sorry about weird spaces

Alice looked back up at the mirror in terror, fully expecting something to break through and murder her where she stood. Instead, the footsteps above stopped and then there was a loud banging on the trap door. Frightened, she took one last glance about the room and ran into the mirror. The cold feeling engulfed her body and sucked every bit of warmth. Her breathing hitched and even though there was clearly air to breath, she felt as though she were drowning. Her eyes burned, but she couldn't close them, her ears filled with a loud humming and then, POP! The room was swimming, spinning and doing back flips. Her stomach flopped and she could feel bile rising in her throat.

"Graceful."

Alice looked around to place a face to the voice. She moved to fast, the bile rose and she threw up her breakfast.

"Those were my new shoes!"

"Who's there?!" Alice yelled wiping the vomit from the side of her lip.

A man squatted down beside her and held her hair back as she threw up again. "What the hell is wrong with me?" Alice cried between heaves.

"It appears the trip disagreed with your body."

After much deep breathing, Alice felt fine and the room stopped swimming. The man who held her hair sat across from her. He was short, chubby and looked quiet like a mouse. He had greasy gray hair and a white mustache the stuck out every which way. The faint smell of cheese wafted by her and she crinkled up her nose.

"Did you give this to me?" Alice asked pulling the torn page from her hand and showing it to the mousy man.

"Yes. So glad you got it. The boss will be here shortly." said the mousy man as he stood up. There wasn't much difference between the fact of sitting and standing with this man.

Alice was puzzled. The boss? Who was the boss? For that fact, where was she? She glanced over at the pile of what was once her breakfast. It made her stomach churn to look at it. A stack of newspapers sat near her, so she grabbed a few and covered the mess. Alice stood up and smashed her head against the ceiling.

"Ow!" She cried sitting back down.

"Do be careful. You are quiet large for my dwelling." The mousy man said from a desk nearby.

Alice stood once again, careful this time to hunch over. She walked to the door and stepped out of the mousy man's room. The room she entered was huge. Something was surely wrong with her size. There was a great many people sat around a long dinner table talking, laughing and screaming at each other. They were giants and the furniture was gigantic too!

A tall man with dark hair and a formal vest on stood up and looked over the table to see Alice staring at his guests in awe. He grinned, picked up a black and blue fedora and placed it on his head. "Everyone! We have another guest!" he announced loud enough to stop the guests from talking. All of them turned to look down at Alice; they really were a strange group of people. One of them was a large bird, another, a hare. There was a carpenter seated close to Alice there was a fat man whom resembled a walrus, as well as a chef, and a chimney sweep.

Alice waved lightly and the group burst into laughter. Why this was funny, Alice would never know.

The man whom had a hat, and drew the attention to her, walked around the table and sat down on the floor beside her. He smiled kindly and pulled a small doll chair out of his vest pocket. "Won't you join our tea party?"

"Tea party?" Alice asked sitting in the tiny chair the man placed before her.

"Yes ma'am." He said tipping his hat lightly.

"Wait. A small mousy man, I'm shrunken, there is a tea party going on. The guests include and large bird, a hare, a chef, a carpenter and a walrus. Well damn, I must be in Wonderland there is even a hatter. What the hell kind of dream is this?" Alice thought. "May I ask a question?" Alice asked and the man leaned down close.

"Yes."

"Would this happen to be Wonderland?" Alice asked.

Before the man could respond, the part guests roared with laughter. The hare threw cups and the cook screamed about more pepper for her food.

"Well of course it is my dear. Don't you know anything?" The walrus sized man said ducking to avoid the hare's flying cups.

Alice felt insulted. How was she to know where she was, she'd only just arrived, and it certainly didn't make any sense for her to be in the world that existed in a book. "I know lots of things! Besides I just woke up here!"

The man beside her lifted her up with his thumb and index fingers. "Wouldn't you care to be of a greater size?" It was such a random time for this question. It had not answered her question about Wonderland, or justified the fact that she knew things. Alice thought about it for a moment and then nodded. She feared that if she opened her mouth to speak, she would be criticized in some crude way again.

"Eat this." The man said holding up a large petty four cake. Alice took a great big bite, which in reality was no larger than a few crumbs. The man dropped her and she sailed to the ground, growing large every second.

Soon Alice's legs met the floor and she stood the same height as the chef whom had stood up in a fit of rage. For there was tea all over her white hat.

"I'm Hatter. These are my friends." Said the man whom feed her the cake, he was now standing. "What's your name?"

"I'm Alice. This incident is so funny because this is Wonderland and my name is Alice." She said laughing lightly, Hatter chuckled a bit too and then she found herself looking at the guests whom had been so lively before. All of them hadn't found what she said to be funny in the least.

"Why is that funny to you?" The carpenter asked sipping his tea.

Alice was turning red. She couldn't believe how degrading these people could be. "Well see there is this book called Alice in Wonderland and it's very absurd and silly, but very well written. It's one of my favorite pieces to read on a rainy day. None of this matters anyways though; I'll wake up in a few minutes, so it doesn't matter if you understand my joke about Wonderland."

All of the guests were again, completely bemused. "What do you mean wake up? You are awake, girl." Said the large bird and pecked at a piece of cake.

