A young girl ran through the multicolored forest, giggles echoing as she chased the blue butterflies ahead of her. She chased them because they were the same color as her dress. She got it for her birthday. It had a white bow and puffy sleeves. She loved puffy sleeves.
The girl, only just turned six, wore black and white striped tights and little, shiny, black shoes. In her short, black hair was a white bow, much like the one on her dress.
The girls name was Alice. Alice thought she had a pretty name. Her mother thought so too.
Alice continued running after the butterflies not paying attention to where she was going. She didn’t see the cliff.
Wind whipped her raven hair around her as Alice plummeted off the lilac colored path. She looked up and saw two luminous eyes, staring as she fell ,and a wicked smile, sending chills down her spine. Alice heard the screams of disembodied voices. They sounded familiar.
Alice woke with a start. She was lying beneath the stairs in her house with the rag doll Grandmother gave her, still wearing her birthday dress. The butterflies were gone. The luminous eyes were gone. The wicked smiled was gone.
But she still heard the familiar screams.
Alice stood up and peeped her little head out from beneath the stairs. Her green eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Grandmother lay on the ground, her neck twisted, her eyes clouded over. Grandfather lay beside her, his whole body twisted. Father was fighting a person all in black. The stranger was winning. Mother sat in the corner with Annabelle in her arms. Annabelle, Alice’s one year old sister was crying and Mother was bleeding from her side. Mother was crying.
Alice returned her gaze to Father and the stranger. She wanted to warn him. She wanted to tell him about the knife the stranger had just pulled from his coat pocket. She never got the chance.
The stranger plunged the knife into Father’s chest. Into Father’s heart. His eyes clouded over like Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s. Mother screamed. Annabelle cried. Father dropped to the floor. Alice stared.
The stranger turned to Mother and Annabelle. Mother stopped screaming. Annabelle didn’t.
“Don’t hurt her. Please…” Mother whimpered.
The stranger laughed a twisted, sickening laugh.
He grabbed Mother by the hair. She cried out. The stranger laughed. He pulled Annabelle out of Mother’s arms. Mother started screaming again. The stranger gripped Annabelle’s head in one hand and torso in the other. He pulled. Annabelle cried. Mother screamed.
There was a sickening ‘pop’ and Annabelle stopped crying. Mother stopped screaming. Alice stared.
The stranger dropped Annabelle’s corpse and turned to Mother. She was crying.
The stranger bent down and pulled the knife from Father’s chest. Mother whimpered. It was the last noise she every made.
The stranger stabbed the knife into Mother’s neck. Her eyes went wide and her eyes clouded over. Just like Annabelle’s. Like Father’s. Like Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s.
The stranger pulled the knife out of Mother’s throat. He chuckled and looked into Alice’s eyes, like he’d known she was there the whole time. He put a pale, slender finger to his lips and said,
“Shhh…” And then he was gone.
Alice sat down and hugged her knees. She stared at the scene of horror before her. Her innocence gone. Her mind shattered. Her Wonderland destroyed.
Wonderland was a place she could be happy. Where she could have fun. But not anymore.
Because the only thing Alice was sure of…
Was the stranger’s luminous eyes…
***
The police arrived at noon. They spoke to Alice, but they got no response. They tried to get her to tell them what happened, but they only thing they got out of her was,
“It was the cat… the Cheshire Cat…”
Eventually, one of the police men said, “The poor girl’s in shock. We should get ‘er to
Ma’ Elizabeth.”
Ma’ Elizabeth was the woman who ran the local orphanage. All the children loved her.
So Alice was brought to the orphanage, but she didn’t stay long. She was there for two weeks, no more. Alice spent her time sitting on her bed, muttering about the cat, the cat, the Cheshire Cat.
Eventually, she started scaring the other children there, and Ma’ Elizabeth called the doctor.
“I just don’t know what to do!” Ma’ Elizabeth sighed, “The poor girl’s broken.”
The doctor took one look at Alice and knew what had to be done. It was the last resort everyone considered but no one wanted to use.
On May the 13th, 1840, Alice was checked into St. Mary’s Asylum for the Clinically Insane…
