The whistle in Alice's ears subsided as the train speed through Moorgate Station and disappeared into the dark tunnel, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its wake.
The sound of the locomotive filled her ears before fading away, leaving her alone in complete silence.
She had lived this memory many times in the past, she had seen Moorgate Station, and the streets of London through her sickening and distorted perception.
Everything was unmoving, untouched, frozen in time, yet she had never managed to caught glimpse of the train that had put an end to her therapist's life.
However, things were different this time, when Alice opened her eyes she saw that neither the train tracks nor her apron were stained red.
The station looked different, it was wider more brightly lit.
She looked around and saw signs written in a language that was incomprehensible to her.
"This is definitely not Moorgate Station," She thought after finally realizing that she had no idea of where she was.
It was larger, splitting into multiple paths that led into a dark unknown.
During many occasions, she could have sworn to have heard various lament coming from the darkness.
Alice found a staircase that led outside and into the streets of a city that was most definitely not London.
It was night-time and the sky was a pitch black mass devoid of any stars that seemed to creep and consume everything that wasn't exposed to light.
The empty streets were lit by abundant street lights distributed in a regular pattern.
All the shops and houses were dark and gave no signs of life from the inside, she saw more signs with even more incomprehensible words written on them.
"What kind of gibberish is this?" Said Alice in frustration as she tried and failed to read one of them.
Unsure of where to go, she picked a direction and started walking forward, aimlessly.
"This place can not be wonderland," She thought" Everything it's too dark and too lifelike, if I could even call that way, to be Wonderland, nothing is out of the ordinary…..just eerie, could this be an uncharted region of Wonderland? No, it can't be, but I have a feeling that the something must have happened for this to happen."
She walked through the empty streets hearing nothing but the sounds of her own footsteps and thoughts, yet in the distance, she could faintly make out the sound of hooves hitting against the hard floor, perhaps a carriage? She couldn't be sure.
Alice's train of thoughts was interrupted by the slender figure of a man walking towards her from the other end of the road.
He looked about as old as her and was dressed in what once was a good looking attire but was now ragged and stained.
His facial features were difficult to make out due to his hunching posture.
"Excuse me, sir, I think I am lost and I need directions," Said Alice out loud as she approached the young man, yet he didn't seem to notice her.
"Please, sir I need your help" The man, now in front of her, instead of stopping just phased through her as if she was made of thin air.
In a single motion she spun around, eyes widened in confusion as she looked at the back of the man who had just passed through her body like she never existed.
Alice started following him, "What just…? How did it happen?" She asked more to herself than to the man who was walking right in front of her, not that what she said really affected him.
As they walked through the empty streets Alice tried to place one hand on the man's shoulder but went right through his body effortlessly, she tried pocking him a couple of more time just to be sure but the result never changed.
"I should probably not say this but I don't think this can get more unbelievable," Alice contemplated what to do with him, the man wasn't really helping her in any way yet she couldn't shake a feeling of impending doom off of her.
"Help me, somebody," Both Alice and the man froze to the hoarse voice of a person coming from an ally on their right.
They saw an old man crawling out of the darkness whilst leaving a trail of blood behind him, he was clearly wounded.
"OH SHIT!" Yelled the man before running towards the other in his aid, Alice also picked up his pace to run alongside him.
But as they were crossing the street a large coach appeared from the same ally on the right running at incredible speed for a vehicle of that size.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl of her in that instant
She saw the young man being violently thrown into the ground by the horses before getting run over by the front and back wheels.
Suddenly Alice felt a sharp pain running through her body despite the wagon had phased through her.
It started as a general sickness throughout her body before it grew in intensity and localized itself in her pelvis.
Alice fell hands and knees on the ground clutching at her aching region, she felt like as if something was tearing away at her lower body.
She painfully glanced at the young man who was laying on the ground with his limbs horribly twisted and an expression of agony printed all over his face, he was no longer conscious.
Neither the old man nor the coach could be seen.
The weight bearing down upon her body was becoming too much.
Alice took one last effort to reach out to the man before her hands and legs finally gave away and collapsed into the ground, her eyelids weakly opening and closing. The last thing she heard before passing out was the sound of horses fading away in the night.
When she finally opened her eyes there were only colors and shapes.
She blinked a few more times to restore her vision and groaned loudly.
Her head felt cloudy, and her skin was glistering with cold sweat but the pain subsided.
Alice tiredly looked around, taking in her surroundings.
The room was dimly lit, with a trembling light that seeped from the cracks of a barricaded window.
She was laying on a bed with white sheets, and as her eyes got used to the darkness she saw a nightstand beside her and a mirror.
Alice sat up sluggishly, feeling dizzy and disoriented.
Her hand fell on the nightstand to support herself but ended up touching something sharp.
Startled, she immediately retracted her hand as a drop of blood ran down her fingers.
