Adventures in Wonderland

Prologue

The Dreams

London - 1855

I woke with a start, not completely sure were I am. My forehead is covered in sweat and strands of my jet black hair stick to my face and neck. I can tell its late because I have to wait for my eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room. I can hear voices in another room but I can't make out what the voices are saying. It was that dream that woke me again. Why do I keep having these dreams? Seven year olds shouldn't have dreams like that, should they?

~~Flashback~~

I'm falling. That's all I can feel or think about. I keep thinking that this is how I'm going to die. Its a pretty pitiful way to die, if I do say so myself. 'Oh no, I can see light' I close my eyes tightly waiting for the impact of me hitting the hard ground but it never comes. Instead, when I open my eyes I've landed on a soft mattress.

The next thing I know, I'm walking down an old dirt path.

There's so many strange creatures on this path. There's large flowers with faces, and a dodo bird, and a white rabbit in a waistcoat. "Come on now. We're terribly late you know." The rabbit tells me as he's hopping away. We walk for what seems like forever when we come across a table with three people sitting at it. I sit at the end of the table, across from a man in a top hat and suit.

He's such a strange person with his pale, white skin and stunningly, bright green eyes. His hair is so frizzy and the most amazing shade of reddish-orange hair with eyebrows, the same color, that are large and bushy. He was so funny, always smiling and laughing. The others at the table were a hare that looked like he's insane and a grey dormouse. The hare and hatter always make me laugh.

We sit there, drinking tea and eating sweets for so long. These people are so much fun all I want to do is talk to them for as long as possible. Unfortunately, the rabbit tells me its time to go. I try asking him where we're going and why we have to leave but he just hops off instead. I realize following this rabbit is the only way I'm going to get answers so we all get up and start walking.

As we're walking along two, large, twin boys join us on the dirt path. They're bald and are wearing the same outfits: Black and white striped shirts and black pants with black shoes. Everyone here is so strange. We've come to a halt at some rather large mushroom. That's weird I thought... No it just did it again. Something on top of the largest mushroom just moved, the thing turns to us slowly. Its a caterpillar... A blue caterpillar and he tries talking to me, but a gray and blue striped smiling cat appears next to me, seemingly out of nowhere.

Why cant I hear anything they're saying? Its like my ears are going down a tunnel. I can still see them clearly but everytime their mouths move their voices become more and more muffled. The caterpillar blows smoke in my face from the pipe he was smoking. I try to wave it away so none of it gets into my lungs, but its no use it just keeps getting thicker and thicker and I end up coughing more and more. I'm going to choke to death if I don't do something, but I can't seem to move anything other than the arm that's trying to wave this smoke away. Everything goes black and I just know I've died from suffocation.

~~End of Flashback~~

I glance over at Alice to see she's sound asleep. I don't want to wake her up, but I want to tell her about my dream. I silently stand up and tiptoe over to her bed. Gently shaking her shoulder, "Alice... Alice wake up." I keep my voice low so I don't alert anyone else to me being awake. Alice rolls over to face me only to groan softly when she sees its only me. "What do you want?" She rolls back over like she's going back to sleep, but I tell her about my dream and the strange creatures anyways. As I go on with my story she seems to slowly become interested because she rolls over to look at me and sits up.

When I finally finish my story Alice decides to give me some 'advice,' "Perhaps your going mad. You should tell mother and father about your dreams." I know mother would try and sent me off if she knew about my dreams, she'd think I was going insane. I want to tell father about them though, he'll think they're so much fun. "I'll tell father about them in the morning," I decide. Alice nods and rolls back over once again to go back to sleep. "Night," she whispers as I walk back over to my bed and pull the sheets up around me. "Night."

Sleep comes slow and peaceful, but before I can get completely asleep I hear noises from across the room. I just brush it off as Alice trying to get comfortable, but then I hear the door open and close. I'm really confused by now so I creep over to the door and push my ear up to it. I can hear father talking to Alice, "The nightmare again?" Nightmare? Again? What does he mean? Alice has never had nightmares. "I won't be long," He tells someone, but I don't know who.

They're coming. As quickly and as quietly as I can I run over to my bed, jump in, and pull the sheets up to my chin. I'm facing away from the door and Alice's bed so I can't see them or what's going on and they cant see I'm awake. "So what was this nightmare about then?" Father asks.

"I'm falling down a dark hole, then I see strange creatures..." That's weird, that sounds like the beginning of my dream. "What kind of creatures?" Father asks. "Well, there's a dodo bird, and a rabbit in a waistcoat, a smiling cat..." That... That is my dream. Why is Alice telling father about my dream as if she had it. "I didn't know cats could smile," father chuckles. "Neither did I... Oh, and there's a blue caterpillar." She says as if she had just remember something important. I'm beyond angry and sad right now. "Blue caterpillar, hmm?" Father questions. "Do you think I've gone rather mad?" Alice asks pulling her most innocent and concerned voice.

There's a short pause before father answers her question, "I'm afraid so. You're completely mad. Bonkers. Off your head. But I'll tell you a secret... All the best people are. It's only a dream, Alice. Nothing can harm you there. But if you get too frightened, you can always wake up. Like this:" I can't see what happened next but father must have pinched her because she starts giggling and says ouch.

Father tells her goodnight and leaves.

I'm so very angry and sad, I'm not even sure if I know what to feel. My twin sister told our father my dream was her's. I just wanted to go over there and yell at her and ask her why she did that, but I don't I just lay there as tears roll down my face. All I can think about is how that could have been mine and father's moment instead of that liar's. Apparently, she's done this before too. I always told Alice about my dreams, she must have been telling father that she was having those 'nightmares' after I went back to sleep. I know I can never trust her again. Father is the only person I can trust now.

Four years later, when I was ten years old, father died from an unknown illness. The doctors said they found out to late and they couldn't do anything to save him. I cried for days and shut myself in my room for so long and I basically stopped eating. I almost completely shut down. Almost. But I stayed strong enough not to for mother. She didn't need a dead husband and a broken daughter to deal with. I was associated with less people and left the house less and less often. It was easier for me to focus on making it through the day rather than worrying about my social life. No one has been as close to me as father was and I don't trust anyone anymore.