Alice nodded. ‘Thank you. I know they are. I won’t make a big deal out of this. I have much bigger things to worry about.’
A spark of wonder flashed in his eyes. ‘Oh Alice, I’m sure you do. You’re certainly one of a kind. Once you have finished your … plans, you should come with me to my forest. It’s enchanting. and I have a business, of sorts, that could use someone like you to help manage.’
‘That’s very kind.’ She blushed, but thankfully, the darkness hid it well. ‘I will keep it in mind.’ She looked at her watch and smiled. ‘We should be arriving within the hour. I must get things ready.’
They disembarked at a harbour in America. After reading Wendy’s letter, Alice knew the best place to come was to America. She had looked for answers everywhere else, and every clue led her to a small shop in New Orleans where a haggard enchantress lived.
The captivating music of New Orleans welcomed them. She bid goodbye to the sailors she had travelled with and began her seemingly endless journey into the unknown.
The smell of jasmine and sweet perfume lingered in the air. The place was rich with culture, and Alice couldn’t help but smile. She let down her hair, which had dried fluffy and wavy, and felt the sun beat down on her aching back. Her trousers and jacket felt crunched as she walked into the old shop, A Never-Ending Spell, and sat down. There were no passing looks from anyone for her attire, and she felt, for once, not judged.
‘Alice?’
Alice stood up as a thin woman walked over to her, extending a wrinkly hand. Alice shook it and nodded. ‘Thank you for replying to my letter.’ She paused, wondering if the old woman had perhaps thought what Alice had said was some joke. ‘About Neverland …’
‘Please sit,’ the woman said, offering a chair, which was crafted in a gothic fashion. Alice sat down and rested her hands on the small, round table in front of her. The woman sat across from Alice and took out a pack of cards, placing them on the table. ‘Do you know what these are, Alice?’
Alice shook her head. ‘Some sort of playing cards?’ She expected the woman to laugh at her ignorance, but instead, the woman offered a kind smile.
‘No,’ the woman said and turned three cards over. ‘These are Tarot cards. I believe that they may help us find what you are searching for.’
‘It’s not a metaphor,’ Alice quickly said. ‘It’s a real place; it has to be …’
The woman looked at Alice quizzically. ‘I know.’
‘Oh.’ Alice leaned forward. ‘So do you know where it is?’
The woman shook her head. ‘First, ask yourself why you’re really searching for Neverland …’ The woman turned and saw another woman walk out into the room. ‘Jane,’ the woman said to the other, ‘I was just saying to our customer that she should perhaps go away and ask herself w—’
‘To find my sister,’ Alice interjected. ‘Please … I thought we were doing this alone.’ She looked up at the second one who had eyes like the haggard woman’s, but they were deeper, more vibrant. Her skin was clear and smooth, and her blond hair was in a bob around her ears. ‘Sorry,’ Alice offered.
The blond woman nodded and left the room. Alice turned back. ‘Like I said,’ Alice breathed, ‘it’s to find my sister.’
The woman smiled menacingly. ‘Or you’re bored of the real world and want to be a part of a fairy tale.’
Alice opened her mouth and closed it. They both sat in silence for a few minutes until Alice stood up. ‘If this is a joke to you, then it’s not funny. This is my life, and it’s all very real to me. My little sister is missing. I need to save her, and if I get to experience more than the mundane in doing so, even if it involves my death, then it would be worth it. Either you tell me what you know, or I’m leaving.’
‘Okay,’ the woman breathed. ‘Do you have anything of your sister’s?’
Alice nodded and took off a necklace. ‘Here. She sent this to me.’
The woman took the necklace and started muttering. ‘Tolle dante domino, hanc sororem amisso quid ea.’ She opened her eyes and handed the necklace back to Alice.
‘How will this help me?’
‘It will lead you to your sister.’
Alice raised an eyebrow. ‘Right … Well, I should go then.’ Alice got up and walked out the door.
The woman looked down at one of the cards and frowned. ‘Looks like you were closer than you thought.’ She looked down at the last card. ‘And that probably isn’t for the best.’
