Sooner Than Later, I'll Need a Saviour

I opened my eyes and let out a groan. Sitting up I was surrounded only by darkness and mirrors everywhere I looked. I rubbed my sorehead and felt my hair pulled into pigtails. I frowned and looked into one of the mirrors to see myself. My hair was, in fact, pulled into pigtails and curled. I wore a pretty short - and slutty - blue dress with white heels.

“I think I drank a bit too much booze,” I murmured, standing to my feet. As soon as I did a section of mirrors big enough for me to crawl through disappeared. A bright, white light came through the opening making me hold up an arm to block it out. Sighing, I got on my hands and knees to go through. On the opposite side was a maze all around me with walls made of hedges. I stood to my feet and looked around at the small area I stood in.

“Where the fuck am I?” I sighed. Suddenly Candy skipped out from a wall of hedges. She wore a white outfit that looked like a one piece swimming suit and white heels. On her head were a pair of white rabbit ears and on her butt was a small, puff ball of a tail. “Candy?”

“Hello Alice,” she chirped. She pulled out a pocket watch from the bust line out her outfit and did an over exaggerated gasp, empty hand pressed to her cheek. “Oh my, I’m late!”

“Didn’t get that time of the month?” I snickered.

“No, no Alice! It’s much more important. Come, we’re late!” She exclaimed, grabbing my hand and somehow running in the six inch heels. I followed her, tripping along the whole way. Soon she pulled to a stop in an empty, garden area with a long table. Matt sat at the head of the table away from us with top hat on and a strange grin on his face.

“Welcome ladies! You’re just in time for tea!” Jimmy suddenly bounded in with black rabbit ears sprouting from his own head. Over his shoulder he held Johnny with a redden face and mouse ears and nose.

“I want tea too! Here mouse,” Jimmy exclaimed, dropping Johnny into an empty chair.

“Tea time, tea time,” Johnny sang, slurring and hiccupping. Finally his head hit the table and snoring escaped his mouth. I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Seriously? The White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse? Of course, my name is Alice. I guess I should have expected a drunken, cliché dream of Wonderland at some point in my life.”

“If you don’t stop muttering to yourself like that, Alice, people might think you’ve gone mad.” I turned around to see Zacky wearing pink and purple striped shirt with black jeans. A pink and purple tail and matching ears sprouted from his appropriate body parts. On his face was a grin that stretched from ear to ear. He shoved me into a seat - the other head of the table - as he and Candy sat at the end of the table the rest of them sat at.

“I already know I’m mad,” I countered. The five - Johnny having just risen his head - looked at each other with confusion, even Zacky’s grin disappeared. Suddenly they were all smiling again and turned to me.

“This is the first time we’ve had an Alice know she’s mad,” Jimmy reminded.

“Oh, fortunate us!” Candy exclaimed, clapping her hands together. She and Johnny jumped onto the table, sing ‘happy days ahead’ and kicked tea pots and cups off the table. I sighed and shut my eyes tightly.

“Yes, yes. Now how do I get home?” I heard them all stop.

“Whatever do you mean? You have no home.” I snapped my eyes open and glared at the one who had spoken: Matt.

“Huntington Beach is my home now, you fucker. I want to go there. I’m not afraid to resort to violence,” I growled. Everyone looked at each other and frowned again.

“We have no room for people who fight Alice,” Jimmy scowled. Suddenly I felt a bright light beneath my chair. I looked down to see the grassy floor had disappeared from under me.

“Goodbye Alice,” everyone called before my chair started it’s free fall into the sudden darkness.



Panting I snapped up to hear the sound of Nightmare Before Christmas. I turned my head to see I was in a blocked off ‘room’. A desk with a laptop sat in one corner and on one side of the room was a Japanese divider. I stood to my feet and nearly fell over as my hangover hit me. I groaned and tip toed to the divider. In front of me was a one room apartment. On the couch in the ‘living room’ was Zacky watching the movie I mentioned. He turned his head and nodded.

“So you’re finally awake?”

“No, this is all a hallucination,” I snarled. “What am I doing here?”

