Ashes

Chapter Three

            The front of the house, she was just inside, wasn’t filled with rose bushes. The bushes she saw were no longer bright green and filled with different colored roses, filled with life, they were just piles of sticks. Slowly taking one step after another I walked down the pathway that lead to a giant faded black gate. As my head shot left to right with every movement I made, I saw ashes getting blown away with wind, slowly making all the stick stacks disappear.

I wasn’t paying enough attention and ran smack into the gate, it was even bigger then it was at the porch steps. The house seemed so much farther away from how it was when she was looking from the house to the gate. The house was much bigger then she thought it was, from the display of windows it looked to have at least four stories. It’s funny. I thought, just knowing that the confusion going through my head was showing through my face. I didn’t remember seeing stairs on the way to the front door. Dismissing it as if I never thought it, I turned my attention back to the house. The house looked as if it were grey but when she was on the porch it had looked beige. Maybe that was the actual color of the walls, maybe what she was seeing was just a trick her mind was playing on her, caused by shock. I shook my head trying to forget that idea, I turned away from the house to look out of the gate.

Outside the gate looked even worse compared to the inside. There was a path that looked like it was completely scorched. The forest surrounding the path wasn’t even a forest anymore, it was more like a group of burnt tree trunks with some branches sticking out of the top. The make-shift forest followed all the way down the path and as wide as the eye could see. The trees stopped a little before, what looked like, a small black and grey blob.

“Not that pretty is it?” the Queen said, standing right behind her. Startled, I jerked around to see who it was.

“Not really,” I responded turning from her back to the black and grey blob. “What is that? The thing that is all the way past the tree line?” I questioned, looking over my shoulder at her and then back at the blob.

“A town. Well at least it used to be. It was burnt down awhile back, along with everything else in Wonderland.” She replied, taking a step so that she was right next to me.

“Wonderland? I question, looking at her, puzzled.

“That’s what this place was called. Wonderland was a name that we made to describe utopia, in our own way that is.”

“What do you mean, by was called? What do you call it now?” I questioned, eager to get an answer from her.

“After the big fire, the White Queen decided to re-name wonderland. She decided on Ashes. I could only assume that she came to this idea because no matter where you are the wind will pick up some ashes and throw them at you.” Looking down at her fidgeting hands, she continued, “The fire was the biggest tragedy that Wonder-”she stopped herself, and then changed her word choice. “Ashes had ever encountered.”

“Wow. I’m so sorry, for making you talk about this. You probably lost many people that you held dear. There is no need to say anything else, I insist.” I said looking into her eyes and grabbing her hands. “I don’t like to make my friends look down.” I added with a smile.

She smiled back at me. “I am not down, I am simply,” she paused. I could tell she was trying to think of the right word to use, then she continued,” remembering. Just remembering the god old times, that happened before the fire.”

I looked around again to take in my surroundings. “Wow.” I said. “How could anyone do such a think?”

“I have no idea. Just some deranged little seven year old who terrorized everyone for what she thought was fun.” As she was saying the word fun, she put quotation marks with her hands. It made me want to chuckle, but I suppressed it. “It used to be fun to walk in that town. Now no one does. If they do, they get ashes all over them,” she let out a slight chuckle. “That must be why my sister thought it was so puny to call this place Ashes.”