Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Alice in Wonderland.

-------------------------

There's no getting back. No turning back now. Where am I? What am I doing here? Why can't I move? What's this thing? I don't understand. Why are they doing this? Why?

The thoughts echoed inside her head. They were indeed good questions. Alice had had a long time to brood on what would happen to her if she was, indeed, where she thought they had taken her. The walls of the small room in which she sat were soft, almost pillowy. She would have reached out to touch them, but her arms were strapped to her sides by a white, jacket-like garment.

She had awoken here some hours ago after falling asleep on a park bench near her home. If this place was what she thought it was, then she wouldn't be getting home any time soon. A door opened. She hadn't noticed it before; it was the same as the walls, floor, and ceiling of the padded cell.

A woman stepped inside, followed by two burly-looking men. The woman wore a white lab coat over nurses' scrubs and a uniform shirt. The name tag on the front of the coat read, "Flora Mirran, Stone Hill Psychiatric Ward."

Alice's eyes widened. They thought she was insane? Now her worst fears had come true. She definitely wasn't going home any time soon. "What's going on?" she demanded of the approaching nurse. "Where are my parents?" The woman just shook her head.

"I'm to take you to your room," she said briskly, her voice slightly Irish. "There I will go over your schedule and the rules. You now reside at Stone Hill Psychiatric Ward." And with that, she was frog-marched from the room, arms still pinned to her sides from the straitjacket, with the burly guards on either side of her. The nurse led them through a maze of forbidding white halls, all of which smelled strongly of disinfectant soap and fear.

They stopped at a closed door. A small steel plate on the wall beside it read, "Alice Birmingham, Drug Abuse." Drug abuse? What? She wasn't on drugs. Oh, no. It was because of the Wonderland stories. She liked to tell these tales to her younger cousins when they stopped by, because they were fun to hear about, even if her parents and aunt disapproved.

Alice still believed in Wonderland. She still wanted to go there again, if she could, but she was never able to go. Every time she looked in a mirror, all she saw was an exact reflection of the world around her. It never did any good to go hunting for enchanted rabbit holes, either. It was of no use. Her mother had long ago come to the conclusion that Alice was simply looking for an excuse to leave the stress of the real world. It wasn't as if she could be blamed.

She had been tired, making her way home from a friend's house after dark, and had sat on the park bench to rest her feet for a while before walking the remaining blocks to get home. Then, she had woken up in the padded room, in a straitjacket, without so much as a word of explanation.

The nurse opened the door to Alice's room and stepped inside, followed by Alice. The guards slammed the door behind her, but stayed in the hall. "This is insane!" exclaimed Alice angrily. "I'm not doing drugs and the only reason I fell asleep on the bench was because I was tired! So please, can I go home?"

The nurse surveyed her with stony eyes, not saying a word. Mouth agape, Alice stared at her room, dumbstruck. It was the ugliest place she had ever seen! The walls looked like cement painted white, and felt like it, too. The carpet was coarse and scratchy, and an off-white color. A metal-framed, twin-sized bed sat in one corner of the tiny room, covered by an off-white blanket that looked as scratchy as the carpet. There were no windows, and the only light came from a bare bulb on the ceiling, able to be switched on and off by a string dangling from it. A small mirror hung on the wall across from the bed. There was another door beside the mirror, which led to an equally ugly bathroom.

"We have rules here at Stone Hill," said the nurse. Alice jumped. She had forgotten that she was there. "You may not leave your room unless permission is given on your schedule or you have obtained a pass from a nurse or doctor. You may not speak with any of the male residents unless permitted to do so during group discussion. You may not, under any circumstances, attempt to leave the facility unaccompanied by guards."

Alice sighed. She hated rules. The nurse continued, "The lights come on at 7:00 AM sharp. The girls in your wing all go to take a shower no longer than fifteen minutes long. At 7:30 AM is breakfast. From 8:00-10:00 AM, you are allowed to spend time in the recreation room that all the patients in the female's wing share. There is a mesh divider that separates it from the men's wing. You are not allowed to talk to them, except for in group counseling. From 10:00-11:00 AM, the patients go to group counseling. For you, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM is individual counseling with Dr. Jakes. At 12:30, you will eat lunch and must be back in your room by 1:00 PM. This is rest time for the patients. At 3:00 PM, you are allowed back in the recreation room until 5:00 PM, when dinner is served. You have an hour for this meal. You are to be back in your room at 6:15 PM. Lights out is at 9:00 PM."

With that, the nurse left, leaving Alice to sit alone in her new prison. She was only sixteen, and was already classified as a drug abuser and resided in the city's mental hospital. She hadn't eaten lunch, but it was already 3:30. The choices were to either go and get lost in the halls of this hellhole, or sit here and think. She readily chose to think, sitting on the edge of her bed and trying to find out how to escape. The nurse had taken the straitjacket when she had left, so Alice was free to move her arms again. She hated this place beyond reason.

In a sudden fit of frustration, she strode across the room, tore the mirror off its hook, and hurled it to the ground. To her surprise, it didn't break, but instead seemed to stretch wider, until it was large enough to fall through. When she looked into it, Alice saw, not her reflection, but a long, dark tunnel.

She had seen this tunnel before. With a grin on her face, Alice gathered her courage and jumped down the rabbit hole.