Aleene's Life

Chpt. 4 (A Day in Alice's Life)

Alice added a few finishing touches to Onix's portrait, but paused when she heard Jake calling her mother to the phone. Again. Alice knew her mother missed her sister to pieces, and she did too, but calling her every other day, or having Alena call her every other day was ridiculous. But Alice perfectly understood. Her mother checked up on them daily when they were both here, because she was so used to having to take care of them, and now that one of them was gone, and was engaged, it was a necessity to constantly check up on Alena. But sometimes, Alice wished she'd check up on her a little more often. Aleene didn't check on Alice quite as much anymore because she knew she could handle herself and she had to check on Alena, because she might decide to have kids soon. Alice frowned to herself. 'I wish I had kids to take care of.'

Alice put her paintbrush down and walked out of her room. She had no idea where her feet were taking her, or why they interrupted her painting time, but she had felt a strange determination, and she had no clue why. She tried to walk back to her room to continue painting, but she felt that she had to walk, just keep walking. All of a sudden, she realized, that her feet were taking her towards the front door. So, before she walked past it, Alice grabbed her cloak off of the coat hanger and put it on. Then her arms began to move, and they opened the front door. What was she thinking? She couldn't leave! She had work to do. And someone might see her!

But her feet didn't care what kind of work she had to do, and they just walked. And walked. Across the street, along the sidewalk, into the woods. Where was she going? She wasn't heading in the right direction to be going to Horus' place, or anywhere else for that matter. She was headed into unknown territory for her. No buildings, no landmarks, no paths or anything! Just trees! As far as the eye can see!

Alice started to get angry. Why was this happening!? Why couldn't she just go home!? She hadn't wanted to be there with all the trees! There was only trees. Trees! Or if you wanted to get technical, there was a rock to the left, leaves every other direction and a couple bushes to the right! Oh hey, a stray cat was there too! "That's cool I GUESS!", Alice started yelling, "I HAVEN'T SEEN A CAT IN REAL LIFE BEFORE. OH WAIT, I AM A CAT. NEVER MIND.", Alice's eyes turned yellow, and she began to yell even louder, "SEE, I CAN BE FUN. I CAN SPREAD MY WINGS AND FLY. I'M PERFECTLY SANE. LOOK HOW MUCH FUN I'M HAVING WITH THAT OWL, THAT PINE CONE AND THAT BABY ANIMATRONI-what? Wait, what?", Alice's eyes returned to normal, and she realized she had stopped walking. There had been a small, crying egg white crocodile animatronic curled up in a ball, shaking as he sobbed and mumbled incoherently. "You poor thing.", Alice said, and she reached out to the distressed child, but he flinched and moved away from her touch, "It's okay, I won't hurt you. C'mere, it's not safe to be out here all by yourself.", she reached out again, but the crocodile didn't resist, and she picked him up and cradled him in her arms.

The child then fell asleep in her arms. "See, I'm not that ba-oh dear.", she stopped when a warm liquid pooled into her arms and ran down her painting apron and cloak. She assumed the child had wet himself. "Do you need a diaper? I think we have some spares in case of emergencies, but I'll have to che-", she stopped cooing to the child when she rolled him onto his back, and saw a small knife stuck inside the child's stomach. It wasn't urine that had pooled in Alice's arms and ran down her front, it was blood. And a lot of it. "SHIT!", she immediately began to run back to the restaurant, going faster than she had her entire life. She ran across the street, and kicked open the front door, seeing everyone standing around a table with their cloaks on. "Alice, just where have you been young lady, we've been worried sick about y-", Aleene said, angry that her daughter had left the restaurant without telling her, but was interrupted by Alice, "NO TIME, DYING INFANT OVER HERE! JAKE I NEED YOUR HELP NOW!", she yelled, and ran into the Parts & Services room, where she set the infant on the table, and quickly tried to stop the bleeding. "I won't let you die on me. Not now.", she said, adrenaline flowed through her veins as she pulled the knife out of the crocodile's stomach and placed a clean cloth over the wound as everyone ran in.