Lost in Wonderland, Ever After

Once upon a time, Jack awoke in a strange place. He had no idea how he came to be there. Bewildered, He stood on a cliff over looking a giant land, with a large factory in the distance and a castle in the middle. The factory looked dark and foreboding, an ominous presence in what looked to be a once beautiful countryside.

"It was mine, once." A voice behind Jack said. He was a toy. What once was shiny and new, was now a forgotten and broken old man.

"What?" Jack was more than confused. He was positive this was a dream, he must've just tripped and blacked out.

"Toyland. It was once mine. Until I was overthrown by the heartless Queen Carolina." The outcast king said.

"So... This place is called Toyland? Why am I here? This must be a dream."

"No, this isn't a dream. You're in another world. You fell down the rabbit hole, didn't you?"

"The-the rabbit hole? Isn't that like Alice In Wonderland shit? I have to be dreaming."

"No, you aren't. We've had someone come here from the other side 11 years ago. I adopted him and he became the prince. That was, until Queen Carolina took half of his heart and locked him at the top of Toy Factory. Watched by thousands of heartless toy soldiers."

"Why did she take his heart away? Wouldn't he die?!" Jack was scared shitless. What if that Queen Carolina took his heart away? He'd be dead, literally.

"You see, in Toyland, we don't need hearts to survive. We need souls. As long as you have your soul and you stay in ToyLand, you won't die. Hearts just give you stupid reasons for useless feelings that Carolina does not want you to feel. She needs to be in control of everything. If we had our hearts, we would start to rebel against her but most toys here can’t feel anything anymore. They’ve become numb.”

“Carolina took half of the prince's heart away so he couldn't be the new king. The prince is no longer as powerful as Carolina. What Carolina never considered was that, the prince never wanted to be king of ToyLand. He just wanted to go home. He would always say someone on the other side must be missing him when he first came here. Then, as time passed, he seemed to lose faith in whomever was on the other side. He started to convince himself that they had already forgotten about him. That was when Carolina had the chance to take his heart away, at his weakest point."

"Why take half of his heart away though?"

"Because Carolina still had a bit sympathy left in her. The prince came from the same place she did. So she felt more at home knowing someone from home was here and functioning."

"Why did Carolina stay here if she missed home so much? That's just weird."

"When you have the chance to be on top of everything, will you go back to where you are nothing more than another shadow. No. At least not Carolina. She didn't want to be a nobody in your world. Here, she is the Queen. She's not giving that up anytime soon."

Jack nodded, understandable, he thought.

"Is there any way for me to go home?"

"Yes, there is. At the top of Toy Castle is Queen Carolina's room. She has a chest with all the hearts she has stolen from the toys and the prince. You need to unlock the chest and set the hearts free. Toyland has been hopeless ever since Carolina was crowned queen. With all the toys have been feeling the apathy of heartlessness, no one stood up to her. You might be our only hope."

"Where do I get the key?"

"The prince has half of the key. My brother, the old prince, the only one who has a complete heart, has the other half." The outcast king explained.

"That means I have to go to the top of Toy Factory to find the prince then go find the old prince?" Jack summarized.

"Yes. Here, White Rabbit will assist you."

"Hello." The white rabbit came out from nowhere and Jack jumped a mile.

"Holy shit, that was creepy."

"We should get going." The Rabbit said.

"Alright." Jack and the Rabbit then started walking down the brick road.

"Good luck, Jack." The outcast king called out as Jack set out for his journey. Jack realized he never told the king his name. He also never asked for the prince's name. Whatever, he could ask the prince himself when Jack finds him, if he finds him.

~|~

"So um, White Rabbit, could you tell me a bit about Toyland?" Jack asked, hoping it would fill the silence.

"You know the short part of the story of the king being overthrown and all that. Well, Toyland used to be a lively place. There would be what you people on the other side call clowns, parades, fire breathers, jugglers, dancers, and singers just performing on the streets. They were toys, of course, but they lived much happier than anybody on your side."

"One day, the prince came through the rabbit hole and landed right on top of the king when he was out watching the performances. The king took the prince in to his kingdom when he saw that he was different from the rest of us. The king was scared the toys would not accept the prince if he were to be left on the streets so he took initiate to take him in so everyone else would welcome him."

