-Chapter 9-
"Please remember Cricket…" the familiar voice whispers. A pair of lips touch my forehead softly. The mouth stays firmly against my forehead for a few minutes before pulling away. As the lips recede, I lean forward, hoping to make them stay, but a sudden shot of pain goes through my head. I groan and curl up, holding my head in my hands.
"Cricket?" I try to open my eyes but it's too bright. I groan and hide my head deeper in my hands.
"Turn off the lights, Abbi." Reggie asks.
"Don't order me around!"
"Shut it!" I hear a switch flip and I open my eyes and glance around the room. I see Reggie sitting on the couch with me, his face full of concern and hope. Why is he so concerned? I look over and see Abbi looking hopeful too.
"Do you remember anything, Cricket?" Reggie asks.
"Um… I remember you dragging me here…" I manage to say.
"Where's here?" Abbi questions, coming over to where I am and feeling my forehead.
"Wonderland."
"That's a good sign." Abbi gives me a reassuring smile.
"But do you remember your childhood? Do you remember Wonderland?" I think hard. The only things I remember were from my dreams. I shake my head slowly, and regret it the moment I did. I groan loudly and put my hands back up to my head. Reggie gets up and runs his hands through his hair, looking quite frustrated. He pushes Abbi against the wall roughly.
"Why can't you help her?!" Reggie voice is harsh towards Abbi. Abbi looks pretty miffed at Reggie in the moment of the heat, but then his eyes soften as Reggie leans his head down on Abbi's shoulder.
"I tried Reggie. I don't think there's anything else I can do…" Abbi says soothingly, running a hand on Reggie's arms.
"… I want my Alice back…" His voice sounds so fragile and shaky. He looks back up at Abbi quickly before glancing at me. That's when I notice a single tear streaming down his face. Reggie quickly leaves the room. I guess he doesn't like being emotional in front of others. I look back at Abbi, who looks completely shocked.
"He's… crying." I mutter, stating the obvious.
"I know…" Abbi mumbles, going over to a big cabinet and opening it. It's filled with tons of bottles and vials. He grabs one of the top and hands it to me, "Drink this."
"Is that normal?" I drink the liquid and my headache begins to dissipate.
"I've only seen him cry one other time in his life and that's when you had to leave." Abbi looks at me with sympathy.
"Why'd I have to leave?" I question, sitting up.
"I'd rather him tell you Sweetie. Do you really not remember your childhood with us?" I simply nod, "Hey, how about you tell me what you remember. It may help you jog your memory as well as help me figure out if there's anything else I can try to help you."
"Um… I remember being told I use to talk about it when I was younger. Then a little while after my dad… died… I stopped. It came back a month or so ago. The first I'd had I'd written for my paper in English. It was about me falling down the rabbit hole." Abbi smiled and nodded for me to go on.
"The next was a tea party, with everyone there. Reggie, Dormouse, White Rabbit, March Hare, and Chessur… Then um…I met Chessur again. We played hide in seek, which wasn't very fair if you ask me." I laugh a little, reminiscing on that memory. Abbi motions for me to go on.
"Then I was trying on a dress Reggie made and hugging him… Um… then the long corridor with the key and the tiny door… Next was White Rabbit being late and me giving him a silver watch… Then cloud-watching with Reggie which turned into Chessur and Reggie fighting and leaving me absolutely confused." Abbi smiles as if remembering hearing the story before, "and erm… that's it." I say quickly, remembering leaving Reggie as he was saying something.
Abbi raises an eyebrow, "My God Alice, you're lying to me."
"Am not."
"Just tell me." Abbi sighs, giving me a knowing look, "It'll make things a lot easier in the long run."
I hesitate, before reluctantly giving in, "When I was leaving. I remember promising never to forget Wonderland and Reggie said he'd come back for me."
"You're missing quite a bit, but you seem to have a grasp on some o-"Abbi stops as there when a knock sounds from the front door. I look to see Reggie peeking through the curtains carefully.
"Will you please explain what's going on with him?" I asked.
"Sweetie, I'd love to tell you all about it. But I'll leave that to everyone else for I think the Red Queen has found you." He helps me stand, but I stumble and fall, still dizzy.
"Reggie! Get your butt in here!" Abbi whisper-yells. Reggie was there in an instant.
"It's the Red Knight with the cards. I think he found out about Alice." Reggie whispers.
"Get her out of here, I'll handle them." Reggie comes over to me and tries helping me stand but I'm still too dizzy and sick. He swings me over his shoulder and takes me toward the back door.
"Hurry Reggie! Good-luck!"
"You too. Hope to see you soon." Reggie quickly shuts the door behind him and starts into a sprint. I cling to him, looking around frantically, but luckily not seeing anyone else.
"Don't worry; we'll be there soon Cricket." I can feel his heart beating faster as he picks up speed. I just cling tightly to him as my head won't stop spinning.
I'm awakened from my dreamless sleep by the too-bright sun hitting my eyelids. I look up and see a wonderful oak tree with beautiful green leaves filling up most of the branches. The sky is that perfect blue with puffy clouds and the sun is shining brightly, illuminating the land.
I sit up and look around. There's more oak trees spread across the bright green field of grass on the left and a stone walkway leading up to a pretty crème house in the background, on the right. Just in front of the house, there's a small table and chair set, broken and tossed about. I raise my eyebrow in question; what happened here?
