9: Innocence

Outside of Thomas's house, Susie was sitting on the ground playing with her dolls. "You came!" Susie shouted "Of course I came, I said I would." Helena went over and sat down next to Susie.

"Who do you have there?"

"This? His name is Mr. Floppy Ears," Susie showed Helena a dull rabbit with a vest on.

"And what are you're other dolls names?"Susie started pulling out 2 other dolls from her messenger bag. "This is Lily," She showed Helena a plush frog, "And you've already met Alice."

"So, what do you want to play?"

"Here, you can be Mr. Floppy Ears and I'll be Alice. Alice just went back to the Wonderland."

"But what about Lily?"

"She's sick today; she needs to go back to bed."

"Oh alright." They played with Susie's dolls, to others she would be playing by herself but really she was playing with Helena.

"Helena, Why is it that only I can see you?"

"I don't know. Think of me as your Fairy Godmother, just with out the wings." Susie giggled "Don't be silly, you can't be my fairy godmother."

"And why not?"

"Because, they don't exist anymore, Tommy says so."

"Your brother Thomas says so huh? Where is he now?"

"In his room, he's being a sleepy head today. That or he's busy with his stupid story."

"Hey" Helena shot Susie a look that a teacher might a child who was in trouble. "If it's important to him, then it isn't stupid. You're too young to be using that word anyway."

"Nuh-uh! I'm almost 7!"

"I don't want you using that word alright? Stay here. I'll be right back. Let Mr. Floppy Ears and Alice have a tea party."

"Okay" Susie said in a sort of sing-song way.

Helena wondered around the inside of the small house until she found Thomas's room,inside he was frantically writing

'The Wolfen Prince tried everything he could but the princess wouldn't wake. She was in a deep sleep, on from which it would be hard to wake. "Please wake up," The prince begged.'

Thomas threw his pen at the pages before him. "Why won't she wake up?" He asked himself not knowing that Helena could see and hear him. "Go to the castle; ask Jason, he'll tell you." Helena said. Thomas stopped for a moment and then picked up his pen again. 'Castle, Jason.' He wrote. "Forget it, I'm not going."

"GO! Who knows how long I'm going to be like this, find out what's going on! Do something!"

"I can't!" Thomas shouted back. He went back to his writing.

'The Princess never woke up again. She stayed that way forever, just like her parents.' Thomas finished his story that way, "I'm not going to stay like this. I'm get out of this messed up world, go back to New York and forget about everything!"

Thomas took his book that was filled with his story, and he took it outside. Thomas walked the long path up to the Castle with Helena walking beside him, even if he couldn't see her she walked next to him, watching what he would do next.

He knocked on the castle door but before anyone could answer it, he dropped the notebook and ran. Cassie was the one who opened the door, she looked around for the person who knocked but she saw no one. Helena watched her sister pick up the book. She flipped through the pages, reading bits here and there. "You would like this sis; it's like mom and dads story." Cassie shut the door on her sister and brought the book to the room where Helena's body was. She set the book by the bed, Cassie burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I was suppose to protect you now look at us. You're stuck and I'm here." Cassie left the room and went to the Ice chamber; it was being repaired due to Helena's little fit. Inside her pocket was the letter from their parents. "I'm not going to find her," Cassie whispered to herself. "She's lived here all her life while we lived back there. If there's one thing I'm not going to do, it's not finding Lucinda."

Helena went back to Thomas's home and played with Susie some more. "Alice is special."

"Why is she special?"

"Because she went down the Rabbit hole and came back."

"Hey Susie, you can't tell anyone that you see me."

"Why?" The little girl was almost hurt that she couldn't share her new friend. "Because, nobody else can see me, only you can. You're like Alice, your special."

"I guess."

Helena never did wake up; she was a ghost from another world. She could wonder around forever but she never left the 4th kingdom. She could watch and only Susie could see her. Susie was no longer the little girl Helena played with in her front lawn, but now nearing Helena's age. Susie was 17, her long brown hair flowed like brown water down her back but she never cared for it.

"Helena?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't sleep; tell me about New York again." Susie asked while she lay on her bed, desperate for sleep and good dreams. Helena was on the other side of the room, in a cot that Susie made for her when she was a child.

"Ha-ha, well there are skyscrapers that touch the clouds and roads that never end. Is that what you want to hear?"

"Yeah, tell it like it's a story."

"Aren't you a little old for bed time stories?"

"That's never stopped you before."

"Alright; uh…. There's a famous park there, in New York, called Central Park. I grew up next to the park. I followed my big sister into the forest one night, and we came upon water that floated in the air, but it wasn't water. It was a portal."

"A portal that led here, to the 4th kingdom."

"Who's telling the story, Me or you?"

"You,"

"Alright where was I?"

"You found the portal."

"Oh right, I went through the portal and it took me here. Not that long after I went down the Rabbits hole and fell into this Wonderland of mine."

"Do you ever miss it? Being able to be seen by other people?" Susie stared at her bedroom ceiling.

"Sometimes." Susie reached under her bed and pulled out her notebook that was spilling out of its cover. "What do you draw in there? You never show me."

"You want to see. Come and look." Helena got up off of the cot and looked inside the book, she flipped through the pages; they were drawings. They went from stick figures to intricate portraits of her. "Why are you drawing me?"

"I don't know." Susie grabbed the book back and put back. "Goodnight." Susie said angrily.


Ok brain blocked up again. Any ideas?