Black Kitten Chara: Welcome to the eighten chapter of "Lucy in Wonderland"! Please leave a review

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

Claude felt pain shot down his side as he tried to regain his vision. Everything seem blurry and out of focus, and he had the strange taste of metal in his mouth.

"Well, well. Looks like we can get our revenge, brother." A deep, brutish voice said. Claude opened his eyes to see Brick and Breck standing over him with a hatchet saw. "Now, where can we cut you at?"

"You will not lay a hand on him, Brick!" A young, womanly voice said as a tall, blonde nurse pushed the two out of Claude's vision. "Now, get back to work!" Claude felt the nurse jerk something from his mouth as she leaned down and said, "Are you okay?"

"Hum-Hum, Hum..." Claude said as Diana helped him up. The young nurse giggled as the brunette stood up and saw his friends sitting down in chairs, all three of them looking out of focus a little. "What... What happened?"

Diana gave him a thoughtful look as she sat him down in a seat. "Well, you four came down her earlier and all of a sudden, you fainted. I tried to wake you up for over an hour, but I finally decided to go get a senior nurse. Are you sure you okay?"

Claude rubbed his head as he said, "We fainted?"

"Yes. Just sit down for a little bit, and I will be at the front desk if you need something." Diana said as she turned around and left the room.

Claude looked around and saw he was in the common room, which could be the right definition for the room. It was a large, circular room with floor-to-ceiling windows, which gave the room its only light. Whicked chairs sat around small, wooden tables and some had games; mostly checkers for what it looked like. There was a small jukebox in the corner of the room, and a sofa was sat in front of a small TV. The paitents in the room looked horrible; some were rocking back and forth, some were mummbling, and some were laughing like crazy or crying.

"Ugh, my head..." Simon complained.

"Simon, you don't need to complain about your head when we are surrounded by people who are in worst condition." Francine pointed out as she held her own head, but only with one hand.

Claude let out a long, deep breath as he relaxed a little. His heart began to slow down and his vision returned to him. But then, like a sudden shot of lightning in his mind, his heart began to ran again as he remembered what had happened in Lucy's room. "Guys.."

"Yeah?" All three of his friends asked at the same time.

"Was that all a dream?" Claude asked with as much seriousness he could muster, which sounded like a lot.

All three of the teens looked at one another as they thought about his question. Then, Carmen looked at him with a serious glare in her eyes and said, "Claude, that couldn't have been real if we had just fainted."

Simon and Francine nodded in agreement, but something in the back of Claude's mind was nagging at him that everything they saw and experienced in that dreadful world was real. The nagging in his mind also told him to reach into his pocket and check it. The brunette felt his hand go down to his pocket as it reached inside and felt something hard. Something on a long, thin string.

Claude pulled out the thing in pocket, which caused Simon and Carmen to gasp; it was the heart-shaped, ruby heart with golden lining on a long, thin black string. Then same one the Elder Gnome had given Claude, saying that he was the Knave's double. As Claude held it, he could have sworn that it was beating like a real heart between his fist.

"No way... so you mean, that everything we saw... We were actually in Wonderland?" Carmen asked in surprise. Claude nodded his head numbly as he leaned into his chair. "But how..?"

"Maybe Lucy's really in trouble." Francine said simply.

"What do you mean by that?" Simon asked in a worried voice, never taking his eyes off the heart necklace.

"Well, would you let someone deep into your fantasy world unless you were in serious trouble?" Francine asked as she watched Claude get up from his seat and place the necklace back into his pocket. She got up herself as Carmen and Simon did the same, all three watching Claude go to the door as Francine asked, "Claude, where are you going?"

Claude didn't answer, so the three followed him as they left the common room. All they saw in there anyways was red and white chess pieces being thrown around, so it was best that they leave that room anyways.

"McGinty, where the hell are you think you are going?" Carmen yelled as she caught up with him.

"We need to know the people around Lucy, Obivously, whoever she has been around hasn't been helping her like they were supposed to." Claude said as the four teens reached the front desk. Diana was writing away on her clipboard as she looked up and smiled at the four.

"May I help you?" Diana asked sweetly as she sat the clipboard down.

"Um, yeah. We need some names of people that Lucy may know or her family knew." Claude asked.

"Okay. May I ask why?" Diana said with worry in her eyes.

Claude was taken back by the question because he really didn't have a good reason to go around town and meet random people he didn't know. But he shallowed his fear and said, "We just want to know some information. About the fire, about Lucy's condition, and about Lucy's family."

Diana looked unconvinced, but she ripped a sheet out and said, "I guess I can give you some names. Truth be told, I know very few people that know Lucy myself. But I think I can help.." Diana took a pen and tapped her chin with it as she thought. "Well, there is the storage place the Snow family kept their stuff at because they were going to move into a new house in Nullsville that summer."

As Diana wrote down the name of the storage room, Francine went off into a daydream and started to look around. Then, as she turned around in the same spot, she spotted a small white kitten in the doorway. She smiled as she kneel down and cooed, "Here kitty, kitty."

As she gestured for the kitten to come to her, Diana kept going about the people Lucy knew or encounter. "There's Nurse Witless, who worked here but was at Saint Mary's when Lucy came in that night. There's Nan Sharpe, who was the nanny for Phoebe and Lucy, but she works at the Mangled Mermaid now. There's Chitose Kaioh, who was the laywer for the Snow Family. Then, there is Dr. Oliver Whitfield, who worked with Lucy and shouldn't be leaving until the end of the week. And finally, there is Dr. Edward Dales at the Wayward Orphanage and is a well-known phychiartist who uses hypnotherapy."

