So sorry I diapered for a very long time over spring break1 I am back now with this chapter with a HUGE cliff hanger at the end to hopefully pay for my absence. Enjoy!

"You knew the queen?" Alice gasped, leaning in closer to her aunt. "How? When? What happened?"

Aunt Imogene gave Alice a long look and smiled a very small smile. "Alice, that's a very long story."

"Tell me, anyway." Alice asked, feeling like she was five years old again. "Please?"

"Alright," Aunt Imogene took a large sigh and shut her eyes. "It was a long time ago. When I was just thirteen years old when I found the hole.

"I thought it was so odd. Such a large hole for a rabbit, large enough for a person to go in, and as I leaned over to gaze inside, I slipped and I fell. And when I woke up, I was in a room. A room where I had to shrink and grow and shirk again just to get out, and I emerged in the most beautiful place, I'd ever seen.

"There were golden trunked trees, and huge hedges created into many animals. Flowers bloomed and the walkways were sparkling. It was, magical." Aunt Imogene smiled. "And that's when I met their queen.

"She was just as beautiful as the scenery around her. Her hair was long and dark, like a ravens. She was wearing a long dress that was decorated with hearts and she had a crown atop her head. She commanded attention, and I was so distracted by her, that I never even saw the boy lurking close to me until he grabbed me from behind and asked me what I was doing in Underland.

"I was much to confused to answer him. What was Underland? I'd thought. And who was this boy? But he was already picking me up and bringing me to the queen." Aunt Imogene smiled. "She was outraged. Not at me, but at the boy who had grabbed me! She told him to drop me that instant and I was staring up at this kind women.

"She asked me my name, and I told her and she kept smiling down on me and asked more questions and eventually I told her that I was lost and I didn't know where I was going to go from there and she took my hand and told me I could go home with them."

Aunt Imogene shook her head. "The boy, who I learned later, was her son, was so angry. He sulked the whole way back to the castle, telling his mother that she shouldn't have been inviting odd girls home with them, no matter how polite they seemed. I had never met anyone like this boy. He was so head strong, and stubborn. But, the way he looked at his mother with such, tenderness and awe, I knew that there had to be more that met the eye."

Alice was absolutely wrapped into her aunt's story. She hung onto ever word her aunt spoke, and when she paused Alice held her breath, a waiting what part of the story was next to come.

"The queen although, was he total opposite of her son. She was sweet and pleasant. She smiled when ever I glanced back at her, appointed out things on the way to her home, and finally, when a large castle came in sight, she rested a hand on my shoulder and told me I was welcome to stay for as long as I wanted. She even gave me a tour when I got inside, and that was when I met her.

"I don't think I had ever met someone as…" She shook her head. "Cruel as that girl. The moment I saw her in there hall, I knew I wouldn't ever be able to get along with her. She had harsh brown eyes and long red hair that fell down her shoulders in curly waves. She was shorter then I was, and her pale face was pulled into a deep scowl as her eyes landed on me."

Alice's eyes widened and her lips formed a silent name. Iracebeth. It had to be her. No one else could fit such a description. Not unless another angry girl with red hair lived in such a castle with the first red queen.

"She scowled at me while the queen made introductions, but when then when the queen's son came from around the corner, her face instantly changed. She smiled, and her eyes focused only on the boy who was about her age." Aunt Imogene shut her eyes briefly, wrapped up in the memory as much as Alice was. "She said hello Phelan, in the sweetest tone you could ever think of, but he barley brushed her off. He was staring at me with a loathing expression. It seemed like everyone was angry with me that day.

"Later on, when I was in my bed chambers the queen had arranged for me, she came in and sat down next to me on my bed, and told me something I will never be able to forget. She said she was dying. It was a quick disease, very fast and nearly painless until the end, but it didn't leave her much time left. She told me that years early her husband had left her, and now she was going to leave Phelan all alone and her kingdom as well.

"She explained that since they'd figured out about the disease eating away inside her, Phelan had grown more protective of her mother then ever. He'd do anything to help his mother; because he loved her more fiercely then anyone could ever love someone. But not even love can save someone from death.

"Queen Imogene also explained things about the girl I'd met earlier. She told me that she was Phelan's fiancée. His fiancée. At so young and the two didn't seem very well matched at that. She admitted that it was an arranged marriage, one that Phelan himself had agreed to, so that when his mother passed, he would be able to take the throne with a queen by his side."

"What happened to the Queen?" Alice asked in a small voice.

"After a few months," Aunt Imogene said in a quiet voice. On a day like any other, Phelan came to me, and told me I needed to hurry. He lead me to his mother's room where she laid, ghastly pale with eyes hollow in her head, almost as if death had already taken her away. We sat at her side, taking one hadn't each in our own, and she turned to me and whispered something two things she wanted me to do.

"The first was to make Phelan happy. To be his friend, and show him that he could love someone, someone who wasn't his own blood nor arraigned to marry. And I did."

"And what else did she tell you?" Alice asked.

Aunt Imogene leaned into face Alice. "She told me to-"

At that instant, the door slammed open and Alice was wrenched away from her aunt and flown to the floor. Before she could blink, she heard her aunt scream and struggle as a large man grabbed her, pinning her in his arms hiding her back as she struggled. In one hand he held a knife, dully pointed hat he was holding in the air and before Alice could speak, a man appeared by her side and pulled her to his feet.

That man was Stayne.

Told you, huge. So many questions and no answers! This will be a great beginning for my next chapter though, orderly holding Aunt Imogene with a knife, Stayne appearing out of the shadows and Alice absolutely clueless. Any ideas what Queen Imogene's last words were? Review!