Nine in the Afternoon

Chapter 1

Alice in Wonderland was never Alice's favorite story let alone movie, but after what happened to her it should have been. If she knew what was going to happen to her after she turned 17, it would have been. However, she didn’t know, so she disliked the story that may have made her transition into dreamland and life much easier.

There she was, at her aunt’s house doing nothing in particular when her friend, Mady, who was with her decided she wanted to go and play outside.

That is how it all started, ironically. Nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. It was a normal day, that for Alice was about to change her life forever.

“Hang on Mady! I need to go upstairs and grab my hoodie!” Alice called before runs up her aunt’s stair case as fast as she can manage avoiding all the papers lying around on the stair case. Her Aunt was a writer, and she managed to get inspiration everywhere, and she had so much inspiration either written down or in picture form she had no more room to put it all, so she began to place her inspiration on the stairs.

Once she arrived to the room she was staying in she opened the closet to grab her hoodie, and when she walked out of the closet she didn’t walk back into her temporary bed room, instead she walked into something she could only describe as an alternate world. Everything looked as it did in her world, however, there was a weird glow, almost, to everything in this other universe. She was afraid and shocked at what she stumbled upon.

“Hello there!” a random guy walking down the street said to a scared Alice. The boy appeared to be around Alice’s age with a very defined face. All his face was very defined to the point where if Alice wasn’t so afraid she would have subconsciously licked her lips. His hair was spiked at the top, and normal around the sides. She was distracted by his blond hair because in the lighting he was standing in, it almost seemed to glow with the rest of the alternate place. His eyes were what she was staring into; however, it was almost as if they caused her to fall into a trance. The green golden brown eyes sucked her in making her feel that if she looked away she wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore. It was as if she needed to be looking into his gorgeous eyes to live; what she didn’t know, was in a sense that was true.

He was staring at her as well, but he was staring at her because he was enchanted by her beauty. He looked and saw her long brown hair with a touch of wave to it. He wanted to run his hands through it while he kissed her plump pink lips. He wanted to look into those eyes every morning when he woke up. Her eyes were dark blue like the ocean around the edges, but when you got towards the pupil the color changed gradually to a color ever so slightly lighter than sky blue, but much more vibrant, and finally around her pupil her eyes were green, like grass.

To put it simply, it was love at first sight, not that either of the two knew that. The pair would never actually realize what really occurred between them, but it was all for the best because they both are people where jumping into a relationship wasn’t something they liked or were ok with.

In reality love at first sight happens to most, but they never admit or realize it happened, which is why some people believe it doesn’t exist. Some people don’t admit it because of trust issues, some people don’t believe in love, and other reasons along those lines is why people don’t believe in love at first sight.

He had trust issues. She didn’t believe in love. It would appear to be an odd combination of people; that is until you got to know them, and once they got to know one another.
Eventually Alice found it in her to look away. “Where am I?” she mumbled quietly looking down at her feet, afraid to look at the boy with the warm green brown eyes that instantly sucked her in.

“You’re in Dreamland. You must be new. Come with me I’ll explain everything to you, if you give me a chance to.”

Alice saw no other option so she looked up at him slightly before nodding her head and following him to a field.

“I’m Tyler, who are you?”

“Alice”

“Ironic”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because of Alice in Wonderland, it’s actually one of my favorite books. I was actually planning on rereading it.”

“Ah, I get it, now I’m sorry but I’m very afraid, what is going on?”

“You’re in a place called Dreamland. See, fate and destiny are real; however, you do have free will so things often don’t go the way they are suppose to when you are a specific path. Now there are multiple types of worlds, one in which people learn about other job options and things of that nature, but this is dream world. So if you come here it means that you are meant to accomplish your dream, but you won’t do it on the current path you are on. By coming here it changes your path and sets you up so you can work with your dream. This is a complete alternate world, but works how the normal world does, which means there are people who simply live in dreamland and will never leave, they are the dreamlanders. Once you accomplish your dream it will be nine in the afternoon, which is impossible, unless someone accomplishes their dream… I know it’s a lot to take in, but you will get used to it, I have, and I’ve been here three years, it only takes a few months to get the hang of things.”

“Wait are you a dreamlander?”

“No, I’m not, I’m from the same world you are.”

“And you’ve been here three years?!?! What about your family? Are you a missing person in our world?”

“Once nine in the afternoon occurs for a person they end up right where they were at the exact moment they were in right before they came into Dreamland. My dream isn’t one I can easily accomplish, so that is why I’ve been here for three years.”

“What’s your dream?”

“To find true love. What is yours?”

“To become a famous singer.”

“Well then, I’ll help you with it. Let’s go to Music town.”

“How are the towns set up?”

“more or less by dream topics. Unfortunately for me I don’t have a town so I live where ever I want.”

“Oh no! I don’t have any money! How am I suppose to buy food and find a place to live?”

“There is no money here, the point of this place isn’t to build a society, but to let people know what it is like to accomplish their dreams so they can go into the real world and already be able to jump any hurtles that lie in their way. Come on, I’ll take you to my place for a minute so you can freshen up if you want, use the restroom, excreta. Then we will get you the room next to mine before we get you some food and clothes, sounds good Alice?”

“Sounds perfect, but why are you helping me.”

“There is something about you I’m drawn to, also I need something to kill the time while I’m here.”