UpSide Down Alice

The words were etched into the walls as we approached area near the castle. The words read poetically but the message stayed the same. It was a warning, to be weary of the red queen and her desperate desires to hold unto someone who clearly doesn’t love her. But that’s not my place to say, I am just telling the story. Anyway, the word read just like this: “The danger is around the corner, unseen and unheard. Yet you still feel it within you as it takes over your soul, but it’s beautiful at the same time. You feel a strange feeling like your being watched, you can’t help but look behind to find nothing but darkness. You suddenly hear the sound of little children laughing, and parents scolding, you become frightened. Yet you feel safe, you then wander into the darkness not knowing what lies ahead.”

At least that’s how they read to Alice, because she couldn’t stop reciting it as we moved closer to the castle’s gates. Well they looked closer anyway but the walls seemed endless, an eternal maze for us to die in. Alice was a mixture between fearless and fearful, an oxymoron all in herself. It was like she was battling between the two emotions hoping that one would just win already so she can be at peace. Well, whatever peace she could find in a place like this. I was impressed with her, she her head high despite the inner turmoil she was undergoing. A sudden chill filled the air and I shivered against it cold touch. I turned to look at Alice and she was trembling against the cold too, at least I assumed that was the reason. As suddenly as the chill filled the air, that's was how sudden a flash of lights filled the sky.

Everything was changing I felt it, the lights grew brighter and screams pierced the air around me. I reached for Alice's hand but she felt so far away. I felt restrained like something was holding me back. The world blurred, my vision suddenly so hazy that I could no longer walk forward. I felt something hit me like a ton of bricks and I saw Alice’s head jerk forward. Glass shattered, but that didn't make any sense because there was no glass around a few moments ago. I could hear the loud sound of a crunch, but my feet never made a sound on the ground. I felt myself losing my cool and confusion fill me like oxygen. When I turned to face my companion I saw her clearly for the first time in what felt like a very long time. She was upside down, her green eyes covered with blood. Her hair plastered to the sides of her face from sweat, her breath labored. Panic sunk into my bones when all the memories flooded into my mind. We were on our way home from a costume party when the truck made impact with the side of my car. I must have mixed up the Wonderland theme with some pieces of our lives when I blacked out. That had to be it right? I watched a smile in a tree fade and my heart raced.

“Mitchell?” I shook her until she responded.

“Where are we? Did we get Wendy back?” Her eyes were wide with shock, panic, confusion and fear.

I knew that they were a perfect mirror of mine in that moment. The same question visible on her face that I was thinking in that moment; What happened to us? We would spend the next few years reliving Wonderland. Trying to make some kind of sense of everything that had happened. We would spend a lifetime seeing its creatures, hearing the voices, dreaming the places. It all felt so real, and maybe, just maybe it was. Maybe the lives we are leading right now are the ones that are fake. Late at night when Mitchell would lay down in bed, I would hold my sister's hand as she was go on and on about Wonderland. She would talk about the places we went, the lives we once led in there. IN the moments, I would sometimes I wonder if she would like nothing more than to go back. To get the answers to questions we would always have: Who was the mad hatter and the red queen? Why did they want to get to us? Why could we taste, feel, hear and smell a place that isn’t supposed to be real? Whose memories were we reliving and seeing? But above all else, why us and how did we get back? I never stopped asking myself those questions and I think I never well.

Alice curled up against my leg, the hatter holding her hand and worried look on her face, “Is this the end of our story Cheshire?”

I watched her cock her head to the side and grinned at her.

“No Alice, stories like ours never have an end.”