"No I'm not." Alice laughed. "Of course none of you exist, and I'm dreaming."

Hatter touched Alice's arm and pulled her to the corner of the room. He looked gravely serious. "Alice." He said.

The smiled faded from Alice's face as she looked at Hatter. "What is it?" she asked quietly. The guests had gone back to their talking and screaming.

"I know where you came from. This is a dream of sorts. Alice, you're in a coma." Hatter said touching her arm lightly.

"What? How? I don't understand."

David burst thought the door to Alice's hospital room and saw Theodore sitting in a chair beside the bed. He immediately thought, who the hell is this guy? Nevertheless, he stopped himself because he didn't know if the guy was her boyfriend or something. "Hello?"

Theodore sat up drowsily and rubbed his eyes. "Oh, I didn't think she'd ever have any visitors."

"Uh, yeah. I'm her best friend. I live in WestPoint. I went to her house to visit and she wasn't home. Her neighbor is a nurse here; she told me she was in the hospital." David said scratching his head. "Who are you?"

"I'm Theodore Hatter. I, err, hit her with my car." Theodore said fully expecting David to yell at him or something.

"Thanks for staying with her. She doesn't have anyone besides me."

Theodore looked surprised. He found it hard to believe she didn't have any family. "Absolutely nobody else? Family?"

David shook his head slowly. "Her parents died when she was sixteen. Grandma died shortly after."

Theodore hadn't any idea. It was no wonder nobody had come to visit yet. It had been two days since the accident. This world was to dangerous to live alone. If she died, nobody would know until they went looking for her.

Alice sat down in an oaken dinning chair several feet from the other guests. She was having a hard time registering what Hatter told her. Normally she would have questioned this situation as if it were some sort of joke. This time she knew better, she could feel the seriousness in hatter's voice when he told her about the coma.

A few minutes later Hatter walked over to Alice's chair and set a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright. I know how to make you wake up."

Alice wasn't going to buy his methods. They were probably something along the lines of getting drunk off tea or something. Out of sheer curiosity, she asked, "How?"

"The mirrors." He said simply as if it were known fact.

"That shouldn't be too hard. I'll just go back through the one I came through." Alice said smiling.

Hatter groaned a little bit. "Well it's not that simple."

"Not that simple? Why?"

"First off, that mirror was teeny tiny, and I can't make you small again. Second, once a mirror is used once it becomes null and void."

Alice could just cry. Now she had to find another mirror that hadn't been used. "Well. I'll just find another mirror. Not so hard, right?"

A small sigh passed over Hatter's mouth. "Wrong. Most of the mirrors in Wonderland have been used up, or taken by the royalty."

Alice was screwed. She had a one in a billion chance of finding a usable mirror that wasn't in the clutches of royalty. Even if she did get a hold of a mirror, who was to say it would make her wake up or not?

Suddenly the lights went out in the small room. Darkness engulfed each and every one of the guests, which caused more yelling and extreme panic. Alice was afraid of the dark, deathly afraid. It wasn't so much of the darkness it's self, but rather, what was in the darkness. She knew she shouldn't worry. The only things in the dark were the guests, Hatter and herself. Still, Alice couldn't help but feel uneasy, like there was something more to the situation.

A hand touched her arm and she nearly screamed when Hatter whispered in her ear. "It's just me. We need to get out of here."

Not that Alice was against leaving the dark room, but she was curious as of why Hatter wouldn't just want to wait for the light to come back on. "Why?"

"Jokers." He whispered.

"Why is he whispering?" Alice thought, but said, "Jokers?"

Hatter pulled Alice up by her arm and dragged her through the darkness "Not good news. Just come on." A light was visible under what was most likely a door. Hatter pushed through the supposed door.

Alice looked at her surroundings. They were outside, on a front porch of sorts. They sky was dark and all the grass and flowers were dead. It was as if the life had been sucked out of everything.

"This place is really grim, isn't it?" Alice asked looking around at the depressing sight.

"Not usually. The Jokers have done this. We need to keep moving." Hatter hissed pushing a button from a ring of keys that he pulled from his vest pocket. There was a loud rumbling and then a large garage door opened on the side of the house opposite them.

"You have cars here?" Alice asked, but soon realized it was a stupid question. Of course there would be cars, this was her mind after all.

Hatter pulled Alice to the car waiting in the garage. When she got closer, Alice could see that it was a black and silver Dodge Ram 4x4. She got in the passenger side and buckled up. Why was Hatter helping her anyways?

"I bet you're wondering why I'm bothering to help you." Hatter said as if he could read her mind.

Alice laughed lightly. "Yeah, actually I was."

"Well I don't really know why I'm helping you. It seems like the right thing to do. Have you ever just felt compelled to do something, even thought you know it may not end well?"

"Yeah. A long time ago. Long, long time ago." Alice said quietly while Hatter backed out of the garage.

The tires of the truck hit the pavement with a squeal as Hatter turned away from the house. His speed was ever increasing and Alice began to feel the fear of a car crash rising in her throat. "C-can we slow down a little?" she asked as the trees she watched go by began to regain their life.

"Why? Don't trust me? You'll be fine." Hatter said whipping the truck around a corner.