I was trying to keep this short because I'm wiped! So sorry about the length!

Chapter 2: The Rabbit, Remember?

"Alice!" My mothers scream woke me from my nightmare, I had been having them every night for three months now. What was wrong with me?

"Alice! You need to wake up now!" She always yelled at me.

"Okay Mother!" I yelled back down the stairs, my voice filled with venom, that was how we mostly talked now. Ever since my father left, she was distant from me and I to her, I had always been daddy's little girl. I think I remind her of him and now she wont even look me in the eye.

I was covered in a cold sweat from my dream, it was like the wetness of the forest from my dream had stayed with me when I woke up. I had taken to sleeping naked for that reason, I hate doing chores, my mom never came up to the second floor so why should I care? I walked to the bathroom that was connected to my room, the tiles felt cold on my already freezing feet, and turned on the shower, cold, it was one of those days. I stepped in, my feet were cold on the porcelain and I let the dirt of the woods that clung to mind wash away with the clear crisp water. It was all I could do to forget and remember. Were there any new things that had happened? Or did I just want to continue on with my day and forget the fear? That one was easy, I wanted to forget.

As I stepped out of the shower and grabbed a clean towel, I heard the front door slam, my mom was off to work without saying goodbye, as usual. I could take care for myself! Why would I want her? Why would I need her? Of coerce I wanted her! She was my Mom, I just wanted her to hold me and tell me that we would find Dad one day and that he had not left us, that he must have had a good reason that he was gone. But she just pretended that he had never been and that meant that I wasn't here. As I got dressed, my rage had turned to sadness and I put on a white shirt and some dark almost black jeans. I stood by the dresser that had my makeup and jewelry on it, it was something of happier times, when daddy would come home with a surprise of a new necklace or charm. I decided to put on the one he had gotten me on Easter Sunday, a day of happiness and searching for rabbit eggs, it had pearls shaped like the eggs I had searched for in my childhood, spaced with silver chain. To complete the look I put on my stark white flats, why? I don't know, you would think that I would be scared of them but they comforted me, telling me that it was just a dream and if anything happened they would help take me away from the bad things.

I went downstairs and fixed up some breakfast, cold cereal. Yum. I sat on the counter, not wanting to touch the metal table and chairs of our dinning room, trying not to pay attention to the vision of the happy family sitting around the table eating dinner. Everything in the house was white and metal, it was a reminder and a cold place, I didn't like staying there, that was why I always walked up the little hill to creek behind the house, though I never went into the woods. I had always been scared of them, and now, at 18 it still worries me to think of going in there.

I watched the light play with the shadows on the floor, making shapes, when I was young I used to think horrors lived in shadows but my father helped me to believe that the shadows were actually a sanctuary. Lost in thought something out of the corner of my eye caught me attention. What is that just past the window? A rabbit? I stepped outside our sliding glass door to our backyard. A large rabbit was standing on his hind legs, staring directly into my soul. I had to do something, anything.

"Come here little rabbit, I wont hurt you." I cooed to it, yet it took off and I found myself chasing after it. Why was I doing this? Why was this so familiar? Have I done this before?

"Stop, Rabbit! I just want to know why!" I yelled after it. Why? I thought. Why was I chasing a rabbit over the hill into the woods behind our house? Have I gone mad?

And just as I said that in my head I thought I heard the white rabbit say "I'm late! I'm late!"

Yes, I most definitely have gone mad.