Black Kitten Chara: Welcome to the first actual chapter of Lucy in Wonderland! The last one was the prologue, and this will jumpstart the story now into six years later from where the prologue left off.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hollow Fields or American McGee's Alice!

"Claude, I have gone mad."

The world around him was dark and cloudly as a small voice, thick with a British accent, talked to him. Claude moved his hand to reach for the girl, but she was just out of reach. "You are not mad. You and I both know that."

"Claude, I see my dream world becoming dark, twisted, and murderous. I am trapped within my own mind, and I can't get out." The girl continued on.

"You are not mad. I am still here, and you are not alone." Caude said to comfort the girl. But the fog around him became thick as the girl floated away from him like she was a ghost of his past. Claude tried to run, but his legs wouldn't work. "Lucy! Lucy, what is happening?"

"Claude, save yourself and don't come for me..."

"Lucy, wait! Lucy! Lucy..."

"Wait!" Claude bolted up from his reclining seat on the airplane as a eighteen-year-old girl looked at him with pity and annoyance in her eyes, but all the while keeping her usual smirk on her plump lips. Claude rubbed the spot on his forehead where he had just banged his head on the seat in front of him.

"Sleep well?" Carmen Banks, one of Claude's oldest friends, said.

Her black-purple hair had grown since fifth grade and she had quit straighten by the looks of the Medusa curls they were in, but her bangs still covered her right eye. Her lilac eyes shone with annoyance with her bushy eyebrows knit together, and her dark skin looked flawles as usual. She wore a white tank top with golden foral patterns on the hemline and a white leather jacket that was cropped to below her chest. She had on bootleg black pants made out of silk and had colorful butterfly patterns up to the knees, which showed off her strong legs and slightly wide hips. Her feet were covered in a pair of strappy stiletto heels, she wore a cluster of light pink pearl bracelets on each wrist, and she wore a black choker with the Jupiter symbol made out of jade.

"I guess..." The eighteen-year-old Irish boy said.

"Well, by the sound of your dream, you were having a wet dream about Lucy or a nightmare about her. So, which was it?" Carmen said straightfoward, as she usually does.

Claude buried his head into his arms and mummbled, "Nightmare."

Carmen sighed as she looked at the boy in front of her from her seat. "Well, we will be in London soon to see her. That ayslum can't keep us out when we have made an appointment and everything."

"I just have this feeling, Lately, I keep having dreams about Lucy saying she has gone mad, then she disappears. What does that mean?" Claude said.

Carmen shrugged her shoulders as the Irish boy sighed and buried his head back into his arms. Claude may not admit even with Carmen telling him over and over again, but he has had a crush on the redhead they were visiting since the fifth grade. Carmen also said that Claude could use his looks to woo Lucy, despite Claude not seeing what she meant.

Claude was a handsome young man; he had longish dark brown hair with almond-shaped golden-brown eyes and olive skin. He had grown taller and he had gotten a more muscular, leaner body with broad shoulders. His lower lip was fuller than his upper one, and he had this wolfish smile that made girls love him instantly. Around his eyes were delicate eyelashes and he had bushy eyebrows like Carmen's, but a little thicker.

Today, he went simple yet refine as usual; He wore a plain, light grey button-up shirt with a black leather jacket that had three straps across the chest. He had on a pair of well-fitted black pants and knee-high black boots under the black jeans. Around his neck was a black choker with a golden Alpha pedant and he wore black belt with a golden clockwork buckle, for his love of making robots, around his waist.

"Well, maybe that is a sign of you being in love with her." Carmen said with a smirk.

Claude shot his head up and glared at Carmen with his golden-brown eyes. "Don't you have anything else to talk about then that?"

"Nope." Carmen said with a smirk.

Claude sighed as he said, "So, trying to get off that subject, where is Simon and Francine?"

"Oh, Simon got hungry and decided to go look for the food cart. Francine went along because she knew that Simon would either eat all of the food or get her the wrong thing." Carmen said as the door behind Claude's seat opened.

Simon Belljoy, the eighteen-year-old friend of Lucy, came running in with the cart as Francine Steinwald, the sixteen-year-old friend of Lucy as well, was sitting on the cart as she read her book. "Food's here!" Simon yelled with excitement.

Simon was the tallest person in their grade and he had a lanky physique. He had shaggy pale blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and fair skin with freckles across his nose and cheekbones. He had slightly pointy ears, upturned eyebrows, a sneaky smile, and a gleam in his eyes at all times, even when he isn't planning a prank. He wore black-and-white checkered fannel shirt with a pair of worn blue jeans. He had multiple, thin black bracelts on each wrist and he wore a sleeveless white top under his fannel shirt. He had on a pair of black Converse, a silver stud in each ear, and a loose black choker around his neck that had the symbol of Loki, the Norse Trickster god, in silver.

"Well, make sure that you don't eat it all." Carmen said as she helped Francine off the cart as kept she continued to read on.

