Alice raced down the hallway, following the pesky little rabbit. The whole school was quiet, and she could hear nothing but the pounding of her own feet against the polished private school floor. No matter how hard she ran, the little white thing was always paces ahead of her, and it managed to dodge the swinging doors and run down the main steps of the school.
Alice stopped in the grand foyer, heaving.
It was dark and quiet, the usually crowded and noisy foyer had a sort of eerie echo. The only light came from the windows and doors facing outside, rain streaming down the glass. Candles lit the staircases that she had just run down, and the atrium window was dark grey with the clouds above.
When she had caught her breath, Alice felt upset at losing her grandmother's gloves, but then panic gripped her at the thought of going back upstairs. She felt her chest tighten, her vision started to blur, reality started slipping away again...
And then she saw it.
The rabbit was sitting right outside, on one of the school steps. The rain poured down, but the little thing sat there, shivering and shaking, with those gloves in it's mouth.
Slowly, Alice got up off the floor (She realized later that she had collapsed onto her knees), and made her way to the doors. Shaking and quivering, every step was a momentus effort as she fought to stay with real life. She'd been like this ever since she was a little girl.
When she finally pushed the door open, a gust of english autumn wind hit her, and the rain began to soak her, like giant tears from above.
She walked toward the rabbit, who sat ever so still on the step. She reached for the gloves, slowly, slowly..
And it took off again.
Alice raced after it, as it headed toward the grove of oak trees on the school grounds, a little voice popped into her head, like a distant memory from somewhere,
"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"
As they ran further into the trees, Alice noticed them getting thicker. It seemed there was a part of the shady outdoor classroom she'd never seen before.
It ran and ran, until she realized she was falling, and the last thing she saw was the rabbit disappear, and the biggest tree she had ever seen emerge. She was falling, and though it should've meant certain death, Alice knew she would wake up.
* * * * * * * * *
"MARY-ANN!!"
Three knocks on a door.
"MARY-ANN!!"
Another three knocks.
"MARY-ANN DO GET UP!! THERE'S WORK TO DO!"
Alice sat bolt upright, and found herself on the floor in a bedroom some where. She looked around frantically, and realized she was holding her gloves.
Shse got up, stumbling around and grabbing onto the bedpost, and met eyes with a lizard the size of a grown man.
"My my Alice, I 'aven't seen you since you was a right little turnip, you've grown a lot you 'as!" He said, and his yellow eyes narrowed.
Alice's stomach began to churn in fear.
" 'ow about you just come right over 'ere and give old bill those gloves eh? You did cause me a right lot of damage last time you was 'ere! Be a good girl now Alice.."
Suddenly, a spark of courage hit Alice, and she said defiantly,
"Take one more step, and I'll burn the house down."
