Alllright. Midnight screening was fantastic. I loved the movie!
I got a lot of it wrong as well. Oh well, everyone's allowed their own take, right? I have since gone back and edited what I already had typed up, but I think I'm going to stick with the rules I already established and the concepts I was already planning on. The story's starting to get in motion at this point, anyway.
Thank you for the reviews thus far, I will continue to work on this thing and try to get it done in a timely manner!
I remember waking to a sound of great commotion and feeling as if I was in an unfamiliar place. But upon blinking a few times and taking a look around, I gasped when I realized just where I was.
"No."
"Alice?" It was as if my sister was screaming. There was so much noise I felt I had to clamp my eyes shut for fear of the senses overwhelming.
"Oh, thank goodness….Alice, my dear…" The sound of my mother's voice almost sickened me. How could these people think I would be happy to see them again after what they had sprung on me?
"No….no…no no! Go away!" I cried.
My sister recoiled as if I'd struck her.
I awoke to find myself lying on the regal couch in my family's living room. My dress looked old, when in reality I knew we had purchased it just last week. It was blue, black trim, and tied in a bow around the waist. I had been wearing it when that boorish Ascot proposed.
Suddenly I wanted to sob.
"Alice, sweetheart… You ran quite a long way away, my dear! And then we are told you tripped and fell and seem to have really hurt yourself… Thank God Mr. Hightopp was out and about or we may have never found you."
My face contorted as I tried to recall whom this Hightopp fellow was. He couldn't have been the new neighbor, could he? And besides…I was in Wonderland last I checked…I couldn't have simply run and bumped my head.
My mother saw my confusion and stepped aside, when suddenly a man in a crisp brown coat rose from the chair across the room.
I imagine my face was quite ugly, as I nearly choked when I laid eyes on him.
He bowed so low that I could not see his eyes but when he rose I simply could not find the words to speak. His eyes were a brilliant green and yet his face was composed of ordinary flesh tone. My mouth slumped open when suddenly he spoke, "No need to thank me, I think she's embarrassed enough." His voice was smooth and a bit too high.
My hands flew to my face and rubbed at my eyes, yet when I opened them, he was still standing there as my family and the remaining guests from the garden party chattered away.
I was given some water and some mint to chew before my mother hustled us all outside again, where I soon found the place no different than I'd left it. It was as if time hadn't passed at all. Startled, frightened and positively confused, I went to the Mr. Hightopp as soon as I could slip away from our guests.
I imagined my voice was much stronger than it sounded. "What are you doing here?"
He looked beyond me at first, but did not hesitate to answer. "I don't understand. I've always been here, Ms. Kingsley. I live just across that field over there." Curiously, he pointed to the woods, dense and dark.
"Hatter," I croaked.
He drew a long breath and finally looked from my knees to my eyes.
"Why are you here?" I repeated.
"Wonderland is not safe."
I threw my fists to my sides. "Don't do this, not again--!"
"Alice…Alice, it will all become clear if you would just listen to me for a moment, a mere moment…"
I did not know why I was so furious. "Hatter, you shouldn't be here. Because if you are here, that must mean this world isn't real."
"No, Alice," he breathed, "Alice. Perhaps I should say that Wonderland was not safe. You are home. I happened here by accident."
"Are you real, then?"
"Of course."
I stared. I knew it was rude but I couldn't move a muscle otherwise. "Alice Kingsley," I finally murmured.
"Tarrant Hightopp."
"Clever name," I retorted.
"Would you prefer something else?"
"It's not my name."
He was quick. "Lovely party."
We stood not two feet apart. I folded my arms across my chest and suddenly looked away. I was flushing. Here stood the Hatter, eyes bright and tongue sharp. He was practically a different man, and yet somehow he was the same. I suddenly felt embarrassed with his eyes on me. The last I remembered, in Wonderland of course, I could look him right in the eye and hug him until I cried. Now it was an immense challenge to even stand beside him. Yet his apparent lucidity made him blind to the effect he now had on me.
"I have to go," I murmured.
He glanced at me again and smiled. His teeth were perfect, though I thought I might have caught a flash of gold in the grin. "Nice meeting you, Alice."
I didn't wait for an additional farewell. Each step towards the crowd made the knot in my throat swell and throb. As much as I didn't belong in the middle of all this commotion, these people smiling and chatting happily among themselves about weddings and parties, the Hatter did not belong here. Not in England.
Curiously, I could not find Ascot. Not that I was looking for him, certainly not looking forward to speaking to him again, but I just happened to notice. Nor was there any white rabbit scampering around, but once more, I was not looking for him either.
"So who was he?"
"…scared poor the poor Ascot off, it seems…"
"Do you know that man?"
"—rather handsome—"
"Don't you think so?"
"No."
Suddenly the four women around me went silent and looked aghast.
"No, I did not know him."
"Perhaps you should—"
"He's quite dashing, and you say he's the neighbor—"
They began peering over my shoulders to the man I was so desperately wishing wasn't there. How could these women be so taken with a strange man they had never met? Was he that charming?
"I heard he's a bit off his rocker," a man scoffed.
My eyes cut beyond the ladies to a tall man in a dark suit, dark hair and lips pressed to a thin smirk. Who were all these people? I felt I hadn't met half the guests at this garden party and yet they were supposed to be near and dear to the family.
