From this point on the fiction will be heavily influenced by American McGuee's Alice and Alice Madness Returns. So expect dark themes. Also, some characters are pretty much bastards in this. I'm not very sorry if I've made a character you like into a villain.

~Follow Me Down~

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I invite you to a world where there is no such thing as time
And every creature lends them self to change your state of mind
And the girl that chase the rabbit drank the wine and took the pill
Has locked herself in limbo to see how it truly feels
To stand outside your virtue
No one can ever hurt you, or so they say

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Everything after the fire became a blur to poor Alfred. Sirens blared in his ears as the firemen tackled the flames, and he was left sitting in the snow, shivering as people crowded around him with their gossiping voices. Policemen arrived to take him away and try to question him, if he knew if there was any way he knew how the fire began. Alfred didn't reply, the shock and fear forbidding his body from reacting to the outside world. People passed by him and he could hear snippets of their conversation. He had been the only survivor of the fire. His whole family were dead, their bodies barely identifiable. Alfred was now an orphan.

An orphan that no one believed.

Eventually he did find the courage to speak to them, but whatever he said was shot down. He spoke about the creature with bloody red eyes that breathed fire and set his home alight but no. They classed him as delusional. Experts were brought in, and said that his survivor's guilt had turned his childish mind to insanity. He was alone now, no one was on his side. Even the family lawyer used this as an excuse to take whatever the family had owned away from Alfred - that man took away Alfred's inheritance. Even worse, Alfred was abandoned - no one came forward to claim him as a relative.

Alfred F. Jones, orphaned at the age of ten, was left in the Rutledge Asylum for the Clinically Insane.

The place was a living hell, the bleached white walls tainted in shades of grey and puke green. The blonde haired boy spent his days strapped into a straight jacket, refusing meals from the horrible chef who he was sure wanted to devour him (Alfred found that spending time with the insane was starting to affect his once innocent mind). The doctors and nurses cared not for the patients and took great joy in experimenting on their crying and weeping inmates. The man who owned the asylum, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, was just as cruel as the very doctors employed within the walls yet his cruelty was more psychological. The man had two nephews who were left to run amok and taunt the patients - the Vargas Twins. They were the same age as Alfred yet the blonde despised the young Italians. Well, he took that back, he despised Romano who was a carbon copy of his despicable uncle. Feliciano was actually not as cruel...

Alfred was desperate the escape into the paradise of his Wonderland but this was denied to him. With the heavy sedatives that were forcefully injected into him, Alfred never got a peaceful sleep. Even when he did managed to doze, his mind was plagued with nightmares. Of the flames engulfing his home and family, of those blood red eyes gazing at him hungrily and of the fearful face of his beloved Hatter who screamed at him to save himself...

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Nine years. He had been trapped in this hell for nine years. Alfred F. Jones was no longer the innocent boy he had been when he first entered the Rutledge gates - his clear blue eyes had lost their youthful sparkle, his sunny blonde hair a dirty shade now and dark rings clouded his eyes behind his glasses. He had out grown many straight jackets during his stay and he had built up a reputation as a very sick man. Why was he classed this way? Because he continued to speak of his Wonderland.

Of a cat who would leave his grin behind. Of trees that grew tea cups instead of leaves. Of a dance where even the lobsters and fish joined in. No one believed him of course. It just fueled their beliefs that Alfred was a lost cause, and the only use he was now was to be a guinea pig for the doctors and nurses to try their painful treatments on. However, one day though, something happened that would probably change his life.

Alfred managed to have a dream, not a nightmare but a real dream.

At first he thought it was maybe a nightmare. He was surrounded by a thick pink smog, with no clear path of escape. Alfred heard a voice, soft and welcoming that seemed to be singing...not to any exact tune. He thought in vain maybe it was his Hatter but the voice wasn't the same, this one sounded of a different region than his British hatted man. Alfred rubbed his tired eyes and as he did so some of the pink mist seemed to fade away, revealing a giant mushroom.

