Chapter 2: The Nightmare
The man stares at Ali for a good long while. "You're... Grandmother?" His face turns slightly pale. "Has it really been that long?" Ali stares into the tea cup and takes a drink. "That damn Peter! I'm sorry he got you mixed up in this."
"So I really can't go home?" She asks. He looks stern.
"Let me see the vile."
"The what?"
"The vile that the medicine was in." Ali searches her pockets.
"I don't think I hav-" She reaches her breast pocket and pulls out the crystal vial.
"You need to fill that back up in order to go home. To fill it up you need to interact with the people of this world." He says this as if he's said it before. "But if you fill it up and decide that you want to stay that's your choice."
"I see."
She doesn't seem frantic. In fact she doesn't have any emotion. She just stares blankly into her coffee. "So I can stay here if I want..." She states out loud. "Thank you for the information... um..." She thinks for a moment and it's like something hits her. "Julius? Julius Monrey?" She asks.
"How did you know my-"
"Grandma use to tell me stories about this place. How wonderful and exciting it is, but also how dangerous and twisted."
"She told you about us?"
"Yes. She told me she could never forget anyone here. She loved you all so dearly. She told me this right before she-" She stops and looks down again. "See... unlike grandma... I honestly don't want to go back... That's all I'm saying." They both stay silent before Julius speaks.
"You look exhausted. Why don't you stay in a room? You can travel and roam at the next time period."
"Oh right time is different here."
"Yes. Don't stay out at night. It's dangerous out at night."
"Thank you Julius." He leads her to a room and walks back to the table. He sits and rests his head on his hands. A tear forms in the corner of his eye.
"Alice..."
Ali is sitting on the bed looking out the window. "Lets see." She looks around. "That's the Amusement Park, that's Heart Castle, and that's-" She looks at the mansion in the distance. "The Hatters..." She hears the sound of gunshots echoing in the distance. She shuts the curtains and covers her head like a child afraid of a thunderstorm. After a while, she drifts off into a deep sleep. She starts dreaming about a meadow and a path. In front of her is a man with long grey hair, an eye patch on his right eye, and a violet eye. "You must be Nightmare."
"Must be? Come now Alice-"
"I'm not Alice! I'm Ali!" Nightmare looks completely speechless and blood flows out of his mouth and he turns to jello and gets on his knees. Ali shrieks. "Your vomiting blood?!"
"Sorry about that." He has a handkerchief to his mouth. "I may be a nightmare but a very ill one." Ali walks over and helps him back up to his feet. "Thank you. But you should be waking up now."
Everything fades out and Ali opens her eyes. She's in the Clock Tower room. It's still night and yet it feels like she has been asleep forever. She realizes that someone is in the other room with Julius. Yelling and being rude. Ali sneaks over to the door and opens it. A man with fuchsia hair, ears, a cat tail, and yellow cat-like eyes is in Julius's face. "I know she's here Julius! Where's Alice?!"
"I keep telling you, she's not Alice. Her name is Ali." He's calm while the cat man is frantic.
"All I want to do is see for myself!"
"She's asleep." Ali can't take much more. It hurt her to see so many people love and want to see her grandma, but she wasn't her.
"I'm really not Alice." She says walking out of the door. The cat man slowly walks over to her and stops.
"You're really not Alice." He says. She shakes her head. "Damn... I'm sorry Julius... I was being a real prick huh?"
"Just a bit." Julius says nonchalantly. The cat man looks back at Ali.
"Hi there Ali. I'm Boris. It's nice to meet you." Ali smiles softly.
"It's nice to meet you too Boris."