep you here."

"We're safe here he's never coming back!" Alice replied, beginning to grow afraid. She had killed the white Rabbit ages ago. "Mary-Anne, let go!"

In the dim light Alice saw the large frightened eyes bulge as Mary-Anne shook her head vehemently. Alice gasped and drew her hand away. Thrown off balance, Mary-Anne stumbled and fell end over end down the stairs.

Whether it was the beaten body or the battered soul that could endure no more, Alice never knew. But Mary-Anne never rose from where she fell.