Down, Down, Down
Chapter Nine
Very tall and yet even taller dark green grass leaves shielded my view as I blindly surged forwards through it. Now and then I would pass my hands over an outgrown weed to push it away from me, making room for us to walk through and a ray of warm sunshine would finally come through without any plants blocking our view from the sky. I gave a quick glance upwards at the summery blue, cloudless sky just before I let go and the giant leaves would fall back into place again to leave me in a reclusive darkness. I listened out for the rustling of plants, my small footsteps and the sound of Hatter's warm breath from close behind me, so close that if a took a step back I was sure we would collide and I would be back in those furnace like arms again. But I bit back my will and walked on.
I counted old memories in my head like a list of weekly shopping in order to think about everything and anything but what a beautiful face the boy behind me I knew had on, I thought listlessly about caterpillars, flowers, rabbits and tea. It sounded rather like a fairytale, children's book which I used to enjoy reading as a child, and even now I still enjoyed to pass my fingers over the hand drawn illustrations though I was considered too old to be reading such books. I would read novels now, though I could not help myself but to doodle a few bits in the corners of pages when I felt another need to pass the time.
In an instant I didn't expect, I heard the Hatter mumble something under his breath which I didn't quite catch. I attempted to turn around and question him about it when the oversized leaf in front of me gave way to my weight and I stumbled forwards into an endless meadow that stretched on far and wide for my eyes to follow. As I caught my breath from a little shock, I fumbled around with fixing my dress and Hatter passed by to walk in front of me, which I dared not sneak a peek at his lean figure.
When I eventually stood up straight and in what I deemed a very presentable manner with my hands holing onto not to tight to each other, I observed this completely new scenery from what I experienced before. Though I stared upon the pasture with wide, new eyes as if I was seeing for the first time my head reminded me that I must have been in such a place several times before. In this amazing, crazy Wonderland I'd seen tea sets, forestry, carved trees, gems for rain, over grown plantations and now I walked into an eerie marsh land sort of place, which was dominated by a plethora of variously sized mushrooms of all shapes and colours.
Scattered across the empty landscape I cast my gaze over thin, large purple mushrooms which had a remarkable array of blue and green spots over the top of it – peering underneath them I poked at the gills of the fungus and drew back my fingers when they felt as if they were breathing. In other places there were smaller toadstools which I recognised from the 'real world' these were cuter and plump with red tops and yellow spots, rather than breathing I thought I heard giggling from the toadstools as I passed by them. I didn't feel like asking mushrooms questions neither, particularly about why they were sharing a giggle so I walked on to where I thought I heard louder human voices.
Oh to see another human being! Not that I didn't remember what real humans looked like, but I craved to see a little civilisation now and then. Though my faint memories told me not to expect anything ordinary otherwise I would just be disappointed again. I quickened my pace knowing that Hatter would follow and readjusted my impression of the loud voices to believe that they were bickering, rather than sharing a decent conversation.
I jumped around a colossal sized blue mushroom which housed a dozen other small mushrooms on its top and finally met with the perpetrators of the noise. When they didn't acknowledge my presence and before I felt the need to rudley cough loudly to interrupt them, or wait for another bold, showy introduction from the Hatter... a Dodo (which I'm sure I had read somewhere was an extinct creature) emerged from the fungus abyss and pecked at the two tubby twins, pointing at me with his golden, curved beak.
Unhurriedly, I walked over to the three recognizable strangers and stretched out my arm for a greeting handshake – to which I was unsure how I would shake hands with a bird. The two chubby twins who I had been expecting to be wearing a matching attire of striped shirts, red playsuits and stockings, were wearing precisely that! I beamed at them whilst Hatter tipped his hat and voiced his greetings, and then began conversing with the Dodo about how his family were doing – without an expected warning the pair of child-like twins ran forwards at me with arms outstretched.
One whom I recalled with the name Tweedledee, as he was slightly shorter and more plump than the other twin grabbed my right hand with his two own hands and shook it, "Oh Alice, you are back!" He cheered and beamed with a cheeky toothy grin.
"I have returned Tweedledee, how do you do?" I responded with a typical polite grace which I had been taught and nagged my entire life.
The other twin whom I remembered as Tweedledum also took my opposite left hand with both his hands and likewise shook it as well, with more vigour than the first twin, "Alice! You remembered us, oh why don't you come and play with us?" This twin announced with more enthusiasm than Tweedledee and casting his brother an inexplicable look from across my torso.
