Her Name Was Alice

As days passed, ingrained with bits of strife and chunks of sorrow, she found herself worn down more and more, tired f being surrounded with such ever present troubles. The time came when she felt as if for surely she would perish, stifled by the thickened air of grief; a stinging, sickly kind of darkness. So much so that with each breath she felt pulled farther and farther from herself.

What if she simply willed herself to cease taking in the poisonous gas? What was the point in breathing anyway? It was all quite tiring, really. So much energy exerted on lifting and depressing ones ribcage, stretching out their diaphragm only to tire their torso and throat. Perhaps not everyone wished to inhale and exhale, to be held trapped by such trite repetition. And then there were the times when an ache slowly formed in the base of one’s throat; a tickle in the airways, chapped lips left open in the hopes of struggling for a gasp of fresher air to cure the bothersome symptoms.

She could simply stop and be done with the ridiculous business once and for all, let go and be freed from the toxic atmosphere that must certainly be leeching her of life slowly…


It was clearly stated, and impossible to ignore. A harsh contrast of black on white, gleaming ink painted smoothly, curved, ebony glistening with jagged edges. ‘Eat me’, the bottle whispered to the pale-faced girl. Hesitant hands shook and the small bottle’s contents rattled slightly.

It was supposed to help, wasn’t it? Was that not what she had been promised, that with a weak swallow all of the bad and dreadful stains of her life would be washed away, her entering to a world of light and joy, or at the very least neutrality, perhaps something even better than she could imagine? Anything to remove her from this dreadful place would be better, at least. To escape the tattered past and looming shadow of the ever-coming future was it not worth a small risk? Any place else would be better…wouldn’t it?

‘Drink me.’ The second bottle’s liquid proved wonderful in chasing down the pastel tablets.
She caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the looking glass, just before her little, late-night snack disappeared. Dark and light, light and dark….Dark hair hanging messily around a pale face, light blue eyes surrounded by shadowy circles. Just one glimpse before she passed right through…

And then Alice found herself lost on the other side, somewhere she had only ever vaguely dreamed of. And as she tripped through the gilded surface, she could hear the ringing and droning, distant voices fading and growing, becoming more and more distant before vanishing away all together. Everything rippled and blurred about its edges, melting and merging into everything else, glowing radiant and succumbing to a drab grey as if some indecisive artist had sprayed all the colors of his palette together.

After the passing of a minute, or perhaps a confused year, she seemed to have forgotten how to count or tell time by the now rather warped face of her wristwatch. A profound silence fell, clawing at her ears nearly, and in a blink or two she thought herself blind as the world became swathed in shades of black. Perhaps it was only the night, but what had happened to the stars...?