Disclaimer: I do not Alice in Wonderland or the characters.

Lost In The Storm Of Madness

Chapter 9

It was a gloomy morning for the people in the Overland, Alice's homeland. Gray cumulonimbus clouds covered the normally blue sky, and the sun was having trouble shining through. As the first drop of rain dripped down from the clouds, the people down on the streets, carrying suitcases and wearing business suits, sprinted down the streets quickly in search of some type of shelter, .

A blonde haired lady, who's wrinkles proved that life had taken its toll on her in the past,. She stood on the edge of the sidewalk, holding up a black umbrella over herself as she waited for the carriages, which were speeding by, to halt. She made her leave the moment it seemed traffic had died down.

However, her eyes widened as she saw a carriage with two horses coming close to hit her. She couldn't move, frozen by the sudden fear that sent chills down her spine. She could hear the horses' gallops getting closer and closer, and she shut her eyes tight, not wanting to see what would happen next, but she was never hit.

Over the loud beating of her heart, she heard the shrieks of the horses, and the yells from the driver and the passengers. She opened her eyes, slowly. Less than a foot away from her was the carriage. It had hit a tree, not her. She closed her eyes for a moment, sending a prayer to whatever angel was watching over her, before figuring she should check if the people inside were okay.

As she neared, the horses tried to back away in fear of her, but their injuries prevented such movement. She held out a hand, and said "It's okay…I'm not going to hurt you." She caressed their heads softly, repeating "It's okay" The horses seemed to calm at her warm, soft voice. She smiled softly at the animals. Standing up slowly, she approached the carriage doors..

"Hello? Is anyone in here?" she called out, as she knocked loudly on the doors. When no reply came, she made quick to try and open the doors. However, the doors wouldn't budge from their spot, jammed shut. Despite this, she knew she couldn't give up, because there was probably a person inside there; a person who was probably hurt, if not already gone from the world. Even as the rain stopped, the sun finally free to shine, and the carriages practically zooming pass her, she didn't lose hope. There was someone in there, she was sure of it.

"Are you sure that will work, Hatter?" Alice asked the orange haired man, who sat in the waiting lounge of the queen's court.

Tarrant nodded, smiling. "Of course!" he urged on, "Like I said, the plan is foolproof!"

Alice sighed deeply, not at all convinced. "I don't know…knowing my mother, she would probably freak out"

He laughed, and laughed. This was his nature, to act like he had no head to store any sanity. When he caught her glare and pout, his laughter seemed to cease. "Oh" he spoke softly, a smile on his face. "You were being serious."

Alice shook her head, resisting the urge to smile at his silliness, but it was futile as a grin broke across her face. "Hatter" she spoke softly, looking off into the distance.

Staring in the same direction as her, he whispered "Yes, Alice?"

"Why is it that I can never stay mad at you?" she asked him in all seriousness, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.

He shrugged, not quite sure of the answer. "What would you say if I told you that I didn't know the answer?" he asked.

She bit down on her bottom lip, and answered in a soft whisper "I would say, that makes two of us."

Hatter beamed at her reply, but said nothing, because he didn't need to use his words to show how happy he was. With him having gone silent, the both of them settled for not speaking and just thinking, marveling in the welcomed comfort of the silence which blanketed them.

With everything and everyone silent, Hatter could hear the soft pats against the floor as someone with light feet walked. He hadn't bothered turning to find who was coming their way, because it was evident that whoever it was, would show themselves soon.

"Tarrant, Alice" a melodic voice whispered, breaking the silence which had been previously set.

The hat man glanced up, eyes meeting the queen's warm and kind eyes. He smiled, and nudged Alice, who had been too absorbed in her thoughts to notice the queen's appearance. She blinked twice, waking from her thoughts.

"Hatter, what is it?" she asked, confused as to why he would disturb her when she lost in her thoughts. Following his gaze, her own eyes fell on the white garments of the queen, before resting on her face, which displayed reddish black lips which were curved upwards into a warm smile.

"This way please" Mirana said, her hands hovering up slightly, never quite flat on her sides.

She tried to look through the windows, but the tint proved to make her attempts useless. "Hello, anyone alive in there?" she said once again, wondering if whoever was inside could even hear her. She heard a groan, a mumble, and another groan. "Yup," she whispered to herself, "There's definitely someone in there." She nodded to herself, more determined than ever.

A passing sheriff riding in a specially designed carriage, spotted the blonde lady and the crashed carriage. He halted his horses, and stepped out.

"Everything alright, miss?" the man asked, inspecting the crashed carriage as he walked towards her.

Startled, the lady jumped. Once her nerves settled back down, she shook her head. "No" she said, "There's someone in there, and I can't get them out."

The sheriff nodded, taking in the scene. Taking out a sketchpad, he asked "Can you tell me what happened exactly, ma'am?"

"Can't that be discussed on later terms?" she suggested, knowing full well that it was more important to free the ones who were trapped than to discuss things that hardly even mattered.

"No can do, ma'am." he said, "I need to know exactly what went down here, so it can be put in the records."

The lady was outraged. She couldn't believe this sheriff. There was people in there, possibly injured people, and here he was insisting she explain the accident.

Deep somewhere inside her she felt the need to slap this guy silly, but the handcuffs and gun on his belt loop wiped that idea from her mind. "Look! What's not to understand?" she said through clenched teeth. "There was an accident. It was raining, so an accident was bound to happen! Whoever is in that there carriage, and probably injured, crashed into that there tree. Now can you do your job and get them out of there or not!"

