Behind Sanity

Chapter Nine

                                                                    Behind Sanity 

                                                                     Chapter Nine

                                                                               1 

                She had stood here before, the edges of her toes aligned carefully with a great, dark hole at the base of a tree.  She stood here in the forest without wind, the air from within the hole pulling at the pale hospital gown she wore.  The vines and roots reached downward further than she could see.  Here she stood.  Here she contemplated.

                 “Are you sure about this?” she asked quietly.

                 The white rabbit with her gazed down at the hole before glancing back up to the uncertain young woman.

                 “It’s perfectly safe,” he promised, managing to read her apprehension correctly.

                 The rabbit offered up his hand and Alice slid hers into the black glove.  Once he’d gripped her hand firmly, he added:

                 “…at least until we get to the bottom.”

                 “What?”

                 Her protests came too late, however.  The rabbit had leapt into the darkness, pulling her along with him.  Before she could think to scream, she was plunging downward.

                 It was surprising how quickly the darkness gave way to light.  Then there was no need to scream, for she was floating through the air like a feather – like passing through a cloud so thick that it halted her passage.  The walls of the pit were cool, a mixture of blue and green mosses with roots weaving in and out.  Below her, she could hear the ticking of a clock.  It was only then that she realized that the rabbit was not floating down with her.  She had slipped from his grasp.

                 Mirrors began to appear on the walls, and when she glimpsed them they showed her floating in strange directions and positions – one even showing her to be floating up as she passed down beside it.  Clocks of all shapes and sizes began to show themselves, all reading different times and filling her ears with layers of noise.  This rabbit’s hole was a bit strange, and she couldn’t say she remembered the one from before, but thankfully, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

                 Alice breathed deeply and calmly as she continued to drift down to what awaited her below.  Her eyes moved upward toward the distance she had already fallen.  That was when she saw the dress.

                 The blue dress and white apron floated down toward her like some great bird descending.  With a great need, Alice reached out for it.  Within seconds it was within her grasp.  The material was clean and pressed, delightful to the touch, and it was without much thought that Alice was peeling off the hospital gown and sliding into the blue dress.

                 The dress fit like a second skin, and she remembered days when she had worn it like it had been such a thing.  She secured the back, tying the apron around the fitted waist.  The cloth billowed as she passed downward –  

                 - and then everything was dead.

                 The walls of the hole became black, scorched by fire.  The clocks and mirrors began to melt from the walls.  The light faded, and she began to fall faster through the darkness.  A scream finally broke free then, and she tumbled through the air, smelling and tasting smoke.