Chapter II: The Chains Which Hurt the Mind…
Alice opened her eyes…she had dozed off, and was sleeping in her bed. She sat up, and stretched, yawning softly. She looked up at the clock on her shelf.
It was 9:30 p.m.
Alice groaned; having just woken up from a long nap, she knew it was going to be very difficult to fall back to sleep. She sat up, frustrated, and headed for the kitchen…then for the front door, which she opened.
Alice frowned; it was even foggier now, and colder, as well. Frost tainted the streets…it never snowed. The fog was so thick now that Alice could not even see the sky.
Not that it mattered; the smoke from the factory upstreet always blotted out the stars, anyway.
Alice shut the door, and went back in, shivering. She headed back to the kitchen, where she had placed a Franklin's Stove, in place of a fireplace. She grabbed a blanket, ravaged by dust and moth bites, and wrapped it about her; she didn't really want to go to the bedroom for her shawl. The young woman started a fire, and tried to warm her hands.
For about ten minutes, nothing remarkable happened.
At all.
Then…
Alice gaped. Gulped. Gasped. Her hands quivered, and she blinked rapidly, wondering if she was hallucinating (again).
The fire had taken a shape…a face. The face of a man, with a goatee and moustache, his dark brown hair slicked with pomade…wearing thick spectacles, which shadowed a pair of steely, blue-gray eyes.
The face of Dr. Angus Bumby.
The face did not seem particularly intimidating…its expression was emotionless. It did not blink, it did not make any form of movement, and it did not speak. It remained, floating in the hot air of the stove, orange and red in its flaming appearance, for only a few seconds…though it seemed like several minutes to Alice.
Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, Bumby's visage vanished.
To say Alice was not startled would be untrue. Still, she was used to curious sights and sounds, and quickly dismissed it, like she had a good deal of things that evening, saying, again, "Bah, Humbug."
The rest of the time was uneventful, really.
It was nearly midnight when Alice Liddell retreated to her bedroom, feeling tired once again, and bored out of her skull.
But she wouldn't be bored for long. As Alice reached for the door to her sleeping quarters, she noticed something strange…
Her dress was no longer the ratty, grungy outfit she had been wearing only minutes earlier…it was, instead, a much more pleasant one.
It was her favorite dress…she had worn one just like it at Rutledge, and usually took it with her to Wonderland. Unfortunately, after her stay in the Asylum, she had been forced to sell her precious garb, and was coerced into wearing the filthy rags she had borne since.
It still fit…sky blue, with a white, frilly apron, its pockets printed with the numbers zero and four, clasped with a white belt that was fastened by a silver buckle, shaped like a skull. Her stockings were striped, and fit closely, and she now wore black, high-heeled boots rather than her worn-out, slipper-like shoes.
She then noticed other changes: her skin, while pale, was no longer an unwholesome pallor, but a lovely, creamy shade. Her full lips had all their rosy luster, as she remembered. She touched her hair…long, clean, and straight. Cautiously, hopefully, she placed a hand to her breast…
Her necklace…a gift from her father. It was there. Omega-shaped pendant and all.
Alice was momentarily delighted…but then frowned once again.
I can only have this dress in Wonderland…why is it on me now?
Did I get it back in my sleep? No, that can't be right…
Alice was unable to finish these thoughts. The door to her bedroom swung open, fast, of its own accord, slamming into the wall and shaking up a cloud of dust. Alice coughed, closing her eyes and bowing her head slightly as she did…
When she looked up, she was unable to look away.
Her white rabbit doll stood before her, as if alive. A flash of dim light went across its single, polished, wooden eye, as if it had blinked.
This felt terribly familiar.
Alice took a step back, horror creeping up onto her, as the doll suddenly began to change…becoming larger…becoming darker…becoming more real…
The apparition it changed into resembled her friend, the White Rabbit of Wonderland…except that its short, mange-ridden fur was black, and its single eye was green, and on the wrong side, while its swollen eye was a grotesque crimson, rather than a disgusting purple.
The Rabbit opened its mouth…a familiar, black, tar-like substance oozed out.
"Alice," the Black Rabbit whispered, its voice taking on the terrifying but hypnotic hiss of a spitting cobra as it spoke her name.
Alice opened her mouth, wanting to say something…but her tongue seemed stuck to the roof of her mouth.
The Rabbit reached into the pocket of its tattered red waistcoat, and pulled out…
No. Not a pocket watch.
A key. Her sister's key. Attached to a long, golden chain.
Alice looked over to her shelf.
As she suspected, the key was no longer there.
The Black Rabbit smiled a gruesome, Ruin-dripping smile.
Alice glared, finally finding her voice, drawing her Vorpal Blade from the chilly air itself.
"Give. That. Back!"
Alice slashed her knife out at the Black Rabbit, who dodged, chuckling evilly. He jumped up, kicking out his feet, knocking the Vorpal Blade from Alice's grasp as the young lady fell to the floor.
Before Alice could stand, or summon another one of her "toys," the Rabbit spun the keychain in his paws, and lashed it out like a whip…the chain seemed to grow longer as it flew from his pocket. Alice grunted as the freezing, biting gold coiled tightly around her wrists. The Rabbit smirked, and reached into another pocket. THIS time, he pulled out a watch, also attached to a gold chain. He threw it out, like the key, and it wrapped around her ankles.
Alice struggled, straining against the metal bindings, and glared up at the Black Rabbit. It chuckled again, and gripped both chains in its paws
"Look out below."
Without warning, the floor beneath Alice and the Black Rabbit disappeared. The young lady shrieked, as the Rabbit fell below her, laughing maniacally as it vanished into the bottomless pit, the chains that extended from its pockets growing as it fell, dragging Alice deeper and deeper.
Alice yelped as, in the darkness, a jar of honey appeared, floating in mid-air, and conked her in the head. Rusty teapots, broken clocks, torn playing cards, and cracked china plates flew past as she fell into the darkness, screaming all the way.
Briefly, the silhouette of the Black Rabbit, far below her, appeared, as a gray, storm cloud-like mist grew out from the depths. Alice coughed violently as she went through it…it was smoke!
And smoke meant…
Alice's screams grew louder than ever, as the expected inferno rose up, the Black Rabbit disintegrating immediately in the flames, although its horrid laughter continued to echo in her ears.
Then, Alice herself hit the fire…