Off To Wonderland

The Sand Man’s Sand

Amber paced back and forth in her room. Door locked, windows drawn, and light off. She was nervous. She kept looking at the little pill in her hand, as if it might suddenly vanish into thin air. Her wave deep auburn hair swayed as she turned, and paced, turned and paced. This would be her first trip with Sleep additive for neurological dreaming, also known as its nick name SAND, the new drug sold on the street. It was created by a scientist to help provoke dreams, but there was a problem with it and it never reached the store shelves. However it was stolen a few years ago, and had now been reappearing on the streets of Static, sold by drug dealers. The man boss who sold the product was “Mr. Sand Man”. The rumors said that he was the one who created Sand in the first place, but when his support cut the funding, he stole his work back and decided to sell it on the streets. This would be the last night that SAND would be considered legal in the System.

Amber stopped pacing, and stared at the deep blue liquid capsule. Rocky, her dealer, had told her it was the best thing since meth. She had already tried every drug she could find, never finding one that totally satisfied her. But maybe this one would be different.

“Might as well give it a whirl while it’s still legal,” She breathed. She thought back to the instructions Rocky had told her.

“Now look Amber, this stuff is really powerful and knocks you the fuck out! You need to be somewhere, preferably lying down, that is safe and comfortable. When you get to dreaming, it will be a lot like in the beginning of the Alice and wonderland movies. There will be several doors, and one small door. You need to go through the small door. There will be a key on the glass table and a bottle that says “drink me”. Don’t mess up like Alice did, because you know what you need to do. After you get through the door, you can enjoy the rest of the dream. It can get quite trippy, so don’t freak out.”

She sat down on the bed, so that when she passed out she would just fall backwards and land on her pillow. Alice in wonderland hu? She thought to herself.

“Bottoms up!” she said as she popped the pill in her mouth, and drank from a glass of water that was on her dresser. She finished the water and set the glass back down and waited. A few minutes went by and nothing happened. She tapped her foot; picked at her cuticles. Frustrated she folded her arms and looked around the room. “Well?” she asked, to no one. Suddenly the bed was gone and she fell. She watched as her celling got smaller and smaller. The sensation of falling was so real that it maker her body tingle. Then she started to pick up speed, and objects started to fall past her; chairs, clocks, jewelry boxes, and a table. They seemed to fall up, as she fell down. Soon they were rushing by her in a blur, she was falling so fast, she began to panic and let out a scream, as she saw the floor come into view. She closed her eyes, and braced herself for impact, but it didn’t come. Cracking open one eye she saw that she had stopped a foot form the ground. She let out a little nervous laugh, and then gravity turned back on.

“Oommff!” she hit the ground hard with a thud, and groaned. She slowly pushed herself up and looked around. It did look surprisingly a lot like the room Alice fell into. It was a small round room and there were four doors; a red one with a spade in the middle, a blue one with a diamond in the middle, a green one with a club, and a gold door with a heart. There was a curtain in-between the red door and the gold door. “That’s got to be it.” She said moving over too it, she pulled back the curtain and saw a wall. She looked down to the floor and a small door came to her mid shin. She smiled to herself, and then dropped down on her hands and knees to examine it. It looked old and cracked; she tried the handle, and of course, just like the movie, it was locked. She sat up and turned around. Now in the middle of the room was circular glass table that had a key on it. She picked up the key and new instantly it was for the door. Suddenly a small thought crept into her mind.

I’m pretty sure I know what is behind the small door. She thought. But what is behind all the other ones? Slowly a plan started to turn in her head. And she decided to play dumb. She repeated everything she had seen the other Alice’s do in both the movies; she took the key unlocked the door, saw it was too small; looked back to the table, and saw a bottle with a tag that read: “drink me” she set the key down and took a sip; like in the movie she shrank, and looked up at the key on the table. She tapped her foot impatiently waiting for the cake to appear. She looked around and then at her feet where a small box with the cake inside appeared. She bent down and took a medium size bite; before she even began to chew she grew large, bumping her head against the ceiling.

“Perfect,” she smiled. She looked at the red door, “I choose you,” and she gave a hard kick breaking the door from its hinges and sent it flying. Then she picked up the bottle and put a small drop on to her fingertip and licked it. She shrank slowly, and was a little bit shorter than her normal height but it was close enough. Still holding the bottle she picked the box on the floor up and put them both in her pocket. “just in case,” she smiled to herself, and proceeded through the door.