Alex's Wonderland

Prologue

Down the Rabbit's Den

Alex stepped outside into the large, green field that was his backyard. A warm spring breeze blew across the open land, rippling the grass and cooling the boiling Alex down. Alex was a young man, only 16 at most, and he had golden-blond hair that gleamed as brightly as the sun. His eyes were a blue clearer than a cloudless sky and deeper than the deepest ocean. He started to walk to the edge of the forest, where he knew an even cooler breeze awaited his return. He had just finished his lessons for the day, and was looking forward to getting out of the stifling hot air of the house, and into fresh, clean air.

When he reached the edge of the forest, he looked back to make sure nobody was following him, and he ran. He ran as fast and as far as he possibly could. He had to find the place. His place. Where he kept all his secrets and stories. His parents wanted him to be an architect, but Alex wanted to become an author. He loved writing. He had so many ideas he wanted the world to know. At last, he came to a small, sunlit clearing. There was a large tree stump in the centre, which was accompanied by an even larger one that was carefully carved into the shape of a circular table. Brushing the table off, Alex crossed the clearing to a large oak tree which had a cupboard embedded in its trunk. As odd as this may seem, it did serve a purpose. Opening the cupboard, he revealed all sorts of manuscripts for books, and even a few completed short stories it seemed. All of which were sorted in piles that were separated with rubber bands. Taking one of the larger bundles out of the cupboard, he walked over to the table and dropped it down with a satisfyingly loud thunk. He then went back to the cupboard and searched for his pencil holder. He found it and at the same time, pulled a small knife out of his pants pocket so he could sharpen the pencils as needed. Then, he sat down and began to write. He continued writing well unto sunset, going through many a pencil and blade with his small sharpening knife. At last he called it quits for the day, putting a lid onto the pencil holder and binding the story up tightly with the rubber band. Putting them into a small bag this time, he zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder. He was about to leave, when he remembered he hadn't locked the cupboard so the animals couldn't get in. After locking it up, he caught a glimpse of something. He didn't know quite what to think of it. It looked like a human, but at the same time, it seemed to have had long, white ears.

"What in the world...?" Alex wondered aloud, debating if he should investigate or not. He found it seemed like it could give him new ideas for a story, so he decided that he would find the source of the odd image, and then, given if it was a good enough idea, write about it.

Changing his course, he took out a flashlight, as the forest was much denser, and much darker this far back. Weaving his way through the trees to the source of the odd sight, he realized that it was no trick of the mind. There really was a person with long, white, rabbit ears hurrying along before him. Suddenly, the person dropped out of sight, and Alex sped up, not wanting to lose sight of his prey for too long. Then all at once, the ground beneath his feet disappeared and he started to fall down a large hole. Looking up, Alex noticed that above him there was nothing but blackness far too thick to be the night sky.

"Oh god, don't let me have fallen down a sinkhole." He said, closing his eyes and levelling his head out. "Mother and Father will have my hide if that's the case." It took a few minutes, but he eventually regained the courage to open his eyes. Upon opening them, he found that, even though there was pitch black above him, he could see around him perfectly. Almost as if it were still midday. He was falling down a long slightly narrow tunnel. Along the dirt sides were shelves and cupboards embedded in it, much like his oak tree clearing. He thought this was rather odd seeing as this was a giant hole and nobody could possibly have enough rope or a ladder long enough to install all these cupboards. He spotted an open cupboard that had some jam jars in it and he thought to himself: Why on earth would somebody put jars in a cupboard that you can never get at unless falling? He then looked down and saw a fast approaching black-and-white tiled floor beneath him. In a panic he started looking around for something to grab to slow himself down, but it was to no avail. He crashed into the ground with a sharp pain going through one of his legs.

"Don't tell me it's broken..." He muttered to himself, carefully standing up. Alas, it was not. By some freakish miracle, he had not only survived that fall, but he had landed unscathed as well. Looking around, he noticed a beautiful mahogany door. Even though he had no interest in being an architect himself, he had always loved the art put into architecture. Walking over to it, he stopped. What would be behind the door if he opened it? Deciding to test his luck, he carefully stepped forwards and grabbed the bronze door handle. Then, in one swift moment, he twisted the knob and threw the door open.