Trapped in Wonderland (Wonderland Chronicles Book 1)

by Dani Hoots

  “In the heart of Wonderland, near the Dark Forest. They were smart when they figured out how to infiltrate the kingdom—so obviously no one even saw it coming.”

  That made sense, sometimes the best place to hide something was right in front of other people’s faces. “Which is how the King and Queen were affected so fast.”

  Chase shrugged. “It was more complicated than that but I don’t want to get into the details just yet. Howard will be able to explain more than any of us.”

  I nodded. “All right, what can you tell me?”

  He grinned. “That math test was hard, how did you do on it?”

  I shoved him as we made it to the boundary of the Garden District.

  CHAPTER 8

  I gasped as we stepped outside the walls of the Garden District. The mountains and forests surrounded the area with trees larger than life. I felt like I was in the Redwood forest somehow surrounded by the Alps. I had never seen anything so majestic. I couldn’t wait to get back home and paint what I had seen, but I knew I would never be able to bring this scene justice.

  “So where exactly are we going? I mean I know we are going towards where Howard is, but other than that I’m not sure.” I asked as I stared up at the trees we walked beneath. They were tall, like friggin’ tall. I didn’t want to know what happened when one of them fell.

  It would be loud and destructive, that’s what would happen.

  “You see where those two hills meet in the distance?” Melvin pointed. I nodded. “That is where we are going.”

  “And we are walking the entire way?” I asked, hoping that was not the case. I knew it was, I hadn’t seen one type of vehicle during the entire time we were walking. Strange, really, but this world wasn’t like ours, and maybe they didn’t want to draw any attention.

  “Yes, we should be there before nightfall,” he started down the steep slope as I kept staring forward at what direction we were heading towards. Nothing like a good hike after practically no sleep and being dumped into an entirely new world. At least I wasn’t in my pajamas anymore. Always look on the positive side of things, that was my motto, or at least I tried to make it my motto.

  I followed the boys down the slope, slipping and sliding most of the way. The ground was a bit wet causing a muddy mess. Sometimes I thought I was definitely going to fall on my butt, but alas I did not, thankfully. Nothing new for an Oregon girl though.

  I started to fall behind the rest of them, typical. Although I was good at ballet and balancing, my fear of falling off of something was still pretty high. I didn’t like the thought of falling and getting my clothes muddy, then having to walk all that way to get to wherever we were going. Walking with muddy wet clothes was horrible, absolutely horrible. So I was more careful than they were and that made me start to fall behind. And them being typical boys didn’t give a crap. So at least that was the same between this world and my world.

  It was still strange to think that I was in a different world, that is if this wasn’t just a dream. I think in the back of my mind I really still thought it was a dream and that was why the ‘freak-out’ factor hadn’t hit me yet. That, or maybe I just watched too much anime that I didn’t find this to be as horrible as a normal person would. Then again, did I truly understand the stakes here? Probably not, but I also had no idea why I was brought here nor why some little boy had tried to kill me.

  We finally got to the bottom of the large hill the Garden District was on. As I approached where the rest of the boys were, I noticed they were ducked under the overgrowth, watching something in the distance. Chase grabbed my wrist and pulled me down next to them.

  “Careful, they’re on the lookout for us,” he said in a hushed tone.

  I looked towards where they were staring. Five men on horseback were riding across the forest, not too far from where we were. Each was on a dark horse except one had a white horse. He must have been the leader, as that was how it typically was in the movies. I couldn’t get a very good look at many of them, but from what I could tell, they looked like officers for the Dream Kingdom as they were all wearing blue trench coats.

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  Melvin was the one who answered. “They are the Queen’s royal guard. The one on the white horse is Bill. He is really good at tracking prey, second best at finding anyone in all the kingdoms.”

  “Who’s the best?”

  Malcolm turned and smiled. “Me.” He held out his hand. “Now let’s go, we have to hurry if we want to get past him. Chase, come with us. The rest of you go around and hope they follow you instead of us.”

  Melvin nodded and took Davis with him. They headed around the other way while Malcolm pulled me with him, Chase following just behind us. He seemed a little hesitant at first, as if not wanting to follow Malcolm or take orders from him. It was barely noticeable, and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but he didn’t let the frown leave his face. Was he mad at Malcolm for some reason? There was a lot I didn’t know about this group, but they always had seemed close at school.

  Then again, at school, I wouldn’t have thought they were all fictional characters, though I still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t all some kind of dream.

  Malcolm led the two of us the opposite way Davis and Melvin had headed. He took such care in each spot he put his foot that I made sure to step exactly where he did, stop when I was told to, and go on as well. Thank goodness for my ballet classes, otherwise I probably would have lost my balance a few times and fallen flat on my face. That would have been embarrassing.

  Chase seemed to be following as well, but he also almost acted like he wanted to go off the path and do his own thing. I just wished he would voice his thoughts instead of holding them in, then again we probably had to be as quiet as we could so that they didn’t hear us.

  As we came around another tree, Malcolm stopped abruptly.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “He is on to us.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. I didn’t like how frustrated he looked, as it meant I needed to worry. “Crap, we have to get you out of here.” Malcolm searched all around, then finally looked up. “How fast can you climb?”