Alice took a closer look at the knife on the table and recognized the fancy incisions on the blade.
"Why is the vorpal blade here?" Alice wondered as she took the weapon in her hand, tracing its delicate decorations.
"Well, better safe than sorry," tucking the weapon in her apron's pocket, Alice got off the bed, her legs felt a little bit shaky but she could still walk.
"I don't know where am I or why I am here. But if there is one thing that I know with certainty is that this is not Wonderland."
Alice walked up to the window across the room, it was covered with wooden planks that formed a solid barricade.
She didn't even attempt to remove them, and instead opted to focus on the only door in the room.
She turned the knob but, not much to her surprise, it didn't budge.
Alice checked her pockets to see if there was anything that she could use to get the door to open.
Her fingers reached for a stiff and grainy object inside her pockets, and when she pulled out her hand she found a white piece of chalk sitting in her palm.
"Where the bloody hell did this thing came from?" Alice squinted her eyes as she looked at the little limestone rock in her hand.
The silence around her was abruptly broken by the distant sound of footsteps coming from behind the door, Alice pressed one ear against the wooden surface and held her breath.
They were slow but steady, echoing within the white walls of the room.
The sound grew louder as the source got closer to the door.
Alice gripped onto the vorpal blade tightly, ready to attack whatever lied beyond the wooden door.
Then the footsteps stopped as abruptly as they came.
Alice pressed kept her ear pressed against the door but not a noise could be heard from the other side.
Her hands were sweaty but her body didn't dare to move.
She heard something sliding under the door, and when she looked down she saw a yellowish sheet of paper with the words "BEYOND THE LOOKING GLASS" written on it.
Through the door, she heard the sound of the stranger walking away.
Alice started breathing again, she eased the tension in her muscles and sheeted her knife.
She knelt down and picked up the yellow sheet in her hand, feeling the crusty texture of the paper between her fingers.
"Beyond the looking glass" She repeated the four words in her head a couple of times, contemplating on their meaning.
Alice glanced at the large mirror that stood opposite to the door.
It was large enough that she could see her entire body and the door behind her.
Then Alice saw, in the reflection, that door was wide open.
She spun around to see if her eyes had deceived her, but when she saw that the door in the room was still closed she knew she had seen right.
Alice approached the mirror, taking every steep with extreme precaution.
She checked behind herself one more time just to be sure before stretching an arm to touch the reflective surface.
It went right through it.
Her fingers swirled through the ethereal object, which rippled like a body of water with every twist and turn of her hand.
She took a moment to amuse herself before plunging her whole body into the reflection.
Alice landed with a thud to the ground, followed by a shower of glass shards.
As she got up and dusted off the broken pieces of the mirror she noticed that the room was identical to the previous one, but this time it was wide open, leading to a narrow corridor.
A smirk of satisfaction appeared on Alice's lips as she exited the room and closed the door behind.
The corridor was dim lit and had no windows.
The only source of light was a rusty chandelier hanging low from the ceiling.
On the right side, there were five doors, all of them had a numbered tag ranging from one to five.
On the left side, there were five benches, each of them stood perfectly opposite the doors on the right.
A large double door stood closed on the other end of the corridor.
Alice turned the knob of every single door, and every single one of them didn't budge.
Frustrated, she went straight to the double door, which opened without any resistance, and entered into a corridor.
Her expression turned into a frown when she saw five doors on the right, five benches on the left, a chandelier, and a double door
She turned around to glance at the room that she had just left but was met with a cold white wall, the double door was nowhere to be seen.
"This place just wants to mess with me," Alice tried to assure herself, but she would be lying if she said that this place was hadn't made an effect on her.
Alice observed the five doors and noticed that the tags on the doors were missing.
Once again she tried to turn the knobs but none of the doors opened.
She opened the double door and entered into another corridor.
"Five doors, five benches, a chandelier and a double door," Alice counted.
She went to the doors on the right but she found no knobs to turn.
The "doors" were merely slabs of wood embedded into the wall.
Through the double doors, she went, and into another corridor.
Alice looked up and saw that the chandelier was gone, yet a trembling light was emanating from the ceiling.
Suddenly her body was overwhelmed by a sense of dread, and she started running.
She crashed against the double door and landed into the next corridor.
"Four doors, four benches, one double door," next corridor.
"Three doors, three benches, one double door," next corridor.
"Two doors, two benches, one double door," next corridor.
"one door, one bench, one double door," next corridor.
Alice rushed through an empty white room, lacking any of the previous furniture.
The only thing that was left was a double door at the end of the other end of the hallway.
Her heart was hammering in her chest and her legs were starting to ache but she couldn't stop running.
She was certain that something was chasing her, something very dangerous and evil.
She opened the double door with all the strength that was left in her body, and then everything went dark again.