New chapter that I am sure will make a few people happy! - Happy or... sad... depends if you are mad - have I just made a rhyme? ^^
"You could stay," Tarrant said as he sheepishly walked up to her giving a weak smile.
"What an idea." She smiled as she grasped his hands with hers. "What a crazy, mad, wonderful idea." She smiles with glee as she subconsciously stepped closer. But as his smile widened, hers withered, as she remembered home. "But I can't… There are questions I have to answer; things I have to do."
"Yes, yes, but that is what you said last time." His eyebrows shot up with hope. "You don't still… still don't… do you?" his happiness shrinks into a small amount of hope.
"Alice," a voice was heard.
"I'll be back before you know it," She smiles as she slowly parts her hands from his. Before she knew it, his face became long and droopy, as if she was dying. She held his face in reassurance. "I promise." She smiles, hoping to get one from him.
"Alice," the voice was heard once more…. "Alice…"
Alice opened her eyes so see a dim sunset out of her window. A glow of a soft yellow-ish orange illuminates the sky, as does a lamp by her bed. She looked up to see her mother with a sad smile. Alice heavily exhaled the most nervous of breaths as she felt the gentle cress of her mother's hand petting her hair.
"Bad dreams again?" her mother asked in a smile.
"Only one…" she mentioned. "I- I thought that you were in here to scream at me. I said some nasty things out there, especially after their great news and…" her mother put a finger on her lips.
"You were just very tired, and her speeches weren't exactly invigorating either." Her mother understood. "Don't fret, she has done her share of thinking and has told me that she has forgiven you in hopes of a regard. She knows that you didn't mean any of that." Her hand caresses her cheek.
Alice pulled away and sat up. "But I did mean everything I said, even if I was tired, I still know what I was talking about, mother. She went too far," she said as she sat up.
"So did you, although I still don't think that you meant to go to such extremes, do you?" she asked in a whisper.
"Mum," she settled. Do you think that I have gone 'round the bend?" Alice asked sarcastically in a little joke remembering an exact memory like this with her father.
She chuckles. "I'm afraid so, that is a trait of your fathers, so I'll let it go. Speaking your mind is what you were born to do, Alice. But you shouldn't let it get to your head. You could lose your mind." She said as she stood.
Alice smiled. "It seems as though that I have already lost It." she said bluntly feeling some truth within the statement.
"You do know that Margaret means well, don't you?" her mother asked as she positioned herself back on the bed.
"Mother, you are living proof that women don't need to rely on men to make it in life. Especially when you're forced into love (and lose it almost at the same time), you feel as if you just want to rebel against it, if that is what it comes down to." Alice said as she walks to her vanity and starts to rummage. "I just wish that if not today, than one day she can stop pounding me on my failures and start to focus on her life as more than just a piece of cake."
"Alice, you must remember that she is your big sister, and this is the way that big sisters act. She is just trying to help, is all." She says as she rubbed her daughters back from a distance for reassurance. Then she looked to her grown up youngest.
Alice went deep down within her special drawer and found a thin piece of rope. "Yes," Alice whispered in satisfaction as she walked to her closet and reached up and caught a small thin box made out of maple wood.
"What is that," her mother peaked behind her shoulder in curiousness.
"You know that curiosity made the cat go mad," Alice said with a smile on her face with a chuckle. "This is a treasure that friends have given to me on various trips that I have taken." She says as she lightly sets it on the vanity table as if it were made of pure sawdust.
"Oh, really?"
"I had made a few friends and they had told me to keep this as a token of our close relationship." She said as she tied a key from within the box onto a rope and hung it behind her neck.
"Mmhmm, and did you meet these friends in Vancouver?" her mother sounded suspicious.
"Oh, no, I was too busy there to make friends." She then grabbed out a little tube with a thick purple liquid inside of it. "These were a group of friends that I had made in a certain place in which I had vowed never to speak of." She smiled in silliness.
"Is that alcohol?"
"Mother," she gasped in laughter.
"My, my, my, child, you haven't grown up a bit have you?" her mother asks as she stands.
"Not in this room, mummy," She says in a playful tone. However her mother saw a small hint of maturity that Alice tries to hide as she looks and studies the key.
"What does the key unlock?"
"One special friend said that it unlocks the door from my heart to his... It is such the interesting key, isn't it?" she asked as she took a good look at it.
"Did 'he' give this to you?" she asked as she looked at its intriguing style.
"Who?" Alice asked blankly. Of course Alice knew whom her mother was referring to.
Her mother hummed in confusion. "So what is the liquid for?"
"Works just like alcohol, but doesn't have a hint in it. It is supposed to take away all of your troubles and take you to your own 'Wonderland'. But there is a limited supply, so I must not use it unless I am desperate, I must wait for an "opportune moment"." She says as she studies the bottle.
"Oh," her mother said in realization. "I remember Wonderland." She said as she straightened her dress. "Well, are you going to use it tonight? It seems like the opportune moment, to me."
