Chapter 3

Return To Wonderland

By Courtney Erickson

Down, down, down. I fell into the strange gaping hole in the ground. Cold, crisp air, whooshed past me for what seemed hours. My eyes burned, forcing them shut. I tried to scream, but the pressure from the air was far too strong. It constricted my stomach. Or maybe, it was the fear that silenced my screams.

I finally landed, with a big slap. A wave of incredible pain rushed through my body, making me call out. My head throbbed, I felt sick to my stomach, I was so afraid I could barely breathe. After, I let the pain pass, I tried to find my bearings. Too afraid to open my eyes, I felt my hands across the surface I had landed. I felt like tile. Cold, hard tile, that had been there for years and years. How could there be tile underground?? Curiosity then came over me. That curiosity in which had led me to this strange place in the first place. I sat up, on my knees, and opened my eyes.

Pitch, black, darkness.

You've never really been in pitch black darkness unless you've been there. It consumes you, filling your heart with fear. It runs through your veins, pumping your heat faster and faster. I blinked, trying to erase this thick, darkness. I did not succeed.

Then came the fear.

The feeling of being trapped. The feeling of no way out. The feeling of never again seeing the light of day. Fear I'm sure not even you, the reader who has taken the time to read my story, has even experienced. I felt warm, wet tears roll down my cheeks. Tears full of the strangest emotion. I screamed. I yelled. I called out for a sound. For a noise. For a sign. For something! Something other than this dark abyss. I felt defeated. I felt lost. I felt like nothing. I returned to my laying down position, so I could cry myself to my last, fatal minutes of my life. This was the most pathetic moment of my life. I hated my self for letting me be so careless. This is what happens when I let my guard down.

Then I heard it.

A voice.

"Oh please do stop sobbing so! It's slightly annoying!" It said, with a thick nasally tone. I sat up, immediately, almost smiling. Hope filled me. That voice was a small glimmer of light in this dark abyss. I was going to live! I would live to see me graduation, my wedding, the birth of my first child. I would survive!

"Please!!! Please, I need help! I…I-I don't know where I am! I was pushed by this girl and I fell down, down, down, and I crashed. I'm cold, and hungry and I am so confused!" I said holding back my tears.

"Okay, just calm down. It's going to be okay." Just find the light switch on the wall." The mystery person said to me. I rose, stretching my legs. The trembled in pain from the fall, but walked on, my arms spread out in front of me. My hands wondered along the wall, covered in some sort of wallpaper that was wrinkled and torn. Finally, I had found the light switch. I flipped it on as the a musky, dim yellow light illuminated the place I had once thought would be my grave. I felt so silly, for acting how I did. I am such a drama queen sometimes. But how was I supposed to know? I just fell through a gaping hole in the grouned! Well, I really was just pushed down…

The room was small. A pathetic ceiling lamp dangled from a crumbling ceiling. The wall paper was yellowish and faded. Some was peeling off the walls. The floor was indeed tile. Black tile. There stood a table and a wooden chair. I swirled around, looking for the strange voice. It wasn't a man, nor woman. Not even a human being! It was a doorknob!! It rolled it's eyes at me.

"You people are all the same. You suffer one measly little fall down a rabbit's hole and go into hysteria and have a midlife crisis. With that temperament you are never going to survive in Wonderland." The voice stayed nasally and annoying.

I felt like I was going to faint. A doorknob just talked to me! Then I realized something

"Wait…w-what do you mean Wonderland??" I said. To be continued……