As Diana handed Claude the piece of paper, she pointed at the address for the storage building where the remaining belongings of Lucy's family is at. "That's the closest, so go there first."

Claude nodded his head as he stuffed the piece of paper in his pocket. He looked at his friends, which now was down to Simon and Carmen. Francine was outside with the white kitten as the three followed her outside. Then, Claude took the piece of paper back out and looked to the left side of the street.

Claude begen walking down the street as he said, "Well, let's head to that storage building."

The other three agreed as Francine picked up the kitten and began skipping with a huge smile on her face. "I think I'm going to name her Snowdrop."

"Francine, that cat may have rabies!" Simon said in a panic voice.

But the smaller girl ignored him as Snowdrop rubbed her face against Francine's own. The four kept going down the street as Claude checked all of the street names, looking for the storage building.

Then, as they turned the corner, Snowdrop meowed and jumped from Francine's arms. The pigtailed girl whined as she took chase after the cat, yelling "Snowdrop, bad kitty! Come back here!"

Her three friends were in shock as she left them, but after a second they took chase after her. "Francine, come back here!"

But their cries were useless as Francine stopped anyways as she realized that Snowdrop was too far gone for her to catch up. As her friends caught up to her, she turned around with a pout and said in a sweet voice, "Simon, can you get me a new kitty?"

The blonde boy had to turn around as he mummbled, "Not going to fall for the sparkle act, no way Francine."

"Yeah, that cat could have been dangerous anyways." Claude pointed out.

"And the sparkle act is old anyways." Carmen said not to be mean, but to let her friend know she needed a new way to trick people.

But their words hit Francine the wrong way as crocodile tears began to form in her eyes. With plently of adults around on the streets, Francine let out a huge sniff and she began bawling as all of the adults looked at her with pity and sadness. They gather around her as her friends stared in shock.

"Are you okay?", "What's wrong, sweetie?", and "Please stop crying, dangling." was thrown around as Francine mummbled about her losing her favorite cat and her friends not caring the least bit for her pain.

Claude smirked and looked at Simon. "Great, now you have done it..."

"Don't prentend you had no part in it, McGinty!" Simon yelled as he walked over to Francine and picked her up by throwing her over his shoulder. "Let's go!"

Carmen and Claude looked at each other as they laughed as they began to catch up with Simon, with an arguing Francine over his shoulder. Once they were caught up and they were away form the adults, Simon put Francine down and said, "Francine, you're my best friend and all, but never do that again!" Francine rolled her eyes as Claude checked the address they were at.

"We're here..." Claude said as they were at the storage building, and he walked up to the intercom at the gate and pressed it. "We are here to check out... Building 506B."

"506B?"

"Yes." Claude said. The gate opened and the teens walked in as they searched around the buildings. As they looked at the white building with black roofs and red metal doors, Francine looked down at the ground as she kept thinking about Snowdrop.

Claude kept looking at the paper in his hands and he gripped his jacket as the harsh winds made it hard to keep warm and focus. "Where is this building?"

"Maybe they sold it. There are some people that come to storage buildings and they are sold off. Anything in there is free game then." Carmen pointed out.

"Well, let's hope that Lucy's storage was not sold yet." Claude said as he checked the numbers.

As the teens kept going, Francine grabbed her arms due to the cold wind. She shivered as something white and fluffy purred against her leg, so she looked down the same time Claude said "Found it!"

They had reached storage building 506B, which looked no different than the others. As Claude and Simon went over to pull the door up, Francine gasped as she saw Snowdrop rubbing against her legs. She cooed as she reached down to grab her new pet, only for the cat to run off.

"SNOWDROP!" Francine yelled as she took off to catch her animal.

Her friends had heard her and yelled at the same time, "Not again!" They forgot about the building as they chased after Francine, who has just turned the corner of the last building of the row. "How did that cat find her again?" Simon yelled as the teens reach the corner and turned to see a shocking sight.

Francine was laying on the ground, completely unconscious. Snowdrop stood next to her as the cat meowed innocently. Simon was about to walk over and kicked the cat, but Carmen held him back as he said "What did you do to her, you damn cat?"

"Simon, I don't think the cat..." Before Carmen even finished, she grew weak to the knees and fainted next to her friends.

"CARMEN!" The boys yelled.

Simon looked at Claude and said, "What is going on here?"

Claude kept looking at his two unconscious friends as he shrugged his shoulders. "For once, I do not know what is going on here."

"Well, figure it out or else-" Like Carmen, Simon never finished as he grew weak to his knees and fell unconscious to the ground. Before Claude could say anthing, the same weak feeling came over him as he crumpled to the ground and fell into unconsciousness.

~0~

Claude woke up to a bright, white sky that was cloudless. In fact, it just looked like the ground when fresh snow has fallen on it. He also felt his arms tied behind his back and he knew for a fact that at the moment he woke up, he was being carried into something.

The brunette shot up as he saw life-sized, white knight chess pieces. They jumped as they carried Claude and Carmen, who was under him at the moment, to a huge white castle. The ground that the wagon was being pulled on was basically a white-and-black checkered boarder.

"Excuse me, but what are you think you are doing?" Claude snapped.

A knight piece looked at him as the wagon kept going to the castle. "We are taking you to the current commander-in-cheif."

"Yeah, yeah. But where are we may I ask? And where is my other two friends? The girl with the auburn hair and the blonde boy?' Claude asked in his annoyed voice.

"You are in the Looking Glass Lands, Pale Realm. The girl was taken back to her kingdom, the vile Red Realm, and the boy who speak of is the commander-in-chief." The knight piece said as the drawbridge lowered and the wagon entered it.