Francine was the shortest girl in their grade and she had a lithe physique with good-sized chest for her size. She had shoulder-length dark auburn hair in two pigtails and fringe bangs, huge dark brown eyes, and fair skin. On her heart-shaped face, she had a button nose and rosy cheeks along with shiny white teeth that was shown when she gave her dimpled smile. She wore a thigh-length, dark red sundress with short tea-cup sleeves. She had on her knee-length, thin white cardigan with black roses at the bottom hemline and the hemline of the sleeves, which became less frequent until it reached midway through the sleeves and the back. She had on a thick, golden belt around her waist and a black choker that had the symbol of Mercury on gold. Her feet were covered by black, ankle-length gladiator sandals that had white studs on the straps. Her pigtails were held by thin, silk black ribbons and she wore a thin, golden cuff on each wrist.

"Oh, ha-ha. Very funny Carmen." Simon said sarcastically as he filled his plate. "Blame me if I was born with a big stomach."

"Your stomach is bigger than your brain." Carmen snapped back.

Simon's face turned red as Francine said, "Carmen, be nice. The last thing we need is for you and Simon to fight when we see Lucy. She may not be in the best mental state, and we do not want to make that worst."

Everyone became quiet as the two stopped fighting. After the fire that killed Lucy's family six years ago, she went sent to an ayslum known as Renwick's Insitution for the Mentally Unwell. They haven't seen her in six years, and they wanted to see if they can help her get well and move on.

Carmen sat back down as Francine sat next to her. Simon finished gathering his food and sat next to Claude as he said, "Well, what happens if she is already gone?"

"Whataya mean?" Carmen asked.

Simon shrugged his shoulders and said, "What if she got better and left without letting us know? How would we find her then?"

"Well, we would have to ask the people at the ayslum and start off from there. Lucy really can't go far being only seventeen and having no money. All she really has is the trust fund her parents had for her, but she can't access that until she is eighteen." Francine pointed out.

"And if she is still there? What can we stay to her?" Simon asked again.

Francine sighed as she put down her book. "Well, we would have to remind her that we are her friends and even though she is an orphan, she is more than welcome to come and star with one of us."

"Yeah. She doesn't need to stay there when she is practially an adult, and she does need to know she still has friends." Carmen said.

Simon looked unsure but sighed and said "Well, I guess that could work." He tapped a drumstick on his plate before eating it as Carmen grabbed a cupcake off his plate. "HEY!"

"Hay is for horses, and you eat enough anyways! How can you be that size and still eat like a cow?" Carmen asked.

"I'm special." Simon joked.

"I can agree with that." Carmen shot back.

As the two argued and Francine went back to her book, Claude sighed and looked outside. They were thousands of feet in the air, and he could barely make out some citites from a far. But all he wanted right now was to see Lucy and know she was okay.

~0~

The teens landed in London a little after one o'clock. The streets were busy and they were barely able to get a cab since everytime they try to get one, some older guy would push them aside and walk in.

"Finally! I thought we would never get a cab!" Carmen yelled as she rubbed her heels on the furry carpet of the cab.

Francine rolled her eyes as she leaned into the front and gave the driver the directions. "We need to be here by two o'clock. Can you do that?"

The driver, a forty-year-old man with a pot belly and his greasy black hair smelling like smoke, rolled the cigar in his mouth as he said "Renwick's Instituion? Why there, kiddies?"

"We have a friend there. Her name is Lucy." Francine said with good will.

"As in Lucinda Snow? The daughter of Dean Snow and Serena Snow, and the same one who went mad?" The driver asked.

Claude leaned towards the front as Francine gave her signature gulp of nervousness. "Yeah. But how do you know that?"

"My son was a student of Dean Snow, and my wife loved Serena's books even though she never knew it was Michelle Rotfield as well." The driver said. "It was heart-breaking enough to hear that they both died while trying to save their oldest child, but it was even more so when we heard Lucy went mad."

"What are the chances here?" Simon whispered as the driver began driving so fast, Francine and Claude was thrown back into the backseat.

The driver weaved in and out of traffic as the teens held on for dear life. The driver somehow avoided traffic stops and made the ride much quicker without the perks of making it easier or smoother. They hit bumps, cracks, and curbs as the driver made a sharp U-turn and skid to the front of a building.

"Well, that will be fifty pounds." The driver said. Carmen opened her change purse and gave the driver the money as they walked out of the cab and saw the most wonderful building ever.

It was a tall and huge Victorian-styled building that has black bricks creating the walls. The roof was made out of black wood, and the many windows that covered the walls had black bars on them. The building had a tall, grey stone wall around it with black iron gates at the front that said Renwick's Institution of the Mentally Unwell on the top, and the gates lead to the huge dark wooden doors by a grey sideway.

"Well, here we are." Simon said.

"Yup. Let's go see Lucy." Claude said as he opened the gates.