Corpse Bride II- Emily's Revenge (Discontinued)

Chapter 7- A Special Guest

                I start crying again when I hear a strange ringing in my ears. "No! Don't give up!" a voice inside of me said. But it wasn't MY voice! "Don't rest until the one who leaves you miserable is GONE!" it said. It sounded like good advice, but it wasn't me saying it! Then... who was inside my head? 

               Ugh, I bet it was that maddening maggot! He's always telling me things inside my head. Yes, I have a friend maggot who lives inside my head. Most fairy tale princesses have squirrel or bird friends, or something cute. I have a maggot and a spider. 

                "No, I'm not a maggot, but I AM mad!" the voice said. Now I was getting scared! Where did it come from?

                "No need to be scared," it said. "I'm here to help you." "Help me how?" I asked. "I can get rid of the one you wish to seek revenge on. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Now she's speaking in riddles? 

                "And she would be smart to fear me. Everyone would. Well, apart from you. I help people with cloudy minds. People who will never be happy again unless what keeps them from that happiness is extinguished. I know what that's like. I was there once," the voice said. 

                 I looked around. "Show yourself!" I yelled. "Oh, how rude of me!" the British voice said. A flash of color came out of my head and materialized in front of me. A person! 

                 She looked quite normal, really. A girl my age, with long black hair and a blue dress. The only thing was her apron was splattered with what looked like blood! And she carried a knife! 

                  "Oh, don't be startled by my appearance," the girl said. "But looking at you, it seems you're in no place to be judging appearances." 

                   I crossed my arms at that comment, and hmphed. "I may be dead, but I'm still beautiful!" I said. "Okay, I can respect that," she said. "Who are you, anyway?" I asked. 

                   "I apologize. Allow me to introduce myself," she said, putting her hand to her chest. "Alice Liddell, at your service. I've come to right your wrong," she said, flashing her big knife. She seemed serious. I felt sorry for anyone who was unlucky enough to cross her. At least I knew she couldn't kill ME. I'm already dead! 

                   "Wait," I realized, "You aren't the girl from story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, are you?" I asked. Because that's impossible, right? She's not even blonde! But then she said "In the flesh! Though the real story is probably not the way you remember it."

                    I'll say. If THIS was Alice, I don't remember her carrying a knife around and becoming a bounty hunter! "Where exactly did you come from?" I ask. "Oh, that is quite a story," Alice says. 

                    Alice's story is probably the saddest I've ever heard! Almost sadder than mine! At least hers ends in a happy ending. 

                     When she was younger, there was a fire in her house. In all the confusion, she managed to escape out a window with her cat, Dinah. But her family wasn't so lucky. 

                     When she was six years old, she had to watch her family burn to death (I probably know them)! Firemen came, but they were too late. But they got her away from the scene, and since she no longer had a family, they brought her to live in an orphanage. 

                      But what was a six year old with no family to do? Locked up in that orphanage, she thought back to what could have started that fire. But all signs pointed to her! Could she really be the one responsible for her family's death? The thought of it plunged her six year old mind into madness. 

                      A few years later, she still couldn't let the thought go. She was brought to a doctor to cure her of these thoughts. But nothing worked.

                     A few years later, she's brought to a psycho ward, an insane asylum, after her caregivers find drawings in her room of strange creatures and hear her speaking of a place called Wonderland. 

                     Again, she's given treatments, but nothing works. Years later, after they assumed she can't be helped, they let her go off into the world again. But not alone. They send her to The Houndstitch Home for Wayward Youth, where troubled orphans go, to live with Dr. Angus Bumby.  

                      But the madness doesn't stop there. She has hallucinations of falling into Wonderland, but this isn't the fun, kind Wonderland that we're used to. Oh, no. This is a corrupted Wonderland, a Wonderland that changed ever since images of the fire have been haunting Alice's memories. 

                      Pollution seeped in, bombs blew up in the air ruining the green grass, the white rabbit's head exploded, and the Red Queen rose to (mad) power. And a train drove about, loose in Wonderland, corrupting it.

                     There were also enemies, enemies Alice had to defeat. But perhaps they symbolized Alice getting rid of something MORE than a corrupted Wonderland? 

                     Her adventures in Wonderland became her solving the mystery of how that fire started. Little by little, she began to piece it together. 

                     After she went up against the Dollmaker and defeated him, she found out that her own doctor, the one who was supposed to be helping her, was behind it all! And to think, his job was to help her forget the moment that HE caused! Looks like we both faced deception in our lives. 

                     Alice later confronted Bumby in an ally after she uncovered everything. Then, with her new found strength,  she dragged him to Wonderland and ran him over with his own train that he created to corrupt her thoughts. Alice was now free (much like how I thought I was). 

                     With her ability to go from mind to reality, she decided she would use her power for good, to help people with their problems and their madness corrupting their mind so they won't have to suffer what she did. Sounds redeeming enough to me. 

                     "I'm so sorry for your losses," I said, " But since you're doing something for me, maybe I could do something for you. "

                     "Really?" Alice beamed. "How would you like to meet your parents?" I asked.