For a minute or two he stood looking at Wish House wondering what to do next, when suddenly a girl in a yellow dress who had rosy cheeks and blonde hair with a blue ribbon came running out of the woods. He followed her through the gates and watched her dart into the house.
It was weird coming back here, somewhere he'd run away from because of how horrible it was. But he didn't deserve to be free. His mom died coming to get him after he left home without telling her. And Cheryl and the police lady were dead now too, because of him.
If he could help Alice then maybe he wouldn't be such a bad person.
He opened the door and went in. It was dark and quiet. Andy wondered if all the children had run away.
"You're thinking about something my dear, and that makes you forget to talk." said Alice suddenly, giving Andy a fright.
"Are they all gone?" he asked.
"When Fat Pat went out with Mr. Wolf all the children ran. But most of them have been caught."
"Where are they?"
"You've seen the tower through the wood?"
Andy nodded.
"I hope you never have to go there." she said, seriously.
"Why?"
"Come on, I want to show you something."
She turned and ran into the kitchen. Andy was a little cross that she didn't answer him, but he wanted to be helpful. He trudged after her, into the kitchen and banged his knee on the counter. He rubbed it and turned on his torch. Alice disappeared from the corner of the kitchen underneath a trapdoor. Lifting it up, he shined his torch underneath. There were old wooden stairs leading down, each step creaking horribly. The walls were stained and it felt like something was crunching under his feet. He didn't look. At the bottom of the stairs were purple drapes that covered the whole back wall. In front of the drapes was a table with a black cloth on it. There were unlit candles on the cloth and a big tatty brown book.
A door to his left clicked shut. He opened the door which led to a corridor with more doors along it. The first one was already open so he went in.
"Alice?" he whispered. He couldn't see her anywhere.
The room was like a bedroom. It was very dusty, like no one had slept there for a long time. There were little shelves about the room full of old books. The Wizard of Oz, he knew that one, he watched the movie with his mom. He didn't know they made it into a book. There were some about that detective guy with the floppy hat and a really big book by that old English guy they talked about in school and lots of others that he didn't know. Some didn't say who wrote them.
He saw 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'. He didn't know there was another story.
He wondered if his Alice was the same as the book. She talked like the book sometimes. It didn't feel like he was in Wonderland though. Wonderland was scary but fun too. Andy hadn't had any fun for ages. It was more like being through a looking glass. Andy knew that meant mirror and everything here was the wrong way round like in a mirror.
On the bedside table there was a book. This one was quite thin and looked a lot newer, though there was some dust on top of it. It had no marking on it at all apart from a big number – 1986 – in gold writing. He opened the first page which said 'Alessa's Diary'. He wasn't sure if he should read someone else's diary, and it was a girl's diary too.
Though if this was Claudia's friend…maybe this was what Alice wanted to show him.
He turned the next page and began to read;
First entry in the new diary.
Lisa got it for me. She was so modest, saying it was nothing. But I can't remember the last time someone bought me a gift. She said it might help me to write about how I feel as I recover.
Like how it truly is a miracle that I survived at all. Just not the miracle that they wanted.
Good.
I've been told the bandages on me can come off soon. They cover most of my body but the risk of infection is low now. There will be scarring.
Lisa says maybe they can do a skin graft.
My face was mostly protected by my arms though there may be a little scarring there too.
I want to play outside too like the other kids.
In the afternoon they came again. I pretended to be asleep but they didn't seem to notice.
They talked quietly so no one outside the room could hear, about stuff that didn't make any sense to me.
Why were they talking about it here?