Alice is Not In Wonderland

Alice, Alice, Heart and Soul, Lost My Mind a While Ago

The scowling women and I played hide and seek for many more days and nights. Only I was only ever the hider and she was the seeker. I didn't mind that we didn't trade places though, I liked running. I liked how my hair flowed behind me as I ran. It was down to my knees now and more white than anything else. I used to know of something that fell from the sky that was the same color as my hair, but I couldn't remember it now. The voice returned a few times with her strange questions I never seemed to get answers to, but I didn't mind since she gave me new clothes. The brown cotton dress she had given me made me a better hider. I learned to climb the tallest trees that towered over the rest of the woods and their orange and red bark that striped up. It wasn't easy, especially as my arms and legs started to get rust in their joints, but I loved being able to. Once I got to the top I could look around at the world and see just how far the wonderful woods go. All of the different colors mix together in some places, creating a jumbled rainbow or if someone broke up all the crayons and mixed them together, and in other places there were borders between the different colors and it looked like a patchwork quilt rather than a forest.
Every time I thought I had found the perfect hiding spot, the scowling woman and her army seemed to find me. Her soldiers and the carriage she never seemed to step more than a few feet away from. Even on the tallest trees the carriage simply made a right turn up and raced up the tree bark, like the woman's entire entourage had suction stickies attached to their feet. I kept going farther and farther into the woods. The lighter oak trees mixed with the dark green pine trees faded into birch trees with its peeling white bark that danced like zebras across my vision as I ran by. I danced with the zebras for many days until the queen returned. Only that time the rabbit was in chains.
"You told me that the head would be easy to find, so why is it taking so long?" The scowling woman boomed. "One more day until it's your head instead of hers."
For the first time in as long as I could remember, I felt bad for the rabbit. They were shaking and there was nothing but fear in their eyes. They're typical pristine blue waistcoat with its purple pockets was torn and their pocketwatch was smashed to the point it was nearly broken off of its chain. The right dark colors would have blended in with the dark wood of some of the forests, but not here with the zebra trees. The thin pale trees were much closer to the white of the rabbit's fur. It was odd too, in the darker parts of the woods, you wouldn't be able to see that far, but here you can. I guess the rabbit couldn't try and escape and sprint off to the distance if the woman can see where they are going. It was the first time I felt bad for the rabbit. It was the first time I had wanted to save them.
"I win," I sang to myself as the scowling woman climbed back into her carriage and returned the way she came. "Now it's my turn to play seeker."
I quietly followed after the woman and her carriage all the way through the zebra stripped birch forest and back through the oak and pine trees. Through the skinny zebra trees to the giant orange ones and the ones that mixed like crayons and the ones that segregated themselves into a patchwork quilt. The wind picked up as I ran and knocked a lot of the paler leaves off their branches. Some of them even slapped my face like they were an angry mother chastising her children. I made sure to stay far enough behind her carriage so that she wouldn't see me—which became less and less necessary distance as the woods got thicker and thicker—and I was chuckling all the way.
It took a couple days for us to make it back to the boulder where we had started the first round of our game. Sun up, sun down, sun up, sun down, sun up, sun down. Right in the light, run in the dark, run in the light, run in the dark. It seemed strange to be back. Ever since the woman had started to chase after me all those years ago I had made sure to never come back since it was where they expected me to be. I knew I didn't have much reason left—and the reasons were departing more and more every day—but I had that much. It didn't feel as real as it used to be. As the scowling woman's carriage rolled past the boulder I noticed something new sitting on top of it. It was the color of the sky the nights the moon disappeared and was shaped like the letter L.
The black object was cold when I picked it up and it went bang when I pressed the button at the place where the two parts of the L met. The bang echoed across the space and made my ears feel funny. I liked it.
I pressed the button twice more and laughed for a while. The bubbly feeling in my ears spread to the rest of my body. When the funny feeling was gone I noticed I had split the boulder in half. Maybe if it split the bolder it could split the scowling woman in half too and save the rabbit.
I charged after the woman and the rabbit grasping the object that goes bang in both my hands so I didn't drop it. It didn't take me long until I could see the scowling woman. Being able to see her made me speed up even more, but it seemed the scowling woman noticed me too. The woods were thinning out there. The really thick trees were giving way to mud colored trees that weren't much thicker than I was and there was now a beaten path of brown. It was a giant mud snake slithering straight, covering the green that covered the ground in that part of the woods. And the carriage was riding perfectly down it, so I did too.
I could see more of the sky here as well, it was a blue color that reminded me of cotton candy with marshmallows stuck in it. The sun cast its sunflower rays down that had flecks of glitter in them that swooshed away as I ran past. Normally, I would stop and dance in the rare sunlight shower, but I was on a mission. I was going to save the rabbit from the wicked woman.
Several of the scowling woman's soldiers jumped out from the trees that were now blooming with red and white roses, but I was faster than all of them. They screamed words at me, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I ignored them and kept running after the woman. Her carriage stopped at the top of a hill and she got out.
I quickly hid the black object behind my back so she wouldn't see it before racing up the last few steps.
"So you've finally shown your face. Timothy was right, your head will be perfect," the woman snapped her fingers and two of her soldiers appeared out of nowhere and removed the chains on the rabbit. Then they handed the rabbit an axe. "Now, off with her head."
The sun caught on the shine of the axe and cast little rainbows everywhere. It made me realize just how warm out it was. It must be summer. I liked summer. But I don't like the rabbit anymore.
I pulled the black object out from behind my bank and made it go bang. The fear returned in the rabbit's eyes as a hole appeared in the middle of their chest. The rabbit didn't split in two like the boulder, which was disappointing, but they were now lying still on the ground, so I was happy.
There were a lot of screams coming from nowhere after the rabbit stopped moving, and the ground started to shake like when the scowling woman's carriage would arrive with her soldiers. Only this time the shaking was moving away from me and I couldn't see any of the woman's soldiers. Worried that the scowling woman would try to run with whatever was making the rumbling, I pointed the black object at her and pressed the button to make it go boom.
Only this time it only made a clicking sound and there was no hole in the scowling woman. "Put down the weapon and raise your hands. We have you surrounded," a deep voice boomed and echoed off of the trees. I spun around to see where it was coming from, but it was just another invisible voice full of strange words. I chose to ignore it and pressed the black object's button again and that time there were several bangs. I started to jump up and down with glee.
"I did it! I won! That's what you get for trying to take my head." I sang, but then I realized there still wasn't a hole in the scowling woman. The holes were in me. Raspberry syrup dripped from my arms and my middle. It was thick and very sticky. It didn't taste sweet though.
I blinked and then I was the one on the ground. I was the one who wasn't moving anymore. I was the one who was still lying on the ground. I was like the rabbit now. Black spots started to creep across my vision. They were fighting a battle against the sun and they were winning. I could still feel the warmth of the sun that gave summer its joy. I liked summer. The warmth of summer was fading into the dead cold winter and soon the white stuff would fall from the sky again. I should have never followed that crystal butterfly.
"Commanding officer 240 to control regarding the call about the homeless ] woman in her seventies chasing the park ranger with a handgun. Suspect has been apprehended. She managed to shoot the park ranger's dog but deadly force was used before she could fire at the ranger. Requesting EMT assistance and mental health services for the suspect. If she survives, the only place she'll be going is an asylum, her teeth are to white for drug use" Somewhere between the warm and cold I heard the deep voice call to someone, before everything went quiet.