Author's Note: I do not own Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the story belongs to Lewis Carroll and the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane belongs to them as well.
Sherlock stared at Moriarty and he just laughed and left the washroom. Sherlock knew that he didn't have the time to go after him, so he decided to just leave and to take the tube to Hampton Court in order to solve this part of the game. he knew that because Moriarty had been there with him, that it was Jamie who had left the message. Of course, Sherlock was going to keep this information away from Tessa, Dynah, and John. Of course they knew that she was involved in the clues, but they wouldn't think that Moriarty would make her leave them. It was better that they didn't know, seeing as it would cloud their goals for this game and make them more focused on rescuing Jamie, which in turn would get them all killed. Once Sherlock arrived at Hampton Court, it was easy enough to find where the message was because Lestrade, John, Tessa and Dynah were already there. He always seemed to be the last person to arrive anywhere. He walked over to them and he saw what he was looking for. There had been a message left painted on the inside of the arch that led into Hampton Court. the paint type was acrylic and the message had been written in multiple different colours, with a picture of a white rabbit and a caterpillar at the bottom of it. The message read:
"And when you go...chasing rabbits. And you know you're going to fall. Tell 'em a hookah...smoking caterpillar has given you the call. Call Alice. When she was just small. When the man on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go, and you've just had some kind of mushroom and your mind is moving low. Go ask Alice. I think she'll know. When logic...and proportion have fallen sloppy dead. And the white knight is talking backwards and the red queens off with her head, remember what the door mouse said. Feed your head. Feed you head.- J.M xx"
"It's lyrics to a song." Dynah said.
"A song? What song?" Lestrade asked.
"White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane."Tessa said.
"It sounds like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll." John said.
"It's meant to. The song is about taking hallucinogenic drugs. A popular theory was that Lewis Carroll was high when he wrote the story of Alice. I'm surprised that none of you know the song. It was released in 1967, which is way before we were born, but we know it." Dynah said.
"Some of us chose not to focus on certain types of music when they were growing up." Sherlock said.
"Yes, Sherlock. We're aware that you were more focused on classical music." Tessa said.
"What do you think this message is supposed to lead you too? It's not necessarily clear as to where you're supposed to go." Lestrade said.
"Lewis Carroll, otherwise known as Charles Dodgson, was born in Daresbury, Chesire, England. It's exactly where we have to go." Sherlock said.
"And how did you get that, from this? It's not even really that related." Lestrade said.
"It's purposely not directly related. The point is to look into the story of the song, not just the song in itself or the band who wrote it. This song speaks of specific things directly related to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland thus making it the thing we need to look for. Where better to look that to where the man who created it all was born and grew up?" Tessa said.
"If you're wrong about this-" Lestrade started.
"Have we been wrong yet? No, we haven't and we won't be this time." Dynah said.
They got Lestrade to drive them Daresbury, seeing as once more it was a rather long drive to get there and Sherlock and John really could not afford to keep paying cab fare for such long rides. They were in the car fro 3 hours and 28 minutes before they finally arrived in Daresbury. It was a rather small town and Sherlock wondered why Moriarty had sent them here. They looked around, not noticing anything strange, or anything peculiar. As they were walking around, they all kept hearing this sound, almost like the ticking of a pocket watch. They all looked around but they couldn't seem to find the source of the noise. It wasn't until a white rabbit, hopped out of the bushes and ran away that they realized exactly what was going on. They chased after the rabbit and soon they found themselves in front of a well. There was nothing covering it and there was a ladder leading down into the ground. They all slowly began to proceed down the well and eventually found themselves in a well lit series of tunnels. However, which direction they were supposed to go in was unclear, seeing as the directions were written in a way that nobody could understand. There was a sign in the middle that had arrows pointing to certain directions, but they were not written in any language that Sherlock could understand. However they heard the ticking sound once more and followed it down the left hand path. The ticking noise got louder the further along the path they moved. As they continued walking through the watery path, they didn't talk to each other, not wanting to make anymore sound than necessary so they could hear the ticking. They finally reached a large, open room. There is still water surrounding them, but there is a small island of land in the middle of all of it. Stalactites and stalagmites surround the cave and it looks as though they were made on purpose. As if this whole room had been made by man, and not by nature. On the island, there was a table and a chair in the middle of it, as well as a steaming cup of tea. Sherlock approached the table first, and everyone else followed behind him and when he looked down on the table he saw that there was a microphone and a pocket watch. The microphone's cord led off down another tunnel, and Lestrade followed it, to see where it went. Another thing that lay on the table was a note. It had been made to look old, using tea bags and burning the edges of the paper. Something that a child would do for a project in school. Sherlock picked up the piece of paper from off the table, and he couldn't help the small smile that formed on his face as he read the words written on it.
