Black Kitten Chara: Chapter ten of "Lucy in Wonderland"! Enjoy and review!

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

Claude thought of two things when he woke up in a bedroom where a creepy old woman was standing over him with a strong-smelling drink in her hands. "What the hell am I doing here? And where the hell are my friends?" were racing through his mind as he tried to move around, only to be met by pain in his side.

He must have made a sound because Pris came over to him and said, "Now dear. You must not move or else that wound will get worse."

Claude groaned a little as his hand laid across his stomach. He felt bandages on his right side and he figured out quickly that he didn't have his shirt on. He just thank God that he was still wearing pants or else he would have called the police on a peverted old woman. "What... happened..." He groaned.

Pris smiled as she drank her small green cup. "Well, I was at the storage buildings when I saw you and your friends laying on the ground. Had me nephews with me and we got you back here in time you fix you right up."

"Great. Now, where the hell are my friends?" Claude said in slight anger, now becoming a little annoyed at the old woman.

Pris waved her hand at Claude like he was a child. He moved away from the bed and sat down in a small whicker chair. "Your friends woke up an hour ago. You had the worst wounds when we got back here."

Claude groaned a little as he looked around the room. A small, grey room with one window, one small bed, and a whicker chair in the corner. A small, wooden desk was beside the bed and Claude could see his choker glittering in the late afternoon sunlight. "Yup, nothing creepy about this place..." Claude thought sarcastically.

Claude laid on the bed for a few more minutes before he pushed himself up with his elbows, ignoring the pain in his side. He looked at Pris and said, "Can I go downstairs?"

The old nurse looked unconviced as she said, "But you side-"

"I'm fine. Maybe some food will help me." Claude said with determination.

Pris still had that I-don't-believe look as she got up and smiled at the brunette. "Well lad, I hope that meal will make you feel better. I think I fix your friends some dinner." The old nurse left the room as Claude got out of the bed.

Even though he had a stabbing pain in his side, Claude got out of the bed and saw his clothes hanging off a truck at the end of the bed. As he walked over to grab them, he saw a small mirror and the most horrible sight in front of him.

His right side was wrapped in white bandages with a dark red botch under the wrappings. He winced a little at the sight of yellow bruises that had dark purple spotaround the bandages. He gritted his teeth as he grabbed his white undershirt and light grey button-up.

He quickly placed on his undershirt and button-up without making his bruise worse. Then he grabbed his leather jacket, choker, and boots as he thought about his wound. "How the hell did I get that bad of a wound? I know it couldn't have been from the real world, unless..."

The horrible thought of Wonderland came to his mind. "But there was nothing that harm my side there..." Claude shuddered at the thought of what had happen to him as he laced up his second boot and walked towards the door.

As he left the room and walked down the hallway, the Irish boy was both in awe and horror. The house he was in was small and dingy, with clocks hanging on the walls and the strong smell of alcohol filling the air. The paint was peeling off the walls and the lighting was as bad as the ones in the asylum.

He suppressed the thoughts of the Institution because it had he think about Lucy which had him worried. He took in a deep breath as he tried not to breathe through his nose and entered the kitchen/living room.

Pris was sitting down in a velet red couch while his three friends were sitting at a small, broken down table. They had plates filled with steaming food, which made the alcohol smell a little less horrible and made Claude's stomach growl. The boy licked his lips as he saw an empty seat with a plate in front of it.

Claude sat down as he looked at his friends with corcern: Carmen was eating and didn't seem bother by the creepy house; Francine was picking at her food, which Claude knew that meant she was nervous; and Simon was eating away and didn't even notice Claude sitting down.

Claude began eating as he kept one eye at Pris, who was knitting and drinking something in a beer bottle. The brunette still felt his side hurt as he ate the food, which was only some beef stew and mashed potatoes.

As three out of the four teens ate, Francine still looked worried. She hated when she couldn't eat because that meant she had too much on her mind. She pressed her lips together as she thought about Pris only wanting to see Claude after she brought them to her house, which made Francine think on how they even got here.

After a few minutes, Francine had enough. She looked at Pris and asked, "Nurse Witless, I was wondering on how we got here? Last I remember, we fainted at the storage area and I do not recall you there."

The old nurse did not look bother as she kept knitting. "Well, me nephews and I were there and I told them to bring you here. Too bad one fo them thought it was funny to bring that damn knife along and it cut your friend's side."

Claude touched his wound as the old nurse said this. "Wait, one of your nephews had a knife with him and it cut me?"

"He didn't mean to, dear. It was just as he was picking you up, it slashed your side. I made sure he got a good whipping when we got here and I cleaned that wound pretty well. But me nephew knows now to never bring a knife when he is with me again."

Claude raised an eyebrow as he thought brought the wound. He finally concluded that the yellow brusies must have come from Wonderland, but he wasn't too sure but the knife cut being from a knife. But as he swallowed another bite, he looked at the nurse. "So, why were you at the storage area?"

"Just picking up some od records of mine." Pris said as she kept knitting. She looked at the brunette and said, "Now, I have a question; weren't you at the Institution visiting Lucy Snow? I can remember faces once I met someone."

Claude was taken off by the question, but he was lucky that Carmen was there for him. "Yes, we were visiting Lucy. Why do you ask? Because you were her nurse when she was in the emergency room at Saint Mary's the night her family was killed?"

Now, it was Pris' turn to look shock. She laid down her knitting set and her beer bottle as she got up and smooth her dress. She walked towards a set of stairs, making the teens wonder what was going on.

"Well, come on." Pris said in a snappy voice.