"I only remember a little Tweedledum, how do you do?" I answered with a little confusion trying to keep up with the two little fellows that were very short compared to me indeed, and felt a little struck shaken as they did not stop shaking my hands with excitement.
I went unnoticed as the pair began to bicker again, this time over a completely thing from what we had interrupted them from before.
"You can't play with Alice! I got here first, so she will play with me!" Tweedledee said, raising his voice and though he finally stopped shaking my hand, he was now pulling me towards him whilst Tweedledum followed in his stride and pulled at my other arm.
"Nuh-uh! I saw and asked her first, so she will play with me!" Tweedledum revoked, and then pulled at my other side until I felt that if they continued to do so I would break clean into two. I fully regretted walking blindly into this situation, even for the mere fact of collecting my lost memories. I looked over to where the Hatter was still apparently enjoying a conversation with the wise looking Dodo and wanted to call out to him for help.
Instead I tried to calm these two children down with my own beckoning, which of course failed, "Please Tweedledee and Tweedledum! Why can't we all play together?" I pleaded whilst being in the heart of a very violent game of tug of war. Were they really siblings? I had never remembered having such an aggressive argument with my sister, despite having very minute disputes there was nothing like this kind of fight!
The pair seemed to not notice my completely and I became flustered when they moved onto different topics.
"Hatter!" I finally succumbed and called out to where he was standing at a distance. He perked up and turned in our direction, before I shut my eyes to pull a face of utter pain and despair I caught a brief glimpse of a glimmer of pink in the midst of Hatter's velvety top hat. As I opened my eyes slowly again and thought at maybe already my insides were ripped apart, the voices of the twins grew louder still. When Hatter looked over in my direction and walked over with the accompaniment of the Dodo, I couldn't read whether his expression told me he was displeased or angry – both of which were not befitting of the situation. Surely he should be worried, and edging to help me... if I was lucky.
"Come on now boys, let Alice go. She is having a difficult time." He murmured in a calm voice and with his palms facing us as a sign that they should stop fighting this moment.
"She surely loves me more, so she will definitely play with me!" Tweedledee screamed, unaffected and deaf to his surroundings, as well as the presence of his companions. I was not a rag doll to be tugged over!
"You're wrong she loves me the most! Therefore, she will only play with me!" Tweedledum roared, mimicking his brother.
I summoned the courage to lie in front of the crowd that was Hatter and the Dodo, all in the name of my blissful freedom, "I love you both very much and I love you both the most. So now let me go!" The last part of my dialogue sounded very agree indeed, though I had not intended to be – but pain made me cruel and I could not hold my tongue like a lady. Having recalled the first part of my sentence and the lie, I suddenly met Hatter's changing eyes and began to blush uncontrollably. I didn't really mean that! I wanted to say to him, but wondered why I wanted to defend myself in the first place.
A little more confusion struck me when Hatter's eyes became a darker maroon colour mixed within the swirls of mussel, murky green - an infusion which I had never seen before. But he quickly turned his gaze away from me and averted his eyes elsewhere before I gave it much more thought; he rubbed his right palm across the back of his neck looking uncomfortable and pursed his lips towards the side of his lower cheek to show a look of holding in whatever he wanted to say.
Upon noticing that the twins were gawking at me and were no longer pulling wildly for my affections, I swiftly yanked my sore, red wrists from their small, clammy hands. Inwardly, I celebrated my long awaited freedom and cheered inside my head.
"You hear that brother, she loves us a lot!" One of the twins boasted loudly and pointing at me with a tubby pointer finger and a crooked wrist. He chuckled a bold, cheeky kind of laugh as I eyed Hatter's half-turned face and the lean nape of his neck. I blinked madly a few times to get me to stop thinking such dire, awful thoughts. I could definitely be slapped on the hand for such a thing.
"And there we thought, her most important person was silly old Mad Hatter!" The other chorused along and they shared a loud, mischievous laugh which I noted as them teasing Hatter more than they were actually teasing me. "Dee, it is not he but we that she loves the most!" He followed with a wink at his brother and though I was irritated that they were telling lies which I could not defend, I was actually glad that they were no longer tugging at both of my fragile arms.
The Hatter flushed a little pink in his cheeks and tipped the rim of his top hat to cover the rest of his face and his mood ring eyes before I got a chance to study the meaning behind it. I wanted to tell him that it was alright to not believe the scheming between these two unperturbed fellows because... because actually the person I loved the most in both Upland and the Wonderland was...
