A/N: I guess I should clarify, since people have been a bit confused after the past chapters: the Alice in the prologue is the Alice from the film (in Victorian times), and this Alice belongs to the modern day. How they both connect will become clearer in the next chapter, I hope. You'll just have to wait and see what happens =)

Anyone who stumbled upon or is watching this story, feel free to come out of hiding and tell me how you think the story is going so far!

Hope you enjoy the update!

The rabbit just spoke to me. The rabbit just spoke to me.

Alice closed her eyes, slowly counted to ten, then opened them again.

It was still there.

"Dinah…you see it too, right?" whispered Alice.

Dinah meowed loudly and scratched at the window exactly where the white rabbit – who was wearing a waistcoat, Alice noticed with a gasp - stood on the other side of the glass. She obviously saw it as well.

Alice took a cautious step forward. The rabbit didn't move. Alice shut her eyes again and shook her head ferociously, as if trying to wake herself from a dream. Then she pinched herself as hard as she could, until the pain became too much to bear. When she opened her eyes, it still wasn't gone.

"You must come along Alice. You're terribly late."

There was no mistake. Although his voice was a bit muffled due to the glass between them, the creature had definitely talked.

"Animals don't talk. Animals can't talk," Alice muttered to herself, refusing to believe what she was seeing. "And they definitely don't wear waistcoats."

But the hallucination didn't disappear, even after trying to reassure herself with logic. Instead, he reached into his waistcoat, pulled something out of it, and pointed at it urgently, his whiskers and ears twitching frantically. It was a pocket-watch. A rabbit in a waistcoat with a pocket-watch.

"Well, Dinah, I think I've finally cracked," Alice chuckled weakly. She tried to calm herself with humor, but her voice quivered nevertheless. So at last it had happened then – Alice had finally lost her head. With stress or depression or something she inhaled off the streets of London, Alice didn't know, but she had to be completely mad to be seeing what she was seeing.

"No time to dilly-dally my dear," said the rabbit, putting his pocket-watch back in his waistcoat. "We must be on our way." And without a moment's delay, he turned around – and jumped right off the balcony of her fifth story apartment.

Oh, God thought Alice with dread, her chest squeezing as she threw open the glass door and looked over the balcony. She had expected to see the splattered remains of the white rabbit on the pavement below. But instead, the rabbit was safely hopping down each of the balconies below her, defying everything Alice had been taught about the laws of physics. Alice watched in stunned silence as the rabbit made his way safely to the pavement in front of the building below.

"Hurry up Alice, we haven't got all night!" yelled the rabbit back up to her, before briskly hopping away.

Alice, her mind racing with the impossibilities of those past few minutes, didn't have time to reason with herself as she ran out the door and took off down the flight of stairs. A rush of cold air hit her as the doors at street level opened, and she wished she had remembered to put on her coat. But the thought quickly disappeared when she saw a puff of white moving a few meters ahead of her. He had already crossed the busy street in front of her apartment, as was now hurriedly making his way down the street.

Impossible, thought Alice, how could he have survived crossing that intersection? But she took off after the rabbit anyway, with cars honking and beeping at her as she ran across the street. It wasn't slowing down. For a little rabbit, it was moving at a remarkably fast pace. Alice had to keep jogging to keep that little puff of white in sight. Cars sped past her, an array of lights and colors dancing in front of her eyes that just dared Alice to take her eyes off her line of sight. It was all very disorienting, and it made Alice's mind grow even muddier with exhaustion.

It was when the rabbit wiggled its way through a park fence that Alice finally stopped running. She starred at the closed gate to the park and forced herself to start thinking logically. She was chasing a hallucination. I frighteningly real-looking one, but a hallucination none the less. Of course, she couldn't be sure that that rabbit was a hallucination, but considering the thing spoke to her and was wearing a waistcoat for God's sake...well, there simply wasn't any other explanation. She should've been running to the nearest head-clinic, not after some white rabbit.

Yet at the same time…she sort of felt that she had to follow the white rabbit. Like she had even maybe done it once before. Not that she ever had, but those feelings of familiarity and purpose still lingered. Uncomfortably so. If she decided to turn around and go home that very instant, Alice knew that she would not sleep for all the tiredness in the world. She had always been that way, even as a little girl: if something made her curious, she would not rest until she found her answer. Curiosity can be a maddening thing, thought Alice sourly. Against her better judgment, Alice tossed herself over the chain-link fence, into the darkness of the park.