Mangled memories of woven webs within a single solemn soul
that’s marred by maddening mayhem. Tumbling time ticks toward hellish haunting hunches of lives, long lost to paralyzing paradoxical paranoia.
For tales told in tail spinning craziness creates cloudy visions
of vivacity, which withered wearily long ago.
Alice walked around and finally wound up in an abandoned house. She giggled. Trust her to end up in the weirdest of places. She held her necklace and noticed that suddenly, it was glowing, brighter and brighter. ‘Am I close?’
She walked over to a full-length mirror that stood next to the flaking mantelpiece and noticed the mirror looked as if it were moving, like calm waves in an ocean. Her heart pounded as she stretched out her hand, which went through the mirror with a tingling sensation at her fingertips. She quickly retracted her hand when she heard a noise from one of the rooms. There was no more sound, and Alice decided that she must have imagined it. She turned, tripping on a discarded book, and fell through the mirror and onto a dusty floor on the other side.
The room was small yet high. In the centre was a black table and on it was a small bottle. Alice examined it and pulled the cork out. The most alluring smell of blueberries danced around her nose. She looked at the label. Drink Me. She shrugged. ‘Here’s to nothing.’ She took a sip and shrunk to the size of a mouse.
She saw another mirror, big enough for her to fit through. However, there was a veil in front of it with a lock. Alice looked up and saw a rusty key through the glass table. Groaning, she contemplated climbing the table to retrieve the key but saw a small box on the floor with a cake in it. On the cake was a label. Eat Me. Here goes nothing, she thought and ate a crumb. She grew to the size of a giant and hit her head on the ceiling. She rubbed the back of her head, reached down, and grabbed the key, which was the size of a paperclip. She picked up the bottle and emptied the contents onto her tongue.
She quickly shrunk again and pushed the key into the lock, and the veil evaporated. Carefully, she stepped through the mirror and found herself transported into a paradise. Snow covered each leaf, branch, and toadstool. Alice breathed in the crisp air and walked across the meadow.
Alice wandered down a path until she reached a forest. Peering through the trees, she saw cages hanging from the branches. Inside the cages were hundreds of little fairies. They were gaunt from starvation, and their skeletal bodies hung out the sides as little reminders of the truth about Wonderland.
A strange looking caterpillar, which was a dark purple, sat on top of a stump, shadowed by the trees. It was at least seven times larger than the common caterpillar, and what was stranger was it was smoking a pipe. Rings of smoke came out of its mouth and disappeared. Alice walked over to it. She ran her hand through her ash blond hair and pushed it back over her shoulders. ‘You there,’ she shouted.
‘Yes?’ he asked, seeming bored.
‘I am looking for my sister,’ she said, putting her hands on her hips. ‘Where is Wendy?’
The caterpillar grinned and tilted his head, looking at the mirror at the far end of the meadow. ‘Managed to find our little prison then, Alice?’
She stepped backward. ‘How do you know my name?’
He puffed out a smoke ring and laughed. ‘Because you’re the one who’s going to save us.’ He stroked his many chins.
Alice pouted. ‘You must have me mistaken for another Alice.’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
‘Where is Wendy?’ she asked, fiddling with the
white frosted charm on her necklace.
‘Who?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘My sister, Wendy. She came to Neverland. She told me so in a letter. I promised myself I would find her after I managed to find out about the place. Fairy tale books can be quite informative,’ Alice explained.
‘Oh, yes. I agree. Now, ah yes, I remember Wendy,’ he said.
She stepped forward and smiled. ‘Yes?’
‘She’s gone,’ he said.
‘Gone? Where?’ Alice asked.
He laughed and laughed until he coughed on the smoke. ‘She’s not coming back!’
‘So she left Neverland?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said. ‘She is dead.’
She looked down at the dirt, and her stomach twisted into a knot. ‘Dead?’ she asked as if she didn’t understand what he had said.
He nodded. She fell to her knees and tears spilled onto her pale blue dress. After a while, she stood up and wiped her tears. ‘Well, I guess there’s no reason for me to stay then.’
