The Melancholy of Wonderland

Entryway

The next day Anya was fully prepared for verbal insults and not at all prepared for her math test. She sighed, sincerely doubting her teacher's words when she came across something strange. Anya had been taking the same route to school for almost one and a half years. In all that time, she was certain there was never a pothole on the side of the road. It wasn't even a pothole, more like a rugged pit.

Anya cautiously approached the crater. Her eyes widened as she peered down it, as it was unfathomably deep. The hole itself was not too big in diameter, maybe three feet across. Anya had no idea who or what made the hole, but she was certain it was an animal. A rabbit, perhaps. She had heard that someone had released their Flemish Giant into the wild, so the large mammal probably made this hole. But why make it so close to the road? Didn't the noise of traffic scare away most animals?

The brunette scrutinized over these questions as she walked away from the hole. But then her foot slipped on the wet grass and before she knew it, she was falling headfirst into this mysterious rabbit hole. Anya expected to roll harmlessly off to the side, but the once innocent animal den suddenly seem to grow in size as it swallowed her up and she went down, down, down.

Anya let out a scream as the light of day suddenly disappeared and she was left with nothing but darkness.

She had no idea how long she was falling. It was like floating in zero gravity. She considered that maybe she was in space but quickly rebuked that argument. If she was in space she wouldn't be able to breathe, and she was breathing perfectly fine. Her sense of time was all wonky. She could have been falling for minutes or even seconds but it felt like hours. Forever, even. Anya knew that time seemed to flow slower when experiencing sudden shock but this was ridiculous.

Her consciousness was slowly fading when she finally landed. The impact was as jarring to her senses as her morning alarm clock. She lay on the cold ground on her stomach before becoming aware of her surroundings.

Anya jolted upward and began looking around wildly. It was mostly dark, but she could still see a bit. Her eyes needed time to adjust to the low brightness. Was she in a cave? A dark room, perhaps? Wait. First, she should check if she was all there.

Anya began feeling herself over, no broken bones, no bleeding, and her head seemed to be fine. No brain damage either, so that was a relief. Her fingers groped the thick material of her black hoodie, violet T-shirt, dark blue jeans, and sneakers. All of her clothing seemed to be intact. Noticing her backpack some distance away, Anya rushed towards it and began tearing it apart for her belongings.

Phone, check. Notebooks, check. Pencil bag, check. Water bottle, empty, but check. Weird junk clustered at the bottom, disgusting, but still, check. Pencils, pens, highlighters, protractor, eraser, whiteout, check, check, and check. None of her possessions were missing. She reassembled her things and sighed a breath of relief, allowing her muscles to relax.

Gathering her bearings, she stood up, brushed the dust off her pants, and slung her backpack over her shoulders. Anya took a final look at her surroundings and calmed the last of her nerves.

Now...

Where the heck am I!?