Magic [W. KOURY]

eight

Wonderland
January 22

"Wait for me!" the little blonde-haired girl called.

"Hurry up Alice!" the little brunette girl replied.

The girls laughed throughout the magical forest. They jumped on the musical toadstools, slid across the shimmering mirror pool, and swung through the vines of the jiggling trees.

"Tea party at Hatters?" Alice asked as they swung.

"Lets," Maria giggled.

When they landed on the ground, the friends began taking their "usual" path to The Mad Hatter's house. On the way, they came across a series of creatures, with accordion necks and glasses for eyes. Alice noticed a new hole on the ground in front of them. Maria, however, hadn't noticed the pit she was about to step into as she stared at the golden colored fish in the near by stream.

"Maria! Watch out!" Alice called. But it was too late, Maria looked down and found herself falling into, what seemed to be, an endless rabbit hole.

"Alice!!!" Maria's voice echoed down as she fell. Soon Alice's blue and white gown was out of sight. Soon, Maria stood in a field of golden sunflowers. All around her were the echoing whispers of her parents voices, repeatedly, saying her name. She looked up at the sky and it appeared to be alive. It looked like a painting she had seen at an art show recently. The artist was a well known, but Maria hadn't understood why. She hadn't seen meaning in any of his paintings, except for the one that seemed to be displayed in the sky above her. Starry Night was it called? She thought. His name was Vincent? She asked herself. She remembered how her parents forced her to refer to the loon of a man as Monsieur van Gogh. She remembered now. Why was she seeing this now? And why could she hear her parents voices?

She felt the earth around her begin to shake. She trembled to her knees. The sky began to crack like glass and fall towards her. Revealing a vision of her parents looking down at her. She felt as if her soul was leaving her body, or vice versa, and she found herself awoken.

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Short, but it introduces her relationship with Alice. It also gives you an idea on just how old Ria is. This would have taken place in the 1880's.