She walked out of the forest and over to the mirror. She walked into it and fell backward. ‘What the …?’ She tried to push her hand through it, but nothing happened. She looked back at the caterpillar, who was laughing from within the trees. She stormed over to him. ‘Why can’t I leave?’
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘If it were that easy, don’t you think we all would have left?’
She turned and saw the rabbit in the waistcoat hop over to her. ‘I’m afraid, that once you’re here, there’s no way out. Welcome to Wonderland.’
♥♥♥
Alice paced the meadow and looked at the sky. Everything was gone from her. Wendy was dead, so what was the point in anything anymore?
‘Alice?’ a familiar voice called out.
She turned slowly, unable to breathe. Surely, he had not been stupid enough to follow her through the mirror? He had been. Alice looked Robin up and down. He grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. ‘I knew there was something was different about you,’ he said, panting. ‘I never thought this, though …’ He looked around at the winter-captured land with awe. ‘It’s so … wonderful.’
Alice stepped forward. ‘It appears you’re not that shocked to be here. You believe in magic?’
Light glinted in his jade green eyes. ‘More than you know.’
‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ she said, tilting her head slightly. ‘You are human, aren’t you?’
He nodded. ‘Ordinarily so, I’m afraid.’ He pressed his lips together, attempting to hide a grin.
She frowned. ‘I believe you’re lying to me.’ She placed her hands on her hips and looked at him sternly.
He couldn’t help it and spluttered a laugh. ‘Oh, come on,’ he said, grinning. ‘We ran into those sirens for a reason.’
‘What?’ Alice stepped forward until she was face to face with him. ‘Who the hell are you …?’
He grinned again. ‘You’ve read many fairy stories … hundreds, in fact. You should know.’
She blushed. The truth was she couldn’t help but look at him with his six-foot-five height, muscular body, and dark brown hair styled to look purposely tousled. His stance was mischievous, almost carefree, and a little intimidating at the same time. ‘Wait, are you … no, you can’t be. It doesn’t matter, anyway!’ she stated and pouted. ‘I saved your life!’
He scoffed and quickly cleared his throat upon meeting Alice’s stern gaze. ‘I was never in any real danger. They would have helped me to America once they had devoured the crew, but you showed such musical talent. Enough to match even the Pied Piper.’
Her eyes shot up. ‘You’re the Pied Piper?’
He waved his hand dismissively. ‘No, no, I don’t entertain rats. Only ladies.’ He looked her up and down and grinned when he saw her cheeks redden. ‘I’m Robin Hood.’
Alice’s bottom lip trembled, and before she could help it, she burst into laughter. ‘I thought so … but I didn’t believe that you could be … I mean … you … the noble, righteous Robin Hood?’
He leaned in. She could smell his rich, earthy scent. He lowered his lips to her ear, and with a hint of a smile, he whispered, ‘Fairy tales do tend to paint me in a good light, don’t they? I assure you, love, no one in these lands are anything like how the stories you read portray them, so I’d be careful.’
She pushed him away. ‘Why follow me?’
He shrugged. ‘I needed a way to Wonderland. I was told you were looking for it, and I couldn’t help but follow your trail … and lo and behold, you found it. Well done.’
‘You’re a scoundrel!’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘Whoa! I haven’t really done anything wrong, have I?’
She pushed her finger into his chest. ‘You didn’t tell me why you were on that boat; you followed me here like a creepy stalker, and you have the audacity to stand there and flirt with me like you’re God’s gift to women …’ She smirked and removed her finger from his chest and stepped back. ‘I have news for you, Robin! You’re not, and I have no interest in continuing this conversation with you. Go on your way and leave me to mine. God knows I have a long way to go.’
His expression darkened. ‘Do you know where she is? I heard you were looking for your sister. I guess she’s here.’
‘My sister is dead!’ Alice said and looked into the forest blankly, ‘and I am stuck here, alone, in a strange land with no hope of escaping. Leave me.’ She turned and walked into the forest, among the trees, behind the sparkling cobwebs, and into the madness that was Wonderland. Robin watched on, and his playful smile turned into a hard line.
