Dollmaker

Chapter 5 ~ Hatter ~

What happened? I remember screaming. Alice's eyes opened and slowly adjusted to the dark. She was surrounded by darkness, trembling. Did I die again? She was cold. Freezing almost. And her eyelids were sticking to each other. They were heavy. Her stomach ached, too, but she could breathe now. It's absurd, the need to breathe after death, she thought.

She couldn't sit up and her head throbbed whenever she tried to move on the wet, sticky ground. She shut her eyes, feeling defeated. So in the end, she was going to die the same way she did before. In the middle of nowhere, neglected and lonely.

Then, in the dark and despair, she realized she didn't really know anything and that scared her. It made her imagine horrible things. Distorted things and unknown things. And those led to imagining things people are often afraid of. Blood. Monsters. Death. In the dark, where anything seemed possible, these were becoming reality for Alice.

She could suddenly see the shadows, warped and moving toward her. One of them had a horrid grin on its face. The other wore giant horns. Some looked human, some didn't. Most though, barely resembled a human. They moved at a fast pace, their limbs at wrong, impossible angles as they writhed in her direction.

She managed to sit up at some point, not remembering how she did it and curled up in a shivering ball of flesh and fear. And to think she'd hoped to finally find peace here. No. That wasn't planned for her. Then she remembered something which made her eyes widen in terror.

Someone was here before. Where is he? What's going to happen now? She sat there thinking, huddled up and shaking. She wanted to scream. Instead, she was grinning crazily, tears running down her widened eyes. Her fingernails were slowly and painfully piercing through her skin, but she just clawed at her it even harder, trying to become even smaller to the point of invisibility. Little strings of blood trickled out of the places her fingernails sunk into.

She jumped. Footsteps. Someone was near. She stared at the black space where she thought the footsteps were coming from. Alice shakily stood up. Then, she took off running, not knowing where, rapt in the blackness of the cell. The footsteps stopped and seemed to be waiting. This surprised Alice, but she wasn't willing to stop fleeing. She ran out of the room, as it seemed, and could see a little more than before. Not hearing a single sound, she stood still for a second, and waited for her eyes to adjust.

Alice was standing in a hallway with scarlet red stone brick walls surrounding her. There were two torches she could see, each on one end. Other than that there was nothing. The space was empty. She had nowhere to hide.

"There goes my escape. If I go on, I'm bound to get lost," Alice thought out loud with a sigh. And that person is bound to find me. Suddenly, Alice sharply raised her head, resulting in a stinging pain. She cried out of surprise and quickly covered her mouth, goosebumps forming on her arms.

"Anyone there?" It was a man's voice. He was close. Alice's heart rate quickened. Heart rate? She questioned. But she could feel it. She could hear it. Something was wrong here.

Alice kept quiet, but was paralyzed with fear. A door somewhere near her opened. Tears sprung out of her eyes like waterfalls. Was she going insane? She shut her eyes to protect herself. Something touched her. She tried to scream. Nothing came out. Her head decided to slowly turn around without warning. But her eyes wouldn't close. She didn't want to see anything! Why wouldn't her eyes close? Desperately, she willed her palms to cover her face, but they wouldn't move. She had no control. Her mouth opened. Her eyes bulged. She forgot how to breathe again.

"Hey! Are you okay? Oi, get a hold of yourself, dammit!" He was looking straight into Alice's face with annoyance and worry in his eyes.

"Huh? You're not a monster." Alice stared back at him and realized she regained control over her body. He wasn't. If anything, he was quite handsome in a rough way. He looked older than Alice, about twenty of age, with a bit of unshaved stubble on his chin, tanned skin. Black hair civered with a ragged top hat decorated the borders of his nice face and his brown eyes squinted in the awful light to see Alice better. He grinned at her remark and let her go. She stumbled.

"Of course not, you dumb ass." he laughed, mocking her. She scowled.

"Such foul language. You scared me half to death and now you're the one cursing?" He reminded her of someone. This young man was just like Robby.

He stared at her for a second and then burst out laughing, letting Alice stand there, glowering. When he calmed down a bit, he saluted and took this top hat from his head, teasing her.

"Excuse me, uh, ma'am." The tone of his voice was sarcastic and belligerent. Alice decided to ignore it but she couldn't help but pout a little.

"Your name?" she asked after a pause, her head raised.

"Isn't it rude to ask for one's name without introducing yourself first?" Alice looked down, blushing and defeated at her own game.

"Alice Abott."

"Damien Mad. Pleasure to meet you."

"Yes. A pleasure." Her voice was shaky; unsure and filled with suspicion. Then she remembered something, causing her to back away from him.

"Why am I here?"

"I kidnapped you," Damien answered plainly with his eyebrows raised, as if it was completely normal to kidnap people.

"Who kidnaps people and then bluntly tells them they were kidnapped? What are you, an idiot?" she scoffed.

"Well, I kidnapped you, because that was the best thing to do," his expression changed to serious as he spoke,"You were having trouble breathing, am I right?" Alice pulled on her sleeves nervously.

"Y-yes." Looking down she added,"What does it matter to you?" she spat, mixing belligerence with unease.

"Nothing really. But it matters to the queen."

"What?"

"Dead people don't usually need to breathe, do they now?"

"Well, no. Of course not." She blinked.

"That's just it. You aren't your ordinary dead girl. The queen could interpret this as a threat. If she or anyone working for her finds out, you'll be in a hell of trouble." Alice didn't really understand Damien's words. It was strange, but it made her wonder about things and triggered even more questions in her head.

"I have to meet her, though." she said suddenly.

"I know. I'll take you to her, but you'll need to be careful."

Why do you care? Alice thought, wanting to ask, but she stopped herself, because there really was no time. She needed, as much as she hated the thought of it, to meet the queen everyone seemed to fear. Or Robby might get in trouble.

Author's note: Yes. I know. This took me so FREAKING long to write, because, well, exams and such. Anyway, bear with me and please comment, vote, whatever. I'd appretiate any kind of feedback from you guys to know what you think and what I should work on.

Thank you sooooo much for all the votes, reads, and comments!!!! I reeeaaally appretiate it. It means so damn much to me. Welp, bye.

~Amethyst Lee