Madhatter

~ Chapter 1 ~

"You stupid little girl, didn't mother ever tell you not to wander off?" Snarls my big sister Maria. She may be only three years from me but I find myself to be far more mature.

"I'm sorry, but you see I saw this butterfly and it had the most magnificent colours, blues, greens, purples..." I gleamed at my older sister but to no surprise she glared at me with the same confused and disappointed face she had always used with me.

"Catherine, I do not long to hear your stories of pretentious butterflies and other mad things you have inside that little head of yours" she chuckled and then turns around to face me, she looks me in the eyes and struts her way through the beautifully gardened park. Her presence makes this place seem like a prison. A prison where beautiful thoughts are hidden away from people with no room for curious dreams. Just knowledge.

I doubt that she will come back looking for me, I suppose she will probably use the same old excuse for being so awful. 'I didn't mean to lose her, she ran away because I gave her a taste of the real world'. I believe that this is not the real world. A real world is a place where you can believe anything is real and it is. I gather my books, they tell of Pirates, Fairies and even make belief creatures such as animals who can talk and plants that move and sing. It has got to be my most favourite book I had ever read, besides I have only read it like a thousand times. It is called Alice in Wonderland.

The same butterfly I had spotted only a few minutes back flutters past my eyelashes tickling them, I giggle. I slowly get up from the grass trying my very best not to scare away the poor thing. It flutters from side to side and I feel as if  I must follow her. She leads me through the meadows and over a blossom covered bridge with the most sparkling clear water I had ever seen. I could stay here forever. My dress brushes past my grass stained knees making me shiver. I look up and to my surprise the butterfly had seemed to of waited for me. A little line from my favourite book darts into my head and I whisper it aloud. "Curiouser and curiouser."

When I finally stop walking and admiring the trees and the nature all around me a dark hole catches my eye. I walk closer and closer. No, it couldn't be. My curious instincts tell me to go down the hole, yet I hesitate. What may happen if I cannot get out. Will I die? Nobody could ever find me down here, it would be a last resort. After s few minutes of battling my two consciences I decide to let my instincts get the better of me. I hold my breath and close my eyes.

One...two...three!

I jump straight into the dark gloomy hole and find myself straight in the ground. This was not exactly what I had hoped for. Where is the empty jar of marmalade or the piano. I look down at my muddy shoes and twirl around making myself dizzy and nauseous. I plump myself down on the different coloured tiled floor and huff. Then it occurs to me. No normal hole would lead to a coloured tiled floor that a human being would be able to stand upright in. My thoughts remind me of the small door behind the curtain. My eyes almost immediately scan the hardly lit room and to my surprise I find a furry royal red curtain hanging from...absolutely nothing. Odd, very odd.

I skip towards the curtain and forcefully rip the curtain open. No door, just another hole. Almost the size of a mouse hole. I may be very petite but not enough to fit inside that little hole. I glance around to see a sofa by the edge of the darkest part of the room. Finally, I sigh, I may rest. I throw myself on to the small satin sofa flinging my legs over as I sink into thought. I feel myself getting drowsy and fell into a silent sleep.

I wake to find myself on a carpeted floor. The materiel felt identical twins the sofa I had fallen asleep on. I gradually manage to get up and wobble from side to side. It was extremely hard to stand on. I take a step forward and find myself almost falling over again. Then a thought struck me, when I drank that elixir I must have become small enough to fit inside the gap in the wall. I tiptoe over the, whatever I'm standing on and come to a cliff almost. Slowly I look over the side and see the multi coloured tiles that I once stood on. How can I get off here. Then I see a glistening gold, the arm of the sofa. If I slid down I could make it through.

"I'm the size of a mouse I do believe," I look myself up and down giggling to myself doing a little twirl.
Then I remember, oh yes, the mouse hole. I slip down the golden arm of the sofa and land on my bottom.

"I wonder what happened to that butterfly?" I ask myself. I'm especially curious today but who wouldn't be, look where I am! Scuttling over to the mouse hole my adrenaline boils to the point where I can barely think. Nobody ever believed me, but I was right! It's not all about books with no pictures and the proper way to dress. Oh, how I despise stockings. I could hear mother now.

'Pull them up young lady, do you want to look like a common house maid?'

I always wondered what was wrong with that? Then I look down to see my toes are nowhere to be seen, I've sunk through my dress. Goodness me Catherine, aren't you a mess. I see something small and white laying in the floor in the corner of my eye, slowly turning my head I see that it's a dress, and the perfect size. I pull the silky material over my head trying not to suffocate myself. I wouldn't be much use to this place if I wasn't alive.

Relieved when I reach the hole, I debate whether I should do this or not and then come to the conclusion that my conscience is as curious as me and I run straight through into the darkness. I can barely see a thing. I close my eyes as I'm quite afraid of the dark. I decide to face my fear and as I open my eyes and I see the most beautiful garden in the world. Roses, lilies, daffodils. It's absolutely magnificent. Somewhere I can think without being told what to do and think. I could stay here forever.

I'm overwhelmed when I see a pair of beautifully blue wings flutter past my golden brown hair, making it fly gracefully back onto my shoulders.
"You must be Catherine my dear," says a wise, old voice.
Instantly I spin around expecting to see someone, but there was nothing.
"Over here." It says again.
What on earth could it be. Then I understand, it's the butterfly.
"Is that you, talking to um, me?" Im talking to a butterfly I must truly have gone mad. There's no cure for madness I guess I just have to embrace it.

"Yes, my young Catherine, it took you quite a while to figure that out" he chuckles causing me to go red in embarrassment.
"Um, may I ask why you led me here, I'm oh so curious you see and..." Before I could finish I'm rudely interrupted.
"Alice needs you." My heart stops in my chest, no he couldn't mean that Alice?
"Is this...Wonderland?" I whisper trying not to sound crazy although I was talking to a butterfly.
"Yes, I knew you'd figure it out, but there's not much time we must leave now the Red Queen is coming, you see she is no longer the Queen of Hearts as she was overthrown by her younger sister and ever since, Wonderland hasn't been safer until yesterday and you will be told but we must hurry, Alice is a very impatient one."

To be continued...