Chapter 7

I woke up with someone shaking my shoulders. I groaned and opened my eyes to my sister hovering inches from my face, her blue eyes wide with panic.

"Edith, what's wrong?" I asked. My head hurt.

Edith kept looking at me for a moment, then bent her head and sighed.

"You were moaning and screaming in your sleep. I thought you might be hurt."

My head really hurt.

"I'm fine, don't worry."

Not fine. Totally not fine.

"You're sure?"

Oh, God no.

"Actually, could you get me some painkiller? I have a headache."

Hurry. Hurts. Very bad. Send ambulance.

"Okay, I'll get the doctor."

Oh, yeah. In a hospital. Professional head doctor please.

She started leaving and a single thought came through my migraine: Doctor = bad.

"No, Edith! Don't get the doctor. I'm… Okay."

She looked back and raised her eyebrows.

"You don't look okay."

Then I sat up and more came back to me: the conversation, the weird names, the syringe, the fear. So I started babbling.

"No, Edith, you can't talk to him, he's bad, there was a guy and he broke in and Moose said he didn't know him, but he did and there's a queen and he used a needle and-"

"Alice! Calm down, you're not talking sense. I'm going to get the doctor and I'll be right back. You need to wake up, you must still be dreaming."

"No, don't-" but she was gone.

I contemplated jumping out of a window and making a run for it, but I was on the second floor and there were no windows anyway. So I laid back, massaging my temples. I thought about what I said and what I meant, and realized that Edith was right. It was complete and utter poppycock.

"Maybe I'm losing my mind…" I mumbled to myself.

"Maybe you are."

I sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it. Did I mention? My. Head. Really. Hurt.

There was a striped blue cat, floating next to my bed and smiling at me. Yup. I was a raving lunatic.

"That doesn't really matter though," he said.

"We're all mad here."


Hey, I was kind of wondering if anyone was still reading this. I noticed that the last chapter hasn't gotten any views or visitors, so I was thinking that I might stop posting. If you'd like to keep reading then, well, read it. Maybe tell your friends? Anyway, I won't bother to type this out if no one's reading it. To be continued...?