"Oh, really?" Another lady chirped.
"I'm sure it's just a rumor…"
They were like pigeons squawking over a slice of bread.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm feeling a bit faint."
The man in the dark suit looked at me rather peculiarly. I couldn't take another man's eyes on me after the spat with the Hatter. Tarrant. Whoever he was. I suddenly pushed past the bunch, accidentally bumping into the dark man and catching a slight grin in the corner of my eye.
"I'm sorry," I stammered.
I would be reprimanded later, I knew, but I could not stay there any longer. And now—after visiting Wonderland previously, I feared I could not go back. So rather than running through the garden once again, I rushed into the house and slipped into my room, tripping up the stairs twice before I collapsed onto my bed in a tremendous fit.
I don't recall how long I'd lied there, but I remember my dreams being hideously real. Wonderland was reaching out into this world, but it was not the same. Though the Red Queen had been vanquished, her presence, most certainly, was not gone.
X X X
Dinah jumping on the bed started me awake. It took another couple moments for it to register that I had tossed off the majority of my pillows in my sleep, and though I searched for near an hour, I could not find my toy rabbit. I felt tears stinging at the back of my eyes as I became rougher and rougher with the tossed pillows in attempts to find the thing, not because I knew a white rabbit that it resembled, but because that toy had been given to me by my father when I was a child.
I guess I'd been making too much of a commotion, as my mother suddenly called for me.
Lo and behold I slumped down the stairs to find brunch and a certain mad man waiting for me.
"Hello," it sounded like a question.
The Hatter nodded at me. My mother turned, an oddly out of place smile pasted to her face as she called, "Oh, Alice! Come, have some breakfast… I saw Tarrant on the way to the market and invited him over, thought it was the least I could do in repayment for him finding you after yesterday."
"Mr. Hightopp, would you like some jam?" my sister cooed.
This was surreal. My mother and sister were taken with the man who I knew to be the Mad Hatter. Mad. Insane. I never saw him that way, but I was always aware of the name. And not only this, but the horrible proposal from yesterday seemed to have been completely forgotten.
So, brunch was…well, it wasn't unpleasant to say the least.
Afterwards, my mother had cunningly managed to shove both myself and Mr. Hightopp out into the garden. This time around, I was extremely aware what was going on. She could not fool me, and I was more terrified of than taken with this Hatter.
"Why did you say yes?" I spat. We had only take a few strides from the door and my hands were wrapped around my middle, unable to shake the shudder that traced my spine. His hands—clean and free of bandages—were folded behind his back, and today he was dressed in a smart, light suit. I'd gone out of my way to throw my blue dress into the farthest corner of my closet.
This couldn't be happening.
"She wouldn't let me say no. I can see where you get your persistence from."
His words struck a nerve. "You don't know my mother."
"Sure I do, nice woman."
I was appalled at how much of the Hatter's chatter I could see shining through. It was as if something that had been so familiar, so friendly, so mine was suddenly something to be shared. I felt as if the Hatter's existence in this life was an intrusion into my privacy. He had been my friend. He had been near and dear to me. I had fought and wept for him. Yet, here the man stood with his cunning wit and sneaking smile and it made my skin crawl.
Was this the way the Hatter had been the first time I'd visited Wonderland? Surely not. I would never dream up a man as roguish as he looked.
And yet the Knave of Hearts had existed.
"Alice," he murmured. "I must speak with you…honestly."
My arms fell to my sides. "Right. You, the Mad Hatter want to speak to me, here, honestly. Well then, go on."
"Alice, please."
"No, do tell me whatever it is that's on your mind, Mr. Hightopp." I laughed.
"Why is it you do not trust me? Is it all men? Or was it just Ascot's surprise proposal that's got you on edge?"
"How do you know all of this?" I sounded a bit sharper than I'd intended.
He looked taken aback. "I was there, in Wonderland with you, Alice, when you complained about the man."
"And you remember?" I breathed.
He gave a short nod.
I made a small sound and had to turn away.
"Alice?"
"Who are you?" I suddenly barked. Even I did not recognize my voice.
The man jumped back a few inches and the bewildered look on his face made my head swim from the memories it brought up.
"I am the Hatter, Alice."
"No you're not!" I yelped. "The Hatter was my friend! He was a little out of touch but he was a good man and a brave and noble fighter. You…you're some piece of slime in a suit…" I glanced his face for a brief moment and continued, my words drowning among my attempt to stifle my sobs, "With his eyes…and the same face."
"Please don't cry, Alice," he replied lowly. Suddenly his face was devoid of all previous happiness and all the mischief had drained away. His eyes looked solemn and he would not meet my face.
I could not speak. His voice echoed in my thoughts. My eyes fell closed and tears slipped away before I could convince myself to stop them.
When they suddenly swept open, the grass was greener, the sky a bit bluer, and the Hatter stood before me; coat, hat, green eyes, fiery hair and all.
Tears streamed down his face as I burrowed into his arms, whispering, "Help me, Hatter. Please help me." And though I could not explain why I was pleading, I knew I needed the Hatter beside me or somehow, someway, my life would be destroyed.