"Do you have to ruin every piece of classical literature? It makes me never want to pick up a book again." Jamie said, obviously annoyed.
"I'm not ruining it. Merely twisting it so that is becomes useful in my plans, but I'm hardly ruining it. If anything I'm making it more thrilling." Moriarty laughed.
"You really have a way of putting me off reading." Jamie said, throwing the book that she had been holding in her hand across the room.
"Is that anyway to treat a book? Really, Jamie I thought you had more respect for the written word."
"Your book, not mine. Thus I don't care." Jamie said quickly.
"I see." Moriarty said, looking slightly agitated.
"You know, I never really liked Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when I was a kid. Didn't really appeal to me as much as other stories did. Not sure why. I only started to like it as I got older. Mad Hatter used to frighten in me in the old Disney version of the story." Jamie said, speaking more to the air, rather than to Moriarty.
"I rather liked the Mad Hatter. I found his insanity...amusing." Moriarty smirked.
"You would." Jamie said, rolling her eyes.
"Are all teenagers as infuriating?" Moriarty asked.
"Are all psychopaths this destructive?" Jamie replied.
"Perhaps when you grow up you'll be more tolerable."
"I highly doubt that. If anything, I'll just grow more irritating with age."
"I can't see that being possible."
"Oh it is. I grew up in reverse. I was more like an adult when I was a child, and more like a child not that I am becoming an adult. Strange isn't it? Almost like that story where the man was born an old man and aged back into a baby? You know, The Curious Case of Benjiman Button? Except it's my personality that's going backwards isn't it? Instead of my body." Jamie said, looking up thoughtfully.
"You talk entirely too much. I should just shoot you and be done."
"Then go ahead and shoot me. It wouldn't do you any good to kill me anyways. And perhaps I would not talk so much if there was actually something to do. I am positively bored." Jamie huffed.
"Boredom is the most destructive thing of all. All the things an idle mind can come up with. Quite a dangerous thing."
"Indeed." Jamie glared at him.
"I wonder what you could come up with that idle mind of yours. After all, most teenagers make rash decisions, even their thoughts are rash, so I can only imagine the thoughts that are running through your head."
"You can only imagine because I don't feel like sharing them." Jamie smiled.
"How unfortunate for you, because you really don't have much of an option."
"Have I told you how much I despise you lately?" Jamie asked.
"30 times today."
"I despise you. Make it 31." Jamie said, getting up and walking out of the room.
"
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
'You must be' said the Cat 'or you wouldn't have come here.' -J.M xx"
"It's a quote directly taken from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With Alice and Chesire Cat." Dynah said.
"What does it mean though?" John asked.
"He's making a point." Sherlock said.
"Are you sure it was him and not Jamie?" Tessa whispered, even though Lestrade was still gone, searching where the cord led to.
"It's him. You can tell by the last two sentences. He's saying that we are no different than him. That we are the exact same. Just as insane. Just as psychotic." Sherlock said.
Lestrade ran back into the cavern. "The cord leads into this very large electric box, that looks like it control nearly everything in the town. It was projected all over town so we would hear it." Lestrade said, out of breath.
"But why lead us down here? Why leave the clue here at all?"
"Don't you see it, John? We followed a white rabbit here. We've gone down the rabbit hole." Tessa laughed.
"This just keeps getting crazier as we go along." Lestrade mumbled.
"Of course it does. We're dealing with a psychopath, are we not? You can't expect it to be normal can you? If you did, I would be slightly concerned for your mental health, Inspector." Dynah said.
