Alice: Inside the Looking Glass
Lady Moon-Chan
Alice: Inside the Looking Glass
Lady Moon-Chan
AN: Chapter 1, where the real creepiness starts! Nyeeheeheeheeheehee! Read and review please! begs like Gram's dog Tobey
Chapter 1: In Which Alice Discovers 'Wonderland'
"I can't believe they're gone." Alice heard herself say. "Mom and Dad...god, Mom used to say 'Alice, we are not leaving until you settle down with a nice husband, or at least use some random guy to make us some grand-babies,' and now..." Alice buried her face in her hands, sobbing.
"Alright. Now, let's move onto your sisters. Eleanor and Rosemary." said the doctor.
"Ella was...the bold one. You came away from her thinking she was ten feet tall, when really she barely broke 5'3''. And she was the beauty queen of the family. Long, dark hair, pale skin, spider scrawl lashes, dark eyes. Everyone thought she looked like a queen."
"And Rosemary?" the doctor prompted.
"Ro was the funny one. She could make a funeral party laugh. And she did the best impressions."
"Like what?"
"The French waiter from the Four Seasons. Cartoon characters, movie characters. She talked like a Japanese houseboy on her voice mail." She sobbed again. "Please. I can't do anymore."
"Very well, Miss Walker. No more for today. It must seem cruel to do this so soon after you've lost them, but only by honoring their memories and cherishing the memories you made with them that you can move on. For instance, what would Eleanor say if she could see you now?"
"She'd tell me to get off my ass and stop moping."
"That's what you do then."
"But how? I miss them so much. I can't ever forget."
"I know." the doctor's voice grew warm. "We can never forget our lost loved ones. Nor would we want to. But because we are human, in time, we get over the pain and move on. That's all I'm trying to help you do."
Alice nodded in understanding. "Doctor, is it alright if I go and sit in the courtyard for awhile? I don't think I can bear to sit in the room just yet." she couldn't bring herself to call the blank, empty hospital room she'd been assigned "my room".
Her room had the cliff-overlooking-the-sea mural Ella had helped her paint, shelves full of gymnastics awards she'd won, a flimsy paper 'book' of Ro's limericks, a framed copy of the witty ballad Ro's creative writing professor had urged her to publish one day, a recent family portrait on one corner of the desk, the "baby" book her sisters had helped her make for Dinah, her books, her radio, and her computer.
The hospital room was blank and soulless. It didn't belong to anyone. Any residents who brought belongings took them with again when they left. A nurse who felt the same way about it had helped Alice order some flowers and candles in an attempt to make the room more homey. It didn't work.
"Yes, Alice. I'm sure that will be fine until you have to take your pain meds. Is there a particular nurse you'd like to come get you when it's time?" the doctor asked.
"The girl who helped me order flowers for the room, please. Monroe, I think her name was...?"
"Nurse Monroe it is, then. Well, off you go, Alice." said the doctor, patting her hand. She was free to go.
She headed for the garden she could see from the only window in the room. It contained a small willow tree, some peach trees, and a koi pond with a three inch high waterfall. She laid on her stomach, staring at the fish, when she caught a glimpse of it. A slender white hand in the pond, making a 'come hither' motion. Alice frowned, reaching into the pond near the hand. When she raised her hand, she was holding a clump of long, long black hair. She flung it back into the water.
Then, when she blinked, the hand and the clump of hair were both gone. Alice sighed and closed her eyes. "I knew I missed Ella, but that's just plain crazy." Then, she heard rustling in the nearby bushes. When she went over to investigate, she saw a little white rabbit pushing rocks away from the entrance to a small cave. It dug a few more away, then dove into the hole it had just created.
Alice blinked curiously, then pushed the rest of the rocks away, judging the size of the cave entrance. She'd have a little leeway if she held her stomach in...she blinked. "Wait, what am I thinking? I'm in no condition to be doing this. I should just go back to the room, ring for Nurse Monroe, and ask her if I can borrow a book from her." But even as she said the words, Alice felt something calling to her, promising she would never feel any pain again, if only she followed the rabbit.
"Follow...the rabbit..." Alice murmured. Her eyes glazed and a vague, unexplainable smile made it's way to her lips as she crawled into the hole.
It was dark. The promise began to lose it's effect in the thick, choking, eternal darkness, and Alice started to wonder why she was even doing this, when suddenly there was no cave floor beneath her and she was falling in the darkness- which was no longer all that dark.
The cave around her was now light with red and black light, revealing high gothic medieval style time pieces all around as far as the eye could see, and the fall seemed to go on forever. Alice would have screamed, but she was floating down like a feather. Then, all of a sudden it was over.
She could see the rabbit again, hopping down a long, black and white tiled hallway to a moldy red velvet curtain, which it disappeared behind. When Alice reached the curtain, she pulled it away to reveal a warped, decayed wooden door, with a rusting silver key in the tarnished brass lock. "How weird," she murmured, turning the key. There was a clicking noise, and the door swung open. Alice walked through.
Instantly, she found herself surrounded by a forest of dead trees, standing at a fork in a well-worn path. A sign told that the left fork led to "Here" and the right led to "There".
"I don't care if they lead to Heaven and Hell, where's the exit?" Alice muttered.
"Oh, you won't find an exit here." said a new voice.
AN: Ooooh, cliffie! Review and I'll post the next chapter!