The White Rabbit

Chapter Three: The Caucus Race and a Long Tale

Chapter 3 - The Caucus Race and a Long Tale  

Alice was left in an endless river of tears. Her friend, the mouse, had left her and she was now alone. As she waded down the river, the thoughts about the mouse who had left her alone...it was a mouse wasn't it? She thought; she really wasn't sure anymore. The line of her memory and dreams were merging together and she was starting to question what was really happening. As Alice finally found the shore line, there were other animals convening on the beach.  

Mary slept a feverish sleep, her hands broken and swollen. Her dreams full of nonsense and misunderstandings of the world around her.

While she slept, the man who kidnapped her was working meticulously at his table. He had cut Lilly's body into pieces, in such a manner that he could've been mistaken for a surgeon. After he arranged the pieces, he added his own special touch to his 'piece of art' he was working on. He had gathered leather hides and strong thread as well as some mercury to soften the materials to her body.   What was left of the girl who was once called Lilly was a body covered in cloth and leather fabric, sewn together at all her joints. He knew how much his Alice had wished the girl to be a mouse, and so he fashioned a set of ears out of leather scraps and old bed linens, and a tail from some of Lilly's leftover skin. He giggled to himself admiring his work. By the time he was done constructing his piece of art, rigor mortis had already started to settle in, and the whole place smelled of sickness and copper. A smell that would tell the story of what had happened here in this gruesome "Wonderland."  

Mary was delirious for the first couple days after the death of her friend; she didn't even realize what he was doing right in front of her. She had seen him moving around the table in the dim light, but her consciousness  was waning. It wasn't until the man in white had ran his serrated knife along her cage bars that she became somewhat aware she was still in this pit.  

"Alice," he almost sang in a playful manner, "I.... made... you ...a ...pres-ent!" He said with glee, breaking the words with each ping of the bar.  

"Hhmp?" Mary grumbled as she used her chapped elbows to find her way to the back corner of her new home.

"I made you a present...come here Alice.." He repeated, motioning her back to the front of the cage.

  "Please.." Mary pleaded, "I need a doctor.."   

"Looky... Alice.." He smiled whimsically, ignoring her words.   Mary tried to focus her sights in the direction he was pointing, trying to see what could be so important to this lunatic. Once her eyes adjusted, she was sicked. Mary turned around and threw up what little water and food that was in her stomach.  

"So you like it?" He asked.  

Mary wiped her mouth and turned to him in anger, trying not to dry heave in sickness.  "My God! What have you done to her?!"  

"Alice! I made her into the mouse that you wanted her to be! See how magical Wonderland can be! You get exactly what you want, and in a timely manner too!" He smiled, revealing his grimy long teeth while pointing at his beautiful golden pocket watch.  

"MY name is NOT ALICE! And if I GOT what I WANT, then I'd be HOME ALREADY and my friend would still be alive!" Mary screamed.  

This made the man very angry, his smile and light air around him disappeared, transforming into a scowl and a think mug of tension.   "Home, what's so great about home? You're better off here, you filthy girl!" He said, obviously puzzled. Then suddenly he was on a mission. He could make her feel at home. This WAS home!  

The man took out his key and unlocked the cage, quickly grabbing her swollen hands causing her to wince in pain, sending chills down her back and onto her bare arms. He stepped on the arches of her feet as he tied a thick rope around her wrists in a tight knot, then he dragged Mary out of the cage and up the staircase, letting her lower back and bottom do the climbing for her.