Al in Wonderland

Hall of Memories

They landed on the ground in front of a massive door.

The door stood on its own, nothing opened it and nothing closed it.

It was shut and tightly. Feeling the presence a face emerged.

"Who dares defy the laws of sacrifice?" The door spoke.

Cheshire flinched unprepared and Al stepped forward with keen eyes.

"I am Al! Please let us in!"

"Alice?"

"No, I am her grandson, please! We have to fix Wonderland!"

"Al, the grandson of Alice... and where is Alice?"

".. She passed away some time ago.." Al said sadly, "Please.. for her." He said.

The door watched him carefully and saw the exact resemblance.

"Be well, grandson of Alice," the face disappeared and the large door clicked open.

Inside was an enormous hall filled with portraits of people.

On one side it was Alice, and on the other it was Al as a young boy.

"That's me.." Al said as they went in and the doors shut behind them.

"Like Alice, you were here once before." Cheshire said. "This is the hall where everyone you meet ends up. No matter for their ages, they always end up here."

"Even when they die?" Al narrowed his eyes.

"When they die.. they go to you." Lestia said seeing herself a little more down.

"I see.." they started walking through the long hall seeing the pictures from both sides.

On the right he saw Alice younger and older, on the left he saw himself younger and now older.

He looked toward Alice's side while Cheshire looked toward his side

"Cheshire Cat," They both said right after Alice.

"Caterpillar,"

"Butterfly,"

"Red Queen,"

"Cassie"

"Mad Hatter,"

"Dinah," they looked at each other and smiled seeing the order jumble up.

They walked a while seeing more characters on Al's side than Alice's.

He couldn't understand why, he saw Mou too, but not on Alice's side.

He knew all those people, and yet-

"Al," Cheshire said and saw him stop at a certain empty frame.

"Hatter.." Al said. "The Mad Hatter.." he realized that he never met him yet.

"You'll see him soon.." Cheshire said.

"The Mad Hatter is always a mad man," Lestia agreed.

She stopped shortly behind them. They looked at,

"Lestia?" Al said.

"Forgive me.. but this is as far as I may go." She bowed. "Please find the king." She said and a door opened under her.

She fell in vanished from the hall.

Al looked at Cheshire who still stared at the spot where she left from.

He saw him narrow his eyes. Lines emerged along his face like whiskers. his ears stood straight up and he left it be.

Al didn't think, he knew if he did then Cheshire would hear him. So he didn't think at all.

He left himself blank, lost, closed from everything else.

Cheshire wondered what he was doing keeping his mind clear yet he did the same.

They knew something that they didn't want the other to know.

Al narrowed his eyes trying to figure out why he felt so bad.

He looked at the wall, his side was filled with empty frames while Alice's stopped some time back.

"Who are they?" Al asked. His eyes narrow as he opened his thoughts.

Cheshire didn't turn to him, didn't face him. He looked at the paintings instead and sighed softly.

"Hatter, Din and Dil, Yuil, Oba, Calica, Anne, Voic, Crow, Grel, Sebastian, Rois, Aren, Clav..." he named the pictures just to the outline of the people in them.

Each picture had no real portrait at all, it was a frame with the outline of the person.

"Fran, Tio, Wei, Abra, Jie.."

The frames were a dark brown color with seals on the bottom where names belonged.

They had skipped naming a few from the ones after the people he'd already met.

The frames stopped after and Al looked at Cheshire.

"You know them all?"

"Of course."

"... Will I?"

"No promises."

Al shift his gaze to Alice's wall and saw one portrait.

He stopped and stared.

"Alice.." Al said, it was a portrait of Alice when she was older, older.

She had a calm wrinkled smile, keen blue eyes a dark blonde silver hair.

She wore a beautiful dress with a small crown and a bracelet.

One he saw before, "I gave it to her.." he touched the painting and smiled.

The bracelet was made of fine silver. The charms were all from Wonderland.

It had Cheshire, Hatter, the White Queen, the Door, and the White Rabbit.

Tears filled Al's eyes.

"Why is it called the Hall of Memories?" Al asked crying.

"Because everything that happens in Wonderland is recorded here."

Al lowered to his knees. His heart ached and his head hurt.

"Alice..." he cried.

Memories flashed through his head of her. The last image he ever saw of her was her small old wrinkled smile.