NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Just so everyone knows I play volleyball, and will be gone most days. I will try to write often, but the chapters will be kind of short, until the weekends. Also, I start school next Tuesday, September 7, 2004, so updates will have to wait until after volleyball practice, homework, and/or games. Once again, I will intend on writing longer chapters on the weekends, but that isn't a promise. Thank you, and please review!

Today's chapter song is: A Decade Under the Influence, by Taking Back Sunday

Alice fell to the ground with a thud. The door from where she came was slammed shut by a very amused vampire, and then it disappeared completely.

Standing up and dusting herself off, she took in her surroundings. She seemed to be in a forest...a very strange forest indeed.

She was standing upon a path of dirt, but the trees that almost engulfed her were like morbid pines. The black needles pointed towards the ground and looked stiff and unreal. They hung down just above her head, glimmering in the little sunlight that barely peeked through.

She reached up to touch one of the pines, and pain shot through her finger.

"Ouch!" she yelled, and held her finger up to the dim light. There was a small orb of blood forming on it. Plucking one of the needles, carefully, from the tree, she brought it down to investigate. The tiny needle looked like it could have stabbed right through her finger if the force was enough. It was like black steel!

She looked back down on her aching finger, and just when she was about to wipe the blood off on her jeans, her hand was snatched up from her. She screamed and turned to see Jack, smiling. He slowly lifted her hand up and kissed the blood away from her finger. "Now we don't want you to get hurt in the Nocturnal Forest, do we?"

Alice pulled her hand back from him. "I can take care of myself," she said, crossing her arms, and suppressing the shiver that claimed her after Jack kissed her finger.

Jack laughed. "You think that you can take care of yourself? In here of all places!" he made a wide gesture of his hands, "You do amuse me mortal Alice. But Wonderland is not a place where you would want to be alone."

Alice thought about this. She didn't know what she was doing, that was right, but she didn't want to be with Jack, anything but him. He just creeped her out, and he was a vampire!

"I don't need help from a vampire, let alone a vampire stalker," Alice said, with bite in her voice, and she began to walk down the path.

"Suit yourself!" she heard Jack call behind her as she walked deeper into the forest.

It seemed that the deeper and deeper that Alice got, the plants grew thicker, and the trees grew smaller, but the sunlight was still limited, and Alice could tell that night was coming. She was amazed at the beauty in some of the plants around her. Some had giant black flowers, red flowers, and gray flowers. Some looked like vines that seemed to wrap around everything and they grew thick on the forest floor, like a soft bed of dark green.

What Alice didn't see though were the animals of Wonderland. Did they even have animals here? She wondered if they were hostile or not, but she wasn't going to let her guard down...

After walking down the path, for what seemed like hours, Alice had to stop and rest against the tall vines. Her eyes threatened to close on her numerous times, but she forced herself awake and aware.

She began thinking about the past day. Everything had flipped upside down. Everything had gone completely wrong. Tears welted in her eyes as she thought about her mother's ring, lost and stolen, but she choked them back. She had to be strong. No matter how...weird this place was she was going to find that goblin, Trint, and take her ring back, she had to...

Lost in thought, her eyes began to close, and she began to dream...