‘Wait,’ he called after her. ‘Please … let me come with you. I am here for a just cause, I swear, and I’m sorry for not telling you. I see now that you’re the type of woman who would have understood and believed.’
She looked at the ground. ‘Fine, but I’m not in the mood to talk.’
He nodded. ‘As you wish.’
They walked into the forest. A disturbing cackle whispered in a swirl of leaves that danced up into the sky. A small, stone littered path wound its way through the trees in what seemed like no direction at all. Swallowing hard, Alice sat on a rock and buried her head in her hands. ‘What is the bloody point?’ she asked.
‘There is always a point,’ Robin offered.
‘I may as well be dead.’ She picked up a toadstool and took a bite of it. She scrunched up her mouth with disgust and spat it out. She threw the rest of the toadstool onto the snow powdered grass. ‘I’m so hungry,’ she complained, holding her stomach.
‘You know,’ a small voice said from behind her, ‘everything in this land is poisoned with madness. You’d be better off starved.’ Alice and Robin turned and saw a caterpillar smoking on its little wooden pipe.
She lifted an eyebrow. ‘It’s nothing how I imagined …’
He coughed, making his segmented body ripple. ‘Oh Alice, it’s not how any of us imagined it, but if we were to try to imagine, would we still end up here? After all, each dark part of us seeps into the soil here, darkening the land and the queen …’
Her eyes widened, and she slowly sat up. ‘Right …’ She stepped backward. He was making no sense.
‘One might say, Alice, that Wonderland is just where one’s mind wanders when they let their subconscious take over. All that darkness we have, all that curiosity and maddening regret and turmoil, hate, and revenge, all physically transformed into a nightmare. Do you know that people used to fear me? They shuddered at my name, Stilt. Now, they laugh, they know me as old and lonely one.’
‘You’re mad,’ she stated, placing her hands on her hips. Robin looked at Alice sideways and nodded in agreement with her.
Stilt grinned. ‘We’re all mad here.’
‘If this a nightmare, then I wish to wake up,’ she ordered.
The line on Alice’s forehead deepened as Stilt laughed again. ‘You do not. You cannot. You are here, and you will go mad too. Like me, like Sadie …’
‘Who?’
Stilt sighed. ‘My wife, my dead wife, my love, killed just three years ago … she was mad; now, I guess I am too.’
‘Right.’ Alice pressed her lips together. ‘I’m going to find the queen.’
He smirked, which Alice thought was a curious thing for a caterpillar. ‘Yes, find the queen of hearts,’ Stilt said. ‘She may rip yours out if you’re lucky, so you won’t have to feel the pain while you’re here.’
She gasped. ‘I would die.’
‘You would not!’ He laughed. ‘You cannot die in Wonderland.’
‘Wendy is dead. You told me that she’s dead.’
He snorted. ‘Her true self is, her happiness is, but her physical self still squeaks around. Everyone here is dead.’
Her eyes widened. ‘She’s alive?’
He frowned. ‘I just told you … we’re all dead.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘She is physically here?’
He nodded but did not elaborate.
She kneeled and looked at his face, which looked gaunt for a caterpillar. ‘Take me to her?’
He shook his head. ‘No, no, no. I stay around the forest as much as I can. I hate the village.’ He crawled over to the half-eaten toadstool and munched into it, and as he did, his golden eyes flecked with more madness. ‘The queen,’ he said, swallowing the last of the red and white toadstool, ‘will not tear out my heart. She hates me and wants me to feel everything. She has forbidden me to go to Willow Woods where I could die, the only place where anyone could. She used her enchanting eyes to will me not to venture there. I am alone’— he looked around—‘without a friend in the world.’
Robin growled and stepped in front of Alice. ‘Take the lady to her sister, or God help me, I will find a way to kill you, even here!’
Stilt rolled his eyes. ‘Who are you?’
‘Robin.’
Please,’ Alice begged Stilt, ‘I must see her. She wrote to me, saying she was taken by Peter Pan. God knows what he did to her.’
Into Wonderland (Haunting Fairytales Series Book 3) Page 2