"Where is this supposed to lead us to next?" John asked.
"No where, John." Sherlock said.
"No where?" Than what are we supposed to do? Just go back to the flat?" John asked.
"You really don't get it do you, John? This is 'Wonderland' or 'Underland'. We are exactly where we need to be to find all of our answers." Sherlock said, not understanding John's confusion with the whole situation.
"It's all a real life metaphor, John. We are literally down a metaphorical rabbit hole." Tessa said.
"But why? What's the purpose?" Lestrade asked.
"It will all tie together in the end. That's all that matters." Dynah said.
"Now there are many different tunnels throughout this cavern. It will be like a maze, but we have to make sure that we find what we need." Sherlock mumbled.
"And what exactly is it that we need, Sherlock? What the bloody hell are we supposed to be looking for down here?"
"We're down the rabbit hole aren't we? Which means we are in Wonderland. We need to find the Chesire Cat. After all we are in Chesire." Sherlock grinned.
"You know that Chesire is a comic book character too." Dynah said.
Tessa and Sherlock glared at her.
"Just stating a fact. No need to glare." Dynah mumbled.
"We have to find a cat? Down here?" Lestrade asked.
"It could be a cat. Or it could be something else. Something related but somehow unrelated." Sherlock mumbled again.
"Was that supposed to make any sense?" Lestrade asked John.
"Just let them figure it out for now. If they can understand each other, we'll be fine." John sighed.
"The quote chosen talks about not only the people of Underland being mad, but of Alice being mad herself." Tessa said.
"Is that relevant though? It could have absolutely nothing to do with any of this?" Dynah said.
"He meant it exactly like that. This has everything to do with us being in a world surrounded by mad people. In a Mad World."
"Oh joy, now that song is going to be stuck in my head." Dynah whispered to Tessa who held back her laughter.
"But how does that relate to these caverns? To any of this?" Lestrade asked.
"Like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland we have gone down the rabbit hole into a world that we do not know. Lots of things can happen. It's easy enough for a man to go crazy when he doesn't understand the things that are going on around him. When he begins to panic. Moriarty is testing our sanity. If we can make it out of this maze with the clue that we need, then we pass the test. Or fail it." Sherlock said.
"How is that possible? To both fail and pass?" Dynah asked.
"If we get the clue then we pass, but we also fail because it might just prove how insane we really are." Sherlock mumbled.
"You can't both win and lose, Sherlock." Lestrade said.
"It is very possible to both win and lose, especially in the case of if one wants to win one must lose one's mind!" Sherlock said.
"Is he alright?" Lestrade whispered to John.
"You act as if I can tell." John whispered back.
"SHUT UP!" Sherlock yelled.
"How did he hear u-" Lestrade started.
"SHUT UP! I NEED TO THINK!" Sherlock yelled again.
"Oh crap." Dynah huffed.
Sherlock turned around the room several times, hands gripping his hair, trying to think of what he needed to do. What was Moriarty's goal in this, besides leading them to a body? There was something in it for him. Something that he wanted to achieve through this. To make them mad? Or to make them think that they were mad? All of the possibilities ran through Sherlock's head, and it seemed as though time was frozen as he sorted through every possible reason why Moriarty had planned this and how they would find the next clue without getting lost. Suddenly it all clicked in Sherlock's head, like find the last piece to the puzzle.
"Red and White." Sherlock answered.
'What?" Lestrade and John asked at the same time.
"In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland she goes to the Red Queen's Castle and painted her white roses red." Sherlock said.
"What does that have to do with anything?" John asked.
"Did you not notice! On our way through the caverns, there were painting of red or white roses on each entrance to the cavern. At first I thought we had to follow the red rose, but no! We have to follow the paths marked by the white rose-" Sherlock started.
"Because those are the roses Alice saw first and changed." Tessa finished.
"Exactly. We have to follow the path Alice set."