“Matt and Jimmy had to go to work, and no one would ever trust Johnny to take care of you. So, in turn, they brought you here. On my ‘me’ time too,” Zacky muttered unhappily. I rolled my eyes and my hangover hit me again. I stumbled my way to the couch and plopped down on the opposite end from Zacky.

“Do you have any aspirin?” I murmured, trying to concentrate on Jack singing, but my killer headache was making it impossible.

“I don’t see why I should. I give you my bed instead of leaving you in the street and you’re a bitch to me,” he scoffed. I sighed and let my head fall back on the couch.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’m bitchy when I have a hangover. Can I just - I mean, may I have some medicine?” As I opened my eyes I saw his studying me. After a few moments he nodded and stood, heading back the way I had come. I looked down at my hands and noticed a red tint on one index finger and thumb. “Why the hell are they red?”

“You stole the rest of my Takis before you passed out,” Zacky replied as he walked back and handed me three white pills. He then headed to a fridge to remerge with a bottle of water. I unscrewed the water and swallowed down the pills with the liquid.

“Really?” He nodded as he sat next to me again. “I don’t even remember that.”

“Well you did and you made me your new best friend,” he informed. I blushed and studied the television screen. My sensitivity to light was gone already and hopefully the slight pulsing pain would be quick to follow.

“Sorry I’ve been such a burden. I didn’t mean to,” I said softly.

“It’s fine. You’re not as bad as you think you are. Taken, I like you better awake, but at least you don’t snore or anything while you sleep,” Zacky remarked with a slight smile.

“What time is it anyway?”

“About seven.” I pushed myself off the couch, Zacky studying me the whole time. “Where are you going?”

“It’s Tuesday at seven. And, from what I heard from Candy, you are meeting with her today at seven thirty since you both were busy yesterday.” Realization struck him. He jumped to his feet and shut off his DVD player and television. I picked up my bag and placed it onto my back, leading the way out of his apartment. I waited as he locked up the place before following him to the elevators.

“Thank-you.”

“Huh?” I turned my head to see Zacky staring at the wall of the elevator. He seemed tense, as if what he was talking about was difficult for him to say.

“Thank-you for reminding me about my appointment with Candy.” He nervously played with one of the zippers on his duffle bag that he had grabbed he left the apartment. “I would have forgotten if you weren’t here.”

“No problem. When I’m sober I seem to have photographic memory.” I shrugged it off as the doors opened. As we walked through the lobby the woman behind a desk smiled and waved to Zacky who waved back. “Girlfriend?”

“God no,” Zacky scoffed, pushing open the door to exit the building. “She’s kind of a slut who’s slept with all the guys in their twenties in this building, but me - might I add. I’m just nice so she won’t be all evil to me when I pay my rent every month.”

“I see.” I thought it was stupid, and possibly untrue. It bugged me a lot to think it might not be and I wasn’t sure why. Then I thought of how I looked at Matt today and blushed. I had no right to think like that when I thought like that about Matt. I shrugged it all off as we approached the parking lot from the other day. I wasn’t sure how long I had zoned out, but Zacky didn’t complain.

“My God, Alice!” I was brought into a tight hug by none other than Candy. She held me back at arm's length and let her eyes trail over me, looking for a sign of injury. “I was worried about you when you just left me at Frank’s! Then you weren’t at that alley at six like you usually are. I was scared!”

“I’m fine,” I groaned, swatting her hands away. “I just had a bit to drink with some friends. They happened to know Zacky so he let me sleep at his place. Besides a weird dream, nothing happened.”

“Thanks so much for taking care of her Zacky!” Candy exclaimed, hugging Zacky now who chuckled and reassured her it was nothing. Once they talked and exchanged Candy’s usual smokes and condoms, we were going our separate ways.

“Thank-you again Zacky,” I spoke, shaking his hand. He smiled and brought me into a gentle hug.

“No problem, just try to not get in trouble again, okay?”

“Alright sir,” I spoke with a mock salute. Once him and Candy gave each other a hug, we bid our goodbyes. Candy draped an arm across my shoulders as we walked away, talking about what we were going to do. I peeked over my shoulder to see Zacky just now turning away and walking the opposite way into the grungy area of Huntington. I smiled as I came back to Candy’s conversation.

It was nice to see my Cheshire.