Alice Returns (Short Story)

Part Two: The Black Bow

The longer she stared into my eyes and I into hers, I knew I hadn't lost my mind, well at least not completely. I contemplated for years why she left Wonderland and the more I did the more I lost sanity so much so I had to find her again, if not for my sake...but hers.

I knew that she would most likely go back to whatever she was doing before she encountered our world by accident and that she would most probably be happier, better off in her world away from the craziness of mine. She did not belong in Wonderland, however every day that passed in which she spent there she became more and more a part of it, a part of us; a part of me.

"Alice." I loved to say her name, it was elegant and yet simple, like her. I swept a loose strand of her light blonde hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"I have missed you greatly. I've searched all of Wonderland for you and when I had heard that you left, I left also in hope to find you and tell you... tell you that..." I paused, knowing what I was about to tell her was beyond crazy as when I knew her she was only an eight-year-old child.

"I know. I have always known." She replied without hesitation. "But, that isn't why I left. I left because I needed to feel, real, again." I took her hand and cupped it along my jawline.

"Is this not real enough for you? Am I not real enough for you? I was real then and I am real now. Wonderland has always been..." She put a finger to my lips and silenced me before I lost it with how mad I was at her. How mad I was at myself for not having convinced her all those years ago; but she was only a child, how could you expect a child to know what is real and what is not.

"Hatter. Stop this silliness. Surely you haven't come all this way just to tell me that I wasn't going insane." She took her finger away from my lips and tightened her black bow again, a habit I had observed that she often did when she was nervous.

"Actually, I was going to tell you that, I love you, Alice. I am in love with you. I know it sounds stupid that I had fallen in love with a girl, now a very beautiful woman... but you were the only thing, the only one that gave me meaning and the world in which I lived in, purpose. Without you, I'd have gone insane years ago." Without thinking I acted on impulse of the situation and lent in and kissed her small light pink lips and felt the air leave her mouth as she gasped in surprise.

Her facial expressions had an array of change as she attempted to comprehend what I had just revealed and done, which albeit was not my best move. She didn't say anything and the longer I waited for her to say something, the more dread and anger towards myself came over me. What had I done wrong, I've never experienced this feeling before. How did I know that what I was feeling, was what I said I was feeling towards her?

Just as she had perplexed her mind enough and opened her mouth to respond, a flash of white grabbed her by the hand and pulled her towards the hole. The weight of her collapsing onto the net of ivy broke it apart and she began to fall, yet again as she did as a child into to rabbit hole of another world, my world - Wonderland.

As I watched her fall in what felt like slow motion, her other hand reached out for me. I sprung myself forward onto my stomach and grasped her hand tightly, but she was sweating and her hand began to get clammy. I looked into her sapphire eyes as she slipped from my hand.

"HATTER!" She screamed, but by the time the word had left her mouth she was already gone.

"I will find you. I will never stop finding you." I whispered as I knew she would never hear me now. I gradually went onto my knees and in the corner of my eye I saw her black ribbon had entwined itself around a broken vine. I untied it and scrunched in my hand, holding it tightly as this was all I had left of her now until I see her again. I fastened it into a bow around my wrist and tucked it under my sleeve. It wasn't until now that I fully understood how much she really meant to me and that I was willing to do whatever it took to get her back and hold her safely in my arms.