The sheriff's mouth fell open, astonished. "Well, I uh…" he had nothing to say for himself, so he simply hung his head, walking towards the carriage. Finding the doors jammed, he took something out of his belt loop; a knife which could cut through the material of a carriage. After cutting deep enough that the door would open, he put the knife away. "Ma'am?" he called.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked, worried.

"I think you should see this" he spoke, his voice wavering slightly.

"What?" she asked, and walked over to the sheriff. Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell in shock. On the seat of the carriage was a black tape recorder, which had been making the noises all along. "Well that's particular." She noticed that next to the recorder was a folded piece of paper.

The sheriff rubbed his chin in thought. "Sure is." He went to snatch the tape recorder and the paper, but she slapped his hand away. "What are you doing? This needs to be investigated!"

She simply rolled her eyes. "There is hardly anything to be investigated. We should be happy that there was no body inside." she said, aiming to look at the bright side of things, despite the recording which had been inside.

The sheriff sighed, defeated. "I'll give up for now" he said, before taking a card out of his pocket. Handing it to her, he said "If you change your mind about this all, my number is on the card"

She resisted the urge to crumble the card while he was still there in plain sight. Instead, she nodded like the proper lady she was. He smiled softly at her, and drove away in his carriage. Now that he was gone and out of her sight, she allowed herself to crumble the card in her hands. She was about to walk away from the crashed carriage when she remembered the horses. She knelt down to check on them, and found it quite odd when she noticed a zipper that hadn't been there moments before.

Doing against her best judgment, she slid the zipper of the first horse down, before doing the same to the second. Her eyes encountered long, blonde ruffles of hair which flowed down in a wave of curls, and orange ruffles of hair topped with an odd hat peaking out from the two horse costumes. The bug of curiosity had bitten her, and she was long gone as she uncovered the beings under the costumes.

"Alice?" she questioned unsure of herself when the rest of the first horse costume was pulled off of the being inside. However, she left no room for a response as she had quickly ridden of the second horse costume, revealing a pale, odd man. "And who is this?" she asked herself.

The girl, who had been inside the first costume, blinked her eyes, waking from a nap which seemed she had been in for a while. Pressed against her chest was another tape recorder, only smaller, and it was the source of the horses' cries which had convinced the woman that these costumed people had actually been horses. She couldn't see beyond the man's back, due to the fact that he was laying down on his stomach, but she was sure that he held the same object in his own hands.

"Alice" the woman said, "Is that you?"

The girl let herself glance up, and her blue eyes locked on the older lady's eyes, which were blue as well. "Yes" she whispered, a small smile playing on her lips.

The older lady, who by now was identified as Helen, Alice's mother, sighed in relief. "Oh, thank the lord!" she said, muttering a prayer or two. She collected the girl in an embrace, and whispered soft nothings against her hair.

Alice was shocked, to say the least. She patted her mother's back softly, returning the hug with as much strength as she could muster.

Pulling back from the hug, Helen remembered the orange haired man. "Who is that?" she asked, a knowing grin on her face.

Alice glanced in the direction her mother was looking at, and replied "Oh that is Hatter, or Tarrant as the queen calls him."

"This gentleman knows the queen of England?" Helen asked, shocked and slightly impressed.

Alice shook her head, laughing. "Oh heavens no!" she corrected. "I meant the White queen, Mirana. You know, he's her royal hatter."

Despite the feeling of bewilderment, Helen played along. "Oh how silly of me to think different." But her daughter was able to see right through her act.

"Mother, I know you do not believe me now, but I promise by the end of my trip you will." Alice said, pure determination running through her veins as she spoke.

Helen said nothing in response to that, but asked "Shouldn't you wake him?" Maybe in the crash, the man had actually been hurt, despite it being seemingly planned out.

"I'm actually awake" the pale, orange haired man replied as sat up. "But by all means, carry on with your conversations. It was quite interesting" he said, giggling. Before he could break into one of his mad charades, Alice nudged him. He glanced in her direction, and nodded to her unspoken question.

Helen glanced at the orange haired man, uncertain of him. He seemed nice enough, if not crazy, she mused to herself.

Beginning to lose his nerves under her intense stare, he gulped. His palms were coated in sweat, and as were his orange eyebrows. There had to be a word in the alphabet help him get Alice's mother's approval. Fighting the maddening thoughts that threatened to take over, he looked through the files inside his mind, hoping to find something to help him. He was about to give up after looking at all the files from the letters 'A' through 'L', and finding none of the files of any use in his current situation. However, a certain word in the 'M' file caught his mind's eye: Manners. He needed to use his manners; manners which were a bit dusty from a long time of not being put to use. He blinked, his thoughts beginning to fade, bringing him back among the world of the living.

"Where are my manners!" Tarrant exclaimed suddenly, and took her hand in his clammy one. "My name is Tarrant Hightopp, the 12th." He wildly shook her hand as he spoke. "But by all means, you can call me Hatter if you like" Slowly, his hand stilled in movement.

"Nice to have made acquaintance, Hatter" Helen said, giving his stilled hand one solid shake. "I'm Helen. Helen Kingsley." Alice's mother introduced, her lips curved upwards in an amused smile.

Author's notes:
This chapter is seven pages long! That's long, right? xD I want to know - what you as my readers think of this chapter, and where you are hoping it heads to in the next chapters. Please be honest in your reviews - I can take it, I promise. (: