All Alice knew was darkness. She didn't know if she had been here a hour or for years. Every particle of her being seared, burned, and ached. Her body felt like a walnut after you scoop the meat out, a hollow shell.
Opening her eyes, she saw nothing.
Am I blind?
No, that's not it.
There was something over her eyes. Blinking, she felt her eyelashes sweep lightly across cloth.
She tried to make a sound, only to find she was gagged. Now aware of the foreign cloth in her mouth, she gagged.
Her mouth was unbelievably dry and she had to fight the urge to swallow to avoid choking
As she started hacking the muscles in her torso contracted. Pain crashed over her in waves. The feeling was akin to if someone had taken an ice cream scoop and removed all your insides. Hollowed out like a pumpkin at halloween.
Tears welled at the corners of her eyes, only to quickly be absorbed by that shamwow of a blindfold.
A pair of hands wrapped themselves around Alice's neck. In her attempts to knee, punch, or kick her attacker it was discovered she was restrained. Bindings secured her flailing limbs down, their tautness restricting her movement to only a few inches.
The blindfold was ripped off and the sudden white light pierced her heres like the shards of broken light bulbs.
Alice squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, her nose wrinkling in the process, a devilish hiss escaping her mouth with every exhale.
The fingers of the hands pried her eyelids open and help them there. Looking up, Alice saw a mirror on the ceiling. In the reflection, a devilish creature, maybe once human, was tied down to a table.
The dingy broken white tile that covered all the floor and walls was dripping down to the ground with gore and fluids.
The girl on the table's torso was cut down the middle, insides, or lack thereof, were exposed. On the floor around the metal table upon wheels on which she was tied, organs were beating and pulsating on the floor. Entrails skittered like snakes along the floor, going into contortions and squirting fluids.
Looking next to her, she saw the body that went with the hands. A pale green, wrinkled old man with a bulbous nose and crinkly eyes cackled. His small, crazed eyes crinkled at the edges. Spit flew from his mouth as he threw his head back, cackling, and released his grip on Alice's eyes.
The man's lips were wrinkled and just looked like skin that ended, no pale pink or red lips, just a wrinkled curtain of flesh that covered his large, crooked, and yellowing teeth. The two top front teeth resembled a rabbit's but rounded at the edges. His tongue looked like some sort of fat sea worm on which lived encrusting algae and lichen.
The rest of him was covered in a white, seemingly straitjacket, held on by leather straps with buckled, the sleeves were not belted down, and he wore this like a normal shirt. He wore ragged black pants under this along with a tall and old black-and-white checkered top hat with symbols on the occasional square. The hat looked like it had been sat upon and left outside many many times.
Parts of the man were mechanic, and a large metal gear came out of his back, probably some part of his spine.
He stomped one of his feet (in black and white saddle dress shoes) down on the ground hard as he laughed. This caused a rack hanging on the wall with jars and knives to shake and jolt dangerously, threatening to drop its's contents.
Suddenly he stopped laughing and moved his gaze directly to her's.
Alice, you look so frightened.
He removed the gag from her mouth and she screamed. His hand quickly shot over her mouth and stayed there until she stopped. He raised his hand off her mouth and brought a finger to his mouth. 'Shhh'
His hand had left a bloody handprint on her face. No doubt it was her's.
"Are you...the Hatter?" Alice croaked out, her throat sore.
The Hatter clapped his hands, "Now you remember, love. Good. Now, time to continue.",the hatter brought a small scalpel to his mouth and licked it. He then reached inside of her and scraped along the inside of her ribs, separating muscle from bone. Alice screamed bloody murder before passing out.
