Alice?

Hatter appears

Everyone should know the story of Alice in Wonderland, if you don't, sucks to be you.

If you didn't know that story was non-fiction, my mother did a good job on smothering those reporters to death.

This is another part to that story, but farther into the future. And closer to the truth.

I'm Alice. The Alice. The life I had before wasn't a stroll through the park. My dad was dead and I was in a treatment center for the insane.

After my dad past, a cat began to follow me around. Just a random cat. It showed up at my bedroom window after the funeral. I tried to get it to go away, but it refused. I even locked it outside before I left to go to school for seven years to get that thing to go away. But every afternoon it would turn up and I would let it in, feeling sorry.

But one day, it had let itself in.

When I got home that afternoon it was sitting on my bed, smiling. Not like normal cats when you think their smiling, but actually smiling. It's teeth were pointed like a cartoon characters, the grin wide and white. The cat's eyes were slit and changed. From green to orange and back, not skipping any colors between.

The whole look of it was sickening. I had to wrap my arms around my waist to keep from being sick. I thought that was the worst thing I had ever seen. Then it turned into a person. I mean a real person with hands and feet and hair, not some wierd mutation of one. I was offically insane at that point.

I thought I was crazy before, no one else could see the four legged freak show, but now I knew.

A person, whom once was a cat, was standing in my bedroom, staring at me. If it were any other day I would have let him. He was kinda cute.

He looked about 6' 2''. A lot taller than me. I was short just like my mom. I stood at 5' 4''. His hair was dark and hung in his eyes, the back hanging to his shoulders in an uneven cut. He had a pair of black dress pants on with a white long sleeve button up. He looked like he hadn't seen the sun in months, but it didn't look bad on him. I couldn't stop myself from asking, "Who are you?"

He smirked, "I'm Hatter." he pulled a hat from beind his back, "Mad Hatter."

I stepped queitly into my bedroom and shut the door. His eyes followed me, but his body didn't move an inch. "What?" I didn't believe him, obviously.

"The Mad Hatter. You know. Crazy guy, drinks tea with a hare and a mouse."

"Yeah. But what about the cat?"

"Oh. That's Chesh. He lends me the cat sometimes so I can travel topside without being noticed. It doesn't last very long. Everytime you locked me out I had to go meet him for more potion."

"So you started following me around, why?" I wanted Hatter, as he called himself, to do something other than stand in the middle of my room staring at me. He could have paced even or sat down. His stillness was unnatural. He stood like a statue.

"Your dad," was all he said.

"My dad is dead. The funeral was ten years ago," I corrected.

"I know. But I didn't until I got here."

"Then why are you still here?"

"Because now I need you."

"For what?" That's when he finally started pacing. And he hummed the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

He never told me why so I started doing my homework. A few minutes later he started hovering over my paper. He would glance down at the math problems and then he would look at me.

"Do you have an issue?" I finally requested.

"No. I'm just watching you." He continued to stare at me as if I was an interesting new species of butterfly. "Stop." I looked back down at the worksheet to finish but it was completed. "What did you just do?"

"I didn't do anything. You finished your homework." I glared at him as I put the page away. He just smiled, twirling a jade ring around his finger.

"Alice?" My mom shouted from downstairs.

As I told you earlier, my name is Alice. My mother was obsessed with the name and I fit the description of a perfect Alice, apparently. Well, my mom wanted me to be imaginative when I was little and I was and it brought her joy. Until my dad died when I was 10. 7 years later, I still didn't have dreams or nightmares.( Yes. That means Hatter was following me around for a while.)

I didn't draw because I couldn't think of any thing that would be worth putting onto the paper. I didn't read because I couldn't imagine the world hidden in the words.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Who are you talking to, dear?"

I glanced at Hatter for an answer, he brought his finger to his lips.

"No one, Mom. I'm talking to myself about my homework."

Hatter smiled and put his hands back behind his back. It took her a second to respond, but when she did it was a normal OK.

I tugged the zippers on my back pack shut and went downstairs to watch TV with my mom.

Hatter appeared leaning against the wall, spinning the ring again, and winked at me. I looked at him and back at my mom. She didn't seem to notice him so I turned back to the TV. However, she did notice the look.

"What is it, Alice?" she asked.

"Nothing. I thought I saw something." She looked skeptical but turned back to face forward. She flipped through a few channels and I didn't see anything interesting so I got up and made a bowl of chicken noodle soup in the kitchen.

My mom followed me in a few seconds later. "I'm gonna run to the store," she grabbed her purse from the table, "to pick up some popcorn and a movie from the Redbox. Don't do anything or go anywhere. Bye. Love you." She walked out of the door before I could respond.

"Nice mom. I thought she would be more....quieter." Hatter said over my shoulder and smiled.

"People are gonna think I'm crazy if I keep talking to you." I joked.

But that's exactly what happened.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Hi! Welcome to the new, edited version of Alice? For those of you that read the original, you'll notice that there are a few changes to it, but nothing too important.

I hope you like the new installment. I've been thinking about taking it down and repairing it for the longest and I'm happy I've finally done it.

I'll try to update every week, possibly every Saturday.

Thank you