Hello, Alice.

"Alice!" "Cheshire!" Our voices echoed through the walls of the hole we're falling into.

We were rapidly falling down through it and I know I had to act fast or else I would feel the pain of crashing down from a 30-story building. I pinched myself so hard so that I could wake up from this horrible dream and to my surprise, it wasn't working. I official freaked out.

"Okay, what's going on here!?" I tried to slap my face.
"Alice!"
"It isn't working!"
"Alice!"
"What!?" I turned to Cheshire who was above me, also falling, "Didn't I say do not call me Alice? My name is Ecila!"
"Just give me your hand!"
"Who are you to command me?" Okay, I am ridiculous. We are fighting with each other while falling into this pit.
"Give me your hand!" I hesitated but when I saw some light entered my peripheral vision, I knew I had to end acting so immature.

'What is a kid going to do in this situation?' is what I thought but I decided to trust him. How pathetic I am. A kid is trying to save me instead of me, who is older than him, trying to save the one who is a kid. I reached for Cheshire's hand but we were too far away. I extended my arm more and he did so too.

"Closer..." Our fingers are almost touching at the tip. And then, we got hold of each other.

I have to be brave now and not let Cheshire get harmed. As soon as we grabbed each others' hands, I pulled him close to me so as to protect him from getting harmed, just like my mother would do to me. I wasn't aware of what was happening as I slowly began to fall into unconsciousness. The only thing I'm sure is that I've kept Cheshire safe.

--------000--------

" - la."
"- cila."
"Ecila!"

A familiar voice is calling my name. I opened my eyes to see who own it but all was a blur. Where was I? My body shot right up and suddenly, a sharp pain ran through my mind.

"Ugh."
"Is there something wrong, Ecila?" Cheshire. I know it's Cheshire but somehow, his voice became deeper.

I scratched my eyes to see clearly and there in front of me when I opened my eyes was a person I didn't know.

"W-what!? How did you know my name!?" I avoided him and searched for something that I can use to defend myself. Unluckily, I found nothing.
"W-who are you?"

The person, a boy who looked like around my age, seemed to be surprised. He look dumbfounded by what I said and started to "examine" himself.

"Oh shoot," is all I heard from him and I didn't know why he said that, "I really need to practice maintaining that form."
"What do you mean by 'maintaining that form' and who are you? Where's Cheshire?"
"You see, I actually am Cheshire," he replied as he stood, "this is my actual form but I made myself 5 years younger so that you would recognize me from when we first met."

Then I realized, he was also wearing the same clothes as the Cheshire kid I met a while ago and his hair and bright purple eyes were still the same. The only thing that changed is that his face looks more like a teenager than a child and his hair wasn't covering his right eye anymore. Still, I couldn't believe this.

"How come you can do that? Normal people can't do that but besides, we're only in my dream, right?"
"For your first and second statement, yes, it is true that normal people can't do something like that. I can do something like that because I was created to be able to do so." So he's not a normal person, well, it's all right since we're only in a dream, right?
"And for your last question, I said it before, didn't I? We're here in the place between dreams and reality, Ecila." Did he just call me "Ecila"?
"Wait, did you just call me 'Ecila'?"
"Yes. Yes, i did."
"I thought you said I was Alice? Now, you've changed your mind?"
"Yes, you're Alice but you preferred to be called Ecila so I did what you told." he said in a matter-of-fact.
"Fine," I said being tired of arguing about that topic, " so about what we're talking earlier..."
"And that's why you can't get out of here, no matter what you do." Cheshire explained.
"Is this for real?"
"Yes, and the place where we are is called 'Wonderland.'"
"Wonderla - ?"
"Shh, something's coming..." Cheshire suddenly got in front of me. He was surely taller than me and his back was like the shape of the little kid back then.

That was when I noticed, we were in another place. I stood up and there I was in between of what looks like an "evil" forest and a big locked iron gate where it leads to somewhere. Surrounding us, there were many bushes of different kinds of flowers - some of it I recognized like roses, sunflowers, iris and daisies but the others are kind of like unknown species. The land we're stepping on is kind of like soil and I was wearing boots.
.....
....
...
..
.
And I was wearing boots. I really hadn't paid attention to myself and only now I have seen that I was covered in unusual clothes, nothing I would wear back home. Well, it's kind of cute though. I was wearing black boots and some black & white striped socks that goes up to my knees and a light blue-collared sleeveless with frills on all its hems. For my bottom part, I was wearing brown shorts with red suspenders hanging on it. My brown curly hair was like the usual, hanging loose except there was a ridiculous large blue ribbon on top. I looked like a gift box. Oh well...

I returned to the scene where we are. Cheshire was standing in front of me. I looked side to side to see if there were signs something is coming. I can see nothing. Suddenly, Cheshire's breathing unusually stopped. I turned to him.

"What's wrong?" He hardly looked back.
"When I say run, run as fast as you can but don't go too deep in the forest, okay?" My breathing also suddenly stopped. What was happening?
"What about you, Cheshire?"
"I'll follow afterward."

Some noise was now being able to pick up my ears. A bush rustled. I immediately followed the rustling noise and stared at the bush. Cheshire started.

"1."
"2."
"3."
"RUN!"