Were all MAD here

"Are you MAD?"

—Wren—

I woke up on the floor with every bone in my body aching. Where am I? What happened to me? Then the memories all came back to me like a rushing wave of saltwater. Diane. Hole. Book. I still didn't know where I was. I looked around hoping it would give me some idea to where I was...and everything was eerily familiar...I had a sense of deja vu
     The trees were curvy with teal leaves, the bushes bearing blood red roses, the colorful rectangles with symbols lying around tucked in random places, the teenager falling out of a tree...the teenager falling out of a tree? I raced over to him.
     "My gosh! are you ok sir?" I said rushing to his aid. He was sprawled out at awkward angles next to a broken tree branch. He rolled over and opened his eyes. he was a relatively handsome young man. With blue green eyes and black slits for pupils. he had a black tail coat and pants that matched his eyes and to complete the look, a teal top hat atop his black messy hair. Everything was oddly coordinated, another sign this place wasn't like home.

"Why hello beautiful." He said with a soft spoken and charming British accent. He rolled over so his head was upside down and flashed pearlescent white fangs. "Fancy a game of cards?"

"Are you ok? You just fell off a tree! Do you remember anything? How many fingers am I holding up?" I spurted, flustered with the fact he didn't seem hurt and embarrassed with his open flirting.

"Quite alright, I was taking a cat nap when I fell off of this here tree." he said gesturing to the teal birch behind him. "Now how 'bout those cards?"

"You were sleeping on a tree? Are you MAD?" I asked him.

"Why of course! We're all MAD here!" He said with another devilish grin. That phrase seemed familiar, this man seemed familiar.

"Well where exactly is here?" I asked him. if he wasn't going to act proper he could at least tell me where I was, why this all felt right.

"You're not from 'round here are you? Can you at least play cards?" He asked ignoring my question entirely.

"NO IM NOT FROM AROUND HERE! CANT YOU TELL? AND I BLOODY WELL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A CARD IS!" I shouted. I winced at the sound of my voice being raised. Mother always told me lady's never shout. I didn't care though. This mock of a gentleman could screw off! I looked over and saw a hurt expression on his face. He stood up and dusted himself off picking up his black cane I hadn't noticed before from the shadows. He began to strut away limping on his right foot.

"Sir, i'm very sorry for the sudden outburst. I'd be delighted to join you in a game of...cards." I said guiltily eyeing his hurt leg. He threw his cane into the rosebushes and walked perfectly normal to me. That snake.

"Please call me Cheshire." he said bowing over dramatically and tipping his hat. Cheshire..Cheshire. I knew this name...I knew him. "Would you like to deal?"

XXX

After Mr. Cheshire had given me a brief introduction to cards I asked him wich game he wanted to play. He told me his favorite game was a game called Blind Mans Bluff.
"So how do you play?" I asked him.
"Well basically I have a deck of cards here." he said tucking out a neat stack from his sleeve. "And so you are going to draw the top card and i'm going to guess what you drew." Ok. Sounds easy enough. I took the deck from him and picked the very top card. It was the four of hearts.
"Got your card?" he asked with his hands still covering his eyes.
"Yes." I said in a failed attempt to keep from smiling.
"Is it...the four of hearts?" he said with impeccable speed.
"Yeah! how did you know?" I asked him. How did he guess so fast? It was a little suspicious.
"A magician never reveals his secrets."
"MAGICIAN?! LIKE A WITCH?" I asked confused. I liked Mr. Cheshire, I didn't want to have to burn him for using black magic.
"No." he told me with confusion burning in his eyes. He's not from where I am. How could I know him?
"Where I'm from, demons and witches alike are burned, for being a danger to us all." I explained, slowing down so he could process my words.
"Has one ever tried to hurt you?" He asked, a frown creasing his brow.
"No, but they could." I argued. He raised his eyebrows at me in a disbelieving look. He didn't press the subject. So, I decided to change it "Where even am I?" I said Searching around the perimeter. The grass was a dull purple with orange vines growing out of it, the vines twisted and wrapped around birch trees like snakes. I looked over at him to see he was walking to the rose bushes, after retrieving his cane, which was purely for show, he walked back  over to me. He then dragged his cane in a patch of dirt, forming a circle of some kind. Outside of the circle, he drew a bigger circle, then a bigger one after that. Underneath the circles, he scribbled something in messy handwriting.
"This, is Wonderland." He said making a square around his circles. "We are here." He pointed to the very edge of the map. "This is the Queen of Heart's palace. He drew a lopsided triangle inside of all the circles. He nodded to himself, clearly happy about his makeshift map.
A sense of euphoria pulsed through my veins. In driving me away from Wonderland, my mother only pushed my closer.
"You're real." I said in disbelief. I stepped forward, close enough to touch him. He chuckled uncomfortably and gave me half of a smile.
"Pretty sure at least." He joked flexing his fingers as if he might just disappear.
"You're so much more...Human!" I stuttered out.
"Oooh. You must have known my grand- dad!" He said with a grin. "Yeah pretty infamous, he helped Alice before she...you know." He said.
"What happened to Alice, Mr Cheshire?" I inquired.
"No one really knows, she could have died from old age, she was the ripe age of eighty, but the rumors say the Queen killed her, and I'm not gonna lie, I believe 'em." He paused for a minute. "Also call me Feng, it's less formal."
"Feng?"
"It comes from the word Fēngkuáng meaning crazy. It's Chinese." He said proudly. I smiled sadly. This was something I had always dreamed of doing, being here, meeting people from here...but I wasn't going to run from responsibility. No. I needed to get home.