"Oh, Heavens no." she says as she giggled. "I shall know when it is to take it. They say that I WILL know. So until then, the tube stays closed." She says as she keeps the key on hand and puts the bottle back in its spot. She then puts the box in another hiding spot onto the floor of her closet and hides it under a blue winter scarf she is keeping hidden until the cold arrives. And with that, she stands to hug her mother.
"Well I must say that you have some…. interesting friends." Her mother says as she holds the key from her neck.
"Yes," Alice said blankly. It in fact… was 'he' who had said it; it was he who gave me the key." Alice murmured as holds the key tightly and she looks knowingly to her mother.
Her mother looked in surprise. "Who is this… 'boy'?" she asked in nervousness.
"Someone that I miss… very dearly," Alice whispers aloud.
"Would you like to talk about it?" her mother hugged her. Alice shook her head no.
Her mother tries to understand. This boy must mean something to Alice to completely change her attitude. "It seems that your friends seem to know how to separate fantasy from reality with your intriguing mind." She hugged Alice as she led her out of the door.
"Mother,"
"Yes,"
"Why… w- Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Alice asked as she looked to her mother with innocent eyes.
"What a silly riddle; it is a riddle…" Alice nodded in assurance. "I shall think on that, but until then, let us make a mends with Margaret and Lowell before they leave.
"Oh," Alice exhales; "all right" she says as she stands straight and becomes of the adult that her sister wants her to be.
'Our Champion,'
'Mind your head,'
'Run Alice,'
'You could stay'
'You're late!'
'…Wrong Alice,"
'Fairfarren Alice…. Fairfarren Alice'
Alice… Alice…
"ALICE!" screams a voice in which wakes Alice from her slumber.
"Mother?" she sees her mum burst into the room.
"Alice, quickly… hide!" she says guarding the door.
"What's going on?" she demands.
"In the closet now,"
"But mother,"
"Now"
"But who…" Footsteps are heard by the dozens just outside.
"GO!" she yells. Alice quickly rises from her bed and heads into her closet. She slams the door shut and sits with her legs to her chest, breathing ever so slightly, and watching through the crack in the door as still as death. As she exhaled, the intruders barged in shoving her mother to the ground. Alice gasped wanting to help her mother until she saw dark red Playing Cards barge in.
"Cards," she whispered.
She looks and studies in the dark, knowing that their coming for her. So with wide eyes, she stays silent as her life depends on it.
"Our deepest apologies, Madam," the Ace of Hearts helps her up off of the ground to stand in perfect posture.
"W-Wh… What-" she stutters as she stands back to the closet to protect her daughter.
"Can you help us Madam?" another card said.
"You're…. you're- p-playing c-cards…" she says in disbelief as she pinches herself as if she was dreaming. "I can't be seeing this. I have to be dreaming!" she shakes her head.
Sorry mummy, but I'm afraid that this is not even close to a dream… Wait…
Dream!
"It's just the acquired armor, milady," another said.
"We are looking for a certain Lady, if you will be so bold as to help us." Yet another said.
"But, we are looking for an Alice Kingsleigh,"
"Who," her mother asked in shock.
"Ah, so you know her." The Ace said in sort of a kinder voice as he motioned his men to come closer.
"Not very well," she said trying to falsely reassure herself. "S-she… is a part of the… the family company…
"Look, she's not it trouble, but,"
"But she will be is we don't collect her now!"
"NO!" she yelled in surprise to everyone including herself. "No one is taking my baby!"
"We figured as much, now please move over. We don't have much time. We are the good guys and would like to take her into protective custody."
"The White Queen demands," another says.
"We promise, we mean no harm what so ever. We are trying to help protect her, so please-"
"-So please corporate."
"Who- What are you, exactly?" the woman asked in a curiousness yet terrified demeanor.
"Please," one card said.
"We haven't the time for this!" another said.
"Do you know where Alice is?"
"Is she nearby?"
They all ganged upon her.
"Please, you must understand. We are here to help,"
"Now PLEASE!" the Ace said as he motioned her to move away from the door.
The woman comes up to the Ace. "You don't have any idea who you are dealing with." She said as she poked his incredibly though armor.
"Milady, we are here to HELP, so please. She will be in grave danger if we don't collect her now! If she isn't under our eyes…" he paused.
Her mother shed a tear. "What?" she whispered.
"Just please let us do our job, madam."
She slowly moved away from the closet. "You better take the best care of my little Alice. I will be damned if I hear that a hair is harmed on her head. And I want her back in ONE piece!" she shouted in ransom.
"As you wish, milady," The Ace said as two cards opened the closet door.
"Now come along Alice, we need to take you where you… can… be…. Oh no!" The Ace says as he sees.
"She's gone; disappeared…"
Lovely isn't it? I know that this is the second cliffy in a total of 2 chapters, but I found a place to put the Mad Hatter in it, so it is not as bad... He wasn't there before... but I put him in there SOMEWHERE! Yes, yes, he is really coming soon, just you wait!
(And let me just say that I am terribly sorry for all of the mistakes.. I currently have no beta, and am doing the best that I can without one. Please bare with me here...)
Remember, reviews = happy storyteller...
I.L.C