"Toyland was peaceful and loving since the beginning but when the prince came he opened the portal. People on your side would be able to come here if they found it. I’m not blaming the prince for what happened, no. He was one of the best things that happened to Toyland. He brought us a new light and we became more real, more human like."

"Unfortunately, we didn't know of the portal problems at the time so we had no precaution as to what was coming our way. Queen Carolina came through the portal 8 years ago with her cat, we call him the Cheshire Cat. The Cat helped Carolina steal numerous amount of hearts to create her own toy soldier army.”

“At that time, we welcomed her and she ,too, was taken in to the kingdom. The only difference was, Carolina didn't want to be a princess, she just wanted to live there. There, Carolina met the old prince who was a charming young man at the time. Carolina continued to seduce the old prince and finally succeeded. They got married 7 years ago."

"We really should've seen it coming. Carolina overthrew the king 6 years ago and started stealing the toys' hearts. She also banished the now Stuttering Prince to be allowed in the castle. She locked the prince at the top of the factory because humans are generally more powerful in ToyLand than toys. Carolina didn't want the prince to overthrow her so she locked him up there. Where he would be watched by toy soldiers and card soldiers."

"Card soldiers were Queen Carolina's creations. They don't need hearts to function and they were the only things that did not need souls to survive. I guess card soldiers would be what you guys consider as toys. That was the biggest upside to card soldiers, they don't have a soul so they could relentlessly take away our hearts. The toy factory assembles the heartless card soldiers and occasionally toy soldiers."

"Oh! We're here!"

Jack looked up to see the towering Toy Factory. To say the factory was big was an understatement of the year. Jack couldn't see the other side of the factory. Luckily, the factory was only three stories tall.

"How do I get to the top?" Jack questioned

"You climb it." The White Rabbit simply stated.

"Cl-Climb it?!" How am I going to do that?" Jack thought White Rabbit was high.

"It's almost like rock climbing. See these little dents? Just climb those and make sure your feet is secure, got it?"

"Uhh, I think. So I just need to climb to the top and I will find the prince?"

"Yes, that’s right. Good luck Jack."

"Thank you White Rabbit."

"You're welcome."

Jack peered up at the the factory and took a deep breath. This is it. Jack thought. I either make it or I fall and quite possibly die.

Jack started climbing the first dent he could reach. He took Rabbit's advice and secured his feet in first. He had a few moments where he thought he would really fall. Surprisingly, he actually reached the top balcony without having a fatal accident.

Jack knocked lightly on the balcony door hoping the prince would hear him. He felt like Romeo while he did that.

The curtains shifted slightly for the person inside to see who it was. Then, the door opened and Jack was pulled inside in record time.

"Holy Jesus!" Jack yelled.

"Shh!" The person hushed him.

Jack regained his composure and steadied himself. He noticed that the person, presumedly the prince, was beautiful. His skin was really pale, just like porcelain. It looked like he hadn't been outside in the daylight for quite some time. He had light brown hair with a fringe styled to the left, he wore a grey beanie, and he was a bit shorter than Jack. Jack felt a familiar feeling when he saw this person, yet couldn't seem to recognize him from anywhere.

"Who are you?" The person asked.

"I'm Jack. You're the prince, right?"

The person's eyes widened. He was too shocked to speak so he opted to just nod dumbly.

"Okay prince, well I need to go home and I assume you would want to, too. Considering you've been locked up here for like, 6 years. Damn that sucks, doesn't it. Anyway, to go home we gotta work together, or I don't think it's gunna be happening anytime soon in the near future. You in?"

Again, Alex only nodded.

Jack explained what they had to do and all the while the prince was staring intently at Jack. Jack felt very uncomfortable and kept shifting.

"Do you understand what we have to do?" Jack finished

"Yes, I know where to find the Stuttering Prince. The only problem is, card soldiers and the Cheshire Cat circles around the factory all the time. I'm surprised they didn't notice you."

"Well then, guess it's time to make a plan huh?"

"Yeah. We need to go somewhere private. Follow me."

"Hey I never found out your name. What is it?"

There was paused before the prince finally turned around and spoke.

"Alex."