  I blinked. “What?”

  He pointed at the tree. “Up. Go.”

  I looked at the tree that towered beside me and gulped. I had never been good at climbing up trees, even small ones. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. I’d honestly rather dig and hide in a ditch than go up a tree.

  Malcolm must have seen the worry on my face, as he nodded to Chase and pushed me forward. “Chase, help her. I will distract them and get them to follow me. Wait until I come back for you. Got that? Do not leave this tree unless I say so.” He made eye contact. “Do you understand?”

  Chase reluctantly nodded and jumped up to the closest branch with ease, holding out his hand. “Come on, it’s easy.”

  Frowning, I grabbed his hand and he helped me up the branch. I was already out of my comfort zone and not quite sure what exactly was going on, I didn’t need to also be made fun of for not knowing how to get up a tree.

  At first, I was surprised at how well he could navigate the tree, then I realized he was a cat and it would come with the territory. It was still weird to see his eyes in such a way but I was starting to get used to it. That, or I was just autocorrecting it to normal eyes in my head. That seemed more likely.

  I peered down, which was a huge mistake honestly, and realized that I indeed had a fear of heights. Or maybe it was a fear of falling? I started to wobble but Chase quickly grabbed me.

  “Careful, this isn’t somewhere you wanna miss a step. Long way down.”

  “Yeah, I see that. Thanks for the tip.”

  He helped me up a bit higher and we stopped at the point where we could still almost see the ground, but high enough where I wanted to just cling to the tree and never move again. I didn’t care for heights, or I guess I didn’t care for falling. The latter came with the former.

  Chase patted my
back. “There, there, don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  He shrugged and sat down on the branch, cross-legged. “Just trying to help. You need to be like me and not worry about heights. Just land on your feet.”

  I gave him a skeptical look. Yeah I definitely could land on my feet, but then I would have a knee coming out of my shoulder blade. I shuddered at the thought of hitting the ground that hard. So gross.

  Just as I was about to say something, Chase put out his hand to quiet me. I looked at him quizzically but then I realized why he didn’t want me to say anything. The Queen’s guards were right under us.

  They looked human enough, none seemed to look strange like Chase, not that he looked too different than a normal human being. Bill came on a white horse and searched all around, looking for us. I backed closer to the tree so that he couldn’t spot me.

  I could see his dark brown hair that was slicked back. He wore a blue trench coat and from what I could tell, he sat straight up as if he had great authority over anything and everything. The other four men followed behind, waiting for the man’s orders.

  “Come out Hatter, I know you are around here!” Bill’s voice boomed through the forest. Chase must have noticed me quiver for he put his arm around me.

  “Don’t worry, they can’t see us,” he whispered into my ear.

  I nodded, although I found that to be very unlikely. If he was such a good tracker and was right below our tree, how could he not know we were up there? I tried to calm my thoughts down about the situation as I peered back down at Bill.

  “Is that a challenge Bill or do you know the only way for you to win is for me to give up?” Malcolm’s voice answered back. I couldn’t find where Malcolm was standing and dared not shift to find out. I just hoped he would be okay, but I trusted him for some reason. Mainly because he had lasted this long and hadn’t gotten caught.

  “Oh, on the contrary.” Bill answered. “I will find you and that girl you are hiding. Do you really think she can bring down the Cirque de Rêves? Nothing can stop him, you can see that yourself. You are wasting your time!”

  “If I am wasting my time, why are you looking for her? If she poses no threat, stop wasting your time.”

  Bill let out a loud belly laugh. “You would like me to do that, wouldn’t you? Just because I know I don’t have anything to worry about doesn’t mean that you all aren’t being a nuisance. The Queen has ordered me to destroy all that are against the Cirque de Rêves, and you my friend have betrayed us all.”

  “You are making a mistake,” Malcolm added. It sounded like he was coming from all around, I had no idea where he could be. “The Cirque de Rêves has blinded you. I must stop it before we can never go back.”

  “We will see about that,” I watched as Bill pulled out his gun and started firing into the woods. I jumped at the noise and Chase squeezed my hand.

  “It will be all right,” he whispered. “Malcolm knows what he is doing. He has been doing this sort of thing his whole life. And unlike in your world, that is a very long time here.”

  I nodded as I watched the horses gallop away into the distance after Malcolm. I didn’t like the idea of something happening to him because of me. I would never forgive myself, even though it wasn’t my choice to be here. I still felt as if I could have done something.

  Chase and I waited up in the tree for what seemed like an hour. We didn’t hear anything from Bill and his men, but neither did we hear from Malcolm or the others yet. I was beginning to worry and wanted to ask Chase what he thought but I didn’t want to make a sound. I had no idea if they were close and I was afraid of getting caught.

  Unlike me, Chase looked calm, his eyes closed and ears attentive. If he was like a cat, he should be able to hear from quite far away. I wondered how exactly they worked and how he could have some feline characteristics and some human characteristics.

  Suddenly Chase’s ears twitched and his eyes shot open. Then I heard it too, a whistle coming from below us.

