Queen of Hearts

Eighteen

James watched Alyson's face as she experienced a variety of emotions. He didn't know why he was holding himself back from asking what she meant when she'd said they were home, but he figured it had to do with just how much she was visibly feeling.

It had been a few moments already since Alyson had said it, and since they'd just been walking through the fresh-cut grass. James had no idea where they were. This didn't look like any Wonderlandian location he'd ever seen before. It was so... dull. The sky was a pleasant blue and the grass a bright, healthy green, but they rarely appeared those colors in Wonderland. Home, the sky was never the same pigment too long, the clouds always changing as the open sky did to contrast the color. The grass could be whatever color it wanted to be, and it often changed its mind. As for the manor, it was particularly rectangular. He'd never seen a building with such sharp angles and defined structure.

Wonderland just couldn't be defined.

As for this place...

"I didn't think I remembered this place," Alyson whispered. She stared at the neutral brick building.

"What is this place?" James asked hesitantly.

Alyson smiled. "Where I grew up," she started, before her smile dipped into a frown. "Almost."

James frowned too. "You weren't born in Wonderland?"

Alyson shook her head. She was about to turn her attention to him for the first time since they'd gotten... wherever they were, but Alyson noticed someone on the premises before he did.

"Is that...?" Alyson started, pointing out the small figure kicking a ball in the grass.

"Ash," James answered, stunned. "Alyson, your portal! It must have sent them here."

"Is that even possible?" Alyson clutched her stomach, suddenly very pale. James couldn't tell if it was out of relief or grief.

"Hello, there," called a man's voice. Another person James hadn't noticed. Damn, they'd been out of Wonderland for what, ten minutes? Was he already losing his edge?

Alyson tensed beside him. "Relax," James told Alyson. He hesitated to put a hand on her arm, but went for it.

She looked up to him and sighed. "That's my father."

No way. James wasn't sure that he believed it. He wasn't sure that he could believe it. Alyson Wonderland had only ever been one thing- strong. She had only ever been strong, confident, and loyal. She was not scared of anything, let alone a middle aged man with thick rimmed glasses. "Let's talk to him."

Alyson dug her hands through her hair and chewed on her lip. She was not taking his advice.

"Hello, sir," James said to the man who had been watching them. He stood near Ash White, and as James neared he spotted Ivory White approaching them as well.

"What would bring you kids here? Looking for the portal to Wonderland, are you?" The man, Alyson's father, laughed. He did not seem to know the irony of his words. Alyson's father did, however, unsurprisingly share many of her features. His hair was beginning to gray and thin, likely from both age and stress, but he had Alyson's same ocean eyes. James supposed it'd been a long time since the man seen his family... he couldn't remember a time when Alyson's family didn't live in Wonderland.

"Actually, a portal from Wonderland brought us here," James said. Alyson still said nothing. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she kept her eyes cast downward. "I'm James. This is-"

"Alyson?"

She looked up only at the sound of her name, and there were tears in her eyes that spilled down her pale cheeks. He recognized her, after however long it had been. James guessed that was something most parents did- they just memorize how their kids are supposed to look, or maybe they just sense it. Maybe that sense came when they looked at a stranger and found their own eyes looking back.