They looked around the cavern and saw the one tunnel that had a white rose marking it. They walked away from the pocket watch and the note and began to follow the paths marked by the white rose. Dynah and Tessa found it odd that Moriarty had put such effort into this. It seemed out of character for him. There was so much more detail in this part of the game, over the other parts. As they walked down the water filled paths, they began to notice that some of the white flowers had little specks of red on them that slowly began to grow with each new path. Almost as if Alice was painting them. Suddenly they came to a fork in the road. There were now two paths, both designated with red roses. Which path to go down. Which way led to the next clue? Tessa stepped forward and looked at both of the roses. They looked almost identical, nearly everything was the same, except for one small detail. A tiny little bit of red was dripping down off a petal in one of the pictures. Like fresh red paint would fall off a flower petal. Tessa led them down this path and sure enough there was another small patch of land in the middle of the water, and a table on it. When they approached the table, it had a white rose that had been painted red on it and another note, this time written on an old dried up leaf.
"How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle! - J.M xx"
"Too obvious for my liking." Sherlock said in distaste.
"This is obvious how?" John asked.
"Oh don't be so naive, John. The quote, though from the book, is relating back to the actual 'Alice'!" Sherlock said.
"The actual Alice? Anybody want to give me a clue?" Lestrade asked.
"Alice Liddel. The real Alice. Lewis Carroll or Charles Dodgson met a girl named Alice Liddel and he told her stories where she was the main character and of her adventures in Wonderland and she demanded that he write it down." Tessa said.
"Where are we going to find her?" Lestrade asked.
"Probably 6 feet underground. But her father was the Dean of Christ College in Oxford. That's where we need to go because that is also where she first met Charles Dodgson." Sherlock said.
"How do we know that's where Moriarty wants us to go?" John asked.
"Because she is who Alice was when she woke up that morning. Not who she was later on." Dynah smiled.
They found there way back out of the well Lestrade drove them all to Oxford. It was another 2 hours and 38 minutes in the car, with Sherlock trying to think ahead of all of this and what they would possibly find when they reached Christ College. Once they got there, the place seemed very dead. Never a good thing when Moriarty is involved. This was further down the rabbit hole than anybody had expected. Moriarty seemed to be going full out into this plan, however it could have possibly be Jamie. Jamie, though she didn't want to could have been forced to aid Moriarty in this entire plan. It made more sense, with how detailed and elaborate the plan was compared to the others, and Sherlock knew that Jamie liked things to be done in the best way possible. It was a weakness that Moriarty was willing to exploit.
"Do you think they made it out of the caverns by now?" Jamie asked, as she lay out on the sofa, staring out the window.
"Hopefully. I would be rather disappointed if they haven't." Moriarty replied.
"I figured you would know. Don't you usually have men watching them?" Jamie replied.
"I do. But I haven't felt inclined to check on them." Moriarty drawled out, playing with ring on his finger.
"I see. Though I do concur with you. I will be highly disappointed if they aren't out of the caverns by now. Or if they haven't realized that I planned out this part of the game." Jamie said.
"It is fairly obvious. I never go through such extensive procedures to play this game. It is rather amusing."
"Alice was your idea though. I just planned out how to use it correctly."
"Your design skills did come in handy for the cavern."
"What can I say? Design is a talent I happen to have and studied. Worthwhile course." Jamie smiled.
"Too bad there isn't a class on how to properly bomb something." Moriarty frowned.
"Don't need one. My art teacher showed me all the weak points of even the most stable structures. Take those parts out and the building is gone." Jamie laughed.
"Your art teacher taught you this? Amusing. I always thought art teachers acted all whimsical and annoyingly connected to their emotions."
"No. That's only the flakes. I'm pretty sure my teacher was an anarchist in a past life, but I can never be sure." Jamie sighed.
"You must have enjoyed your art class. You speak rather fondly of it."
"Why should you care. I'm just a pawn in your game. Nothing important. Don't try to patronize me with your mock caring routine. It is rather boring." Jamie glared.
"You're a lot more charming when you're angry. When you're happy you're just annoying and smug."
"It's called being a teenager, Jim. I thought you'd be used to it by now, for how long I have been in your 'delightful company'." Jamie said.
"Don't worry Jamie, you won't have to stand my company much longer. You just have to wait until little Sherly goes just far enough down the rabbit hole, that it will be impossible for him to dig himself out."