"Rabbit? Where are you?" whispered Alice, squinting her eyes. It was pitch black. She could get in trouble if she was caught roaming around a closed park at night. Maybe this isn't a good idea…

"I'm here Alice. Follow me." She could barely make out the outline of the little creature in the dark, and she scurried to keep up with him. They hadn't gone far before the white rabbit suddenly disappeared.

I told you it was a hallucination Alice reprimanded herself hotly. She then noticed something in the ground before her, her eyes finally having time to properly adjust. It was a hole. A rabbit hole, Alice realized. A rather big one for such a small rabbit. She kneeled down and cautiously leaned her head down the hole. She couldn't see the bottom of it – it darker then night down that thing. Damn, thought Alice, her eyebrows furrowed with disappointment. "Hello? Um…Mr…Rabbit?" she called down, her voice reverberating against its thick dirt walls.

Suddenly, Alice could feel the earth beneath her hands start to give way. She didn't even have time to properly process what was going on before she felt herself slipping. And with an ear-piercing scream, she fell. Down the rabbit hole, down into the abyss, down into the unknown…

Down, down, down…

"Do you suppose it's the Alice?"

"Of course it's the Alice. I've brought her twice before. You'd think I wouldn't make a mistake the third time around!"

"But look at her hair, McTwisp! The Alice's hair was long and golden, and thi-"

"This Alice's hair is just as golden. Hair and size are things that are easily changed, Mally, but there are quite a number of things in a person that even the White Queen's potions can't distort. Look at her face, her eyes –"

"I would if they would open already."

At first, the voices were nothing more than a distant ringing in her ears. Then they grew louder and clearer as she started to regain consciousness. As her muddled mind finally began to clear, she could process that she was lying down, and resting her head of the softest pillow Alice had ever felt in her entire life. The room she was in smelled like cinnamon; like her tiny kitchen in Paris that one winter's day when she had made ginger cookies with her father as a child. It was very relaxing, and very pleasant.

She forced her eyelids to flutter open. She started to lose the sleepiness in her eyes. Alice squinted to properly focus them, and once the figures lost their blurriness, she could see an assortment of animals that were all looking down at her, including the white rabbit.

The white rabbit.

"Feeling better now, dear?" he asked chipperly.

Alice was suddenly wide awake. Her heart pounding, she sprang from the bed and ran to the nearest door. It was locked. She turned around to face the creatures, who were all giving her curious looks. She pressed her back to the marble wall defensively. "W-who are you?" she demanded, her voice quivering.

A small dormouse hopped up to a nearby desk. It pointed its finger accusingly towards the white rabbit and said in her high-pitched voice, "I told you it was the wrong Alice! I told you, McTwisp!"

The white rabbit lowered his long ears, his whiskers twitching with nervousness once again. "Ah…well, you see Mally, it's more complicated then you think, I'm afraid."

Alice turned her head towards the white rabbit, and frowned. "You!"

The rabbit lowered his ears even more and began to slink back behind the other animals. Alice took the chance to study them all: not including the dormouse and the white rabbit (both of whom could talk!), there was also a dodo bird, a couple of bloodhounds, and a march hare (who was twitching at quite a frightening rate, Alice noticed). The largest of the red hounds staggered up to Alice and tentatively sniffed her leg.

"She smells just like Alice," he said, turning towards the others. "I mean, there are a few other odd smells in there that I cannot recognize, but the undeniable Alice-smell is all there underneath."

Alice, flabbergasted, snapped her head towards the rest of the creatures. "I guess it's too much to suppose that you all can speak?" she asked.

"Of course we can speak," the blue Dodo bird said with a chuckle. "Imagine, animals not talking…"

"She must have hit her head quite hard on the way down, poor thing," said the female bloodhound sympathetically.

"You shouldn't have taken Alice out of the portal," said the dormouse sharply to the rabbit. "We should have made sure she could do it herself! That's how we knew last time!"