He walked closer, noticing that someone was actually sitting on the fungi. Alfred would describe the man as Chinese in origin, his clothes seemed to say so anyway. The man was dressed in red and black silk robes that hid his legs, reminding Alfred of a caterpillar. The long curled antennae poking out of soft hazel hair seemed to give that image anyway. The man's hair was long and tied into a low pony tail which was slung over one shoulder. His golden eyes were half lidded as he inhaled from a long pipe, when he blew out the smoke was pink and forming random letters of the alphabet. Eventually though the man turned his lazy gaze onto the lonely blonde.

"Who...are...you...aru..." murmured the Asian, his voice almost like a whisper.

"My name is Alfred F. Jones..." came the blonde's reply, hardened and confident despite how fragile his mind actually was.

"Ah yes...I remember you, friend of the Hatter aru..."

Alfred's eyes widened at the mention of his long lost friend. Was he...was he in Wonderland? But...his Wonderland wasn't like this...dingy, dark - like the asylum. "Do you know Hatter?" asked Alfred, desperate for answers. "And who are you...?"

"I am the first and last, the beginning and end...I am the Oracle aru..." was the cryptic reply. "And yes, I know Hatter. I was there when he was born..."

"Please...tell me what's happened to him...is this Wonderland...?"

The blue eyed man waited as the Oracle took another puff of his pipe, golden eyes watching the smoke take on different shapes - a heart, a spade, a club and a diamond. "Wonderland is at war with itself..." muttered the Oracle. "Twelve Alices have died within our land...the Queen of Hearts reigns once more, black imagination is corrupting the white...all because of you..."

"M-Me...? Why me?" snapped Alfred, angered by this person's remark. How was it his fault?

"Because Hatter wanted you to live..." Oracle whispered. "But even that couldn't save you. You are now part of our game, and you will never be free of your prison until you right the wrongs of this world aru..."

Alfred felt his hands shut into fists. He didn't want to blamed for this. The fire, he knew, it wasn't his fault. That creature, it was his fault! He attacked Hatter and his friends at the tea party, it must have followed him back into his own world somehow! How, he couldn't figure that out but he was determined to set things right - he owed Hatter that much. "How do I fix this...?"

Oracle blew more of the pink smoke but this time it formed into a shape that Alfred instantly recognized - A pocket watch. Hatter's pocket watch. "Hatter has lost his Heart. If you are to set this right, you must return his heart to him aru..."

"His Heart...? But...where do I find it...?" the blonde muttered.

"You've had it with you all this time aru..." murmured the Oracle.

The pink smoke began to choke him then, making Alfred violently cough as he covered his mouth. His mind was cast back to the night of the fire, of smoke filling his lungs...he had climbed out the window, collapsed onto the snow as the flames flickered behind him...but something glinted in the snow next to Alfred. Weakly, he reached out to grab it - a gold pocket watch, an H entwined with a heart engraved on it. He had opened up the watch and found a clock staring back at him...and a note. A note which was stained with blood. His shaky hands opened it up to stare at the words scrawled onto it...

'Save us Alfred'

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Alfred awoke from the dream with a start, his tired eyes staring up at the ceiling. He noticed that for some reason, he wasn't wearing his straight jacket, it was lying on the floor beside his mattress. Finally he was able to sit up...as he did so, the moonlight drifting in through the barred window caught something, making it shine. The American looked down at his chest to see a chain around his neck, something dangling from his. His hands slowly reached up to stroke over the engraving before he opened it up, staring at the familiar clock face...

'Alfred...what have you done...?'

That hissing voice echoed in his mind as he felt himself being...pulled...inside the pocket watch...

And he fell into his limbo once more.

He was returning to Wonderland.

End of Chapter

Anyone confused? Good. This should be filled with riddles to keep your brains occupied. Oh, and for some people who couldn't figure it out.

Gilbert = General Jabberwocky

China = The Oracle/Caterpillar

Russia = Chess/Cheshire Cat

R&R

LadyCaledonia