The Heart of Wonderland

Chapter 1

"For the last time, Steven, would you please slow down?" Alison's mother shook her head. "Honestly, you'd think we were being chased."

Alison raised her head from the cold glass of the window where she had fallen asleep. Riding in the back seat with her father behind the wheel reminded her of family vacations they'd taken when she was younger. Before her father had become so stressed and erratic, and her mother had become so distant and worried. They claimed it was the result of her father's fast-paced job as a talent agent and manager of some of New York's hottest stars, but Alison knew better. Something had changed—her father had changed.

"Where are we?" Alison asked, still groggy. She had been looking forward to this trip for weeks. She had been dreaming of going to Italy since she'd begun taking art lessons several years ago.

"Nearly at the airport, sweetheart," Alison's father said from the driver's seat.

"Sooner rather than later," her mother added, "with the way your father is driving."

Alison let her head flop back against her seat. She could hardly believe they were finally on their way, especially after the sleepwalking incident. When her father had found her standing in front of the full-length mirror in his study in the middle of the night, she'd had a hard time convincing him to let her go to school after Christmas break, much less travel to another continent.

Luckily, Alison's mother had known how much this trip meant to her. She had convinced Alison's father that the incident was just related to excitement, rather than the return of the night terrors that had plagued her as a younger child.

Alison looked out the window to watch the crowds on the icy sidewalks hustle by. Though she had lived in New York City her entire life, she was still amazed each winter at the sure-footedness of the bustling hordes of people who gave New York its reputation as "the city that never sleeps."

She lifted her head suddenly at a flicker of movement in the window of a passing cab. For just a second, she'd thought she'd seen an impossibly wide, toothy grin hovering beneath a pair of eerie green cat eyes. But when she looked again, it was just a small boy with his face pressed against the glass.

"Did you see—" she started to ask, but her mother interrupted her.

"Look at that." Alison's mother laughed as she pointed out the window. "You never know what you'll see in this city."

Alison followed her mother's gesture to a knight in shining black armor who strode down the sidewalk toward them as they idled in traffic. A long red plume flowed from the top of his helmet and the crowd cut a wide berth around him as he stomped through the snow.

"It looks like he's coming right for us," Alison said.

Then the light changed, and Alison's father stepped hard on the gas. The car leaped forward. "Like hell he is," her father muttered.

"Steven, what has gotten into you?" her mother shouted as he swerved to avoid a gaggle of pedestrians.

He didn't answer, just tightened his grip on the wheel. Alison clutched her seatbelt nervously as the car skidded on a patch of slush.

"Slow down!" her mother yelled.

Car horns honked at them as her father sped up instead. Alison watched him in the rear view mirror with a growing sense of terror. Who was this man behind the wheel? The father she knew would never drive recklessly on crowded downtown streets, especially not with her and her mother in the car.

"Have to get away from him," her father muttered again. Who was he talking to?

"Dad, maybe you should pull over," Alison suggested. "You don't look so good."

He looked over his shoulder at her. "I have to keep you safe, Ali. Can't let them catch you."

"What are you talking about?" She was really scared now. He wasn't making any sense. "No one's after us, Dad."

"I have to keep you safe," he repeated. "Can't let them find you."

The car went even faster, horns blaring around them. Alison's father swerved in and out of traffic, and pedestrians and buildings flew past as though she was on a runaway train. A police siren bloop-ed into life behind them and became a steady wail as it chased them down.

"Steven, stop!" Alison's mother cried. "We're going to—"

But she didn't have time to finish her warning before the car hit a patch of ice and skidded into a turn, tires squealing. Alison caught a glimpse of oncoming traffic and realized that it wasn't the other drivers who were going the wrong way, but her father. The car's front tires jumped the curb and then they were on the sidewalk, going too fast to stop.

She couldn't do anything but scream as the car slid toward the huge glass display window of FAO Schwarz. Glass and metal screamed as they crashed through the plate glass window of the legendary toy store and the front end of the car crumpled in toward them. Alison was jerked forward in her seat, and then her seatbelt pulled her hard in the other direction. Broken glass sprayed inward, coating her hair and clothing, stinging her face with what felt like a million tiny cuts. As the car continued its dizzying spiral, Alison was whipped to the side as if on a roller coaster ride. Her neck snapped sideways and her head slammed into the window next to her. She heard a loud, sickening crack as her head rebounded off the glass. Pinpoints of light burst into her field of vision, strobing before her eyes in time to the stabbing pain in her head.

Alison tried to raise her head, but the pain was too intense. She fumbled feebly for her seatbelt release, but couldn't make her hands obey her. "Mom?" she tried to say, but nothing came out.

Then the world went dark.