"Well, you weren't exactly convinced even after she passed the trial the last time," said the rabbit indignantly, perking up behind the bloodhounds, "And besides, the girl hit her head quite badly and was unconscious. I thought it only right that I should help her." He puffed his furry chest up a bit and snorted huffily. "She's had quite a hard day already."

Alice couldn't help but give the creature a small smile. She appreciated the help…whatever exactly it was. At least they weren't evil talking animals. At least, as far as she could tell.

"She hit her head quite hard indeed…" muttered the dormouse, hopping onto the bed. The hare then burst out with a cackling laugh that startled everyone in the room, but especially Alice. Noticing the eyes staring in his direction, he put his paws over his mouth and lowered his ears, his whole body shaking harder then Alice's was. It was quite unsettling. But nothing more unsettling then what suddenly appeared next to her – and this time she was sure it had come out from thin air. Alice screamed.

It was a cat. An unusually colored, evaporating , levitating cat, with a grin so disturbingly wide Alice didn't think possible for cats to wear. Then again, most everything in this place was impossible so far…

The cat floated by Alice's head, starring at her with its two giant orbs for eyes. "Oh, it that any way to greet an old friend?" He tisked and shook his massive head. "I thought you would have missed me, dear Alice."

Alice's heart was about ready to pound right out of her chest. "I don't know any of you," she said, losing the waver in her voice as she tried to regain control of herself. "This is all a dream. A crazy, mad, mixed-up dream."

"In the name of Mirana, not this dream business again," moaned the dormouse, slapping her hands on her forehead.

"Has she awakened, my friends?"

The door that had been locked before then magically swung open on its own, and a beautiful lady decked in white entered the room. Alice sighed, relieved to see another human – something that was supposed to talk. Although, she was a bit odd-looking, with her dark eyebrows that greatly contrasted with her white skin. She also literally seemed to float when she walked, which was a bit off-putting, but it was negated by the kindly look on the woman's face.

"Yes you Majesty," said the creatures, parting like the red sea as the lady made her way towards Alice. Majesty? thought Alice, looking at the golden crown atop the woman's head. She had never met a royal before. She wasn't sure if she should bow or curtsy or what. So she simply stood there and tried her best to not look as confused as she was feeling.

"Oh, Alice, it is wonderful to see you again!" The Queen smiled and clasped her hands together in delight.

"I'm sorry…your…Highness?...but I'm afraid I don't know who you are," said Alice with less control in her voice then before. The lady's lips turn downwards for a split second, but then were quickly smiling again - though not quite a brightly as before, Alice noticed.

"I am Mirana, the White Queen," she said with a light curtsy. Alice tried to curtsy in return, thinking it only polite, but it was rather difficult to do so in a sweater and jeans. The White Queen covered her mouth with a dainty white hand as she chucked sweetly.

"Your Majesty," Alice said, a bit flustered since she had never been in the presence of royalty before, "I'm afraid I don't know where I am. I mean, I know this is probably just a dream, but this has to be a place, even if it's in a dream." Or did it? Alice had never really cared for psychology much in school, and was now wishing she had decided to study it a second year. Maybe it could have helped her with this whole dream mess.

"You are at the White Castle of Marmoreal, my dear. At the center of Underland." Surely my unconscious can create a more imaginative name then that, Alice thought sullenly. The Queen, as if reading her thoughts, then said quite seriously: "And this is not a dream, Alice. This world is very, very real."

"I'm sorry, your Majesty, but I'm finding that a bit hard to believe," said Alice, trying her best to sound confident, though Mirana's words shook her. A place like this, where animals could talk, cats could evaporate, and people could float – real?

The White Queen must have read Alice's emotions once again, for she gave Alice a heartwarming smile that magically seemed to reassure her that everything was going to turn out all right. Her smile was like the smell of cinnamon that wavered throughout the white room: warm, familiar and comforting. But…why familiar? She had never met this woman before…and yet…she felt almost as if she had…

It was too overwhelming a thought for Alice at that moment. Her pain must have been evident; Mirana quickly ordered everyone else out of the room and told her accompanying servants to fetch Alice something clean to wear. Her own clothes were raked with mud and grass from the fall. Alice couldn't think how falling down a rabbit hole would lead her to a whole new land…but Alice just didn't want to think anymore. As the rabbit had said, it had been a very, very long day.