"Don't play silly games!" Hatter very instantly, said in an uncharacteristic voice. Was he angry? He sounded... angry? I still could not see his face and even more so as he actually turned to face fully away from us, I stared hard at his back and how his blazer fitted him perfectly in all the right places. I was very, very confused at the same time. Where was the kind, calm Hatter all of a sudden? This was new to me as well; I had seen the caring Hatter, the joking Hatter, the serious and the mischievous Hatter... now he was also angry. "Alice, have you not remembered anything?" He said and making me jump at the sudden turn of the conversation towards me.
I shook my head from side to side like a scolded child; afraid in the presence of an angry, blushing boy though I knew he wasn't looking I thought probably he could still tell I was saying 'no'.
"No! Alice still hasn't played with us!" Tweedledum cried and jumping me with a forceful embrace across my waist. I lifted my arms up high so as to not get trapped again and my eyes widened slightly as I expected something similar to be done by the other twin. I was right.
"Daft, jealous old man! You can't have Alice all to yourself!" The counterpart twin roared with equal cheek, sticking out his tongue at Hatter who himself turned back around with a look of utter aggravation just in time to see Tweedledee leap onto me with such energy that I could not hold myself upright anymore. I was knocked so out of balance that my feet went flying in the air and landed on Tweedledum's plump belly before I rolled off with a bounce, finally coming to a halt in an embarrassing position with hair all over my face and my dress looking as untidy as if I had tossed it into a heap on the floor. I puffed a few large breaths of air to spit out the hair that was in my mouth and pulling away the hair like a curtain from in front of my eyes I sat up straight again flushing to see the Hatter kneeling very close in front of me with an adorable, worried expression on his face. If my eyes were wide enough, they could engulf half of my face with ease.
The twins from what I saw were behind him rolling about on the floor having a childish fight again, but God knows about what this time and with the Dodo trying to pry them apart with his stick-like legs and beak. Feeling a little unkempt and humiliated in front of the ever graceful Hatter I tried to at least make myself look decent and less flustered. But my heart stopped beating completely and I held my breath when I felt the slight touch of his blazing fingertip scooping up my untidy hair and placing it behind my ear.
His chuckle was a deep rumble that shook my core and I tried to ignore the flames of ice that were traces left on my skin whenever he accidentally touched a bit of cheek or the top of my ear by shutting my eyes tight. This only aided in intensifying the feelings and I didn't need to see myself in the mirror to know that I had turned a putrid red colour again – so I slapped my hands over both my hot cheeks to cover them up and knocking away Hatters hands in the process in my awkwardness. Please don't look at this horrid face, I cried inside my head!
"Quick lets run!" The Hatter whispered, looking away in the direction of the two preoccupied twins rather than in mine thankfully and then held out his other hand for me to take.
I too turned to glance up at the siblings from my position on the purple and red mushroom filled floor, hoping that I had not squished any and ruined the bottom of my dress. Apparently, they had re-diverted their attention towards the Hatter and I, thus were now charging at us with full speed in order to keep me trapped in the fungus field with them. I promptly grabbed Hatter's hand with both of mine in the manner the twins had held me before and he hauled me upwards with such ease and poise that he possessed, before running a ways off in the other direction from the twins and pulling me to run in the same speed as his long, slender legs.
I tried to keep up with him and his quick pace, not daring to look back to see if the brothers were closing in behind us or not, for I could still hear their livid screams from a distance behind. With the hand that was clasping the rim of his top hat the Hatter pushed me on from the back of my shoulders, as if to cradle me within his cage like arms.
Abruptly, I distinctly remembered a similar moment in this place several years or months ago running away at lightning speed past the blurs of murky colour and shapes that could only be oddly sized mushrooms. But wasn't running with a smile on my face in the arms of a familiar man rather I was alone and much younger looking than I did now.
I instinctively dodged a mushroom by crouching down but kept running and thinking of escaping, when an enormous animal whom I recognised as a vicious cat-like creature emerged from leaping over in front of us and that preyed on the animals that accompanied me, but me particularly. My companions such as the twins tumbled over and scattered in various directions away from the... the Bandersnatch! The white, furry beast with black spots and rows of jagged sharp teeth stopped me running from the front and roared but I escaped into the woods.
I smiled a slight smile from the return of the memory and escaped with Hatter into the same woods, this time running away from two rather insane twins as opposed from the teeth of the Bandersnatch.
A/N: This is rather long, nonetheless I hope you enjoy. More romance between Alice and Hatter will come soon, not to worry!