Short and Sweet

Creating an Alice

It had been years since the first rabbit, but the sightings had never stopped. They haunt her dreams, and fill her waking life with fear because she knows if she let down her guard for a second they would take her.

Alyssa was told by the doctors and her parents that she was schizophrenic; that the rabbits weren't real, they gave her pills that made her feel dumb. That's when they would move in. After she took her medicine the rabbits would get closer, and the thing that called itself the March Hare would move in. It taunted her, it told her that it would take her away and no one could save her, it said if she didn't come with it someone called Hatter would come and everything would be worse.

No one else could see it; no one else could see the rabbits either, but she knew it was real. Somehow she knew it was real, there was no way it could be all in her head. She wouldn't accept that.

Alyssa lay in her bed; it was hard enough to keep the Hare out when she wasn't medicated, but she had been forced to take the medicine today. It gave her a stomach ache, and she couldn't think. There was nothing wrong with her, but they seemed to think there was. They kept threatening her with the Loonie Bin if she didn't take her medicine. The Hare was becoming more and more tempting every day.

"Alyssa dinner time," her mother yelled from downstairs. Alyssa didn't want the food any more than she wanted to see her parents, but she pushed herself up onto her feet. They would accuse her of starving herself if she didn't eat.

Ignoring the beady red eyes staring at her from the corner; Alyssa walked out of the room and down to the kitchen where a new sight greeted her. In the kitchen stood a woman in a long blue, Victorian style dress. Her bright pink hair curled with little rings falling around her face, atop her head was a cobalt blue top hat with a green rose pinned to the brim.

The lady in the top hat turned her head towards Alyssa, and milky white eyes stared unblinking, through Alyssa. The woman was blind, and after a few moments of studying the woman's face she discovered that the other wasn't much older than herself.

Alyssa watched her mother walk through the blind girl, and she knew that this was another from the same place as the Hare. Alyssa moved to her seat at the table; her eyes never leaving the blind girl, and it seemed the blind girl was watching her as well. A slow smile spread across the blind woman's lips; Alyssa knew now. This woman was the terrible Hatter the Hare had always spoken of.

"Alyssa eat your dinner," her father's voice grumbled from beside her. Alyssa moved her gaze from the Hatter for only a moment and she was gone. Not seeing the woman, not knowing where she was and what she was doing filled Alyssa with dread. There was something different about the Hatter.

"Alyssa remember they aren't real," her mother's voice broke through Alyssa's thoughts. She blinked looking across the table. "You're staring at nothing again dear." Her mother's lips were turned down into a concerned from.

"Just spaced out. Sorry guys," Alyssa said picking up her fork. Alyssa zoned out for the rest of the meal; she didn't see a reason to continue a conversation with people who couldn't even listen to her. She left her plate sitting on the table, and went to her room. She turned away to shut her door and a voice spoke,

"Why do you take the medications they give you? They don't get rid of us." Alyssa heard the bottle of her medicine shake. Turning around she saw the blind woman standing, and holding her bottle of pills.

"It may not shut you up but it shuts them up," Alyssa said snatching the bottle from the Hatter. "What do you want? I'm sick of all of you. You've ruined my life." Alyssa threw herself on her bed, buying her face into her pillow.

"I am here to warn you. I am your last chance, and I am much more appealing to the eye than that ugly rabbit," the Hatter said with a satisfied smile. Alyssa looked up; her anger turning to confusion.

"My last chance? Last chance for what?" Alyssa sat up, glaring at the other woman. The Hatter walked over to a desk in the corner of Alyssa's room and sat on it.

"Without someone from your world in mine, my world no longer exists. There are very few people who can gain access to my world, and it is horribly difficult to find them. You can see us, there for you could go through the portal into my world. Down the rabbit hole as they say." The Hatter touched a finger to her lips thoughtfully before continuing, "you use Alice as a name here. For us it is a term to describe how our world came to be. Your book outlining our world is only the account of an Alice who escaped us. An Alice who escaped the queen." Alyssa looked at the Hatter; she pressed her lips into a tight line.

"Oh and how are you my last chance then?" Alyssa said irritably. This woman wasn't making sense, or was she in her own way? Alyssa had to think about it for a moment. The Hatter only tapped her finger against her lips in response.

"If I don't come bad things will start to happen," Alyssa answered her own question. The Hatter nodded once; a bob of her head that looked like she could have been listening to music.

"Does that matter? We live in a world literally named after how wonderful it is. We can lead you to the rabbit hole, but we can't make you go down it." The Hatter gave a slight wink. "However, we can make your life miserable until you come." She stood from Alyssa's desk and walked over in front of the window. Looking out over the city with an almost wicked smile.

"You have an hour to pack. Trust me Darling; you will love Wonderland so much you will never want to leave." The Hatter tugged once on her hat, and was gone. Only the lingering smell of her odd green rose.

Alyssa sat on her bed. It felt like no one wanted her here anyways, but she could blame that on those rabbits. She had no time to choose, no time to say good bye, no time to run away and hide somewhere that no one could ever find her.