I jump up quickly and head towards the table. The place is abandoned, chairs thrown to the floor and tea cups and pots shattered on the ground. It's as if everyone left in a big hurry.
I look up at the house and it suddenly it doesn't look as pretty as it did. It looks forgotten, maybe even trashed.
The closer I get the more familiar it looks but I don't know why. I walk up the steps and the door is already ajar and the window is smashed. I carefully walk in and notice immediately that the place HAD been trashed. The couch cushions and pillows were tossed about, the chair's stuffing coming out and books covering the floor, pages ripped and folded. There's a fireplace and on the mantle are pictures, a few broken and smashed. I get a closer look and notice there's a family of four, a father, a mother, an older daughter, and a younger one. I recognize the man as my father. I don't really have any memories of him but I've seen enough pictures of him to know it's him. He has this dark brown hair, a little stubble of hair on his chin, and deep blue eyes like mine.
The older girl must be Mathilda, my older sister. She's very beautiful, with her long, wavy golden locks, friendly brown eyes and cute little freckles covering her cheeks.
The younger girl must be me. I had dirty blond hair and blue eyes like my father. I look so sweet but yet everyone called me crazy, yet I don't know why. The name didn't wear off for years after my dad died. But I still don't recognize the woman. She was not my mother but looked so much like Mathilda. I could see resemblance in them, even a little in me, but she's definitely not the woman I was living with after my dad died.
"Alice? Alice?! ALICE?!" Reggie says, shaking me, trying to wake me up. I groan and open my eyes slowly and look around. The room is huge. The walls are draped in different colors and textures of fabrics. Against one wall is a sewing machine on a glass table, a dark green stool along with it, and a long table beside it with a grid cutting board and tackle box. On the opposite wall there is a rack of clothes and some shelves holding bazillions of hats of all kinds. In one corner was a curtain made of stripes of different fabrics on a rod as a make-shift dressing room and the other corner was a doorway with drapes over it. I was lying on a worn-down couch next to that was another doorway.
I looked up at Reggie, "Ehhn... huh?" was all that came out. He smiled.
"You're awake…"
"It's kind of hard to stay asleep when someone is shaking me and screaming my name." I gave him a look. He woke me up while I was in the middle of figuring out who that lady in my family picture was. I've never seen her in my life… but she looked so much like me and Mathilda…
"Sorry… but you need a shower and some new clothes. Those ones are far past any fixing I could do." He looked at my ripped and dirty clothes. He was right, they were beyond repair.
"I guess you're right…"
"I know I am. Now go down the hall and last door on your right will be the bathroom. Take a shower. I'll bring you some clothes later." He helps me off the couch and pushes me down the hall gently. I stagger a bit before catching my balance. I turn around to protest but the door is slammed in my face.
Well then. I turn back around with a huff and head down the hall. I get to the bathroom and shut the door, stretching and yawning as I look around the small bathroom.
The bathroom is covered in green. Green curtains, green walls, green rug, and even matching green towels. I smirk; I should've known it'd all be green.
I sigh and strip down and get into the shower. The water starts off pretty cold, but warms up rather quickly. I look at the thousands of bottles in confusion. Which is which? I begin to pick them, settling on a strawberry body wash and hair combo. As I rinse the shampoo out of my hair, I hear the door creak open.
"Hello?"
"Reggie?" I said, startled, "GET OUT!"
"I'm just dropping off your clothes! Geez… I won't peek… much." He smirks and I watch him through the curtain putting the clothes on the sink counter. He then turns around and shakes the curtain, but doesn't pull it away.
"You better not! Or I'll make you wish you didn't!" I screech.
"I'm leaving geez!" I can see his shadow walking toward the door and hear it shut. I relax a little and finish the shower. I dry off and wrap towel around me and inspect the clothes he left me to wear. He first left me a lacy black bra and underwear set. I smirk; Really Reggie? I hope he doesn't plan on seeing this. I reluctantly pull them on and inspect myself in the mirror. And to my surprise, I look hot. The clothing he gave me fits far better than any Victoria's Secret store I've ever shopped in. I look back down and see that he left me a light blue, tight, mid-thigh dress with black straps that ran all the way down the front. It was laced in the back from the bottom of my back to the top of the dress and black lace for the trim. I tried pulling it on but it was impossible. I finally had to unlace the entire back just to slip it on. But now I couldn't lace it back up. I sigh and hold up the dress as I go back to the room I was in earlier?
"Reggie? Reggie?!" I look around franticly until I see him pop his head out from the back curtain area.
"Yes?"
"Lace me up." I turn my back to him to show him I needed help. I saw a look of lust cross his face as he walked up to me. I could feel his warms hands shaking as he tried lacing me back up. His fingers ran against my back a few times, giving me shivers from head to toe.
"Done." He took a step back and I turned around.
"Thanks." I looked up at him and catch him staring at me.
"Cricket…" He stepped closer and put his hand on my cheek, stroking it softly with his thumb. He lowered his head so his lips were an inch away. I close my eyes and lean a little closer as well.
Just as our lips barely brush against each other's the doorbell rings. We jump away from each other.
"I uh… should get that…" He's gone within seconds and running down the stairs. I just stand there, dumb-founded, and thoroughly annoyed. Why can't I catch a break and actually get a kiss from him?!