The servants returned with a beautiful white nightgown for Alice. It was made out of silk, the material slipping through her fingers when she touched it, and was beautifully embroidered in gold and silver. It looked like something out of a storybook, something a Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella might wear to bed.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality," Alice said, bowing this time to the White Queen. "I really appreciate it."

"Would you like some sliphar, my dear?" asked the White Queen with her un-humanly airy voice. Having spent a bit more time with Mirana, Alice was beginning to notice many things that were much more un-human about her then human: the way her arms were always suspended in midair like a statue, the unearthly soothing tone in her voice, the fact that she floated instead of walked. Even if she was the most human-like thing Alice had met since arriving to this place, she certainly wasn't like any other person Alice had ever known.

"Um…sliphar?"

"It's a sleeping potion. One drop, and you're instantly in a dreamless sleep," responded Mirana with a childish twirl.

Alice frowned. "No thank you…your Majesty. I think I will sleep fine tonight." Although the "dreamless sleep" part was appealing to her, Alice had no intention in drinking any potions or the like from someone she had just met, even if she was a Queen, and a very hospitable one at that.

Besides, how can someone have a dream within a dream? It's nonsense. But Alice just didn't feel as sure as she did before about this all being a dream. Everything seemed so real. But maybe she would wake up tomorrow in her apartment in London with Dinah by her side. Maybe all she needed to do to wake up was to fall asleep. Impossible, but hey, at this point she was willing to try anything.

Mirana left the sliphar on the nightstand just in case, and floated gracefully out of the room as she said goodnight. Alice changed into her new nightgown, and fell quite ungracefully onto her bed with a soft thud. She couldn't believe it was already nighttime in – what did the Queen call it again? – Underland. It felt like just an hour or two ago it was well past midnight back in London, but the sun had just set here. Alice didn't allow herself to contemplate such things, however; she was asleep just a few seconds after her head hit the pillow.

Alice didn't know what time it was when she woke up again, but the moon was still out and shining through her balcony window. She took the chance to look around the room bathed in the moonlight. She hadn't noticed before how beautiful everything was. The room was made of marble, with engravings on the walls and floors that glittered like silver. The fireplace burned an off-orange flame; the source of the cinnamon smell, Mirana had told her. Everything was decked in white.

Alice was admiring this splendor sleepily when she heard voices outside her door. One was high-pitched and femininely squeaky (belonging to the dormouse, no doubt), along with the familiar voices of the white rabbit and the Queen, both of which were speaking in hushed voices. The dormouse, on the other hand, wasn't bothering to lower the volume of her voice one bit.

"She doesn't remember anything. Anything. What are we going to do when Hatter arrives?" squeaked the dormouse hotly.

"Mally brings up a good point, your Majesty," the white rabbit muttered. "He's not going to take the news easily."

"Easily?! It'll damn near break his heart! A heart she didn't deserve to have in the first place, the way she went off an abandoned us…him. Abandoned him." The dormouse's voice lost most of its vigor in those last few worlds. It was actually the closest Alice had heard the creature to sounding upset since Alice had met the ferocious dormouse.

"We cannot act on such matters at the moment," said the White Queen, her voice no more when a weak breath to Alice's ears. "Let us go to bed, my friends. We will sort out everything in the morning."

Alice heard the patter of different sized footsteps making their way down the hall. Once she couldn't hear them anymore, she sat up in her lavishly large bed. She couldn't make much sense of what they were talking about, and for some reason it nagged at her weary mind. Who was Hatter? And why would he be upset that she didn't "remember" him? Alice left her heart sink a little. It wasn't her fault, of course, but she didn't want to go breaking anyone's heart. But what could she do about it? They had obviously gotten the wrong girl; the girl everyone thought she was and everyone knew so well must have looked a lot like her.

But that didn't keep the unpleasant feeling from her chest. Unable to bear anymore confusingly painful thoughts, Alice grabbed the vial of sliphar from her nightstand and let a few drops fall into her mouth. She slid back down onto her pillows, and in just a few moments surrendered happily to her dreamless, painless sleep.