The teens got up as Simon shoved down the last bit of his food and Francine took plenty of bites of her meal before they ran after Carmen and Claude, hwo was already walking behind
Pris.

The old nurse opened the door at the end of the staircase as the teens ran to catch up with her. The old nurse left her house and was now on the roof of her house, which surprised the teens as they exited the house and saw the view.

The entire house had the most perfect view of the city of London; it was high enough to see the top of most buildings, but it was low enough where it wasn't overbearing. There were bird cages filled with white doves and steam pipes laid lifelessly on the roof as the teens had to walk over them to talk to Pris, who was at a bird cage. There was a small bridge that connected the roof next to Pris' roof together.

"So Pris, how was Lucy at Saint Mary's?" Simon asked.

The nurse sighed as she turned around with a dove in her hands as it feed on the bird food she gave it. "That girl was a mess and still is, which is no surprise. Her kin roasted like chestnuts before her eyes, so I cannot blame her that much."

"No duh, you old hag..." Simon mummbled under his breath as the nurse went on.

"Six years in Renwick's so far is a waste of everyone's time. And that blasted Dr. Dales will not do any better as far I as been hearing." Pris said as she placed her dove back in its cage and brought out a new bird. "Still asking her questions about the fire and her memories when she is awake and not mad."

Francine and Carmen sighed in annoyance as the nurse talked away. Claude rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he mummbled, "Maybe more should have been done to help her instead of hurting her."

Pris sighed as she looked at the teens with eyes that looked like they had sincerity in them, but the four teens knew that sincerity was fake. "But don't I deserve consideration? Who found her clothes and a place to stay...?"

"That place is a mental institution!" Francine yelled in shock.

But Pris waved her hand at the girl like she was a child and huffed in annoyance. "But where would she be without me? She would on the street, selling her backside to men who love a mad woman." The bird in her hand struggled and was finally free from the old woman as the nurse got distracted for a second.

Claude uncrossed his arms and began clenching his hands into fists. "So, you are saying that Lucy would be a prostitue or dead without you?"

Pris smiled like Claude was a child that was finally udnerstanding a simple problem. "Why yes! She has had use an odd pound or two, but I know it is worth more than that. Kept her secret now, did I?"

Carmen was this close to tackling the woman, but Claude held her arm and she knew that if anyone was going to scream at the nurse, it was going to be Claude. Even Simon looked angry as he kept his teeth clench so he wouldn't say anything.

Pris locked her bird cages as she threw the doves some food. "I heard her say '...all died on my account. I couldn't save you!' I even told her my silence wasn't for sale nor was it cheap."

"Lucy did not cause the fire! If she did, then the police would have done something by now." Francine yelled at the nurse.

But Pris smiled as she went on. "I'm a good sort, really. Not like her nanny, that uppity whore! Or that lawyer fellow, Kaioh, took her journal. I need money too! Warned her that I will tell the Bobbies if she didn't make a donation to my upkeeping with that allowance she gets. She yells at me, and off goes her head! From what I heard, she can't even recall her name on her good days."

At that point, Claude walked up to the old nurse and made her turn around to look at him. He clench his teeth and his fists, trying his best not to cuss her out or punch her. But he kept his cool and let a long breath out as he asked, "Nurse Witless, do you mean to harm Lucy? To keep her in the asylum?"

"I won't say no. But I do have a thirst that I need taken care of..." Pris said as she threw bird food at the piegons on her roof.

Simon rolled his eyes and Claude could have sworn he heard something like them being too young to get alcohol from the blonde boy. Even though Claude calls Simon an idoit, the brunette was surprised at the things that can come out of the blonde's mouth.

Pris kept feeding the birds and ignoring Claude as she smacked her lips together. But as she did, Claude felt a pain behind his head and grabbed his head as his vision began funny; it looked like his eyesight was cracked like a mirror. He turned to see his friends holding their heads and looking at Pris as she stopped feeding.

"I need a drink.." The nurse said, but it wasn't in her voice. It was deep and metallic as she wlaekd over to the edge of the roof and grabbed a bottle. Claude stepped back as his friends stepped a little closer to know what is going on.

As they watch Pris slumped down to grab her bottle, her back began twitching as she kept talking in her metallic voice. "More than my whistle needs whetting..." Her back snapped as red wings grew and she turned around to reveal she was no longer human. A dragon-like, red fac and red hands with thin claws replaced the old nurse's appearance.

The four teens looked shock as they stepped back quickly from the nurse as she got closer. They kept stepping back until their legs hit the egde of the roof. As the now monsterous nurse came closer, the teens pulled back as far as they could.

Too bad that the only way that they got away from the moster nurse is that they ended up falling off the roof when she slashed her claws at them.

~0~

The four went through the same blue vortex they went through the first time when entering Wonderland. But as they fell down at amazing speed, they passed through a strange part of the vortex filled with black tar, baby dool heads with no eyes, and steam pipes.

They landed in Wonderland, but this time they fell down with grace as they looked around in the new area they were in. It was a canyon-like pit with huge teapots and plates scattered through the area. But they were apparently at the end of the canyon because behind them, they saw a floating metal platform with gears floating in the air.

Carmen leaned into Claude and whispered sarcastically, "Who do you think the next person we will see?"

Claude smiled as he walked out of the canyon and stood on the platform as his friends followed him. Francine gasped as they looked at the huge, black floating factory that had red-tinted windows with gears floating around it and wires holding it in the air. A huge, curved horn on the platform they were on pointed towards the factory.

"Amazing..." Carmen said with surprise. "Looks like we are going to visit the Hatter..."