Alice

Peering into the dark rabbit hole, the entrance to Wonderland, for what seemed to be the hundredth time this hour, I search for the strange, white rabbit. Looking over to the bank, that had risen at least a meter, made me recall my sister reading her old book. Drawing my attention back to the cave like hole, I want to expect that pinked eyed rabbit, to convince me to fall into the hole one last time. Pulling strands from the grass, and tossing them aside, I try to distract myself from the unthinkable mess that has occurred down below. Though I do not know what these problems are, it seemed big enough to the rabbit. I find myself to begin to vibrate as the thoughts of the past year stream in one by one.

"Save us Alice," the rabbit had told me days before. His voice echoed in my head, as I remembered his words. Before my mind could catch up to what I was doing, I started to fall down the long hole that was covered with stacks of books of many colors. As I plunged through the dark space, my mind streamed of adventures of the past year with my long lost friends. Hatter, my invisible cat, the Caterpillar, March Hare, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were all friends that I would look forward to when the bottom finally came. Watching everything pass by seemed to flow in slow motion, much longer than I thought the fall would ever be. My blue flowered dress flapped in the wind as I neared to the bottom. My chocolate brown hair covered my face so I closed my emerald eyes and waited for the descent to end. Then a piercing pain shot through my whole body, as I hit the hard ground and the room above me went black.

***
The ache disappeared from my body as I began to regain consciousness. My eyes shoot open and look at the wide open space around me. It was just as colorful as before with the same square tiles covering the four walls surrounding me. I find myself lying in the middle of the room with the clear glass table at my side. The bottle stood on the side of it with the note that said "DRINK ME" and the golden small door was sleeping and I was sure it didn't want to be bothered. Beside the bottle was a plate of cookies, there was no note, no sign that said I shouldn't eat them, and I was also starting to get hungry. But there was no warning either, of what the small, circular things would do to me. I didn't know if it would make me small or tall or short or fat. I scramble to my feet and ponder the food as my mouth starts to water. Taking my chances I put the cookie into my mouth. The cookie is soft and its taste is vanilla and ginger. Waiting a few seconds I begin to shrink, small enough to go under the sleeping door. I capture the large world around me, and it is much bigger than I remember. As I walk under the door, my stomach begins to twist. And like a timer I begin to grow a few inches taller, and am the same size as everything else. My eyes turn immediately to the innocent white rabbit holding his small clock at his side. The scenery around us was different than from before. There was no caterpillar on a tall red mushroom, or a dessert swamp; spread along the tree line. Nor was the sun shining the color blue it was now a dark shade of purple. The rabbit also had changed in many ways, his clock, broken and dented along the dull, gold outside with a big heavy chain attached to it that seemed to weigh him down. His blue jacket was tattered and covered in a coat of dirt. And his fur had changed from a shiny white to a grey that aged him a couple of years. His eyes connect with mine and I can instantly feel his pain beneath them.
"Alice, you have arrived just in time to see Wonderland disappear for good." My mouth begins to sink as he says those words.
"What do you mean? Wonderland can never die!" His head drops and his eyes wandered to his feet and they begin to draw round circles in the dirt beneath him.
"I mean everything from the tallest tree to the smallest mouse, is beginning to disappear from the land. Even Hatter will perish and there is nothing we can do to stop it." Anger stirs in my mind as those words escape from his lips.

"Then why did you bring me down here?"

"Because you can help us," he pauses for a moment and then continues, "be the leader you are Alice and help us fight it, and maybe we can still do something about it." My mind travels back to the years past when everything was so easy and I could rely on my friends. But now that they started to disappear, they needed me more than ever. The rabbit begins to walk and I follow him as if I was attached to a chain myself.