  “Well.” Chase jumped down to a lower branch. “That is our cue.”

  I smiled as I climbed down behind him. We were finally able to leave this tree and be on our way. I could get answers and stop worrying about Bill capturing us.

  I forgot how high up we truly were until I was almost to the ground. Looking back up, I couldn’t even see the branch that we were once waiting on. I shuddered at the thought if I had slipped. Good thing Chase was with me or I would’t have been able to overcome my fear, or I would have gone up and easily slipped.

  As I thought this, I knew I would jinx myself. It was a curse I had, even though I was graceful in ballet, I was sometimes quite clumsy in other things. As I stepped on the last branch before hitting the ground, I felt my foot slip and I started to fall backwards. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for my body to meet with the hard forest floor. I just hoped my head wouldn’t hit a rock, that would be the worst. When a couple seconds went by and nothing happened, I opened my eyes to find myself in Malcolm’s arms.

  “You should be more careful, we don’t want to draw attention back to us, now do we?” His smile made me blush.

  “No,” I whispered and straightened back up, dusting off my clothes as I had gotten some bark and dirt all over Davis’ clothes he let me borrow. I just hoped I wouldn’t stain it. “Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  I glanced over at Chase, who was frowning at the entire incident. I wanted to say something but I had no idea what I could tell him to make him smile again. Whatever was going on between them likely had more to do with each other than the present circumstances. Maybe I would find out about it later, even though it really wasn’t any of my business.

  I looked around for Davis and Melvin. “Where are the others?”

  “They are already on their way to Howard’s.” Malcolm nodded deeper into the forest. “We will be meeting them there. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 9

  As we approached the edge of the forest, we came upon the once magnificent White and Red Kingdom. The chess pieces that once stood glorious but were now crumbled away with time gave those in Harry Potter a run for their money. The statues and monuments were larger than any building in Salem, but that really wasn’t saying much. Salem didn’t have any skyscrapers, heck they didn’t have any buildings higher than 345 feet, and that was the height of the spire at the First United Methodist Church built in 1872. It had been over a hundred years and still no one had built anything higher than that. Salem felt like it was stuck in time, and I wasn’t exaggerating. Some of the clothes I saw people wearing on a day-to-day basis were out of fashion long ago.

  Then again, I was wearing Victorian-style clothing. I guess I wasn’t one who could talk.

  Everything around the area was colored in either a red or white decor. It made sense, since it was the Red and White Kingdoms. It really stood out and I couldn’t believe that I was standing in a city that had been from a work of fiction.

  The ground had red and white tiles, just like a chess board. If I wasn’t there, I would have never believed it. All the buildings were designed like medieval castles, with moats in some areas and everything. It was abandoned, though, just like they said it was. No one lived here, there were no people in the streets, no voices of conversation. There was nothing but us.

  “So this is where your leader is? Was he part of this kingdom?” I asked as we passed yet another moat. I looked down in it and saw something green move around.

  Malcolm shook his head. “No, he has been around before the Red and White Kingdom existed, in fact he was around before the Heart Kingdom as well. No one knows where he is from, he just comes when he is needed.”

  “Such as now with the Circus?”

  “Yes.”

  So he was like the mysterious mentor in all the stories, like Obi-Wan or Gandalf. That was pretty cool. “Who is he, in the stories I mean?”

  Chase was the one to answer that. “He is known as the Caterp
illar.”

  I remembered that chapter in the story. From what I remember from the book, I always found him rather annoying, and I couldn’t believe that he could be such a grand mentor now. “The Caterpillar? I thought in the story he turned into a butterfly or something.”

  Chase laughed. “The story isn’t exact, word-to-word, remember?”

  “I see,” I lied. I really didn’t understand. None of this made sense. “I still don’t get why I’m important.”

  “He had a premonition about you. He told us where to find you so you could help us,” Chase whispered so that I only could hear him.

  “A what?” I whispered in return. “And why are we whispering?”

  “A premonition. A dream, if you will. Those of this world are different than those who represent dreams. He can explain it better than any of us. And I’m whispering because we aren’t supposed to tell you anymore until we have arrived.”

  So that’s what it was. Did they know more than they were letting on? Why was it so important that Howard tell me everything? It was obvious that Chase wanted to tell me more, but something was holding him back. Why that was, I had no idea. It would make sense for them to just tell me everything right away so I would understand, but if Howard had more answers than them, I guess talking to him would be a better idea.

  I was also curious why Chase seemed to despise Malcolm. I didn’t think that in the stories I’d read that the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter hated each other. Did they always or was it something that happened recently? As they mentioned, the story I knew had been warped by the writer. In fact, in the stories that I knew, Chase had been an actual cat, not part human. I wonder if that fact had to do with Carroll not understanding they were anamorphic or if Alice just didn’t mention it when returning from Wonderland.

  We still hadn’t caught sight of Davis and Melvin. I hoped that they were all right and didn’t get captured by Bill and his men. I had no idea what kind of things they would do, if it was like the stories they would have their heads cut off. But that was the Heart Kingdom, not the Dream Kingdom. Either way I still worried.